Greetings!   

This week we'll feature one of my favorite ingredients....and I hear the groans now...cabbage!  Everyone just thinks coleslaw.  Wrong. Cabbage is so good braised, in soups, and much more.  We'll feature a few recipes this week on the blog and newsletter.   We'll also address lacto-fermentation - an easy way to lock in nutrients and add healthy enzymes to your diet by "fermenting" the cabbage (aka sauerkraut).  

Back by popular demand this week are the heirloom tomatoes.  Last week the number of compliments on them were uncountable.  

Finally, we'll feature a delicious cheese from Mayfield Road Creamery.  Susan's gouda is one of her signatures and has a nice firm texture and rich flavor.  This makes a great snacking cheese as well as one for melting (mac n cheese, sandwiches, etc).

Whole Grains

For the large subscribers this week, we'll focus on a versatile and healthy whole grain, spelt berries.  For anyone who attended the threshing workshop this weekend, you'll know exactly where I'm going.  Whole grains, such as spelt berries or wheat berries, are the seeds of the crop.  The seed contains all the nutrients of which that plant needs for life.  They are a "storehouse" for nutrients.  

When we grind a seed to make flour, the nutrients begin to oxidize with the air.  Within 72 hours about 80% of the nutrients are no longer accessible to us.  As Christina Kurtz demonstrated this weekend in her bread baking demonstration, all flour should be ground immediately before use.  It is quite simple with an inexpensive grinder or even your Vitamix machine.  

The spelt berries are nice because they make a good replacement for all purpose flour and are also tasty as a whole grain, used as a replacement for rice in recipes amongst many other uses.  I use them almost weekly as I can cook a big batch and put them in the refrigerator and eat them throughout the week in numerous recipes.  

Below is this week's full package:

Summer Week 10: 

1 bunch carrots

1 dz eggs

1 piece gouda cheese

A handful of hot hungarian peppers

Approx 2 to 3 green peppers, depending on size

1 head cabbage (most will be green)

Either 1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes or about 1.5 lbs heirloom tomatoes

1 lb green filet beans

2 ct cucumbers  

1 pint blackberries or approx 1.5 lbs peaches 

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1.5 lbs spelt berries

1 bunch beets

1 lb chorizo (maybe andouille...depending on what the butcher can make this week)

1 head broccoli 

2 ct patty pan squash

6 ears sweet corn

Vegetarian Share

Same as small

Vegan Share

Small contents, items below in replacement of cheese and eggs:

Canary Melon (similar to a honeydew)

Roma Tomatoes

Zucchini/Squash

Sweet Corn

Broccoli