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Dear Common Thread CSA Members,
More cool weather, but the peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are starting to think about ripening anyway. It helps that many of them are under plastic tunnels, so they think it is warmer than it is.
 We are growing several types of eggplants and peppers this year. We have several varieties of peppers that are picked "green" or unripe and several varieties that are picked "ripe". None of the ripening varieties are coloring up yet but we now have several "green" varieties. From left to right in the picture to the right we have banana; cubanelle; 'islander'- a purple pepper; green; and 'zsa zsa'- a Hungarian stuffing pepper. They are all sweet peppers (i.e. not hot). They can all be eaten raw in salads, added to stir-fries, and grilled or roasted. The Hungarian stuffing pepper is good for stuffed peppers, but they also have a nice texture and flavor for fresh eating. Most of our eggplants are either the black Italian variety or the dark oriental type, but we have a few other varieties this year. In the photo from left to right we have a Japanese, white Italian, purple striped Italian, purple Chinese, black Italian, and purple Italian. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, their taste is very similar.
We have a good number of pickling cukes these days. They can be eaten just like slicing cukes and are often even preferable since they have thinner skins which are nice for fresh eating. There are also a lot of recipes out there for pickles. If you just have a few, it's easy to make "quick pickles"
We're coming into another big planting of fennel. I usually just slice it raw into salads, but here is a nice, simple recipe that uses a few herbs we have available on the farm, from huffingtonpost.com:
Ingredients
- 3 fennel bulbs, very thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 1 lemon
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine the fennel, parsley, and chives in a large bowl. Grate the lemon zest over the fennel mixture. Squeeze the lemon over the fennel. Add the oil and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Mound the salad on plates and serve immediately.
Happy eating!
Yours in the field, Wendy and Asher
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