September 1, 2015            Common Thread CSA
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Dear Common Thread CSA Members,

Welcome Fall CSA Members!  Thank you for joining the CSA and thanks to our full season members for spreading the word about the CSA and continuing to support the farm.

Thanks to the band Tumbleweed Gumbo for playing at our Saturday distribution the other day - it was lovely to have live music in the barn and some of us even got some dancing in.

It still feels like summer and we still have summer crops but some of them are starting to peter out (cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant) and some fall crops are coming in (broccoli, leeks, celery).   We're enjoying the tomatoes, melons, edamame, green beans, peppers...savoring the tastes of summer.

We're spending more and more of our time on the farm harvesting as September starts, the biggest harvest month.  We're also spending a lot of time moving around irrigation pipes as our mini-drought continues - we've only had one good rain in about 2 months.  We just have a few more things to seed and transplant and we're all done seeding in the greenhouse for 2015.  The greenhouse is full of onions ready to be cleaned and we need to make space for winter squash curing soon.  

You can find out what the vegetables for the week are by going to our "What's In" page on our website and checking out the PYO page on our website.   
 
Edamame are edible soybeans,  Fattened pods are stripped off the plant.  We boil the whole pods in salted water for 10 minutes and then just slides the beans out of the pod and into our mouths.  Delicious!

We have a good amount of escarole right now.  This chicory is great stir-fried with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes, and is a key ingredient in escarole and white bean soup and Utica Greens.  We've been cutting it in half, brushing it with olive oil and sprinkling it with salt and putting in on the grill.

Escarole and White Bean Soup, from marthastewart,com
INGREDIENTS
  • 2 heads escarole
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 cans cannellini beans
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
  • 2 (15.5-ounce) cans chicken broth
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Parmesan cheese, for serving
  • Black pepper biscotti, for serving
DIRECTIONS
  1. Fill a large basin with water and add escarole; drain basin, refill with water, and return escarole to basin. Repeat this process at least 4 times, or until basin is free of sand. Drain, and chop escarole into bite-size pieces.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add escarole and cook 20 minutes. Drain.
  3. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add beans in their liquid, oregano, red-pepper flakes, chicken broth, and escarole. Raise heat and bring soup to a simmer; cover and cook 15 minutes.
  4. Place biscotti in individual serving bowls. Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with Parmesan cheese.
A good round of broccoli just came in.  Watch out for little green caterpillars that also enjoy the broccoli - when we have a lot of them, we soak them in salt water to help draw them out but good to keep an eye out while you are cleaning and prepping them.  They aren't bad for you, but might surprise your dinner guests.  Broccoli is one cooked vegetable that our kids will (almost) always eat.  We usually sautee it with garlic, and sometimes steam them.  The stems are very tasty if you peel them.  Just use a paring knife to take the thick skin off the outside of the stem and the stem becomes tender and delicious.  One of our kids prefers the stem and the other likes the tops, which is very convenient.


Yours in the field,
Wendy and Asher