September 8, 2015 Common Thread CSA

Dear Common Thread CSA Members,

What a warm early September! The zucchini don't know they are supposed to stop so they just keep coming - we've never had so much zucchini so late in the season. The melons, tomatoes, and peppers also continue their abundance this week. It also continues not to rain so we keep moving around irrigation pipes, trying to help our fall crops along. We're hoping for rain tomorrow night.

We started delivering CSA shares to a new pick up site last week, at Syracuse University. SU started a Food Studies Department a few years ago and this year several food studies students formed a student group called "Brainfeeders". Brainfeeders decided to partner with us to bring CSA onto campus. We're happy that the first week seems to have gone well, with about 40 students and faculty participating. Thank you Brainfeeders, for choosing to work with us!

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.

We're swimming in red, yellow and orange peppers right now! They are quite hard to grow, but we have found a few varieties that have been doing well for us and we grow them in protective structures where they have the heat and protection from the elements that they need to do well. Most of the red peppers are "Carmen", a sweet frying pepper which is an Italian "bulls horn" or "corno di toro" type. There are also some red bells which are the varieties we planted for green peppers that are now turnining red ("New Ace", "Revolution" and "Procraft"). We also have a big yellow bell pepper called "Flavorburst" and a smaller orange pepper called "Glow".

Fennel is tasty raw in salads and also roasted in the oven. Sophia suggested that a watermelon and fennel salad would go well. Here's one from myrecipes.com:

Watermelon and Fennel Salad with Honey-Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon finely minced shallots

3 1/4 cups thinly sliced fennel bulb

3 cups cubed watermelon

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

2 ounces crumbled feta cheese (about 1/2 cup)

Preparation

1. Combine first 5 ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Stir in shallots. Combine fennel and watermelon in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over watermelon mixture; toss gently. Sprinkle with mint and cheese.

Kids Can Help: Using a plastic or child-safe knife, kids can cube the watermelon. They can also make the vinaigrette.

A lot of our broccoli is maturing early and quickly right now so please enjoy it now while it's here! Sophia welcomed recipe ideas on the chalk board in the distribution room today and this is what people came up with:

Cream of broccoli soup

Broccoli and raisin salad

"Honestly, it's just called "steaming""

Tom Yum Soup

Stir Fry with Tofu

Send us your favorite recipes so we can share them with other members! Enjoy your veggies this week.

Yours in the field,

Wendy and Asher