FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE

PICK UP TONIGHT

Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing

This Week's Share

Genovese basil
Tomatoes
Peppers
Yellow onions
Miscellaneous potatoes
Various red lettuces
Mei Qing choy
Sweet corn (cut tips off prior to husking to remove any caterpillars!)
Green beans
Zucchinis or pattypans or cucumbers
Fruit: Yonder’s peaches

Letter from Windflower Farm

Delivery #14, Week of September 3rd, 2018

This week’s share.

The last of our Genovese basil (use it quickly, it’s already showing symptoms of downy mildew), tomatoes, peppers, yellow onions, miscellaneous potatoes, various red lettuces, Mei Qing choy, sweet corn (you might want to cut tips off prior to husking to remove any caterpillars), green beans and zucchinis or pattypans or cucumbers. Your fruit will be Yonder’s peaches. Next week, you should see many of the same items plus radishes, arugula, garlic and Swiss chard or a salad mix. Kale should be coming the week after that. During September, summer vegetables will give way to the leeks, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, root crops and the greens of fall.

Notes from the farm.

On this weekend during which some of us are celebrating or bemoaning or simply looking for work, we feel gratitude for having work that we love in a place we love. It is not always easy, and it’s often frustrating, but what work isn’t. Today, Labor Day, we are at the farm preparing for Tuesday’s deliveries, but in good spirits, in part because we spent the weekend away, not thinking about farming, in pursuit of leisure and recreation.

A few years ago, I bought a 40-year old sailboat in Amityville, on Long Island, and sailed it through New York Harbor, up the Hudson River and Champlain Canal, and on to Lake Champlain, where it is now tethered to a mooring. I’ve been restoring it with my oldest friend, Frank. It is an old boat, purchased cheap, that still needs a fair amount of work, but it’s now fully rigged and has functional berths, a galley and a head. It’s a floating tiny house with a sail. It’s a retreat to a wild, watery world from the domesticated landscape of the farm.

Nate, TB, Jan and I drove to Lake Champlain for the weekend, our first visit since late June. On the drive north we passed maples with a few leaves already turning orange. The winds were a steady 20 mph from the south, producing large swells and fast sailing. I’ve promised to take the rest of the farm staff for a sail this coming Saturday. It is wonderful to have good work, but it’s also great to get away from it once in a while. I hope your Labor Day celebration was a good one!

This week’s farm work: harvesting and packing the week #14 share, weeding the fall broccoli, planting the next succession of greens (arugula, mustard mix, kale mix, Koji, lettuces and choy), harvesting the winter squashes and preparing the land for (and planting, if possible) next year’s strawberries.

Best wishes, Ted

Reminder: BYOB!

A mid-season reminder from CSA Core Distribution Manager Rachel Maingot: please bring bags with you to the weekly pick-up!

If you have spare plastic bags at home, please bring them along too, to donate to any of your fellow members who may have forgotten theirs. Thank you!

Recipe: Pasta, Green Beans and Potatoes with Pesto

Here's a classic Italian recipe to take care of this week's potatoes, green beans, and basil! Serves 8.

Ingredients

2 cups packed tender young basil leaves
¼ cup pine nuts
1 teaspoon salt
2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with flat blade of a knife
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more to taste
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or more to taste
Salt to taste
½ pound small potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
¼ pound tender young green beans, cut into 1-inch lengths
1 pound trenette, or other long, thin pasta

Method

Make pesto: In the bowl of food processor, add basil, pine nuts, salt and garlic. Pulse until mixture is coarse and grainy. With the motor running, add oil in slow, steady stream. Add cheese; process just enough to mix well. If sauce is too dry, add a little more oil. Taste; add more cheese or salt, if desired.
Bring 6 quarts water to rolling boil. Add at least 2 tablespoons salt and the potato slices. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes have started to soften but are not cooked through. Add green beans, and continue boiling another 5 minutes.
Add pasta, and stir. Start testing pasta at 5 minutes. When it is done, and when potatoes and beans are tender, drain and turn pasta and vegetables immediately into preheated bowl. Add pesto, and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Cookbook Swap Starts Tonight!

Here's what you need to know:

At every pick-up during September, we'll be running a swap table
Bring cookbooks you no longer want, and swap them for new ones to freshen up your recipe circulation!
As well as cookbooks, we're also happy to receive general food-related books, books on health, and parenting books
You don't have to bring a book to take a book - everyone is welcome to dip in to the selection
Anyone who donates a book is eligible to enter a lottery for a $10 gift card at Greenlight Books!

This is a great opportunity to share your enthusiasm for good food and cooking with your fellow CSA members. So think carefully about what you're ready to pass on to an enthusiastic new owner, and dream big about what might be waiting for you at the swap table!

THE BEET: VOLUME 17; WEEK 14