What's in the box?

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heirloom and slicer tomatoes

bell peppers (green and red)

broccoli

carrots

green and dragon tongue beans

watermelon (either red or yellow)

cantaloupe

sweet corn

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heirloom and slicer tomatoes

watermelon

carrots

broccoli

bell peppers

green beans

sweet corn

*cherry tomatoes are making their way into the single shares now.  if you didn't get them this week, they will be coming to you soon!*

Notes on the box...

Storage for everything has been covered in previous posts. 

Be sure to store the broccoli in a plastic bag to help it keep longer.  This is the beginning of our fall planting, already in the box due to sudden shifts in temperature (again!).  What the heck??!  Since this broccoli came ready out of left field (actually the far North field)  we did not have a chance to spray it (with an Organically approved spray)  to kill the cabbage loopers.  We try to use the spray sparingly anyway, because it kills our beneficial insects, too.  We soaked the broccoli in cold water and tried to get out any loopers that we could see, but the fact is we may have missed some.  They are not harmful, just might scare folks that are particularly bug-phobic.  They are solid green and look like an inch worm.  We apologize if you got any! 

The watermelons are smaller varieties that we grow because they are particularly yummy and because they fit in the boxes!  The light green stripey ones are yellow inside.  Sunshine is one variety and Yellow Doll is the other.  We tried yellow doll as an alternative to the (very expensive seed) of Sunshine at the advice of some other CSA farmers we know.  We still prefer the Sunshine quite a bit, and think the extra cost of the seed is worth the sweetness!  Yellow doll is good, but it didn't knock our socks off!  They can be stored in your fridge or on your counter. 

Cantaloupe can be stored in your fridge and is very refreshing when it's cold, but it tastes sweeter when it's at room temperature.  You get to decide how you like it best! 

Recipes...

We were trying to eat without cooking this week on the farm.  Lots of sandwiches with cheese, mayo, and tomatoes.  Ouch it was hot! 

[yumprint-recipe id='14'][yumprint-recipe id='15'][yumprint-recipe id='16']Watermelon, Mint, and Cider Vinegar Tonic

 If it cools down some, maybe you'll feel like baking some Healthy Carrot Date Coconut Muffins

Creamless Creamed Corn with Mushrooms and Lemon

Rice Stuffed Tomatoes from Smitten Kitchen

On the farm...

I bet you know what I'm going to say.  That's right, it's hot!  It's dry!  Weatherman said we reached record high temperatures for this week.  This season has broken so many records as far as weather goes, and that is not fun for us.  The good thing is that after the record lows last month, the record highs this month have things ripening quickly.  We have stopped trying to predict when crops will be ready.  Seems like they are on their own schedule.  We are just checking on them to see who's ready!  It's been a crazy season and we are only half way through it! 

We know there are some members out there who are interested in lamb.  We don't raise any on our farm, but our good friends and neighbors at Dog Song Farm have lamb available for sale.  Please contact them directly with any questions. 

Farm pictures starring Otto and melons this week!

yum! Watermelons!

the harvest

Otto helping out

The heat is making us all a little loopy!

farm kid building blocks

Otto will start driving the delivery van next week.

 Reminder:

Harvest Party at the farm on September 14th! 

What's in the box?

Full Share

basil

beans (dragon tongue and green mix)

broccoli

summer squash/ zukes

sweet corn

bell peppers

eggplant

cucumber

green top carrots

heirloom and slicer tomatoes

melon (not pictured)

*cherry tomatoes are in some of the boxes and will be in different boxes next week*

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basil

sweet corn

cauliflower (or broccoli or cabbage)

bell peppers

green top carrots

beans (dragon tongue and green mix)

summer squash/ zucchini

heirloom and slicer tomatoes

Notes on the box...

We bunched the basil this week.  It will store well with the stems in a little vase or glass of water on your counter.  This will make your kitchen smell nice!  Key thing to remember with basil storage is don't let it get too cold and don't let the leaves get wet. 

The dragon tongue beans are an heirloom variety and are SO GOOD!  We grew them a few seasons ago and had split opinions on them, but this season they are tasting incredible.  Maybe they like drastic swings in temperature!  The only bad thing about them is that the beautiful purple stripes will go away when you cook them.  I suggest a nice marinated bean salad with them to preserve the beauty, or try them with veggie dip!

Tomatoes  We will be putting them in the boxes in as great a quantity as we can for as long as we can.  We know they are a favorite of everyone, but it looks like this season will sadly be a short one for tomatoes.  I guess we can all keep our fingers crossed for a late frost!  DO NOT keep your tomatoes in the fridge!  They will get mealy.  Store them on your counter with the stem end down (on their shoulders).  We try to pack a variety of ripeness so you have some tomato to enjoy now and some later.

The sugars in Sweet Corn begin to turn to starch as soon as the corn is picked.  This means that you will have tastier corn the sooner you eat it.  We prefer to eat sweet corn simply for the first couple of days after picking.  Just bring some water to a boil, husk the corn and remove the silk, then drop the ears into boiling water for 3 minutes.  Remove from the water and serve right away with butter and salt (or a farm favorite, a little Umeboshi Plum Paste!).  If you plan on making corn fritters, corn bread, or adding the corn to soup, you can use the corn that you’ve had waiting in the fridge.  Sweet corn stores best in the husk in the crisper of your fridge.  

These Green Top Carrots are part of our crop swap with Burning River Farm.  They will be getting melons from us.  These carrots are just so tasty and beautiful!  We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!  Storage note: remove the tops from the carrots and store them in a plastic bag.  If you don't take off the tops, the carrots will get bendy and not crisp pretty quickly.  We've read that the tops are edible, though we have yet to find a way to eat them that we really enjoy :(  Any members with suggestions, please send them our way via email or in the comments, please!!

Recipes...

Lots of links week...

Summer Corn Salad  Thanks so much to long time members Rob and Susan for this recipe!  They said it could have been the entire meal!  Yum!

Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese Dressing

Raw Green Bean Salad

Carrot Crust Pizza

Crispy Baked Parmesan Green Bean Fries

Lots of the veggies this week would go great with this Creamy Probiotic Veggie Dip

On the farm...

Hey there members!  You may have encountered some Bandwidth Error messages upon coming to our website in the previous weeks...  Needless to say, your farmers built the website and blog, and are obviously not proficient in the language of html code!  So, to avoid running into this problem again and again, we would like to put the call out to any of you who may be web master type folks!  We need someone to look over our website to help us optimize it.  We would love to trade for some farm goodies to anyone who could help us out.  We are trying re-sizing the photos on the blog to see if that has an impact, but really some educated insight would help us out a lot!  Please email us if you are interested! 

It's Summertime again!  We've been wanting to sneak away for a swim, but there's too much to get done!  Our weekends are being filled with weddings of former workers, and it's been so nice to get off the farm to witness the love and bliss.

We are looking forward to the harvest party here on the farm (you can type "Turnip Rock Farm" into google maps to find us).  Party is on September 14.  It's a potluck.  There will be music by our multi-talented crew.  We really hope that you can make it out.  Let us know if you have any questions.

Special thanks to our volunteers this week!  Sam, Kelly, and Donny friends of Sam, Miranda, and Ben showed up and really made harvest and packing go a lot faster!  Greatly appreciated in the heat!! 

Children of the corn?

Sweet sweet corn

a nice bi-color called Ambrosia

dragon tongue beans, back by popular demand!

bagging beans

Rama taste testing carrots. They pass inspection!

Derek on the corn station

Shirts and skins box packing

It's a beauty this week!

What's in the box?

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Sweet corn!

red cabbage

broccoli and/or cauliflower

cucumber

hot peppers (yellow hot wax and jalapeno)

the first of the tomatoes, finally!

cilantro

sweet onions

bell peppers

zucchini and summer squash

carrots

eggplant

new potatoes

*cherry tomatoes have begun to make the rounds some shares will get them this week and more in the following weeks until frost*

(sorry no photos of the Single share this week. Everything is the same as full, in lesser quantities, but no onions or cauliflower)

Notes on the box...

This is a colorful one!

Eggplant, cukes and zukes, peppers, sweet onions, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and sweet corn should all be stored in your fridge.  The crisper is the best place with the highest humidity. 

Tomatoes have begun to ripen, finally!  We will be putting them in the boxes in as great a quantity as we can for as long as we can.  We know they are a favorite of everyone, but it looks like this season will sadly be a short one for tomatoes.  I guess we can all keep our fingers crossed for a late frost!  DO NOT keep your tomatoes in the fridge!  They will get mealy.  Store them on your counter with the stem end down (on their shoulders).  We try to pack a variety of ripeness so you have some tomato to enjoy now and some later. 

The sugars in Sweet Corn begin to turn to starch as soon as the corn is picked.  This means that you will have tastier corn the sooner you eat it.  We prefer to eat sweet corn simply for the first couple of days after picking.  Just bring some water to a boil, husk the corn and remove the silk, then drop the ears into boiling water for 3 minutes.  Remove from the water and serve right away with butter and salt.  If you plan on making corn fritters, corn bread, or adding the corn to soup, you can use the corn that you’ve had waiting in the fridge.  Sweet corn stores best in the husk in the crisper of your fridge.  We should have several more weeks of wonderful sweet corn.  YAY!

 The skin of new potatoes is very thin  and tender as they are “uncured”  They are best stored out of your fridge.  We like them best very simply roasted or in a potato salad with a really light dressing.  

More carrots are coming next week.  The quantity this week is not what we had expected and they aren't all perfectly straight, but they are all perfectly tasty! 

Eggplant keeps truckin along!  We hope you are enjoying it.  The Italian varieties are starting to be ready along with the Asian eggplant.  Both are great roasted or sautéed.  The Asian eggplant is the best for stir-fry!

Recipes...

[yumprint-recipe id='11'][yumprint-recipe id='12'][yumprint-recipe id='13'] Mexican Chopped Salad -recipe calls for romaine lettuce, but I think finely chopped cabbage would work well, too.  

Garden Vegetable Potato Salad

On the farm...

What a week!  We are pleased that we are experiencing the warmer end of perfect weather!  We can enjoy the lovely working conditions, but we know the Summer crops are ripening and growing again.  The best of both worlds.  We thought for sure we would have green beans this week, but looks like we will have to wait a little longer....

Josh's cousin Daniel had to catch his flight and get back to school.  He was such a great help and being one person less at this point in the season was really felt by the rest of the crew.  We were packing boxes until late-thirty this evening!  We will miss Daniel's humor and all that he contributed this season.  Can you believe that even though he lives in California he said that the vegetables here were the best he had ever tasted?!  He loaded some good Wisconsin produce into his suit case before he left.  Not often that our Wisconsin vegetables get exported to California!  We hope Daniel will come see us again soon!  Happy Birthday Daniel!! 

Josh and Daniel

green beans and fall crops

the famous Sungold tomato

bringing in cherry tomatoes

farmer Josh in sweet corn bliss

another new friend, a salamander!

box packing time

nice colors this week!

the beginning of the tomatoes

 Don't forget that the Harvest Party will be on September 14th here at the farm!  There will be music played by our wonderful farm crew!  There will be cute baby cows to look at!  There will be yummy food!  We look forward to meeting you or seeing you again!