Beans: Empress, Fortex and Golden Goal Basil: Genovese or Italian Large Leaf Baby Fennel:Perfection Chinese Pink Celery Head Lettuce: assorted varieties Green-top Onions: Red Carpet Kale: asst. Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini), Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow) and at least one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail...) Broccoli: Gypsy Cauliflower: Goodman Cucumbers: Suyo Long Okra: Bowling Red & Candle Fire Snap or Snow Peas For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs For those with the Herb option: Lemon basil, ginger mint & savory Featured Recipes: Pasta with Fennel, Kale-and Lemon Sauteed Summer Squash & Celery Roberta's Roasted Onion Tops ** see recipe below BGF Favorite Pesto **see recipe below BGF New Favorite Kale Salad **see recipe below

BGF NEWS - JULY 7, 2020 - VOL. XLV, NO. 6

In this week’s box:

Beans: Empress, Fortex and Golden Goal
Basil: Genovese or Italian Large Leaf

Baby Fennel:Perfection
Chinese Pink Celery

Head Lettuce: assorted varieties

Green-top Onions: Red Carpet

Kale: asst.

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

and at least one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail...)     
Broccoli: Gypsy

Cauliflower: Goodman
Cucumbers: Suyo Long
Okra: Bowling Red & Candle Fire

Snap or Snow Peas

For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs

For those with the Herb option: Lemon basil, ginger mint & savory

Featured Recipes:  

Pasta with Fennel, Kale-and Lemon
Sauteed Summer Squash & Celery

Roberta's Roasted Onion Tops ** see recipe below

BGF Favorite Pesto **see recipe below

BGF New Favorite Kale Salad **see recipe below

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.00"

Guess I should have kept my mouth shut last week when I commented on how we'd been so lucky with the regular rains. This week we are lucky to have the irrigation system all in place because we are running it nearly nonstop.
Amid water breaks for crew and crops alike, we've gotten some big projects well underway. All of the tomatoes have been pruned and trellised with at least two levels of strings, more will be added weekly as the tomatoes continue to grow. 

Our other big task is the garlic harvest. We've gotten all of the Music variety harvested and hung in the barn to dry. We are about 1/3 of the way through the whole garlic crop and plan to have the rest of it out before it rains again (hopefully soon!).

We spent some time this week clearing spent crops and getting ready to plant cover crops in those areas. This is a great opportunity to feed our soil and  keep the weeds from inundating those beds. As the summer progresses, the cover crops will be tilled in and fall crops will be planted there.

As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, we are starting to see the more of our summer crops ripening. We harvested the first couple of cucumbers this week as well as a handful of okra and the very first ripe tomato. So we will start sending a few of those items out in boxes this delivery...except for the tomato...we split that 4 ways among the crew and ate it! We are still a few weeks from having any significant numbers of these crops, so we'll all have to be patient.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag or clamshell, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Beans:

 Fresh beans are an easy "store."  Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer.  Can last up to 2 weeks.

Broccoli & Cauliflower:

 Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli/cauliflower in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and too wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Celery:

 Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered with a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Cucumber: Store unwashed cucumbers in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

Fennel: Cut off the stalks where they emerge from the bulb. To use the feathery foliage as an herb, place the dry stalks upright in a glass filled with two inches of water, cover the glass loosely with a plastic bag, and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. The unwashed bulb will keep in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for at least a week. To use, remove any damaged spots or layers. Cut the bulb in half lengthwise and check the inner core. If it’s tough, remove it with a paring knife. Fennel should be washed carefully, because dirt can lodge between the layers of the bulb. Chop or mince the leaves, or run them through your food processor for a new riff on pesto!

Green top onions:  not the pencil-thin scallions, but nearly grown (though not-yet-cured) onions are an early summer treat. Keep sweet mild onions in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a week or two, but beware the fatal moisture accumulation that causes them to spoil. To prolong their storage, wrap in a paper or cloth towel before storing in plastic. Also, don't just toss the tops, several years ago a CSA member taught us a great recipe to use them! See recipe below.

Okra: These lovely, dark red, horn-shaped vegetables are a warm weather treat. Extremely cold sensitive, store in their plastic bag in the warmest part of your fridge, or place the plastic bag in a small paper sack and store in the crisper drawer and use within the week. Traditional southerners will cut into rounds, bread in cornmeal and fry, but our favorite version is our dear friend Annie's method, "All I do is rinse off the pods and lay them in a saucepan with a little water in the bottom. Ten to fifteen minutes is all it takes...twenty if the pods are really big and "woody" feeling. I put salt on them and eat as finger food. It reminds me of young sweet corn."

Peas: best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

Roberta's Roasted Green Onion Tops

Use scissors to slice the tops uniformly so they cook evenly. Then coat the tops with olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Cook at 350 degrees for 10 - 20 minutes depending on the size and how crispy you want them. 

We eat them as appetizers with cheese or use as an ingredient in eggs etc

Recipe Source: CSA member Roberta P.

Blue Gate Farm Pesto

2 Tbs Sunflower seeds-toasted (can substitute pine nuts)

2 cloves Garlic (garlic lovers can add more) green garlic or garlic scapes are also good.

2 c. Basil (any variety, a mix is particularly nice)

1-2 leaves Sorrel (optional)

½ c. Olive oil

6-10 oz fresh tomatoes,

1 tsp Salt (if using pre-salted sunflower seeds, can reduce salt amount)

½ c. Parmesan cheese, fresh grated (not the stuff in the can)

Place sunflower seeds and garlic into food processor then pulse several times. Add basil and sorrel, drizzle with half of oil. Pulse several times.  Add remaining oil, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and salt if desired.

Pesto should be stored for a week or less in the refrigerator in a sealed container.  If storing longer, freeze in snack-sized, zip-top bags (about 1 1/2 TBS per bag), pressed flat. Once frozen, they can be stored upright in a larger plastic bag. To use a little, just break off the amount needed and return the rest to the freezer.

Also, if we are making a large batch for the freezer, for best quality, we omit the cheese and seeds. Freeze as is and then add those items in when we are ready to use.

BGF New Favorite Kale Salad

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 4 lemons)

 Kosher salt

1 ½ cups extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat side of a knife, peeled and left whole

10 to 12 ounces washed and dried kale leaves, thick stems removed (weight after trimming)

1 can tuna or salmon in water, drained

1 c. garbanzo beans

1-2 tbs salted roasted pumpkin seeds

1-1-2 oz Lost Lake Farm feta

1-2 tbs dried cherries

In a bowl, combine lemon juice and 1 heaping teaspoon salt. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add garlic cloves and set aside to steep.

Working in batches, cut the kale into thin ribbons: gather a large handful of leaves, bunch together tightly, and use the other hand to slice into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. This need not be done very precisely or neatly; the idea is to end up with a kind of slaw. (Recipe can be made up to this point 1 day ahead. Keep kale and dressing refrigerated separately.)

Place chopped kale in a very large bowl. Pour half the dressing over the salad and toss. Taste for dressing and salt and add more as needed, tossing to coat thoroughly.

Top with tuna/salmon, garbanzo beans, pumpkin seeds, feta & cherries.

 Serve within 1 hour.

 Adapted from the following recipes: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015707-lemon-garlic-kale-salad & https://www.shockinglydelicious.com/lemony-garbanzo-kale-salad-with-tuna-for-sundaysupper/

Beets: Ace (red) and/or Chioggia (red/white striped) Cabbage: Golden Acre Green Garlic Head Lettuce: assorted varieties Oregano Purslane Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini), Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow) and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail...) Beans: Empress Broccoli: Gypsy Cauliflower: Goodman Snap or Snow Peas For those with the Egg option [Full & Half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs For those with the Herb option: Sweet basil, chives & parsley Featured Recipes: Cabbage Steaks Cabbage Beet Coleslaw Beet & Purslane Salad Grilled Squash with Oregano

BGF NEWS - JUNE 30, 2020 - VOL. XLV, NO. 5

In this week’s box:

Beets: Ace (red) and/or Chioggia (red/white striped)
Cabbage: Golden Acre

Green Garlic

Head Lettuce: assorted varieties

Oregano
Purslane
Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail...)     
Beans: Empress

Broccoli: Gypsy
Cauliflower: Goodman

Snap or Snow Peas

For those with the Egg option [Full & Half shares]: one dozen free-range eggs

For those with the Herb option: Sweet basil, chives & parsley

Featured Recipes:  

Cabbage Steaks

Cabbage Beet Coleslaw
Beet & Purslane Salad
Grilled Squash with Oregano

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.70"

In the world of vegetable farming, the gold standard is 1" of rain a week. These past few weeks we have been hitting pretty close to that and the growth in the fields shows it! Plants can double in size in a week and it seems like some are doing that very thing right now. The early crops are finishing up but the mid-season crops are really coming into their own, both in size and in flowering/fruiting.  

First cauliflower of the season

We harvested the very first of the beans this week and the cabbage and cauliflower suddenly put on so much growth that we needed to start harvesting them. So, lucky you, cabbage again this week, though European this time. The basil finally got big enough that we are starting weekly deliveries of Herb Share to those who signed up for it. Those folks will get basil every week (different varieties) and next week everyone else will start getting basil every other week.

We are seeing nice fruit set on the peppers and tomatoes as well as on the melons and winter squash. We were pretty aggressive with the summer squash last week so this week it took a bit of a break. We anticipate it being back in fine form next week.

Juliet tomatoes setting nice fruits

Baby watermelons are ridiculously cute

Our focus this week included more cultivating (surprise!), installing our pole bean trellis, hilling potatoes and chasing deer out of the high tunnel! But our biggest task was getting all the posts in place for our tomato trellising. The process includes placing and pounding in about 300 posts.  Then each of the 500+ tomato plants are pruned and afterwards, twine is woven through the plants and around the posts. Additional lines are added as the tomatoes grow. It isn't anyone's favorite job, but luckily it only happens once a year. As of Monday, all of the posts are in and half of the tomatoes are pruned and trellised with 2 lines. We hope to have it all completed by this Friday.

We do try to have a little fun with this annual chore!

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag or clamshell, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Beets- Cut off greens, leaving an inch of stem. Refrigerate the unwashed greens in a closed plastic bag and use with your chard mix as beets and chard are closely related. Store the beet roots, unwashed, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time. Just before cooking, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut according to your needs baby/young beets usually don't need to be peeled.

Broccoli & Cauliflower: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and

wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Cabbage: Store dry, unwashed cabbage in the refrigerator, preferably in the vegetable bin. The outer leaves may eventually get floppy or yellowish, but you can remove and discard them to reveal fresh inner leaves. Cabbage can keep for more than a month. Once it’s cut, seal it in a plastic bag and continue to refrigerate for several weeks. Rinse the cabbage under cold running water just before use. Peel away a few of the outer leaves, then cut the cabbage according to your needs with a big, sharp knife, and then chop, sliver, or grate. Our favorite way to eat raw cabbage is as a "walking salad" which is to simply spread peanut butter over a leaf of cabbage, sprinkle with your favorite dried fruit, roll it up into a tube and enjoy. This is a kid-pleaser for sure!

Green Garlic: This is freshly harvested garlic that hasn't had time to cure yet. You will notice that the wrappers are soft and the garlic itself is very juicy. You can use it in any recipe calling for garlic. The flavor is so fresh and green that we like to use them in recipes that really highlight the flavor, like pesto or garlic butter.Store loosely wrapped in the refrigerator for best keeping quality.

Peas: best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.

Purslane: This succulent plant is a valued green in many parts of the world, though here in the US, it is mostly known as an invasive weed. It is rich in vitamin E, vitamin C and beta carotene, and quite high in protein.  Most noteworthy of all, it is considered a better source of essential omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy plant.  Enjoy raw or cooked in any recipe calling for greens, it is also ideal for juicing and green smoothies. Makes a terrific replacement for lettuce on tacos and tastes great cooked with eggs. Store in a paper towel (or cloth)-lined plastic bag in your crisper drawer and use within a week.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

Basil Tips: assorted varieties Celery: Chinese Pink Chard: Bright Lights Mix Garlic Scapes (the curly green things) Head Lettuce: assorted varieties Napa Cabbage Scallions (green onions) Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini), Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow) Strawberries: one last taste! and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE after "A Little Detail...) Broccoli: Gypsy Snap or Snow Peas For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature Featured Recipes: Sausage Egg Roll in a Bowl Celery Leaf Pesto and other celery leaf recipes Parmesan Summer Squash saute ** see recipe below

BGF NEWS - JUNE 23, 2020 - VOL. XLV, NO. 4

In this week’s box:

Basil Tips: assorted varieties

Celery: Chinese Pink

Chard: Bright Lights Mix

Garlic Scapes (the curly green things)

Head Lettuce: assorted varieties

Napa Cabbage

Scallions (green onions)

Summer Squash: 8 Ball (green,round), Golden Glory (bright yellow zucchini),  Patty Pan(scalloped white, green or yellow), Slik Pik (thin, yellow) or Zephyr (green & yellow)
Strawberries: one last taste!

and perhaps one of the following: (please see **NOTE  after "A Little Detail...)     
Broccoli: Gypsy

Snap or Snow Peas

For those with the Egg option [Full shares]: one dozen free-range eggs

For those with the Herb option: Herb share will begin in a couple of weeks as herbs mature

Featured Recipes:  

Sausage Egg Roll in a Bowl

Celery Leaf Pesto and other celery leaf recipes

Parmesan Summer Squash saute ** see recipe below

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.60"

Happy Summer to you! As we pass into the official start of summer it always makes me wonder what this growing season will bring us. So far, it has been a pretty decent stretch, since those late spring freezes. We've had fairly moderate temps and somewhat normal rainfall. Crops have been sown or transplanted mostly on schedule and we're trying (as always) to stay ahead of the weeds. That has been more successful with some crops than others. Today we did "rescue weeding" of the beans, which means hand weeding because the weeds had gotten ahead of us and were too big to cultivate out. This is our least favorite kind of weeding, as it is the most time consuming and means that we've gotten behind on a crop. That said, it does happen every year to one crop or another. Besides lots of weeding and cultivating, this past week we cleared the last of the high tunnel lettuce crops and transplanted in the final crop of peppers. While cleaning up the perimeter of the big high tunnel we ran into this little guy (seriously, he was only about 12" long). I know not everyone gets as excited about snakes as I do but they play such an important role in pest control that even if one startles me, I am always happy to see them. Protecting species like this is yet another reason why it is important to us to be a chemical-free farm.

This week we also sowed the next succession of carrots, beets and beans and resowed a poorly germinated bed of butternut squash. Did I mention we also spent some time weeding and cultivating? That is the trade off to getting regular rains, it also waters the weeds! Luckily our crops too, have been enjoying those rains. The summer squashes are really putting on some nice growth and blooming like crazy! We should be be right at the edge of a bountiful squash season. The basil is finally starting to look like a solid crop and needs pinching back to encourage better growth, so you are getting the benefit of that practice. You aren't getting a lot of basil with today's delivery, really just a teaser to whet your herbal appetite, but that is all that the plants are up for right now. In a couple of weeks we expect to be sending out a bounty of basil bouquets. 

Pink celery

Another crop that has come along nicely is our Chinese pink celery. It is such a beautiful crop and tasty too! It isn't really the kind of celery that you stuff with peanut butter, as the ribs are so fine, but it is lovely sliced on a salad or sauteed in butter and cooked with eggs or other vegetables. It would also go nicely in the in the Egg Roll in a Bowl recipe. Regardless of how you use it, we hope that you enjoy it. 

A crop that hasn't been so excited about the recent weather is the Napa Cabbage. It is a challenging crop in the spring as it prefers decreasing temperatures rather than the increasing heat of summer. It was starting to look a little "peaked" so even though you just had it 2 weeks ago, we decided to send it out while it is still a quality crop rather than lose it in the field. 

European cabbage

Don't worry, our European cabbages are looking really good, so this isn't the end of cabbage season. Our main season broccoli crop is also looking great and just starting to form heads, even as the early broccoli has moved on to producing mainly side shoots. So if you get broccoli this week and wonder why you are getting a bag of florets, that's why. They are the side shoots after the main head of broccoli has been harvested. We think they are easily as desirable as the main heads as they tend to be tender and "pre-trimmed" to a smaller size.

A little detail on your produce this week:

Basil hates the cold and will turn black with exposure. Keep long stemmed basil in a glass/vase of water on your counter top (out of direct sunlight). Stems that are too short (trimmings/tops) should be placed in a plastic bag or clamshell, with a dry paper towel. Then put inside of a paper bag (for insulation) and put in the warmest part of your refrigerator (usually the door) or on the top shelf towards the front.

Broccoli: Wrap broccoli loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak broccoli, head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If you soak broccoli in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and

wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

Celery: Store upright in a glass of water, loosely covered with a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Garlic Scapes: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green "springs" are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant's energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat.

Napa Cabbage: Store Napa cabbage whole in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a week or more. 

Peas: best kept in a plastic bag or glass container in your refrigerator. Use within a week.

Scallions (green onions): are best kept upright in a glass with about 1" of water in it. Loosely cover the tops with plastic and you will be amazed at how long they will keep. We like to throw a handful of chopped scallions into nearly any savory dish, right near the end of the cooking time.

Strawberries keep best in your refrigerator in a vented container. Use within 3-4 days.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

A few other details: All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.  

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say "Perhaps one of the following..."  These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time.  We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item.  On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Is a weekly newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and/or share your recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it this week, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean (and Luci, Indigo & Sky)

Indigo, Luci & Sky

Parmesan Summer Squash Saute

2 tbs butter or olive oil

2-3 cups sliced summer squash (1/4” slices)

1 medium onion or several green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3-4 tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in sauté pan. Add onion, garlic and summer squash. Brown quickly. Sprinkle parmesan over squash slices and cover until melted. Slide cooked squash out of pan onto a serving plate.

Note: Don’t overcook squash, flavor and texture are best if squash is slightly firm.

Recipe source: Gloria Beebout (Blue Gate Farm mom)