BGF NEWS - July 23, 2024 - VOL. 52, NO. 8

In this week’s box:

Basil: Sweet

Beans: Yellow & Green Mix

Broccoli: heads or florets with edible leaves

Cucumbers: Corinto, Generally, Marketmore or Dragon

Choi

Green-top Onions
Head Lettuce, assorted varieties

Purslane

Summer Squash: Golden Glory, Patty Pan, Safari, Slik Pik, or Zephyr

and perhaps one of the following: (see **NOTE below)
Cauliflower: Japanese
Cherry Tomatoes: Mix

Okra: Bowling Red, Candle Fire and Okinawa Pink
Peas: Snow or Sugar Snap


Herb It! option: Thai Basil, Par-cel, Sorrel

Featured Recipes:

Summer Squash Pizza

Purslane Pesto

Sesame Bok Choy

Roasted Cauliflower & Broccoli with Tahini Basil Sauce

(use purslane in place of spinach in recipe)

What’s up on the farm?

Precipitation in the past week: 0.00"

Despite the fact that we missed all the area rains in the past 2 weeks, we have definitely been loving the temperatures! It's been a welcome break from the heat for the crew and the animals, even the beans have been celebrating by getting back into production!

With the dry weather we've been clearing a lot of spent crops and cultivating beds to try and stay ahead of the weeds. We've gotten caught up on our fall crop seeding for now, though we have to run the irrigation to get the seeds to germinate. Earlier in the season we were so wet that some of our irrigation lines were never installed in our El Sur and El Norte fields. At that time we didn't need them and other tasks were higher priority. This week has brought home the need for those lines, so irrigation work is at the top of the list for later this week.

And now it's time to start talking about the most important subject, TOMATOES! We are finally at the start of the season so it's time for the official introductions. The smaller varieties tend to ripen first so we're starting with those, even though we won't have enough for everyone this week. Slicing tomatoes are coming, but we are probably at least two weeks out from our first harvest. 

 As you can see, we raise a variety of colors of tomatoes, so color isn't your best indication of ripeness, touch is. A ripe tomato should yield to a gentle squeeze of your fingertips. If it feels hard, it's probably not quite ripe. Just leave it out on your counter for a day or 2 and try again.

 Here are the tomatoes that go into our "Jubilee Cherry Tomato Mix" also referred to as snacking tomatoes:

Black Cherry: Beautiful black cherry tomato with rich flavor.

Blush: yellow fruit with orange blush when fully ripe. Very low acid, meaty, and super sweet.

Blush Cross: Three assorted seeding crosses of Blush and Juliet.

Bronze Torch: Green-striped red mini roma 

Chadwick Cherry: 1 oz red cherry with delicious, sweet flavor

Citrine: A bright orange bite-sized cherry with a rich, balanced flavor

Favorita: 1" red cherry with big tomato flavor

Golden Rave: Small 1–2 oz yellow, plum shaped tomatoes with good tomato flavor. 

Juliet: Small 1 – 2 oz red mini-roma, perfect flavor and shape for slicing onto pizza or salad.

Sweetie: Bite-sized, sweet red cherry tomato

We're also sending out the first of the green-top onions this week. Unfortunately we got our onions planted really late this spring so they haven't sized up like we would normally expect by this time of the season, but small as they are, they are still tasty so we hope you enjoy them...and we hope that we can get them to grow some more!

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 glass or plastic container 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 soaked 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

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.

Green-top onions: As you might note from their name, these are young, freshly pulled, uncured onions. They can be used as you would any onion, the difference is in the storage. Since they don't have a layer of dried skin to protect them, please store in a sealed bag or container in your refrigerator and plan to use within 2 weeks. As long as the greens are still fresh, you can use them like scallions.

Herbs: Generally, except for basil, set unwashed bunches of fresh herbs (with stems) upright into small jars filled with 1 to 2 inches of water, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to two weeks. Rinse fresh herbs right before use. To release their scents and flavors, rub them between your hands before mincing or chopping. If you have no idea what to do with fresh herbs, there is one great default answer "compound butter." Finely mince leaves and knead them into a stick of room temperature butter. Roll the butter into a log in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Then simply slice off the amount you need to add delicious, ready-to-use flavor to vegetables, bread or meats.

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: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside). Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

Purslane: Considered an invasive weed in many gardens, purslane is a valued green in many parts of the world. The plant 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.   We particularly like it in salads, cooked with eggs and as a lettuce replacement in tacos. Store in a paper towel-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!

Tomatoes: always store whole tomatoes at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. Once cut, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

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? Do you want to read more about our life on the farm and see more pictures? Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm or on Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. CSA members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes, photos or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That's about it for now.
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.
Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)