Week 17: Indian Summer

Heyo!  Here it is September 1^st and here we are with our 17^th box!  Well, 2 of us are moving, but last week we got 2 new sign-ups!  New folks:  please visit the blogspot for our Intro to the CSA letter, the first of each season.  The main point of it is:  please return boxes!  Everybody:  we are out of the medium size green boxes!!!  Where have they gone?  I bought 500 of them ($77.) 2 months ago and they're gone!  Please return all little and medium green boxes to me! Thanks!  So many of you are awesome about returning all the boxes, thank you!   Also, cheese folks,  please return the ThermaFreeze coolers.  They are re-usable.  If it's punctured, I will notice and quit using it or cut out the bad spot. Thanks to those of you who have been returning them.

This week's box:  looks super yummy in my mind's eye:  1/3 pound original blend salad from 8^th Street, some of you get cherry tomatoes (Bing Cherry, Black Cherry and Sun Golds) from 8^th Street and some of you get Ozette Potatoes from Sky's Field.  Next week, we'll reverse who gets potatoes and tomatoes.  The carrots and Walla Walla onions are from Yonder Farm.  The sweet corn is from Bunny Laine.  The Santa Rosa plums are from Bartella's Orchard, #2s, certified organic.

Cheese share gets Larkhaven Farm's "Grate Tomme," an amazing grated hard cheese.

Fruit Share:  2 lbs of Santa Rosa Plums, 2 lbs of Summer Red summer apples from Filaree Fruit and a melon from Art Heinemann who's fields are in Tonasket, certified organic.  I've heard the legend of his melon crop for years but have never eaten any.  Looking forward to receiving them this Wednesday, it'll be a surprise to see which varieties he provides.  Hoping to get 50 melons from him for everybody next week.  The weather's about to cool, though.  The melon crops are not fond of cooler nights.  But we're all planning on an Indian Summer, yes?! 

Traditional Native American 'three sisters' crop: corn, beans, and squash.

Gorgeous yellow squash flowers! Photo by Painted Sky Warrior

Speaking of an Indian Summer, our friend Sky has planted a beautiful field of the traditional Native American 3 sisters crop. . . corn, beans and squash.  Maize, for drying, storage and grinding, will be forming its gorgeous colors soon, as I've been watching their tassels dance in the breeze.  Painted Sky Warrior planted Painted Mountain corn and Mandan Bride corn.  He also planted Garbanzo, Adzuki, Pinto and Black Turtle Beans, from the four corners area of the Southwest. The field is bordered by winter squash plants. 

Garbanzo beans!

The north part of the field houses delicious potatoes:  All-Blue, All-Red and Ozette.  The Ozette are a slow-food seed-save crop.  The Makah people of Western Washington had the potato land in their territory about 200 years ago and they loved it and preserved its seed in their gardens each year since.  I told Sky about the Ozette seed being more readily available now, as Slow-Food International had encouraged it's widespread preservation, and Sky found some to plant from Dave's Potato Seed in Washington.  I'm so excited to eat some!  Michael Pilarski has been growing them in small quantities, but never enough to put in the CSA.  Now we get to! 

Painted Sky Warrior grows 3 varieties of potatoes and 9 different beans.

So, I'm glad Sky presented the opportunity for me to loan field space to a beginner farmer.  He's built the soil up nicely, using all organic amendments and peat from Bonaparte and fish emulsion for the nitrogen-demanding corn and beans.  He's also mulched the potatoes with hay from Albert Roberts.  So, I didn't have to cover-crop and water, and he's had the opportunity to experiment and learn about growing his own crops!    And thanks to Jim and Sherry, 8^th Street Green's neighbors, for the use of their field for a 3^rd year! 

Sky shows the inside of seed pods from his Purple Peruvian Potatoes. He wants his potatoes to cross polinate in order to create a new variety that will be climatized to this area.

Most folks snip off the flowering buds from their potato plants. If you don't, these seed pods may develop.

(Wow!  Those green beans from Yonder Farm were amazing.  We ate them pan-steamed with a little salt, then sprinkled shredded parmesan on them.  Yum!  I want more!)

~~A prune is a dried plum;   Prunes used to be dried on the tree and in the sun like raisins, but nowadays they are dried in forced air tunnels heated by gas, this gives a more uniform product.       ~~The Japanese plum should be called the Chinese plum because the Japanese imported the fruit 200 to 300 years ago from the Chinese that had cultivated the fruit for thousands of years. The Japanese spread the fruit allover the world and so it became the Japanese plum.      ~~Plums stimulate the bowel movement. Its skin contains a substance that is responsible for that effect. If you peel the fruit you won't be bothered with the well known side effects of this lovely fruit.  ~~Plums are high in carbohydrates, low in fat and low in calories. Plums are an excellent source of vitamin A, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and fiber. Plums are free of sodium and cholesterol. Like all fruit plums contain a substantial amount of vitamin C.                                                                                          And here we are, school is back, the season begins to change, and so does the food. . . best!  ~~sh.

Week 16: "Plant a little garden, eat a lot of Peaches!"

Beans and beets!

Hi there!  This is our 16^th box of the season.  It's an odd combo of foods, but maybe some of you (like me) have some produce holding over, like some basil, an onion and some carrots or tomato. . .

This week's box:  a full pound of green, broad and long thin beans.  The length of time for cooking them works out because some are flat-ish and some are round but thin, so go ahead and let them be mixed for cooking if you want to!  The beans and. . . yes, beets. . . are from Yonder Farm.  Watershine says it's the nicest beets of the season, with beautiful lush tops, so enjoy!  You mightn't get beets again this year!  (no promises, though :))

JC Kauffman, owner of Filaree Fruit, gently selects the ripest peaches.

BEET~~ Beta vulgaris~~  Very versatile, cooked or raw.  High in nutrients, vitamins A & C, also the carotenes.  If you use the beet greens, you'll also get generous portions of Vit. C, calcium, and iron.  Tremendously long storing, sweet and delicious, and colorful (use as lipstick!). If you grow to enjoy beets, you are in luck.  They are available much of the year.  1^st baby beets of season in June, hearty throughout the season, finishing at late frost.  After harvest, will retain their integrity for 3 months, or longer if stored properly.  ~no need to peel, just scrub clean (trace minerals lie just below skin)

~grate into most any salad, cooked or raw  ~cube into veggie soups or stew  ~serve sliced, steamed beets at room temp., tossed in olive oil with dash of salt and pepper, or use a simple vinaigrette

~to bake, cut off leaves and wash roots.  Bake at 350 d. for 1-2 hours or until easily pierced.  Rub off skins and cut off roots.  Serve whole or sliced.  ~~beet chocolate cake  ~young beets can be enjoyed tossed raw into a mixed green salad (we'll  get you some of that next week!)  ~try beet greens steamed or sauteed or in any dish calling for a mild, tender green such as spinach.  STORAGE TIPS:  beet greens best used fresh, as wilt quickly  ~store greens wrapped in a damp cloth or in a plastic bag in a drawer of the fridge  ~to maintain firmness of roots, cut off leaves and stems 1-2 inches above the root crown.  Store in a plastic bag or tupperware and refrigerate in the hydrator drawer.

Perfect Red Haven peaches sit in a box, waiting to be packed. 

FRIED BEETS 'N' CARROTS

From Asparagus to Zucchini,  A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce

2 TB olive oil

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 med. Beets, quartered, sliced ¼” thick

2 med. Carrot, sliced ¼” thick

tamari sauce (or soy, braggs, shoyu)

beet tops, fresh spinach or chard

Heat oil in skillet.  Add cumin; cook about 1 minute. Add beets and carrots; fry until tender.  Remove from heat, sprinkle on some tamari, serve. 

Variation:  save the tops.  When the beets and carrots are tender, add chopped greens, cover and cook until soft.  Toss mixture, sprinkle with tamari, serve.  Makes 2-4 servings.  

Peach trees glow in the early morning sun at Filaree Fruit.  JC remarked that he feels like he lives in a tropical land when he picks peaches.

Also in the box:  cucumbers and garlic from 8^th Street Greens.  The garlic is Music Pink, 1 big and one medium size.  It's a nice spicy porcelain variety, not easy to peel but fun to slice the big cloves.  I'm looking forward to growing very amazing garlic next year.  I can feel the good crop happening already!  I'm going to fertilize perfectly, water perfectly, weed most excellently and harvest at just the right moments!  Ya with me? !!!  The full shares also get ½ pound salad.  The peaches are small fancy Red Havens from Filaree Fruit.  

JC sets his organic peaches in a waiting, padded box.

Next week's box might be plums, potatoes, carrots, salad, summer squash... and I keep hopin' for melons.  This week's fruit share:  extra peaches, a ½ pint of blackberries, some Santa Rosa plums (Bartella's, certified organic)  and some nectarines with dimples.  The dimples make them #2s (Bunny Laine, certified OG).  But the dimples with my smile make me a fancy :)  I bring you all your baskets of food on my birthday...  it's a good job to have, and I feel grateful for this life.

Best to you  ~~Shannon                                              

                                

Week 15:

Elliot Phillips packs this week's boxes in the washing room of 8th Street Greens.

Hello CSA folks!  Just been out floppin' irrigation lines around, rototilling bolted greens and previously rototilled beds, prepping for yet another salad planting.  Gonna plant 5 or 6 100' beds tomorrow, instead of the usual 3 or 4 beds.  Each bed gets planted with 5 or 6 rows of seeds.  Lettuce, herbs, mustards, spinach and Asian greens like bok choy.  I'm a gonna go for 2 beds of spinach tomorrow.  I'm obsessed with trying to grow spinach all season long.  It's hard, because sometimes it does well in the middle of summer with high heat, or certain patches do well but not others, so I just keep on trying, using seed, giving customers spinach semi-promises I can't keep, wasting weeding time and money, you get the point.  But farming is a bit of a science:  observation, recording, re-do after re-do of experiments, investment in different tools for trial and error.  I seem to have the strawberry thing down pretty good—getting about 3 flats a week now.  Call if you want any for a party, or to preserve.  They are definitely sweet things.

The greens are going to a wedding this week-end and we've got a special order for the farm to table dinner event at Bluebird Grain Farms in Winthrop.  It's hosted by the Washington Water Project to honor Okanogan Farms.  This Sunday at 5:00.  Proceeds from the benefit are to enhance the project's salmon-safe work with farms in Okanogan County.  It feels really good to have been contacted by a Methow caterer to provide for a Methow event.  509-881-7690 if you're curious about going.

This week's box:  4 oz of just lettuce (triple rinsed), 3 bulbs of Inchelium Red Garlic! (yes, it's small for Inchy.), and 1 bag of Thai Basil – all from 8^th Street.  Carrots, another Walla Walla onion, and a tomato from Yonder Farm.  And donut peaches from Bartella's Orchard, 3^rd year transitional (almost certified organic!), they are #2s.  The full shares get extra of the foods, plus a small bunch of chard.

Fruit option:  2 lbs peaches, 1 pint of strawberries, 2 shells blackberries (Bunny Laine).

Tomato, Mozzarella & Thai Basil Crostini

Bon Appétit   June 2011 

Makes 12 servings

Sesame oil and rice vinegar spin the caprese eastward.

Ingredients: 

12 slices seven-grain or sesame bread

1/2 garlic clove

2 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes (or slabs of heirloom tomato from Yonder)

1 small shallot (or sweet onion), minced

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sliced fresh mozzarella

Thai basil leaves

Preparation:  Grill bread slices and rub with garlic clove.

In a bowl, combine tomatoes, shallot, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. Season with sea salt and pepper; let sit for 15 minutes.

Put sliced fresh mozzarella on toasts. Spoon tomato mixture over mozzarella and garnish with Thai basil leaves. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Here's to Good Food!                                                                                                        ~~Shannon

Week 14: Glad for Gleaners

Hello everybody!  Here we are in the thick of summer, high river still and the Omak Stampede this weekend.  ~~Yee Hah~~ We'll start cleaning garlic this afternoon.  We're still hacking away at and mowing weeds, eating lots of yummy fresh foods and enjoying the socials. 

(All photos by Shannon Gilbert this week)

Lots of gleaners, hard at work! Wonderful to have volunteers!

The gleaners were just here.  A big thank-you to the Food For All program of Community Action.  The gleaner co-ordinator Sarah and some of the volunteers were here this morning to do a last harvest of lettuce before I rototill it in next Monday.  They were here a few weeks ago and gleaned lots and lots of greens!  It's so nice that they can take advantage of our extra food.  It helps the food bank clients access fresh, local produce and helps the gardeners and farmers share their abundance without donating it to the compost and feeling wasteful of energy and perfectly good food. I read the article in the Methow Valley News about The Red Shed Farm project and agree with Kelleigh McMillan that when inspiring low-income folks to eat fresh farm foods we should be offering the best to them, not the culls or old stuff.  That idea confirms my gratitude in accepting EBT (food stamps).  I'm hoping more people take advantage of that option with 8^th Street's CSA next year.

Empty boxes were soon filled up with so many helping hands.

This week's box:  is a bit of a repeat, not at all what I had planned for this week, but we'll appreciate it anyway!  A smaller bag of original greens and Marketmore slicing cucumbers from 8^th Street; red beets, summer squash and a walla walla onion from Yonder Farm; blueberries (what! Blueberries!?) from Bob and Loreen Stout (I picked them early one morning and couldn't help but share with you!  Enjoy! I've given you a blend of the 3 types he has). The apricots are from Filaree Fruit.  About 4 weeks ago I told J.C. I wanted the Rival apricots for the CSA so here they finally are!  We get mostly rivals, which have the strong pink blush, and a bit of Perfection and Goldrich in there as well.  I usually only put apricots in the boxes once per season, but this year just isn't the same as others, what can I say!  Who wants things the same, anyway. . .

Bob Stout tends his blueberries, one of the biggest jobs being to keep the birds off the fruit!  The owls help, as well as shiny ribbons, cannon shots and his pellet gun.

Next Week:  carrots and peaches!  I know, I already said that last week. . . (and maybe green beans!)

Fruit option:  Early Red Haven peaches, extra apricots and a full pint of blueberries!

The cheese:  This week is from Pine Stump Farm.  Carey said it would be either her gouda or her mozzarella.  Their website, which you can link from the sidebar on the right, lists food and wine pairings for the different cheeses she makes.

We grilled up some T-Bones from Oberg Brothers this past week-end--  yum!  My man Caleb sliced up some beats (1/8-1/4” thick) and threw those on the grill as well.  Those were super good, they sweetened and were delicious with a little piece of Larkhaven's feta.  Also, I halved some apricots, drizzled balsamic vinegar on them, and grilled those as well.  Delicious!  Summer squash and sweet onions are also good on the grill! 

Fun trip up to Esther Briques winery this past week-end.  Our friend, co-farmer, photographer Phoebe Webb got her short film into the TumbleWeed Film Festival.  So, we all traipsed on up there to view it and sample the local wine.  In case you haven't caught on yet, Phoebe made 8^th Street Green's blogspot and takes the artful photos for us.  Her film, “You Might Need It Some Day,” captured the beauty of her Grandmother's old stuff that she'd been packrat-ing for 50 years.  The dresses billowed on the clothes line, the hand saws myriad were propped on the garage door and filmed, the hats-a-plenty were modeled by her grandma and mom, the old piano plunked the sound-trak.  It's fun, that after viewing 10 films, only a few repeat in my head, and Phoebe's is one of those!  It must of sounded in my heart and made an impact in my mind, the beauty of young recording elder and the beauty of old well-made stuff!  You might need it some day, whether a good ol' tractor like Phoebe photographed at my place last week or a pretty dress to wear to the local winery!  Thanks to Phoebe for her dedication to the blogspot!                          All the Best!  And remember to eat yer beets!!!                                          ~~shannon

Photographer Phoebe Webb loves pea blossoms and her generous friend Shannon!

Week 13: Summer is Here!

Summer is finally here on 8th Street Greens!

This week's box:  Herb Salad and basil or cilantro, whichever you did not get last week, from 8^th Street.  If you got cilantro this week, you get a cucumber (either a classic slicer or an asian variety), some from Yonder some from 8^th Street.  If you got basil this week, you'll have summer squash in your box, from Yonder Farm.  Also from Yonder:  sugar snap peas, hopefully filled out and sweet.  Truly the last of them:)  and a tomato.  The apricots are “Perfections.”

Cucumber and cilantro are delicious together in nori rolls or fresh spring rolls.  It's a great idea to make a batch of wraps before the work week, then eat them for a couple of days.  A cool, refreshing summer snack, full of nutrients but light on the belly.  Put some pickled ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce on it and you've got electrolytes!

Summer squash is delicious lightly sauteed in butter or olive oil, with basil added at the end and maybe a little salt and freshly sauteed garlic (leave the cloves whole or chop it) and some balsamic vinegar.  Use it as a side dish or to top pasta, along with some raw tomato.

The fruit share gets:  2 lb of apricots (“Perfection”  We're calling the grade 1 1/2s, because they're not quite as nice as fancies but not as blemished as #2s.  Watershine, the OPMA representative who does the marketing, networking, taking of orders for all the OPMA growers, said these apricots have some russet and blemishes.) They taste like perfection but aren't A+ perfect:)  The 2 lbs of peaches are Early Red Haven from Filaree Fruit.  We'll all have peaches in our box next week!  The strawberries are from 8^th Street.  I guess berries are about done at Bunny Laine. . .  bye bye my blueberry loves.  Glad I have some of you in the freezer!  My family has been living off ½ flat of blueberries per week—they sure do take care of us!  Next year, I'd be happy to get any of you extra blueberries each week.  And Bunny Laine would be happier to bring me several flats a week!  Blueberries are just right, but so are succulent peaches!

Elliot Phillips weeds a bed of strawberries at 8th Street Greens.

If anyone wants a box or more of Early Red Haven peaches for canning, drying or bulk fresh eating, call or email me by next Monday.  Prices vary for fancies, small fancies, #2s, or canners.  Red Havens are cling-pit.  The semi-cling “freestone” are the Suncrests, which won't be until early September this year.

The drying shed filled to the brim with garlic.

The garlic is all in the drying shed.  We'll start cleaning it next week.  I just rototilled a lot of ground yesterday, prepping for more salad successions (only 2 more for the season!) and for cover crop.  We planted lots of greens and herbs this morning and are doing an 80 pound greens harvest tomorrow!

Shannon keeps her seeds organized and safe from the rain and sun in a file box. Genius!

Shannon spreads nitrogen-rich fertilizer by hand onto a long bed.



Shannon skillfully seeds a bed with yet another succession of salad greens.



Looking forward to making pesto soon.  We'll have lots of basil starting next week.  If any of you would like to order a pound or two, call me.  I'll try to figure out a recipe for pesto that uses a 1 lb of basil ratio.  A pound of basil looks like a gallon of milk, regarding size of bag.  When making pesto, we just always improvise the ingredients into the food processor. . .  oh yah!  I made a yummy strawberry/raw ginger/fennel bulb smoothie yesterday, with ice cubes, rice milk, a dash of lime and agave nectar.  Yum!  Try it, you might like it!!!  It's so worth it to motivate and follow through on one's food ideas, with all this delicious seasonal food at our foot tips---root tips---finger tips.

Best to you all!  ~~shannon

Week 12: First tomatoes of the season!

This week's box:  1 med or 2 small fennel bulb, 2 fresh garlic bulbs and a little bag of basil or cilantro – all from 8^th Street.  The beet bunch, slicing tomato and walla walla onion is all from Yonder Farm.  The PF Flyer peaches, an early variety and the first of J.C.'s peach crop, are all from Filaree Fruit.  Normally the Okanogan is well into peach harvest by now, but judging by how packed Omak Lake was yesterday, we just finally got a heat wave. Although, now it's thunder and pouring out. . .!  Fruit Option:  a pint (2 shells) of blueberries from Bunny Laine – those big, fat sweet berries have been so refreshing. After being in the sun for several hours, I sit for paperwork and shove handfuls into my mouth, then get full fruit belly, don't need any other food for a while, and praise the beauty of blueberries!  A pint of strawberries from 8^th Street, and 2 lbs. of peaches from Filaree Fruit.

Chris Deveraux polishes a perfect slicing tomato at Yonder Farm.

A new (old style) wheel hoe rests outside one of four greenhouses full of ripening tomatoes at Yonder Farm. 

A moment we've been waiting for. . .   fennel bulb! ! !  Hah!  It's actually been a nice fennel bulb season, with less heat and more time to absorb water.  Fennel is usually a fall crop, like Chinese Cabbage, but we grow them in the spring around here.  By this time of year, it's typically been harvested because of bolting.  It still hasn't grown like I see in the stores, but it sure tastes good.  My kids love its sweet, refreshing, licorice flavor!

Fennel bulbs!

Carrot, Fennel, and Orange Soup

Gourmet  April 1996    

 yield: Makes about 8 cups

Ingredients: 

1 med.  fennel bulb, stalks trimmed flush with bulb, bulb sliced thin crosswise

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds carrots, sliced thin (about 4 cups)

1 garlic clove, sliced thin

6 cups water

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/3 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup sour cream

Garnish: 1 tablespoon fresh chervil leaves or fennel fronds

Preparation: 

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook fennel bulb in butter over moderate heat, stirring, until softened and beginning to turn golden. Add carrots and garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add water and salt and simmer, covered, 20 minutes, or until carrots are very tender.

In a blender purée mixture in batches with orange juice, sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste until smooth, transferring to another heavy saucepan. Heat soup, stirring, just until heated through (do not let boil).

Serve soup garnished with chervil leaves or fennel fronds.

(Scroll down for Chicken and Fennel Salad Sandwich)

Chris Deveraux cheerfully cleans Walla Walla onions on Yonder Farm.

Fresh Walla Walla onions from Yonder Farm.

We're finally getting caught up with the weeds here at 8^th Street Greens.  Thanks to all the weeding crew for their stamina and willingness to get it done!  I liked the little boombox blasting classics out in the field.  A fun change contrasting the modern-era of ipods.  I quit farming for 3 years, and upon re-entering the farm-worker world, discovered that ipods had become the norm!  There's a new view when observing helper friends out in the paths between crop beds:  wires hanging out their ears, ipod on hip or in pocket, and little conversation.  It took some adjustment for me, I confess, and I must talk louder when orchestrating, and then next time, they have just one wire hanging out one ear. 

It's a brave new world but we still got fennel bulb!  And worker-friends we appreciate!  

Thanks everybody!   ~~shannon

Tomato vines climb towards the trellised sky in a Yonder Farm greenhouse. 

Chicken and Fennel Salad Sandwiches

Gourmet  June 2006          

by Maggie Ruggiero

yield: Makes 12 servings          active time: 45 min           total time: 2 3/4 hr

Ingredients:  For the chickens:

3 whole chickens

4 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

For the dressing and sandwiches:

1 1/4 cups mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, toasted and cooled, then lightly crushed

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup chopped fresh basil

3cups chopped fennel bulb (sometimes called anise; from 2 to 3 medium bulbs, stalks discarded)

12 rolls or buns

Preparation:  Roast chickens:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.

Rinse chickens inside and out and pat dry. Stir together salt and pepper, then sprinkle over chickens inside and out. Put 1 tablespoon softened butter evenly under skin of each breast, then rub remaining tablespoon butter over skin of each. Arrange chickens in a 17- by 12-inch shallow heavy baking pan and roast, switching position of chickens and rotating pan halfway through roasting to help cook evenly, until thermometer inserted into fleshy part of each thigh (do not touch bone) registers 170°F, about 1 hour. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Discard skin and bones from chickens, then coarsely shred meat and transfer to a large bowl.

Make dressing and assemble sandwiches:

Stir together mayonnaise, yogurt, zest, lemon juice, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, and basil, then pour over chicken in bowl. Add chopped fennel and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chicken salad in rolls or your favorite bread.

Cooks' note:

Chicken salad, without basil, can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Stir in basil before serving.

Week 11: The Okanogan Bakery

Thomas and Joelle load up the Okanogan Bakery bicycle with fresh loaves of bread.

Hello everybody! Here we are with our 11^th box, almost half way through the CSA season! I just rototilled more old greens into the soil, prepping for a few more successions of salad plantings. The bees and beneficial insects love the nectar of the mustards and bok choys. I consider the bolted/flowering food crops as an insectary, attracting the beneficials. It feels good to clean up the fields and to break down the tall plants which allows the sprinklers to reach the other plants rather than them being blocked, but it's also sad to see happy bees getting food in the bright beautiful flowers and then my monster tractor comes along, trampling it all away. But there are succession plots of bolted greens going into flower, and the insects will find them!

Fresh loaves of bread from the Okanogan Bakery sit cooling on a rack.

Joelle adds eggs to her chocolate chip cookie dough.

Full share box (photo by Shannon Gilbert)

Half share box (photo by Shannon Gilbert

This week's box has red cabbage (~2 lb heads), the last of the sugar snap peas, and fresh carrots – all from Yonder Farm. The salad and mini bundles of dill are from 8^th Street Greens. The Tomcot Apricots are an early variety from Leaping Sheep Farm, certified organic. They are small and may need to ripen on your counter. I only got you a ½ lb each of apricots because the cabbage turned out to be big, not small as expected, and I think we will have apricots twice this year, not just once as in the past. More apricots are ripening in the orchards, they are about a week or two slower than usual. The fruit shares get apricots, Rainier cherries (cert. OG from Bartella's Orchard) and some blueberries. How about that Maple Leaf wrapped cheese from Larkaven last week? Yum! And the Ciabatta bread from Okanogan Bakery? I don't know what we'll get until they give it to me, so I don't write about it in the newsletter ahead of time. Joelle at the Bakery said that Ciabatta bread is good for dipping, I thought it would be good with hummus, greens, olives and slices of fresh garlic. Should I put fresh garlic in the boxes next week? I'm so sorry you didn't all get new potatoes in your boxes last week. I was really disappointed but couldn't fix the problem. . . so, oh well. You got extra cherries instead!

Apricots, blueberries, and cherries! (photo by Shannon Gilbert)

This week you get the Okanogan Multigrain loaf in your CSA box.

Peppercorn, Mustard and Dill Vinegar

Bon Appétit 

December 1997 

yield: Makes about 3 ½ C.

Typical Danish ingredients are featured in this easy-to-make condiment; it would be wonderful incorporated into a vinaigrette for cold poached salmon.

Ingredients: 3 cups white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

1 tablespoon whole allspice

1 tablespoon white peppercorns

1 teaspoon dill seeds

3 bay leaves

2 lemon slices, halved

1 medium bunch fresh dill sprigs

Preparation: Place first 5 ingredients in 1-quart jar. Add bay leaves, lemon slices and dill sprigs. Place lid on jar; seal. Store in cool dry place at least 1 and up to 6 weeks.

This infused vinegar sounds really good to me, and versatile. Speaking of vinegar, I have 3 boxes of scapes that would like to be pickled. I also have garlic, dill and grape leaves. Would one of you like to can them? I would trade you the ingredients in exchange for 1/3 of the jars. We love pickled scapes, in a simple salt brine (not pickling spice). Our 3 year old daughter Iris eats them up! Maybe one of you would like to buy a box of scapes to pickle for yourself?!!! Hoping you're all doing well. . . Shannon

Joelle shows off her amazing muscles (!) that she earned from stirring dough and kneading bread.