Week 7
It's HOT, HOT, HOT!
Hello again,
Hope you all are finding fun and effective ways to beat the heat. This summer is shaping up to be quite the scorcher. We just made some milkshakes with vanilla ice cream and a dollop of Nutella. Pretty decadent, but oh so good. Everything's thirsty, and a nice, grey, rainy day would be a real blessing right now. The irrigation is running every day at the farm right now, and luckily they have a nice, deep, strong well which is making it possible to keep things growing.
Your bags this week:
Red pearl onions
Salad mix
Snow peas
Sugar snap peas
Basil bouquet
(with lemon, cinnamon, red and/or speckled basil)
Beet greens
Andrew (my husband) and I had some of the basil the other night. I made up some fresh pesto (see below) - easy with a simple food processor - while he caramelized some onions with a (tofu) Italian sausage. We tossed it all with spaghetti, and it was really good. I make pesto with basil leaves, olive oil, walnuts (a poor man's pine nuts :>) garlic and Parmesan cheese. Actually, we didn't have any Parmesan, and it was good without it, too.
from Your Secret INGREDIENT (blogspot)
yields 4 cups
½ cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
5 cups fresh basil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ cups extra virgin olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Put all ingredients except olive oil in a blender or food processor.
Process for 30 seconds. Add oil a little at a time and blend again until combined.
Don’t have a food processor? Just use a really sharp knife to chop everything and then combine with cheese and oil.
If freezing, add a small layer of oil on top prior to putting into the freezer.
BEET GREENS
If you're not sure what to do with beet greens, you can treat them like spinach or Swiss chard or any of the other greens. It is also nice mixed in with salads or cooked up lightly (less cooking is more with greens) with some red wine vinegar or vinaigrette splashed on top.
VEGGIE CARE
One more word - the heat these days is especially bad for delicate vegetables after they've been harvested. We work very, very hard to cut the veggies as quickly as possible, rush them to a sink of cold water to cool them off and revive any that succumbed to wilting, spin them, weigh them, pack them in bags and then run them down to the walk-in cooler before they have any second thoughts. When you pick them up, we pass the baton to you, so the sooner you can get them home and into the fridge, the nicer your veggies will be when you're ready to eat them. Thanks for taking part and for experiencing this season with us. With farming, you never know what might happen and it's great to have customers who are willing to ride the ups and downs with us.
Be well and keep cool!
Sarah VanNorstrand
for Lucky Moon Farm