Author: GTF Office

CSA Newsletter – Week 9

Melons – the Queens of Cucurbidaceae

We can’t believe it’s already week nine! You’ve got a fully-packed August box this week, complete with sweet corn, tomatillos, melons!, sweet bell peppers, and so much more. As always, I like to notice when we have multiple members of a plant family present in one box, and though Solanaceae may be the leading star of summer, including such gems as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, ground cherries, and tomatillos, Cucurbidaceae, home to melons, cucumbers, and squash, comes in at a close second.

Winter squash is beyond amazing, so dense and filling. Cucumbers are so refreshing, so crisp and full of sweet, summer life like nature’s water filter. Summer squash are so tender and buttery, so versatile in cakes or on the grill. But, as much as I believe in vegetable equality, let’s be real, melons are the best! Melons mean summer! You don’t do anything to them except impatiently wait for your body to slice them up so that you can finally devour the sweet fruit waiting inside. No cooking. No prep. They’re just perfect. They woke up like that.

This is the side of melons that most people enjoy—the tasty part. Here at the farm, we’re lucky to get to enjoy an entirely different aspect of what it is to bring melons into existence—the fun part!

For those of you who have driven past our farm during melon season, you may have seen the joy that is melon tossing. First, our select melon whisperers go out and harvest all the melons that are perfectly ripe, gently picking each one up for the first time. We’re all used to having to try to tap out a tune on melons at the grocery store in fear of buying a bland one, but at the farm our melon whisperers tap out a melody for us that only the most perfect melons sing. They stack the ripe melons in piles to await the toss.

Because our melons are picked ripe and full of sugar, they are quite fragile to transport. It is for this reason that we take as many as eight people out to a field, we stand in a line from the melon rows to the flatbed truck lined with bins, and we toss melons from one end to the other for hours.

The melon gets touched for its second time when pulled from the ripe pile and tossed to the next person, and depending on how far the row is from the truck, another seven people might gently catch and then toss each precious orb. We all talk and laugh as we toss melons in the sun, a task that feels much more like play than work. From harvest to consumption, melons are so precious, thus they receive the utmost care. Only the best for the Queen of Cucurbits.

Best,
Laura Bennett

Table of Box Contents

• Melon!!!— August is officially here when melons come in. There isn’t yet enough of any one type to give you all the same kind, but Sally likes to make sure our beloved CSA customers are the first to enjoy our specialty items, so you will be receiving one of two types.
  • Charentais Cantaloupe— Charentais is a true French cantaloupe, sought after by chefs and foodies alike. It has an intensely sweet, floral flavor.
  • Honey Orange— Though these may look like a white dinosaur egg on the outside, they are bright orange inside! They have the texture of a honeydew with the extra sweet flavor and color of a cantaloupe.
• Sweet Bell Pepper— You’ll receive either a red, orange, or yellow sweet bell pepper this week.
• Serendipity Sweet Corn—We grow this variety for its high sugar content. We grow bicolor corn that is a mosaic of yellow & white kernels that makes for a particularly beautiful corn on the cob.
• Tomatillos— Tomatillos are more closely related to ground cherries than they are to tomatoes. Most people blanch them before blending them into a salsa verde, however they are quite versatile in other dishes.
• Yellow Potatoes—These potatoes are a buttery yellow all the way through, waxy and perfect for roasting, baking, or fried into hash browns.
• Jalapeno
• Sierra Blanca Superstar Onions
• Bunched Carrots
• Persian Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Mixed Summer Squash
• Lettuce Surprise
  

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Recipes

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Lemony Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumber and Feta

Adapted from Fork Knife Swoon:
http://www.forkknifeswoon.com/lemony-orzo-pasta-salad-with-cucumber-and-feta/ 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Dry Orzo Pasta
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil, or enough to lightly coat the pasta
• Juice and zest of 1 Lemon
• 1-2 Cucumbers, chopped
• 1 tbsp Fresh Mint, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Feta Cheese, crumbled
• Kosher Salt & Black Pepper to taste
• Recommended Addition: Tomatoes!

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the orzo al dente according to package directions (about 9 minutes). Drain the pasta, let cool for a couple of minutes, and toss with the olive oil, lemon juice and zest, cucumber, herbs and feta.

2. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve chilled or at room-temperature. Can be made up to a day in advance and kept in the refrigerator.

CSA Newsletter – Week 8

Beyond Nutrition- On Food, Flame, and Friends

Each of us has our own personal food history, the progression of our eating habits that changes throughout time. Currently, I cook almost all of my meals in a hole in the ground in the backyard, as strange as that seems in this country. I like to make whole-roasted vegetables to dip into salt and oil or aioli, maybe throw on a couple sausages, and throw together a salad. Simple, yet complex. But it’s more than the food itself, and it’s even more than the flame—what really nourishes me in these moments is how I get to hang out outside with my friends by the fire as day turns to night. My body and soul are so nourished by these meals in a way that nutrients alone cannot accomplish.

But this dreamy existence is not how my eating habits have always been. I grew up eating mostly processed foods, always at the couch and never at a table, and usually mealtime was a solo event. Food was good when it was affordable and gave you instant gratification, the reality of many that processed food capitalizes on. It was necessary to eat this way, but I didn’t feel like I was suffering for it at the time. On the contrary, I loved eating these foods as I watched tv. Many of us who value organic food have turned a cold shoulder to processed foods and television, but for me, I like to sprinkle them both into my mostly-organic lifestyle. Things are not always all good or all bad.

Food anthropologists who study the eating habits of consumers for food corporations have found that Americans increasingly prefer to eat alone over sharing meals with other people. Mostly, this is because people want autonomy with their food. It’s common now for each person in a household to eat a different food at mealtime, and to eat that meal by themselves. Even though I remember eating this way somewhat fondly, I can’t help but feel that eliminating the element of time and flame, as well as the social element from eating deprives us of something supremely nourishing that makes us human.

As someone who grew up eating food that lacked in physical nutrition as well as social nutrition, I so appreciate the good food that I now get to share with the people that I love. I often think about how privileged I am to have such good food from this farm, good friends from this farm, and to have a backyard and the time that it takes to cook with fire, especially when I only had access to an electric stove in an apartment for the majority of my life. And yet in so many other places in this world people are still cooking outside together with fire out of pure necessity. What is a privilege in this country is a necessary way of life in another, but in both places the simple act of cooking and eating together is one way that we can express our humanity despite all else.

Food can be so much more than the components outlined on a nutrition label. I don’t believe that a “healthy” diet consists solely of “healthy” food. For me, I strive for the following trifecta—mostly-healthy food, cooked simply over a flame, and enjoyed in loving company. But that’s just me. What makes you feel healthy? What makes you feel nourished? What makes you feel human?

Best, Laura Bennett

Table of Box Contents

• Purple Majesty Potatoes—These potatoes are a deep purple all the way through and have high antioxidant levels to show for it. I love roasting these whole, as their color seems to be best preserved this way compared to steaming or sautéing.
• Anaheim Peppers—Anaheim peppers can be quite spicy, much more than a poblano. This time of year they don’t have as much heat as they will later in the season when they start turning red.
• Bunched Beets w/ Greens
• Italian Parsley— We grow Peione Italian parsley, a Giant-of-Italy-type that has a strong, sweet flavor. I once had a parsley sorbet that completely changed how I felt about parsley. It really has a unique flavor, enjoy!
• Sierra Blanca Superstar Onions—These white bulb onions are the first fresh digs of the season as far as bulb onions go! They have a mild yet semi-sweet flavor, perfect for salads or fried into onion rings.
• Bunched Carrot
• Sweet Slice Cucumbers
• Heirloom Tomato
• Mixed Summer Squash—excellent grilled whole! All squash can be cooked similarly, however each type does have unique qualities.
• Green Leaf Lettuce—these heads of lettuce have large leaves, perfect for making wraps

Recipes