The week (and weeks to come) of the Japanese Beetles!  NOT a nice bug!  I’m certainly not bug squeamish, but these buggers hang out on what looks like the best peach (and more than likely is) on the tree and when you go to grab it, buzzing and flying beetles everywhere.  I do squeal a little!  Anyway, as you may have figured out we have peaches in this weeks shares.  While these are my favorite peaches for eating, they are great grilled or made into a cobbler or crisp.  Also Asian Pears.  Wait for these round fruits to become a bit yellow for best flavor.   Most pears drop before ripe and have to picked in a green stage.  You’ll also find Glenora grapes, fingerling potatoes, cucumbers, basil, garlic chives, microgreens, arugula, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, bell pepper shallots and some other finds.  This week we have put the produce in boxed flats so the peaches don’t get bumped and bruised.  If you take a box, please, please, please return as soon as possible.  We use these all the time!

 

Bread… Oh how I LOVE bread. If I had the option, I would probably eat an entire loaf everyday by myself. It is such a comfort food, just to grab a slice here and there, make a sandwich, a piece of toast, grilled cheese.  talk about carb overload. So while I was browsing through my fridge for a quick snack of somekind before dinner. I happened to look in my veggie drawer, there was a cucumber just waiting to be used. my hungry brain monster (that sounds a lot like cookie monster thanks to my little boy) was like “Mmmm crunchy…but me no want plain crunchy, me want other things with it.” and yes your mind did just read that in a cookie monster voice. So I give you the guilt free before dinner snack.

• 1 cucumber
• your choice of cheese
• your choice of lunch meat
• match stick carrots (optional)
• avocado (optional)
• thick ranch dressing (optional)
• anthing else you like on a sandwich (optional)

take the cucumber, and using a vegetable peeler shave off thin layers that you can roll all your goodies up into. Lay out your cucumber shavings on a piece of parchment paper side by side. layer a piece of lunch meat, a little bit of homemade ranch dip, a thin slice of cheese, some avacado finely diiced, and three carrot sticks. plus anything else you might want. (just remember you still have to roll it up so dont go overboard). now comes the tricky part, roll everything as tightly as you can. stick toothpicks into the ends of each cucumber and all the way through to the other side to hold together. using a sharp knife slice apart each cucumber into individual roll ups. enjoy your guilt free snack.

We are now halfway through our summer share season.  This week we have cucumbers, squash, basil, green onions (scallions), garlic, bagel peaches, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, kale, bell peppers, strawberries and carrots.

If you aren’t sure what to do with kale, we will post a few ideas this week.  Remember!   Kale is a super-food!  You can always juice it, or kale chips can be made very quickly and easily with great diversity.

Our beans are slow coming, but we think in just a few more weeks they will be ready for pickin’.  Saturn peaches next week.  Think peach crisp, peaches and cream, peach ice cream or whatever floats you peach!  There will be peaches for weeks to come, so we really hope you LOVE peaches.  White peaches will ripen after the yellow hued Saturn peach.  Also we are seeing Asian pears in the near future!

Extra eggs again this week if anyone wants them.

See ya’ll later today!

I just tried this recipe last night and really really liked it. I may even replace my traditional lasagna recipe with this. Not to mention, I get to use more of my fresh garden tomatoes in another fun kitchen experiment. I loved that it was more portion controlled and easier to serve up too.

Alright to start off you will need

• 8 lasagna noodles
• 14 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese finely shredded
• 1 cup of ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
• 1 large egg white
• 1/3 cup of fresh parmesan cheese
• fresh ground pepper
• 3-4 paste tomatoes thinly sliced (1/16 inch)
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil
• 1 cup of marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese and egg white until well blended. Stir in parmesan cheese, then mix in 12 oz of mozzarella cheese. Season with freshly ground pepper to taste. Set a side. Cook noodles according to package until al denta. drain but DO NOT RINSE WITH WATER! lay out on a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper when cool enough to handle. Spread about 1/4 of cheese mixture evenly over the entire length of noodle. layer with 4-5 slices of tomato and sprinkle with chopped basil. roll tightly and place seam side down in 11×7 baking dish with 1/4 cup of marinara sauce spread in the bottom. cover roll ups with remaining marinara sauce so noodles dont dry out during baking. sprinkle with remaining 2 oz of mozzarella cheese and bake for 30 minutes. garnish with basil ribbons and serve hot.

note ; you can also make this a more traditional lasagna by adding a meat.

Another full and tasty week.  Apricots!  We love the sweet/tart taste of apricots and sadly this will be the last week for them in our shares, so enjoy while they last!  We have a delightful apricot tart recipe you may want to try and we will post later this week.  Bagel Peaches are starting to soften and the birds are like an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  It’s a little scary out there!  But, by the end of the day we should have them covered and protected ~ The peaches, not the birds! These tender babies need to be picked a bit firm, so let them become slightly softened on the counter for a day or two for best flavor.  They do bruise easily so be very gentle when picking up today and place them on the top of your transfer basket or they will surely squish!  

We are also hoping for an abundant picking of tomatillos.  These have a paper-like husk on them that need to be removed.  Use these in salad dressings, salsas or roast them with other veggies.  Heirloom tomatoes are starting to ripen.  These are amazing and I think are best raw!  But, who is to say.  Please!  Don’t waste these!  Some years they produce great and others not so great.  So treat them like gold, because they are!  If you happen to get a creamy white tomato (see picture above), it is ripe!  And yes, they taste like a tomato!  We will add more garlic and some lavender this week so you can try the lavender garlic paste Kira listed earlier.  This is amazing with carrots, but any cooked vegetable can be used.  Squash will more than likely once again be in your findings.  Get creative!  Look for ~ Cucumber, green onions  pepper, greens of one type or another and basil. 

Baskets will be early this week due the holiday.  So we should be finished by noon.

~Stay cool and stay hydrated!   See ya’ll later today!

For a paste that adds the essence of the summertime in the Mediterranean to any dish, try this easy flavor spike. 

In a mortar and pestle, or in a blender, mash together 3 Tablespoons dried organic lavender buds, 3 fresh garlic cloves, 1 piece of candied ginger and 1 2inch cinnamon stick. Use fresh or freeze in an ice cube tray. 

Uses as a flavor hit for stir-fried vegetables, mashed or puréed vegetables and rice, pasta or whole grain dishes.

If you came to our garlic braiding class we had a sample of this on a dish of oven baked carrots drizzled with butter.

This grown-up take on childhood treat would make a perfect party starter!

note: (Ancho chili powder, spicy and smoky can be found on the supermarket spice shelf )

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup of dried currants and 2 Tablespoons of Scotch Whiskey and let stand for 30 minutes, or until the currants have softened and absorbed the Scotch. in the mean time in another small bowl, with an electric mixer, beat 1 log (4 ounces) of soft goat cheese until smooth. Beat in 2 Tablespoons of mango chutney (finely chopped), 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.

Fit a pastry bag with a decorative tip and fill with the cheese mixture ,pipe the cheese mixture into 3 inch lengths of celery and sprinkle with currants and 1/4 cup of toasted, coarsely chopped pecans, pressing to adhere.

 The staples of summer produce!  This week we have golden plums, Chinese apricots, tomatoes, basil, greens, cucumber, garlic, summer squash, celery and mingle of another veggie.

Looks like the girls added ~ ONE bagel peach!  okay, so that is only a tiny taste, but they couldn’t wait till we had a bunch of ripe peaches.  These little treats will be found in your baskets next week.  They are very tender and sweet.  You will love them!

Throughout the summer months we will do our best to give you greens of one kind or another.  these are great in stir fries, green smoothies or chopped in salads.  Basil is also great added to green smoothies and we should seeing this in the baskets every few weeks.