| Last Week's Farm report |
|
| Rainfall | 0.35" |
| High temp | 85° |
| Low temp | 52° |
| Soil condition | Dry |
| Weed pressure | Medium |
| Delivered last week | 1,365 lbs. of vegetables |
| Fridge? | Bag? | Notes & Varieties | |
| Cucumbers | Yes | Plastic | |
| Eggplant | Yes | Plastic | Globe and Japanese |
| Green Beans | Yes | Plastic | Various |
| Kale | Yes | Plastic | Lacinato |
| Onions, Dry | No | No | Yellow, Red and White |
| Peppers | Yes | Plastic | Green Bell |
| Sweet Corn | Yes | Plastic | Temptation or Ambrosia |
| Tomatoes | No | No | Reds and maybe an heirloom |
| Yellow Squash | Yes | Plastic | |
| Zucchini | Yes | Plastic |
The eggplant is doing nicely despite the cooler weather so I thought we’d highlight it this week in case you’re dropping behind on it.
Eggplant is one of the vegetables I grow which is not a personal favorite of mine, usually about one meal of it a year is enough for me. But there are many who can’t have too much eggplant. The question remains, though, what do you do when you have too much eggplant? The answer in our house is cook the heck out of it and make eggplant puree or Baba Ganouj, recipes are at the end of the newsletter.
One curious thing about the eggplant is that it’s the only vegetable in the nightshade family which didn’t originate in the New World. Potatoes, tomatoes and peppers all originated in the Americas, and are closely related to the eggplant. But for some odd reason eggplants first show up in 4th and 5th century B.C. China. A horticultural mystery which is waiting to be solved.
The name eggplant is derived from early versions of the fruit which were small, white and egg-shaped, although the U.S. is really the only country to use that name, most of Europe calls them aubergines. So if you want to get fancy at dinner make some aubergine parmesan.
We’ve begun picking the last succession of cukes and zukes since the old ones were at the end of their useful lives. The new ones should hold out until frost, but their production will slow down as it cools off.
The green beans you get this week may be any of the three varieties. If you get the flat romano-type it tends to be a little tougher and require more cooking, but it has very good flavor.
Since it’s been such great weather for kale I thought I’d put some in the box. This is the Lacinato kale, also known as black kale, tuscano kale, dinosaur kale, etc. This is our favorite kind of kale to cook. As always, remove the central ribs before cooking.
Onions and peppers are in the box again this week. Green peppers are doing fine, but it’s a tough year for coaxing them to turn red. A green pepper is merely an immature red one, much like an apple or a tomato. I do think we may have a hot pepper or two in the box in the not too distant future.
The sweet corn this week could be one of the two varieties listed above. The ears are a little small this year but I think it makes them easier to cook. This is nice fresh tender corn and shouldn’t be cooked long. I bring the water to a boil, add 8 or 9 ears of corn and when the water gets back to boiling they’re done, usually 3-4 minutes. A corn soup recipe follows for those of you who don’t live for corn on the cob.
The tomatoes are starting to pick up speed. Some larger ones are starting to ripen and they’re not all from the very bottom of the plant which is why some of them last week were a bit ugly. There are also a few heirlooms coming, if you get a large dark pink one it’s a prudence purple and there are also some of an heirloom beefsteak type called Costoluto Fiorentino, they’re flatter and softer than the other red ones. Also some of you may get some sungold cherry tomatoes. I planted the cherries with getting some early in mind, but this year all of that planning was thrown out. The weather pattern is looking good for continued tomato ripening, but start collecting green tomato recipes because I just can’t imagine all of the green tomatoes out there getting ripe before frost. There’s well over a thousand pounds of green tomatoes out there.
The first thing I wanted to alert everyone to is that we will still be having a field day on Labor Day, just not doing the tomato canning. If you want to help in the field a bit come at 10 or 11 and if you just want to come for a picnic come at 1pm. We’ll have the grill fired up and some brats (the sausage not the offspring). Bring your own picnic or something to share. We’ll work for a couple of hours in the morning and have a leisurely lunch at 1. RSVP to my email if you have time, but don’t worry if you don’t. Just show up. Our next field day is the pumpkin patch day and it looks like we should have a nice supply of pumpkins of different shapes and sizes. Mark those calendars for Sunday, October 3rd.
On the powdery mildew front, the weather last week was great for mildew and not so great for battling mildew. We had some clouds and fog and a daily threat of rain. It looks like this week will be a better week for making a dent in it. In any case the more I walk through there when I’m working on the mildew, the more I see that there really is a pretty decent crop of squash already so I’m not as concerned as I was a couple of weeks ago.
Have a great week.
nbsp; -David Van Eeckhout
Place the oil and butter in a pot over low heat. Add the diced onion and wilt for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onion; cook, stirring, for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Add the broth and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, partially covered, for 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally.
Add the corn, red and green bell peppers, salt, pepper, and half-and-half; cook over low heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle 2 cups of soup into each bowl. Before serving, place 1 tablespoon of diced tomatoes in the center of each and top generously with slivered basil. Serve immediately.
Preheat the oven to 425 and slash the skin of the eggplant in a couple of places so they don’t explode. Roast them in the oven until wrinkled, black and mushy, about an hour for the large one and 45 minutes for the medium. Alternately you can roast them on the grill until nice and charred and soft. Let the eggplant cool and discard any juices they release. Peel the eggplant and combine with the garlic, tahini, lemon juice and salt in a food processor. Process until combined but not too smooth. Serve drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with the parsley. Great on bread, crackers, as a dip, etc. Leave out the tahini and chop the ingredients together by hand and you have a tasty Mediterranean eggplant puree.
