Week 10 Lists

Week 10 -- not quite halfway through the season.  And the new additions for the week are pointing us towards the full summer produce.  The spinach, scapes, and lettuces are on the way out as they all start to bolt in the heat.  In come the first of the zucchini, stone fruit (cherries this week), green beans, summer squash, and beets.

Before we get rolling, I wanted to mention how the farm manages the harvests so that we are all on the same page for what we're seeing in our boxes vs. what we might see on the table at the market.  On Monday morning, David goes to the fields and orchards and tries to estimate what will be ripe enough and plentiful enough through the week for the CSA boxes.  Will the romaine lettuce have enough heads to supply the roughly 100 small shares on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday?  What about the rhubarb -- is there only enough for the handful of large shares?  It gets too complicated to manage things in separate weeks, giving it to Wednesday and Friday this week and remembering that Monday needs it next.  And anything that doesn't make the cut at the start of the week but is coming up ripe towards the end of the week needs to be harvested regardless.  That is why you'll see things on the table at the farmer's market that just didn't make it into the share during the week.  Chances are more than good that you'll be seeing it come the next week.

It is also worth noting that produce like fruit orchards are drastically affected by very localized weather and microclimates.  One side of a valley can get a one-night frost that kills all the cherry blossoms where the other side gets a full crop.  A hail storm can pass over a mile wide swath just as the green apricots are starting to grow.  Some summers are luckier than others, and some farms are large enough that when they lose a cherry harvest in one orchard, the others can pick up the slack.

Every farm grows (or grows and trades for) a different mix of vegetables, each in their own microclimate.

SMALL
garlic scapes (last week)
red romaine
green romaine
deer tongue lettuce
spring onion
zucchini
strawberries
oregano
spinach
garlic (fresh heads, can be dried)
cherries

MEDIUM
blue kale
amaranth
microgreens
sugar snap peas

LARGE
yellow snow peas
micro chervil
microgreens
green beans
golden squash (either yellow zucc or crookneck, depending)
baby bok choy
young spaghetti squash
beets
iceberg lettuce
extra cherries


COMING IN THE NEXT THREE WEEKS
cucumbers
tomatoes
lots of peaches
apricots
loads more summer squash


Garlic
These heads of garlic are more mature than the young items we've received so far.  If you're going to eat them right away, wash them, peel off the outermost layer, and stick them in the fridge.  Peel and use as normal garlic.  If you'd like, you can hang them in a warm window or a shaded porch to dry.  They'll form the usual papery skin and will store for several months.

Scapes and Lettuce
This is the end of the scapes and the lettuce.  The lettuce is bolting at younger and younger ages, meaning it starts to go to see.  As soon as it grows seed stalks, the leaves get bitter and tough.  Lettuce is a cooler weather crop.  There might be a little come the late fall -- especially if David launches the winter CSA as planned.

Cherries
I would tell you what to do with the cherries, but I defy you to keep them around longer than it takes you to store the rest of your veg.  If they are still there after that, put them in loose plastic as they came in the fridge -- no special treatment needed.

Beets
(I can't resist... Woot!  Beets mean summer!)  Only in the large share this week, but everyone should be seeing them soon - they grow really well in Utah (Sugarhouse is named for sugar beet production, afterall).  Cut off the tops, put the greens in loose plastic in the crisper and the beets themselves loose into the crisper.  The greens are fantastic treated like chard -- sauteed in garlic and olive oil.  The roots are great wrapped in foil and roasted until tender OR shredded raw over a salad (or as a salad with shredded carrots).

Green Beans
Store them as delivered in the bottom of your fridge until you're ready to use them.  Recipes for green beans are ubiquitous, but I'll try to find a few that go well with the squeaky fresh version (as opposed to canned).