We are thankful for the beautiful weather this past week that made farm work more enjoyable! Our family and CSA volunteers harvested new potatoes and the remainder of the onions this weekend so CSA members will get to enjoy those items in their CSA shares. Here’s the list of items found in this week’s share: Bok Choy, Green beans, New Potatoes, Candy Onions, Zucchini/ Yellow squash, Tomatoes, Sweet Pepper. Full shares will also enjoy one more additional item (probably lettuce or kale), not pictured.
Bok Choy: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Here is a favorite recipe for bok choy: Bok Choy in Garlic Sauce. Cooked Bok Choy can be added to fried rice. Bok Choy can also be cooked and used inside egg rolls (I just followed the instructions on the back of the package of egg roll wrappers).
Green beans: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. The green beans are a little thicker this week, so will need to be cooked longer. Basic cooking instructions: trim the stem end off and leave beans whole or snap into shorter pieces. Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, add beans, and boil about 5 minutes, until tender- crisp. Drain beans very well (if you will be finishing the beans later, cool the bean beans to prevent further cooking). Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet (about 1 T each, can be increased or decreased to taste) over medium heat, add beans and salt and pepper to taste, and stir until tender, toward the end of cooking add 1 or 2 cloves garlic (chopped) if desired. Additions: onions (cooked in the oil/ butter before adding beans), toasted slivered almonds, stirred into the beans after cooking. To preserve: blanch in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, drain, cool in ice water, drain and pack in freezer bags and freeze.
New Potatoes: Store at cool room temperature, out of direct sunlight. New potatoes are most commonly boiled or roasted, and are normally cooked with their skin on. Basic cooking instructions (boil method): Wash potatoes and cut into uniform sized pieces (or leave smaller potatoes whole). Cover with cold water by 2 inches, add plenty of salt, bring to a boil and cook until just tender. Drain potatoes and top with melted butter and chopped herbs (such as parsley or rosemary). In addition to the boil method, new potatoes can be roasted, like this recipe for Roasted Potatoes.
Candy Onions: Store at cool room temperature. These candy onions turn very sweet when sautéed or caramelized.
Tomato: Storage: Do NOT refrigerate, because cold temperatures (below 55) hurt the flavor of tomatoes, instead store at cool room temperature out of direct sunlight.
Zucchini/ summer squash: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Zucchini is great, sauteed, grilled, eaten raw, or baked into zucchini bread (my kids favorite way to eat zucchini!). Zucchini (sliced and broiled or pan fried) can take the place of pasta in lasagna. To grill: slice on the bias (diagonal, so the slices are larger) about 1/4″ thick, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and herbs of your choice, I use a rosemary garlic mix) and mix well to thoroughly coat the slices, and grill until tender. If you want more ideas, you can try Baked Zucchini Fries, or Zucchini Fritters or Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Sweet pepper: Store in plastic bag, in refrigerator.