This Saturday, October 5 from 9am to noon we will be hosting our annual Friends and Neighbors Appreciation Sale.  This is your final chance to stock up on veggies for the fall and winter and have a look around the farm.  Come pick up pumpkins, squash, onions, potatoes, leeks, carrots, cabbage, beets and more.  All of these crops will store for several months, allowing you to savor the taste of summer well into the long dark winter.  Stop by for some hot cider and to take home a box of goodness.  Cash or checks gladly accepted.

Now is the time to stock up on green beans for all your canning and freezing needs! Pickled beans (dillys!)!  Frozen green beans! Pressure canned green beans! A little bit of late summer to pull out of your freezer or pantry in the middle of winter! $2 a pound.  Call or text the farmer for pickup – 360.338.8654

Now is the time to stock up on green beans for all your canning and freezing needs! Pickled beans (dillys!)!  Frozen green beans! Pressure canned green beans! A little bit of late summer to pull out of your freezer or pantry in the middle of winter! $2 a pound.  Call or text the farmer for pickup – 360.338.8654

A hunk of bread, a bottle of wine, and this salad take you to the south of France 🙂 We eat this late summer, when the potatoes and green beans come in. 

Vinagrette
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp red wine vineger
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt, pepper
3/4 cup olive oil

Whisk all but oil until blended. Add oil while whisking. Let stand 30 minutes. Discard garlic.

Salad
1lb small potatoes
4 eggs
1/2lb green beans
1 head lettuce, torn
1 red or green pepper, ringed
1/2 cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 med cucumber, peeled and sliced
12 oz tuna (2 cans)
3/4 cup Nicoise or other brined olives
1 scallion, chopped
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp capers

-Place potatoes in a pot with water to cover.  Bring to boil, add salt to taste. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes. When tender, drain, cool slightly and coat lightly with vinagrette. Season with salt and pepper, set aside.
-Cover eggs with water, bring to full boil. After 1 minute, cover and turn off heat. Let stand 6 minutes. Rinse, transfer to ice bath. When cool, peel.
-Blanch green beans in salted water to crisp tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain, rinse and transfer to an ice bath.
-Arrange lettuce in the middle of a large platter. Arrange the potatoes in the middle, surrounded by green beans.
– Place the peppers, tomatoes, cucmbers, tuna, sliced eggs and olives in small piles across from each other (look for balance)
– Sprinkle with scallions, parsley,and capers. Drizzle with vinagrette, and serve remainder alongside.

Enjoy!

With a fancy paper husk and hard, shiny green fruit, the tomatillo is a staple in Mexican cuisine. We typically use them for salsa, and just recently canned a bunch for winter. But we’re stepping up our tomatillo game, and so should you! Bon Appetit has a collection of 27 tomatillo recipes online to get us started on different uses for this sweet/sour fruit. The tomatillo/cucumber gazpacho is calling to us, and CSA members have both in their box this week. Enjoy!

One of the great culinary joys of summer on the farm is the arrival of tomatoes. From now until the plants cease producing, we eat them at every meal. A thick slice of juicy tomato on a bagel with cream cheese is a breakfast I dream about all year.

Sticking with the theme of bread, this week we offer Panzanella, or rustic bread salad.. Lots of cultures have devised ways to use leftover bread – French toast, bread pudding – and this one from Italy is a savory side dish or main course if you add cheese chunks or some type of protein. This only works when tomatoes are at their peak.

You can find lots of recipes on the Internet for bread salad. Some are more complex, with cucumbers and peppers or capers. Dress it up or down as you wish. Note: Bread salad does NOT make good leftovers as tomatoes suffer the minute they are put in the fridge. So make only as much as you need. For the following version, you need day-old bread (baguette or something with a crust), juicy heirloom or slicing tomatoes (you can add halved cherry tomatoes), onion, basil, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Cube your bread. If it’s very soft, pop in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes or so until crisp but not browned. Put in a bowl, Chop your tomatoes into chunks and your onion into slivers and add to the bowl.  You should have about the same amount of tomatoes as bread or slightly less. Toss.  Add olive oil. Toss. Add red wine vinegar. Toss, Salt and pepper. Toss. Chopped basil. Toss.  Let sit 1/2 hour for flavors to meld. Test seasoning. Enjoy!

Join us Tuesday, July 30, 5:30-7:30pm

Once a year, we host an event for a local candidate for office who we think you should meet. Join us for food, music, beverages, camaraderie, and the opportunity to learn more about Helen Wheatley’s vision for the Port of Olympia.

What to do with a surplus of flowers? Brighten someone’s day, of course! Building Manager Aubrey was more than willing to round up a bunch of containers so seniors at the SHAG Apartments could make bouquets to bring a little summer into their homes.

Now’s the time to put up pesto for the winter or make a big batch for your next summer potluck! $16lb – contact the farmer in advance – 360.338.8654 to arrange pickup.

If you are so lucky, there comes a point in the farming season, where you are overrun with one type of produce, or many!

Recently it was snap peas that needed to go into the freezer. So I turned on the oven and got to work. Wait. The OVEN?!?

You bet! We’ve found that a blast of heat – 475 for 5 minutes – does the same job as blanching, and the results are so much better!

Traditionally, vegetables destined for the freezer are blanched (dropped for a minute or two in boiling water) transferred to an ice bath and then the freezer. This is to kill bacteria on the outside that could lead to spoilage. Only thing is, the veggies are so waterlogged by the process that they have no snap left once you dig them out of the freezer to eat them. And they also lose their nutritional value. Yuck.

The oven blasted veggies, by comparison are still crisp when thawed. And it works for most any vegetable!

Prep your veggies, toss with a little olive oil, spread one layer thick on your cookie sheets, and bake at 475 for 5 minutes. Let cool to room temp, throw them in freezer bags (marked so you don’t grab peas when you wanted beans!), and put them in your freezer.  It really is that simple!