When the leeks come in, we know we’re in late summer headed toward fall. Normally the impetus for potato leek soup, but it feels too early. So behold the Bacon Leek Crustless Quiche! Flour adds body to the egg, and ditching the crust makes it an easy weeknight dinner with a side salad/veg of your choice. Even better with farm-fresh eggs! Ask the Farmer at pickup.
On the theme of bacon, you’ll find it also pairs well with the collards in your box this week – Kickin’ Collard Greens is a Farmer favorite.
Today’s recipe is a two-parter, but both steps are good cooking tips to know, in celebration of beets, which are in your box today.
First off, how to cook a beet? In keeping with our concern over nutrient loss, we prefer to roast instead of boil. Once your beets are cooked, you can keep them in the fridge for easy addition to salads or a side.
Today’s recipe is Chilled Beet Soup, which uses the carrots in today’s box as well. Note: I adapted this from a recipe that calls for two 15oz. cans of beets and their liquid, but didn’t measure the extra water I added. Use just enough to make a thick, smooth puree in the blender. The buttermilk will loosen it, but this is meant to be a thick soup. We served it with bread and cheese and a few leftover salads in the fridge.
Also, this is a turning point in the season when root veggies (those that grow underground) make their appearance. Also known as “keepers,” root veggies will keep for quite a while in your fridge. Here’s a primer on how to store them.
4 cups cooked, peeled, chopped beets 1 cup water 2 cups buttermilk Chopped fresh chives
Preparation Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over low heat. Add carrots and onion. Cover; cook until vegetables are just tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Add beets, vinegar, and water, cover and cook until vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes longer.
Let cool, and working in batches, purée veggie mix in the blender, adding up to one-half cup more water as needed. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in buttermilk. Season with salt and pepper. Chill until cold, about 3 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)
Corn is here! Foundation to civilizations, versatile enough to feed cows and power cars. And a sign of high summer. Fun fact: did you know that each silk thread in a corn tassel leads to one corn kernel? And that corn self pollinates? Quite amazing really.
As TJ shared in his newsletter, just-picked corn needs no embellishment, and is best barely boiled. If you’re feeling fancy or prefer to eat your corn cut from the cob, here’s a corn salad recipe which can be made mostly from your box. This comes from a longer list from Delish, which covers most any corn recipe you might want to try.
It’s still tomato season! And we have a few favorite recipes to share!
One reader sent in her favorite summer soup which looks delicious! We also independently found a quick tomato salad from Saveur that uses just two ingredients: tomatoes and Chili Crisp. The latter enjoys somewhat of a cult following these days, especially in our house (though we don’t read the label too closely).
Sent it to our son, who responded with an IG and a shout-out for the tip (affirming that we really are a family that loves good food). And finally, we have a CSA customer who loves zucchini and confirmed the deliciousness of the zucchini butter pasta recipe we sent out a few weeks ago.
Thanks for the tips! And keep enjoying this good food!
Tomatoes are in the house! While we love all summer vegetables equally, there is an undeniable star quality to farm tomatoes. The taste is just magical and unlike anything available in the grocery store. The quick reason why is that store tomatoes are selected to be shipped, and farm tomatoes are selected to be eaten. If you have some time when you pick up your box, the Farmer can wax on and on about it – just ask 🙂
And because they are so good, minimal prep is required: juicy slices on a bagel with cream cheese is one of our seasonal joys. Fat slices on a platter drizzled with olive oil and vinegar, sprinkled with salt and pepper is the perfect side to any meal. Cherry tomatoes paired either with cucumber or steamed green beans, some onion slices and vinaigrette are an easy salad.
Tonight we are enjoying the feta tomato pasta made famous on TikTok – yum! How are you using your tomatoes? Drop us a line and we’ll share!
Thank you CSA subscribers, in supporting our mid-season switch between our two passions: music and food! These past two weekends of music festivals altered our schedule a bit, but rest assured, we are back on track!
In the heat of summer, we crave fresh salads. In fact, for our first weekend festival, the Northwest String Summit, we packed our cooler with 5 different salads for easy camping meals that required no cooking at all! One of our favorites is Tabouli from the Moosewood Cookbook which includes the parsley, tomatoes and cucumbers in your box, to which we add feta cheese and kalamata olives.
The second weekend was FarmFest, which we hosted here on our farm. Still lots of fresh food prep, this time for the artists who graced our stage, and family and volunteers who made the whole event go swimmingly! A favorite dish was the quick pickles WOOFFer Cassie made to go along with the charcuterie table set up for snacks. Quick and easy, these pickles store about 2 months in your fridge (if they last that long!). The Kitchn has a primer for all kinds of pickles to perk up your summer meals.
Normally used as an annex for produce, this weekend the garage got culture as instrument storage space!
It’s courgette season! Or zucchini, summer squash, whichever you prefer it’s delicious and infinity variable. Check out a former blog post and read on for new summer recipe.
Pasta is an easy summer option and last week we test drove this Zucchini Butter Pasta from Smitten Kitchen. Uses basil from your box, and shredded zucchini reduced to a velvety sauce. We used a green variety, but would be gorgeous with yellow!
Zucchini is also a great choice grilled! An easy peasy side to whatever protein you’re cooking up on the BBQ. With all these great options, no reason to have them stack up on you – so dive in!
After a cold, wet start, things are starting to pop around here! And folks may find their boxes to be a little hefty and hard to finish, especially if they have their own garden going on the side. It really is a shame though, to have that good food go to waste. What to do?!?!
For situations like this, the freezer is your best friend! But before you throw your excess produce in a freezer bag, you have to take just one step to prep them for cryostorage. It’s important to kill the bacteria that can start decay, even in the freezer. You might be familiar with blanching before freezing, but we find this affects quality and flavor (ie, soggy and bland) plus loss of nutrients, and have found a better way.
For harder veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, pea pods, zucchini – wash, cut into your preferred sized pieces, toss with olive oil and roast for 5 minutes on a sheet pan at 475. Cool. Bag. Freeze. You can easily save just one head of broccoli, or pounds of it. The coolest part is, when you pull it out for dinner someday, dump the frozen bits on your sheet pan, and roast at the same temp and time (and check for doneness). Voila! Delicious, caramelized roasted goodness!
For greens like spinach, mustard, kale – wash and coarsely chop. Put the lot into a microwave safe bowl and nuke for a couple of minutes, checking along the way, until soft and reduced. Cool to touch then squeeze the excess liquid out (save for smoothies!) chop again if you want a finer texture, pop into a freezer bag, flatten and freeze.
Sugar snaps are one of the highlights of the season, so crisp and sweet! Typically eaten out of hand, or chopped to top The Salad, we forget sometimes that they can also be cooked. While ours is the sesame version, another classic pairing is with mint.
Collards are making an appearance in your boxes this week! Often cooked down for hours with a ham hock, collards have the reputation of being tough and unyielding. Not so! Scroll down to find our favorite version of this super-nutritious superfood.
Welcome summer! The season perfectly captured in the aroma and flavor of a ripe strawberry. If yours actually make it into your house, we have some tips for an easy treat. We’ve dropped a few springs of fresh mint into your box as well this week. Simply core and slice your berries, folding a tiny bit of sugar (if desired), and leave to macerate on your counter while you chop your mint. If you’d to get a little fancy, stack your washed mint leaves, roll into a cigar, and slice across to create thin strips. Otherwise, chop finely, and gently mix into your strawberries. Put into some pretty bowls (I use teacups) and serve plain or as you like with cream. Or you can whip up some buttermilk shortbread. I like to freeze leftover shortbread to be ready for any other summer fruit that comes rolling in. Enjoy!
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