Once a week we have a big farm dinner with our crew and other farm volunteers.  Sometimes it’s just eight of us, sometimes it’s eighteen.  We’re lucky to have a couple of awesome CSA members who rotate cooking for us (thank you Genna and Pam!).  But one of the traditions of the evening is when everyone takes a turn to say their ’best and worst’ of the week.  It’s a great chance to learn what is going on in people’s minds, and this week CJ’s “best” resonated with me.  When it was her turn, she said that her best was “all the veggies!”  During the course of cooking that afternoon I had sent her out into the fields for different ingredients—basil, tomatoes, onion—and every time she came back saying “I didn’t know THAT was ready, too!”  I agree with her that this is an amazing time for eating.  We hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are. 

The one setback of last week was the dramatic damage done by the storm on Wednesday night.  We were lucky — our greenhouses stayed intact and many of the plants that initially looked destroyed were, in fact, only blown over and have perked back up.  As for the sweet corn, though — some of the tallest, heartiest stalks were swept down in tidy swaths.  Luckily, Thursday was a CSA day and we were able to load members up with many of the felled ears of corn.  But it was a dramatic reminder to never take the weather for granted. 

Last year we had some requests for tomatillos, and so this year we grew some as an experiment for the CSA.  We love them!  They are related to tomatoes and are a staple in Mexican cooking.  You take off the husk, wash off the sticky residue, and cook with the bright green fruit.  Sadly, we didn’t plan quite right and don’t have cilantro ready in the fields right now, and many tomatillo recipes call for that pairing.  So this may be one time that I encourage you to go out and buy a bunch of cilantro so you can get your salsa verde on! 

Next Saturday, August 23rd, will be your last opportunity of the summer to see your farmers in action on the roller derby track!  The game will start at 6pm at the Midcoast Recreation Center on Rte. 90 in Rockport.  We’ll be playing a tough team from Plattsburgh, NY, and the Jeerleaders will have a new half-time routine, so it should be an entertaining evening.

Have a great week and enjoy your meals!

 Reba and the HCF crew

You know those ~ 10,000 heads of garlic we harvested? Now it’s time for them to get cleaned, one by one. As they cure we bring them down from the barn, cut off their long stalks, and buff them up for CSA members. It tends to be the final job on a harvest day and is a welcome seated activity after all the harvesting and hauling.

CSA Week 10 of 18:  Big Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Ailsa Craig Onion, Garlic, Basil, Sweet Corn, Cucumbers, Zucchini and/or Zephyr Squash, Green Pepper

This week’s recipes:  Tomatillo Salsa Verde, Zucchini-Corn Fritters, Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade

 No Cheese CSA notes yet – I’ll send them out as soon as I receive them from Appleton Creamery!