I planned today’s share and harvest yesterday in the glorious, shining sun; picked it this morning in an overcast chill; and delivered it this afternoon in the midst of a rain shower. I thought we had gotten past this, but I guess not. At least the forecast includes some sun later this week. We try to make use of the brief sunny periods as best we can. Usually that means weeding. People like to ask how the garden is doing with all of this rain, and the simple answer is: Great! But the qualified answer is: everything that can get established in this short of weather, or was established before the rain and clouds came in, is doing great, and everything else is struggling. Weeds, by their nature, can establish themselves wherever and whenever they want to, so they too are doing great. The only crops which aren’t really thriving now are all of the most exciting ones: outdoor tomatoes and peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and winter squash. As soon as the clouds roll out and the heat comes on, though, they’ll start doing fine. For now, though, we’ve got some really great looking indoor tomatoes and eggplants, broccoli, kohlrabi and lettuce to keep us well fed.

No tote bags this week. They took a little bit longer to print than we expected. We’ll have them for next week. Also, apologies if we were a bit late to the drop offs today. That should improve as we work out some of the kinks in our systems. Detailed share information, notes about the veggies, storage tips and recipe tips are all inside the full post.

All shares contain:

• Pac Choi (or Napa Cabbage)
• bunched greens (heirloom Lacinato Kale in half shares and Rainbow Chard in full shares)
• Parsley
• fresh Garlic

“Full” shares also contain:

• Garlic Scapes
• Basil
• Eggplant
• cut Lettuce

Veggie Notes

Pac Choi & Napa – Pac Choi and Napa just scream stir fry. The Pac Choi this week is a variety called “Joi Choi”, which has those crisp, juicy, mild stems (actually, they’re petioles) and this wet, cool early summer was the perfect weather for them. This is the first time I’ve actually grown a good crop of them, in fact. If you ever see these in the supermarket, their leaves are usually chopped off because, as you can see from the one in your bag, they’re super tender and are easily beaten up. Because these were harvested and given out in the same day, we can leave the leaves on. If you stir fry Pac Choi, we generally cook the leaves separately from the petioles because they cook much more quickly. Napa is a little bit more versatile and can be used in slaws and is a key ingredient of kim chee.

Kale & Chard – Before we joined our first CSA back in 2003, we never ate greens. Now we can’t imagine not eating them. They’re tasty and delicious, but they also make you feel very good about yourself whenever you eat them. To prepare: strip the leaves from the petioles, chop, rinse and drop in a skillet with some garlic and olive oil. (Even better: use bacon fat.) Save those petioles, though: kale stems can be simmered briefly to yield a delicious veggie stock, and the chard stems make a great crunchy (and drop dead gorgeous) addition to egg or tuna salad — they’re crunchy like celery.

Parsley – Put a little bit in everything you make; you won’t be disappointed. (Well, not quite everything…)

Fresh Garlic – These are just immature garlic plants and the whole thing can be used anywhere one would use garlic or scallions. Just trim off the base and chop up.

Garlic Scapes – These are the crunchy, succulent flower stalks of garlic. We snap them off to encourage the garlic plant to produce larger bulbs. Use them anywhere you would use garlic, and they also great stir fried and grilled.

Eggplant – These early eggplants are perfect for stir frying. We cut the eggplant 30 minutes ahead of time and sprinkle it with salt. This draws out some water and seasons the eggplant a little. We dry it by giving it a spin in our salad spinner and then drop it in the pan. Cook it at a very high temperature with as little oil as possible; this will help to cook it quickly and keep it from soaking up the oil and turning greasy.

Basil – There’s not much I can say about basil. It’s the intoxicating queen of fresh herbs and is the definitive smell of summer for us. We don’t wash basil when we pick it, so give it a quick rinse before you do.

Storage Notes

Everything except Eggplant and Basil can be stored in a plastic bag in the fridge. Eggplant should be kept in a plastic bag but not in the fridge. Basil should be treated like a cut flower: trim the stems a little bit and keep in the jar of water on the counter. Bonus points for giving the leaves the quick rub every time you walk by…

Recipe Ideas

Sorry, no specific recipes today. The veggie notes section (above) contains many ideas for using this weeks veggies, many of them very simple and easy, and here’s a few links to recipes from last year’s CSA:

Pac Choi – Stir Fry Sauce

Napa – Asian Slaw

Kale & Chard – Sauted Greens

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems. Also, please send along any recipes you’d like to share.

We hope you enjoy the share!