This Week’s Produce
Red Russian Kale, This variety is great sautéed with garlic.
Radishes, Check out the radish recipes on our website.
Red Leaf Lettuce, I outlined a simple recipe in this week’s newsletter, for the best vinaigrette ever!
Bell Peppers, Try making a Cajun dish, with this essential ingredient in their “holy trinity”.
Red Onions, This is the end of our season, for these staples.
Eggplant, Just one each, this week, as the plants are slowing down.
Canary Melons, We still have a few this year.
Poblano Peppers, Great for salsa and Mexican dishes.
Johnagold Apples, Fruit Share Only, Bruce Rider and Sons, Watsonville, CA
Valencia Oranges, Fruit Share Only, Old Creek Rancho, Cayucos, CA
Hass Avocados, Fruit Share Only, Las Palmalitas Ranch, Carpinteria, CA
What’s happening on the farm?
Sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes! I think poor David is seeing them even in his sleep as he and his crew seem to have been uberfocused on harvesting them, we still have a lot to go yet. So far our experiment with growing the delectable tubers has been a successful one, some of the plants have put 10 or more potatoes out each! As always, fall brings welcome temp changes with cooler days and nights that the plants and people alike can appreciate, especially for our workers who toil in our fields daily.
What to do with what we grow
This week we have more greens and less of our summer vegetables. The sweet potatoes that Michelle mentioned, are not coming this week, but we will see them through the fall and winter. The first recipe that I did this week, is a basic salad recipe for our Red Leaf Lettuce. I know that bottled dressings are easy, but I have strong feelings about the freshness of a basic vinaigrette that can’t be replicated by something that sits on the store shelves. I encourage everyone to give it a try. The next recipe comes from our abundance of green bell peppers. I worked at a Cajun restaurant for a while and often cook this rendition of Jambalaya. The meat added would typically be whatever you have on hand, but will often include sausage, chicken and shrimp. Don’t feel as if there are any rules, you could just use one or two meat items, if that is what you have on hand. It would be a great use of the leg and thigh meat, from a leftover rotisserie chicken. The third recipe, for a frittata, I wanted to include, because it is a wonderful way to use kale and I also think it is a great way to get people that don’t like greens to eat them. As an egg dish, don’t feel trapped to serve it for breakfast. It makes a great dinner and leftovers travel well for lunch. Remember to eat your vegetables, Julie