Beets, squash, blueberries and other news

From Sally:
Just FYI - you will be getting beets and squash (as well as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes) a lot this summer. The male squash flower is very good stuffed with cream cheese.

There are a number of delicious recipes for both as well as the creations a number of shareholders have related to me which they and their families find delicious. DO POST, for all to enjoy, any good finds!!!

Alternatively, learn how to preserve these delicious comestibles. Someone was recently telling me of a favorite "mother-made" recipe of pickled sugar beets (the beets you're getting) and hard boiled eggs - where the eggs turn that lovely pink. Sugar beets can also be cut very thinly (Cuisinart thin) and fried for really good "chips." Someone else boils them to just-soft and puts them in summer salads or as additives to summer soups - you can freeze these quick-cooked beets and pull them out for many things all year long. Cold borscht is another wonderful summer soup - with a daub of yogurt. There are MANY ways.

For squash - the variety you've been getting each have a different flavor, texture and use. Rose, our daughter visiting from CA, just made us a one-dish meal of the Lebanese White Squash from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Orzo-with-Summer-Squash-and-Toasted-Hazlenuts-108403
Summers squash = bake it, stuff it, chop it into salad, summer-soup it, use it for dips and thousands of things and finally, again, you can freeze it for the winter.

Wasn't the salad greens mix wonderful = delicate, well-rounded, good as-is or with additives. - I add marinated baby potatoes and the young onions.

Our blueberries have been attacked by marauding sparrows and other small birds who have discovered how to get into the Alley that was newly created this year. I HOPE we have repaired most of the holes. Thanks to Julia Shearer who spent the day sewing, with hemp, the two pieces of deer netting that join the "roof" to the front side. We still need the back seam to be similarly joined as well as tighter seams on the "roof." So that's something you may be doing if you're here putting in hours. It's VERY rewarding - in many ways. '

Till we've solved the problem, however, we will be collecting the berries that are ripe and providing them for you in a bowl at the pick-up site where the other produce is located - we can't wait for the pick-up time as the birds have access all day.

Enjoying the dry weather and sun??? So are we - it also means that we'll need to get the drip tape down a.s.a.p. We avoided watering too much after the months of wetness as it was choking the produce (less oxygen = smaller growth) as well as rotting and causing splits. But hearing the crop-losses of others, I think we're doing pretty well. Anyone available this weekend or before, you'll be doing the drip-tape dance.

Check out the baby eggplants with your younger children - it's fun to watch them grow. Hopefully turnips are on the horizon - they were effected by the wetness but may be salvaged.

That's all the growing news at the moment.

Time to get out those Irish recipes

From Sally:

Time to get out those Irish recipes.

Blarney Boil comes to my mind = cabbage, potatoes, onions boiled up (add some sage, garlic, savory), then roll them around in a large frying pan with some savory (a wonderful herb - I've just started using it and love it!) and some butter - or bacon fat - or safflower oil. Add sea salt and pepper to taste, throw in a cup or so of chapped parsley, put on a dish, and surenbegorra yu'v go'a meal. The richer Irish will add a ration of corned beef.

Another good one which we had just an hour ago is similar. I love the little potatoes and thank you to all of you who left them for us!! I boil them till tender along with the beets. Everything turns pink. I cut the beets in half and in quarters and rounded off the edges. Then I melted some butter and added some olive oil in a large frying pan. I cut the onions in quarters and cut the last of the scapes (throwing out the hard-to-cut ends and cutting the rest into about 2" sections.) I put these in the butter&oil mix (I may have added a chopped up garlic) for about a minute then I threw in the potatoes and beets, rolled everything around a bit (3 min?) and turned the heat to low. I'd cleaned and chopped the beet greens; I'd boiled some water.

While the potatoes and beets were being rolled around, the greens were boiling. I drained them and added them to the potatoes & beets. Remembering that the Irish use a lot of parsley, I ran out to the herbs and pulled off a large handful which I cleaned, chopped and threw in also. I added sea salt and ground pepper. The colors are BEAUTIFUL all reds, pinks, greens and they taste delicious. We had that with a salad made from the Oak Leaf Lettuce and lots of other things like feta, endive, olives, capers, etc. Yummie Yummie. I hope you're enjoying the "fruits" of our labors as much as we are.

NOTE: Due to the soggy ground, we've been harvesting root veggies earlier than would be called for - otherwise they splits or rot. This means you are getting smaller sized produce, but usually it's quite a bit sweeter. Also for the onions YOU MUST REFRIGERATE as they have not been sun-cured (which makes the outside layers brown & crinkley). Again, they are harvested early & they are wonderfully sweet. Did you know Egyptians used to eat onions the way we eat apples - as a snack, raw and whole?