And on the grayest Monday in July, we picked lush greens, hundreds of pounds of cucurbits, and our first little round of Cherry Tomatoes from the field. This means we’ll have them for sale at the farm stand this week, and hopefully, in quantity to include with the CSA shares by next week. I’ve sourced some new crop Organic Potatoes from Wapato for folks to enjoy in the meantime. Cucumber Potato Salad anyone?

I’ve got to admit, the cucumbers are really carrying the team right now. While most years find us donating hundreds of pounds of excess Zucchini and Summer Squash, this year’s first rotation shockingly struggled to produce. It has been a head-scratcher. You may have noticed some of the tapered shaped fruit on the CSA tables over the past few weeks, and that is potentially a symptom of disrupted pollination…maybe stunted from consecutive days of high heat at just the wrong time. Luckily Mark staggered a small portion of this year’s crop of Zucchini, and the second round came on over the weekend. There may be a few Mega Zukes for those of you who have baking in mind, and as promised, there are definitely cucumbers on the menu this week—Persian, Japanese, Green Slicers and those beautiful blonde Silver Slicers too. Perfect for a refreshing salad or quick and easy fridge pickle. Our teenager treated her tired parents to an Easy Sushi Bake for dinner last night, which was new to us but basically a method of taking your favorite maki-type sushi roll recipe and layering it into a baking dish rather than rolling and slicing. She topped the dish with a layer of thinly sliced cucumbers and served it with sheets of nori on the side to scoop into for shortcut versions of hand rolls. Delicious, convivial and customizable dinner that I didn’t have to make. 10/10.

While the tomato harvest begins, we’re wrapping up this year’s Blueberry harvest, rolling one last round into cups for fresh eating and packing some away into the freezers for future enjoyment next Winter.

Thank You,
Katie

PS: We’ve noticed a dip in laying, so we’re going to pause Retail Egg Sales for a bit. If you have a CSA Egg Share, you are still good to go. We just won’t be selling extras this week.

IN THE FARMSHARES THIS WEEK:

Choice of Bunched Greens:
Kale, Collards and/or Chard
Cucumbers and/or Zucchini
Little Gem Lettuce
Potatoes
Shiro Plums (tbd)
Blueberries

RECIPES & SEASONAL TIPS

DISAPPEARING ZUCCHINI ORZO
Barbara & Camille Kingsolver

• 1 lb orzo pasta

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 white or yellow onion, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 3 large zucchini, grated

• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme

• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced

• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  CONTINUE TO RECIPE
  
  
  

COLD CUCUMBER SOUP
Love & Lemons

• 6 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced, reserve a few slices for garnish

• 1½ cups plain whole milk Greek yogurt

• ¾ cup fresh basil

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling

• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons fresh dill

• 1 garlic clove

• ¾ teaspoon sea salt

• ½ teaspoon honey

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Fresh mint, dill, or chives, for garnish

CONTINUE TO RECIPE

CUCUMBER, MELON & WATERMELON SALAD
Martha Rose Shulman

• 4 cups mixed diced watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe

• 2 cups diced cucumber, seeded if there are seeds

• Salt to taste

• 1 teaspoon lemon or lime zest

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice

• 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

• 1ounce feta cheese, crumbled

• ¼ to ½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or mild chili powder (to taste), or 1 serrano chile, minced

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

  CONTINUE TO RECIPE

GRILLED KALE SALAD WITH AVOCADO, LEMON & PARM
Walder Wellness

• 2 large bunches kale

• 1 avocado

• 1 lemon

• 1/4 cup olive oil (+ more for tossing kale)

• 1/2 cup pecans, raw

• 1/2 cup parmesan, freshly grated

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• Salt + pepper, to taste
  CONTINUE TO RECIPE
  
  
  

SWISS CHARD & POTATOES
Lidia Bastianich

• 2 pounds chard

• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise into 4 pieces

• 1/4cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

• Kosher salt, to taste

• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

CONTINUE TO RECIPE

OVEN-ROASTED ZUCCHINI WITH COLLARD-PEANUT PESTO & ROASTED PEANUTS
Bryant Terry

For the collard-peanut pesto (makes 1 cup):

• 2 cups loosely packed stemmed, chopped collard leaves

• 1/3 cup roasted peanuts

• 3 tablespoons white miso paste

• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus more as needed

• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more as needed

• Kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

For the oven-roasted zucchini:

• 4 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds total), cut into 1/2-inch dice

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup chopped, roasted peanuts
  CONTINUE TO RECIPE
  
  
  

LEMON POPPY SEED ZUCCHINI MUFFINS
Dishing Up the Dirt

• 2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

• grated zest of 1 lemon

• juice from 1 lemon

• 1/3 cup walnut oil

• 1/2 cup runny honey

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

• 1 cup packed shredded zucchini
  CONTINUE TO RECIPE

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
My tried and true favorite from Lore!

• 2 (1oz) Squares Unsweetened Chocolate

• 1 1/2 C Sugar

• 2 C Zucchini, grated

• 2 C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

• 1 tsp Salt

• 3/4 C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

• 3 Eggs

• 1 C Vegetable Oil

• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

• 1 tsp Baking Soda

• 1 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Melt chocolate squares in a double boiler until smooth. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar oil, grated zucchini, vanilla & chocolate; beat well. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt & cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.