What’s in the box?

Strawberries
carrots
zuchinni / summer squash
rainbow chard/ aka swiss chard
garlic scapes
cilantro
leaf lettuce
roamaine lettuce
bagged arugula
green onions

Notes on the box.

Remove the tops from the carrots as soon as you get home to keep carrots from getting soft. Some people like to make carrot top pesto or use the carrot tops in place of parsley. Give it a taste to decide if you want to keep and eat it or not. The carrots can be put in a bag in the crisper. We haven’t been cooking any carrots yet, just snacking on them because they taste so good fresh!
The stems of the rainbow chard aren’t just beautiful and festive, but also edible! They take a bit longer to cook than the leaves which wilt very quickly, so start stems cooking a little before the leaves.
Garlic scapes are the stem of a flower that the garlic bulb sends up. We pull off the scapes to help more energy go to the garlic bulb as it grows, and we get to eat the scapes! Think of them as a green onion with garlic flavor. An arugula and garlic scape pesto would be delicious on sandwiches or a pasta salad.
All greens will keep best in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

If you’ve had a cheese share before, you’ve gotten this fun cheese lesson. I love showing people the effects and difference that what our cows are eating has on the milk they make and the cheese we make from the milk. These two cheeses, MoonShadow and MoonGlow, are made using the exact same recipe. But if you hold them up to each other, you notice that MoonShadow is more a white creamy color while MoonGlow is a bright yellow. This is because MoonShadow is made in the early spring before pastures have started growing and so the cows are eating hay, this makes the cheese milder and whiter. The MoonGlow is made later in the season when the cows are on pasture so the cheese has more beta carotene and looks more yellow and has more grassy flavors. Both cheeses have much better Omega 3 profiles than non-grass based cows milk products. Be sure to have a little cheese tasting. Taste them side by side remembering that the only difference is some aging time and what the cows were eating.
Here’s an article about the difference between 100% Grass Fed cow’s milk like ours vs. conventional milk.

Recipes.

Swiss Chard with Orzo, Cannelini Beans, and Pancetta

Sauteed Swiss Chard and Summer Squash

Garlic Scape and Arugula Pesto for sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, mixed into hummus, served with grilled chicken, or with pasta, and it freezes really well!

Carrot top Chimichurri

On the Farm.

If you want to schedule a vacation hold for another week, let us know and we can get it on the schedule for you.
We got some rain at a good time, but it was kind of heavy and we are hopeful that it didn’t washout some of the direct seeded crops that we seeded right before some very big storms came through.
We are enjoying the summertime and hope you are, too! Thanks to Otto and Josh for taking pictures for the blog this week!