What's in the box?  

Summer squash/ Zuchinni
Spring Onions
Leaf Lettuce
Green Beans (large and medium)
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cucubers
Baby Carrots
Cilantro
first Green Bell Pepper of the season (just one this week)

Notes on the box.

If you still have some cabbage, a nice cilantro and cabbage slaw to top tacos is great.
Everything in the box this week should be kept in your fridge.  The Spring Onions are uncured, so they need to be refrigerated.  They have a wonderful flavor and are pretty mild for adding to salads raw, or you can cook them.  
We've been grilling zucchinis and roasting broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans at our house.  We sliced cucumbers and sprinkled with a little salt, apple cider vinegar, and just a tiny bit of honey drizzled and then tossed.  Otto said that it made the cucumbers like popcorn that he couldn't stop eating.  

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Deneb is our natural rind gouda style cheese.  This batch is a beautiful melter and makes a dream grilled cheese.  
I've sent the quark plain before, but decided to send you the flavored kind (with garlic and dill) that folks really love at the farmers market.  We eat it in so many different ways.  You can dip veggies in it (try it with those baby carrots) or it's great on a sandwich with some sliced cucumbers.  It's also very nice dolloped onto baked salmon, roasted veggies, or on scrambled eggs.  Enjoy!

Recipes.

Our crew member, Hannah, put the Six Seasons cookbook by Joshua McFadden and Martha Hoimberg on the shelf in the kitchen and I have to say, it is so beautiful and the recipes are amazing.  We will be getting it for our vegetable cookbook library for sure.  Here are a few of the beautiful recipes!

Raw "couscous" Cauliflower with Almonds, Dried Cherries, and Sumac from Six Seasons Cookbook

Cauliflower Ragu from Six Seasons Cookbook

Squash and Tuna Melt Casserole from Six Seasons Cookbook

On the Farm. 

We had such a wonderful time at the Eat Local Farm Tour!  It was great to meet so many CSA members.  We hope that those of you that were able to come out had a good time.  There were many many people and we gave lots of tours.  We are working on deciding another good day to open the farm to visitors.  It's always so affirming and gives us renewed energy when we meet the people that are eating the food that we grow.  Thanks again!  

Next Week: 

all of the things from this week AND
tomatoes (just the beginning)
celery
fennel?
sweet corn!

red ones!

blushing beauties

we are really going to have to hunt for them in the tomato jungle!

celery

fennel

I think this purple kale plant might catch up to the height of the pine tree you see growing behind it.

baaaa!

little GIANT pumpkin update

What's in the box?

Cucumbers
Squash
Turnip
Spring onions
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Cabbage (large, medium)
Spinach
Leaf lettuce
Basil

Notes on the box.

This box has less greens and more of the familiar favorites of Summer.  More of those crops are looking good out in the field and we look forward to getting them to you soon!  In the meantime, enjoy this box!  The Salad Turnips might be new for some folks.  We would have normally had them in the boxes sooner, but we lost our first crop to a little critter called the root maggot which seems to have been on a rampage out here in the Western WI vegetable fields.  These mild sweet turnips have edible tops (if you can't get enough greens!) and you should remove the roots from the tops for best stoarge.  The turnips are nice sliced and added raw to salads or you can cook them (recipe below).  

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

This week we have both MoonShadow, an alpine style of cheese made when the cows are eating more hay than fresh pasture.  It's counterpart, MoonGlow, is the same recipe but made when the cows are eating all fresh pasture.  I like to send the two out together so folks can see the difference that the cows' diet makes in their milk and the cheese.  Tasting them side by side helps to demonstrate the grassy flavor that 100% grass fed cows add to the cheese.  Most people got MoonShadow that was made in December when there was no pasture at all and the cows were eating all hay.  Some folks got Moonshadow made in November and there was still a little fresh forage for the cows and the differences aren't quite as obvious.  The MoonShadow especially makes an outstanding grilled cheese (try adding some spinach to it) or cheese sauce to go on top of broccoli or cauliflower for a classic side dish.  Also can't go wrong with Mac and Cheese with these beauties.  Trim off and discard the rind.  

Recipes.

Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip

Creamy Basil-Black Pepper Cucumbers

Cauliflower Waffles

Braised Hakuri Turnips and Choy Sum with Miso and Butter (adapted from Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison)
1 bunch Hakurei (Salad) turnips with greens (you can also add more greens to this recipe to stretch it.  Try beet greens, spinach, collards, or any other greens that need to be eaten!)
3 tbsp butter at room temp
2 tbsp mirin (or rice vinegar or dry white wine plus a 1/2 tsp sugar)
3 tbsp white miso (or any miso)
1 tsp black sesame seeds (or white), toasted in a dry skillet until fragrant
spring onions, white parts plus an inch of the greens, slivered
Sea salt
Remove greens from turnips and chop roughly.  Section the turnips into quarters. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the mirin, then the turnips, and cook, allowing them to color, for several minutes.
White the turnips are cooking, stir together the miso and the remaining butter. When the turnips are tender, add the greens and add the butter miso mixture and allow it to bubble up, coat the turnips and greens, and wilt the greens. Transfer to a serving dish, finish with the sesame seeds and green onions, and serve. This dish probably won’t need salt, taste to be sure.  Nice with brown rice. 

On the Farm.

Meat shares are coming this week for Meat Share and Eat Like a Farmer members! Look for them at your drop site with your name just like the vegetable shares.  You can take the whole box, but please return boxes and liners next week.  

Eat local farm Tour Saturday

Tomatoes, green peppers are quickly approaching   The corn crop is looking like good! 

baby peppers

green tomatoes on gorgeous green plants

corn tassels

corn silks

baby pumpkin!

the cucumber hunt

Archer and a visitor to the packing shed

cabbages

cows eating grass!

What's Growing On?

Carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Lettuce
Squash
Cucumber
green beans??

What's in the box?  

Green top beets
Green onions
Broccoli
Leaf lettuce
Collards
Cabbage
Cucumbers
Summer Squash

Cosmic Wheel Creamery Cheese Shares.

Cheese Curds!  Perfect little road trip snack.  and Arcturus which is what happens when you press cheese curds (if they were made from raw milk) into a wheel and age it!  This batch was made in December and it's super creamy and yummy.  

Recipes.

Otto's Beet and Cabbage Salad - Proud parent moment when Otto brought in a box of veggies and made a salad to bring to the annual CSA farmers' Interdependence Day potluck at Foxtail Farm. The whole dish was eaten up, so it's potluck approved!
Chop 1 head of Cabbage into bite sized pieces.
grate 2 beets
mince some fresh parsley and/or dill
Mix veggies together
Dressing (estimations):  
3 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
use immersion blender to emulsify dressing.  Mix into the veggies and serve.  

Cucumber Lime Paletas (Popsicles)

On the Farm. 

Another reminder!  We hope you can come out to the farm for the Eat Local Farm Tour on July 14th.  

Next week is the first of the meat share deliveries for our Eat Like a Farmer and Meat Share members!  Make room in your freezerIf you need to reschedule the delivery, let us know and we can accommodate.  

This weeks blog is a short one since the kids' daycare is closed this week.  They are doing great out in the fields (and playing in the rain and jumping on the trampoline and making potions and encouraging screaming contests with the crew) and we are thinking that maybe next season they will be able to be home for more days next summer and help with growing the veggies.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of them helping out on the farm!  

Sadie gathering onions

Otto Onion Hands

Cabbage toss with Archer, Otto, and Hannah!

Nice Catch!

Sadie and Otto riding on the pack line pretending to be CSA boxes. They gathered these veggies and brought them inside so they could have their own veggies to prepare.

Otto’s sign for his salad on a specially made Lego display

Turnip Rock, Blackbrook, and Whetstone farm kids on an adventure