Week 8 Newsletter

Week 8 Newsletter: Pickup August 8th
    Last week, friends of organic farming, friends of peace and peacemakers, and friends of humankind the world over lost a great and steadfast partner to a tragic farming accident. Our friend and colleague, Art Gish, died when his tractor overturned and caught fire. His memorial service is this Saturday at 2:00 pm at the First United Methodist Church on College Street in Athens (across the street from the parking garage, where for this memorial service, the 5th & 6th floor parking spaces are free.) All are welcome.

    Work here continues. The crew begins work at 7:00 am. If it’s harvest day, the goal is to have everything picked and out of the fields into the packing barn before 9:30. Then the packing crew takes over to process your share. Rinsing, weighing, bagging and bunching (just to name a few) will take them the rest of the day. Others who aren’t packing might be weeding, driving stakes, planting the next round of salad starts, planting seeds – well, the list is almost endless. Kip is beginning the annual mowing of the pond dams. This is necessary to prevent the willows from taking deep root. The roots create little channels that water can follow, leaving the dam weakened. It’s just best not to let them take hold - if possible. Another chore for this week is the beginning of the harvest of this year’s potatoes. The bulk of these will be stored for the Winter 2011 CSA cycle. This is the earliest we have harvested them, but the dry early spring allowed us to plant much earlier than usual.
    There were several members interested in the canning tomatoes. We continue to have them available in 25# boxes. The price is $25.00. Just let us know how many boxes you want, and we’ll have them for your next CSA delivery. And on another veggie note, we are trying a new way for the basil, namely plastic bags. This is not our first choice, but it appears that any amount of warm dry air will cause it to wilt beyond reviving. Please let us know if you have noticed any change in the quality, good or bad. Thanks. We continue to strive to provide you with the finest and fresh-est that we have to offer.

    From all of us at Green Edge,
    Becky (Kip, Dan, John, Cale, Rob, Julia, Penny, Guinevere, Morgan, Martin, and Maria

THIS WEEK’S VEGGIES
Sweet Basil – We love this pun-gent herb for its many and varied uses. When all else fails, you can always dry it for winter soups, stews and sauces.
Mushrooms - This week’s mushrooms are shiitake. Their distinctive flavor will always be a winner! Try them sautéed in an omelet with a nice cheese and some onions. Yummmm!
Yellow Onions - We hope you have enjoyed these fresh and pungent wonders. Wedges on a skewer over a grill enhance their natural sweetness.
Tomatoes - This week you have slicing tomatoes and cherry toma-toes. We grow 2 varieties of cher-ries: Sweet 100 (red) and Sungold (orange tomato candy).
Swiss Chard - We are thrilled to have the chard back. These mildly-flavored and tender leaves are perfect for chopping into any number of dishes, hot or cold. Separate the stems and leaves, blanch and go….!
Beets - Beets with greens are sweet and tender. To remove the skins, place in boiling water for 30 seconds. Skins will slip off. Steam, roast, or boil them. Use the greens as you would kale or chard.
SUMMER SQUASH – The varie-ties of squash we grow: Patty Pan, Sunburst, Yellow Squash, and Zuc-chini. Sauté, steam or grill - another great ingredient for vege-table shish kabobs.
More On Summer Squash: We grow a tasty medley of summer squashes that thrive in the heat of the season. Our zucchini, yellow & pattypan varieties can be enjoyed raw, but also do well grilled whole alongside your favorite meat, fish or other veggies. Marinated or not, their flavor suits any barbeque or picnic. If you find that you prefer to cook them on the stovetop, try adding them to a pasta dish, pizza, stir-fry, or curry. Store them on your countertop if you anticipate eating them right away, or in the crisper drawer of your fridge if you want to save them for later in the week. They should keep this way for least a week if not more.

The Combo Corner
The fruit selections from Cherry Orchard this week are peaches, blackberries, and white grapes.
This week’s bread from The Village Bakery and Café is Buttermilk Whole Wheat.
The cheese share from Integration Acres this week includes Goat Gouda and Griffin’s Dream, an aged chevre’. Cheese this week is for the Columbus Full Cheese or Columbus Full Combo shares only.

PICKUP CONTACT NUMBERS & HOURS
NEW ALBANY – 614-216-9370 3-10pm
TIBET – 614-784-8124 11am-6pm
BEXLEY MARKET-614-252-3951 3-8pm
UPPER ARLINGTON- 614-284-1181 2- 6pm
CLINTONVILLE COOP – 614-261-3663 11 am-8 pm
PLATES STUDIO –DUBLIN - 614-336-9502 4-8 pm
HYACINTH BEAN – 740-594-9302 12-6pm
Please remember to call your host first if problems arise. Since they are closer to you, they can usually resolve the problem. Feel free to call us if the host is unable to help you – 740-448-4021 Thanks!

We are always thrilled to hear from members. Do you have a great way to prepare one of the many veggies you are receiving? Or maybe your mom did. Please feel free to share them with us for the new-sletter or we can just post it to the blog, OR you can leave a comment on the blog with the information.

Missed the Farm Day & can’t stand that you didn’t get to be here? We can accommodate special visits that are arranged in ad-vance. Just give a call.

Twice a year and unannounced, the food safety inspector from the Ohio Dept. of Ag visits and inspects our premises and packing operations. We are always ready to see these folks. Once again, this facility passed with no ticks on the sheet. Yeah to the Green Edge crew members and owners for their willingness to do what is asked.

Next Monday, our other in-spector from O.E.F.F.A. (the organic guy) will be here to make the annual inspection that is so necessary to main-tain our organic certification. His interests include every aspect of the operation from seed sources to distribution logs and everything in be-tween – and you better have documentation. It is a lot of work to keep track of these little bits and bobs of paper, but we are committed to the process and the outcome. We are certain that most of you are too.

Recipe: Pasta Stuffed Tomatoes
6 medium- size tomatoes
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups finely chopped zucchini (or other summer squash)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ cups cooked vermicelli, cut into 1- inch pieces
¼ cup whipping cream salt and pepper
¼ cup crumbled farmer cheese or feta cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
  Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes and reserve to use in a soup. Turn the tomatoes upside down on a paper towel to drain.
In a sauté pan, melt the butter and sauté the zucchini and garlic until the zucchini is tender crisp, 3-5 minutes. Combine the zucchini with the vermicelli and cream and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon the filling into the tomatoes and sprinkle the tops with the cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft but still hold their shape. Serve immediately.


Preparation time: 30 minutes Baking Time: 15 minutes Yield: 6 servings
~from Joy of Gardening Cookbook, Ballantyne, 1984


This weekend we made amazing veggie kabobs. We just cut the summer squashes into wedges along with green peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, and beets. I pre-cooked the beets, slipped the skins, and put them into a marinade with the other veggie pieces for about 1 hour. Onto the water-soaked skewer, and grill until veggies are done to your liking. The sweet-ness of a grilled beet is always a treat.
 
Occasionally, you will see an item repeated from one newsletter to the next. This is so that both full and half share members can see information that is of special importance to the CSA. Thanks for your understanding.
 
The GREEN BAGS and BOXES provided by us for you to carry your veggies is actually on loan to you for the season. We have two per member, so please re-turn your GREEN BAG and BOX each week that you pick up. We are happy to support the goal for all to use fewer resources. But you need to help by joining with us in the effort to keep the GREEN BAGS and BOXES in the recycling loop. Thanks so much!