Beets headline this share. The Kestrels are looking decent and we’ve included roots and tops. The tops are just like chard and make a good substitute for spinach in cooking as well. My favorite way to prepare the roots is to boil them whole until a fork is easily inserted in the the root, usually 20 or more minutes. At that point the skins will slide off easily and they can be cooled and chunked for salad, or dressed with oil and lemon and eaten warm.
Cilantro also comes roots and tops this week. The roots add good flavor to cooked dishes and the tops can be cooked or eaten raw, flavoring salads, rice and beans, curry, or whatever you like. There’s also a big bunch of really nice parsley in the share. I like to chop the parsley fine and sauté it in a bit of olive oil before tossing it on something like the beets or pasta.
The summer hold outs in the share this week are lettuce, a nice big head of Samantha, and sweet pepper. We have two varieties of sweet pepper, Jimmy Nardello and Stocky Red Roaster. There aren’t a lot of either at this point, at least not with a lot of color. We’re giving them out with a little color and they’ll turn completely red if you leave them on your counter for a few days to ripen. They’re good green, but they’re better red.
A big thanks to Louis for getting the blog published while I was up in Canada last week, and for the rest of the crew for getting the shares out the door. We were swimming in the fields this morning so we took off a little early today. It’s back to the office for a bit of fall planning I guess. We’ll hope for a little dry weather to get some cover crop in, and in the meantime enjoy a slightly more relaxed afternoon.
Josh Volk
The Traveling Farmer