Blue Gate Farm News – Volume IV, Number 15
– August 7, 2007
In this week’s box:
Beans*:
Beets: asst.
Cherry Tomato Mix*: Juliet
& Golden Rave first half of CSA
Cucumbers*: Diva (short,
green), Lemon (round, yellow) or Suyo Long (long, green)
Onions: Red Burgermeister from Coyote Run Farm
Patty Pan Squash: asst.
Peppers, Hot: Serrano from Reichert’s Dairy Air
Peppers, Sweet: Islander
(purple bell) & Ace (green/red bell) from Coyote Run Farm
Tomatoes: asst. heirlooms from Coyote Run Farm
* from the upper
garden
For those with the Herb
option: Basil: Lemon, Chives, Anise Hyssop
For
those with the Cheese option: Pesto Chevre
Featured Recipes (on back):
Mellowed
Fresh Tomatoes for Pasta
Orange-Beet
Salad
Rain this week: 1.6 ”
What’s up on the farm?
Rain, beautiful
rain! Farmers often refer to a good rain following a dry period as a
“million-dollar rain.” Well we sure had one of those this weekend. While it
made for a rather slow (and wet) day at the farmers market, it was wonderful to
come home and see 1.5” in the rain gauge. A good soaking like that also makes
the weeds much easier to pull, so we’ve been making good progress on the
tree-like weeds in the tomato patch since then. This week also brought another
potato harvest, as well as the start of harvesting our shallots, cipollini
onions and sweet onions. Those things don’t appear in this week’s boxes because
we have such generous friends at Coyote Run and Reichert’s Dairy Air that our
produce wouldn’t all fit. So the items that store well got sent back to storage
until next week. How’s that for a problem to have! The first of the
late-summer-sown crops went in this week as well with the seeding of the fall
beans. This coming week will bring more sowing chores as the early crops are
harvested out and the fall crops are going in. It’s so nice to look forward to
fall temperatures during hot, sultry weeks like this.
Speaking of fall,
there has been a date change for our CSA Harvest Party. Originally publicized
for October 13, the party will now take
place on the afternoon of Sunday, October 14. Details to come later, but we
wanted a chance to get on your calendars now.
More next week…
Best from the
farm,
Jill & Sean
Mellowed Fresh Tomatoes for Pasta
Serves
6 to 8 as a first course, 4 to 6 as a main dish
1 clove garlic, split
3 pounds richly flavored
tomatoes (if possible, one-third cherry type, one-third mellow-tasting, and
one-third low-acid), unpeeled, unseeded, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 generous pinches hot red
pepper flakes
1/3 cup good tasting
extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 pound spaghetti, or
linguine
6 quarts boiling salted water
1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground
black pepper, or to taste
3 tight-packed tablespoons
fresh basil leaves, torn
1 cup fresh-grated
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional)
1. Vigorously rub a pasta serving bowl with the garlic and discard the
clove. Add the tomatoes, red pepper, oil, and the salt. Gently combine. Let
stand at room temperature from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
2. When ready to eat, cook the pasta in fiercely boiling salted water,
stirring often, until tender yet firm to the bite. Drain in a colander and turn
it into the pasta bowl. Quickly add the black pepper and basil, and toss
everything together. Taste the pasta for seasoning and serve. If you like, pass
cheese at the table
TIP: Here’s a trick
for making pasta with raw tomato sauces taste lustier. Slightly undercook the
pasta. Drain it. Spoon the juices that raw sauces always throw off into the
empty pasta pot. Set it over medium-low heat, add the pasta and toss until the
juices are absorbed, then add the pasta to the sauce. Pasta and raw tomato
sauce are served at room temperature, never chilled.
Recipe Source: Lynne Rossetto Kasper
www.splendidtable.org
Orange-Beet Salad