Week 11: August 12th

In This Week’s Beet Box:

New Produce of the Week: Shiro Plums! Torpedo Onions!
Public Service Announcement: This Week’s Cabbages
Tamales Shares this Week

In your share this week:

Cabbage – red or green
Red Long of Tropea torpedo onions
Carrots
Zucchini
Strawberries
Tomatoes – Red & Heirloom
Broccoli
Dill
Shiro Plums

On Rotation:

This means that some pickup sites will receive it this week, others next week – or in a future week.

Cucumbers
Cauliflower
Sweet Peppers

NEW PRODUCE OF THE WEEK

Shiro Plums: You can thank that long, sunny spring we had for the nest of yellow plums in your tote this week. Never has there been such a Shiro harvest! And as much as we’d like to think it will happen again, regularly, it all depends on how much rain and hail falls from the sky in the months of March & April.

These are one of our favorite plum varieties – the drip-down-your-face kind, at once sweet and slightly tart. And they’re ripe now, so don’t delay with the dripping! I imagine it won’t be too hard to figure out what to do with them (as in, eat the whole dozen right away), but they do make a lovely yellow plum sauce if you want to cook them down with a little sugar (my mom likes to use if for barbecue sauce). Or one of my favorite desserts (usually made with pretty, purple Italian plums, but anything will do), plum clafoutis:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brandied-Plum-Clafoutis-243386

I think the flavor and texture is best if you keep your plums on the counter at room temperature. They won’t last as long, but that’s probably a moot point altogether – given the sugar-yum-eat-me-now factor.

Red Long of Tropea Torpedo Onions: It’s a mouthful to say, and a delicious mouthful to eat. This variety harks from Mediterranean France and Italy where it’s grown for fresh harvest and specialty markets. It’s similar to the Purplette onions you got throughout July, but slightly slower to mature. Red Longs need to be kept in the fridge because they aren’t cured (no papery outer skin), and ideally eaten within in a couple of weeks.

Public Service Announcement: This Week’s Cabbages

If you have back trouble, you may want ask for assistance lifting your cabbage this week. Some of our green cabbages grew to a gargantuan size this year, due to the fact that about half of our green cabbage planting got wiped out by cabbage maggot in the spring. As a result, the surviving plants had ample room to grow and grow. And grow. Some of the cabbages we packed into totes yesterday topped the scales at 8 pounds. If you are not a cabbage fan and you open the lid to a tote that has a monster in it, you might want to look for a different tote with a smaller specimen. This is one of those times when not all things are created equal in the CSA share, so hopefully you all can sort it out at your pickup sites based on need, want, and goodwill!

Also, we came up short on green cabbages, so some people will be getting red cabbage in their share. Again, I have faith that you can work it out without any brawling over over-sized brassicas!

Tamale Shares this Week

Tamales go out to pickup sites this week. If you are a tamale member, look for your share in the marked blue cooler at your pickup site. Enjoy!

The Valley Flora Crystal Ball: What MIGHT be in your share next week…

No promises, but your tote might include some of the following NEXT week: