• Fennel
• Walla Walla Sweet Onion
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Gold Beets
• Broccoli
• Italian Parsley
• Head Lettuce

On Rotation:

• Chard
• Collards
• Sugar Snap Peas

Sugar Snap Peas are winding down this week (so long until next year, sniff), but cucumbers are on the rise! You'll likely be seeing our good old open-pollinated slicer, "Marketmore 76," in your share this week, alongside "Diva," a Persian-type cucumber with thin skin, few seeds, and extra-sweet flavor. Cucumbers are a favorite in our household, so they often get center stage. These are a couple of cucumber-centric salads that I love: Asian Cucumber Salad and Sweet & Tangy Cucumber Salad (you can thin-slice your Walla Walla Sweet in lieu of red onions, and lean into your Italian parsley if you don't have dill handy). Walla Walla Sweet onions are a seasonal wonder unto themselves (from now until September): huge, fat, juicy, sweet onions that lend themselves to any purpose: sliced/diced raw, onion rings, or caramelized (do them up with sauteed fennel to make Finocchio, one of my favorite dishes - eat it by the spoonful, or atop pasta/polenta, or on toast). If you're still not convinced about fennel, you might try this recipe from our trove of recipes on the VF website: Caramelized Fennel with Honey, Lemon Zest, and Chevre.

Big bunches of gold beets are landing in your tote this week as well. Of the three beet varieties we grow - red, Chioggia (candystripe), and gold - the golds tend to be the most mellow. That earthy flavor that turns some people off to beets is due to a compound called geosmin ("geos" as in "earth"). It's the same compound that we associate with the smell of forest soil and summer rain (like yesterday's wild thunder showers). Some folks are much more sensitive to it than others, which explains why some people complain that beets taste like dirt, and others love them. If you eat beets raw - grated in a salad, for instance - the geosmin will be the strongest, so we don't recommend that if you're already anti-beet. Better to coook them - roasted or steamed - which neutralizes the geosmin considerably and brings out the natural sweetness of the beet. A lot of chefs prefer the gold beets because they don't "bleed" like red beets do (or color your pee/poop, which has startled many a new CSA member, one of whom went to the ER years ago because they thought they had internal bleeding - er, probably should have mentioned that when you got red beets for the first time a few weeks back....). Get your hands on some of Abby's baby arugula (at the farmstand or the co-ops) and make this Roasted Golden Beet Salad. The beets pair wonderfully with goat cheese and walnuts.

Enjoy!