Jack’s B.U.G. Video for Week #10 8-21-24

Hello and welcome to week 10 of the Featherstone Farms summer CSA program.

It's remaining cool in the middle of August folks, which is slowing down some of these wonderful things we've come to expect this time of year. Muskmelons, red bell peppers, some of the watermelons, heirloom tomatoes are still coming in great numbers, but delayed because of these cool nights. Good news, forecast this weekend it's going to warm up and you'll see a lot more of those things in boxes very shortly. But we do have wonderful crops that I'll talk about this week.

More sweet corn, wonderful crop this week featuring a recipe for Mexican street corn salsa that I think you will really enjoy. You can substitute hot peppers in the box for the ancho chili powder and make it as spicy as you like.

Watermelons, we are really dialing in to make sure that these watermelons are ripe for you. Please let Karin know if you have any issues, but we're doing our best on melons.

We have wonderful Napa cabbage. This makes great kimchi, it's great for stir fries, but honestly for me the very, VERY best thing for Napa cabbage is that fresh slaw. Cutting those white ribs into thin strips has a wonderful crunch and goes with any type of dressing. I strongly recommend using Napa for summer salads. Napa is the way to go.

We have cucumbers this week and a lot more green bell peppers. Three weeks ago, I talked about small or lighter three lobe peppers. Now we're into these heavier four lobe bell peppers. Getting good weight, a lot more production for cutting, and as I said before, ripening for the next week or two. We have a lot of really fine peppers in the works, particularly when it warms up.

In the box this week, more eggplant. Ongoing eggplant crop. We have alternating between Asian types like this and globes.

We have hot peppers. This is something that can be used for all salsas. The red is a cayenne, Hungarian wax, and serrano peppers. These have beautiful color and are spicy for all different types of salsas. As I mentioned, we have many varietals coming that are much sweeter. Carmen red peppers, red and gold bell peppers. As it heats up, you'll see more of these in your boxes.

Collard greens. These are hard to grow folks. Beautiful collards. My recommendation for this time of year in particular, any recipe for stuffed cabbage rolls, cabbage leaves. Substitute collards for that cabbage wrapper.

We have heirloom tomatoes.  This is our second week of heirlooms. There are quite a few but they are still ripening and taking their time due to the cool nights. Please be very gentle with them. They need a few more days to ripen. This one is very close to ready to eat with that blush on there. This one will take about three days. The best way to ripen the tomatoes is to leave them in the paper bag that they come in. Remove any that are ripe. The others can stay in there where the ethylene gas that the tomatoes produce will ripen the other fruits in the bag more quickly. Room temperature in your kitchen.

Lots and lots of cherry tomatoes are still coming. Wonderful crop.

And then I'd like to focus on a couple of the herbs over here. Special herbs. We're back into cilantro which is a key thing for your elote salsa or any other types of salsas you may make.

And fantastic field grown arugula which also difficult to produce this time of year because of flea beetles. Wonderful flavor here and very tender. Both are very tender. In response to customer feedback, we are putting these directly into the box not bagging them in plastic. We hope they come in good shape. We want them to last for you. They're super fresh and super volatile. Tasty as can be.

Basil. Fresh basil. Larger bags this week. Again, fresh herbs like this for Italian dishes associated with tomatoes. You know how to use your basil. There will be more coming in the next week or two.

Thanks very much folks. See you next week.