Heat advisories make us long for cool summer rain, but we’ll settle for the beautiful rainbow of colors in our shares this week. Red lettuces and beets, golden onions and chard and squash, green cabbage and herbs and cucumbers, and for fruit share members blueberries. (More on berries below. Remember these are only for people who paid for a fruit share.)
We want to thank our volunteers and site supervisors last week for a job well done! A special shoutout to Nora for filling in the later shift.
This week’s volunteers are:
We are still looking for some high school volunteers if you know any teens with a service commitment to fill.
They’re here! Our new CSA tote bags will be available for sale tomorrow. The new bags are half-price – Â only $5! Â
NOTE: If you’re not planning to buy a bag, please bring a bag with you to take your veggies (and other products) home.
Dairy & egg shares:
To those with milk (goat or cow) or egg shares: please bring your [rinsed] milk jars back, as well as your empty egg cartons, so Goodale can re-use them.
Fruit shares start tomorrow! Please read the below information from your farmers regarding them.
As promised, the fruit shares from Briermere Farm begin this week! Please note that it will be delivered in separate crates as in past years. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please remember to sign in! Occasionally a volunteer is distracted and forgets to insist, please try to remember yourself. Signing also reminds everyone exactly what you get which streamlines the process.
And please let us know if you can’t pick up your share. We will do our best to work out a plan for an alternate pick up time for you, but even if you definitely are forfeiting, please just drop a line (email, text, phone call, Facebook message, etc). We cannot hold/save your share for you if we do not hear from you by 7:59 – and yes we do check email and answer the phone all throughout pick-up hours.
Also if you notice anyone wander in off the street looking to buy vegetables, please direct them to the shift coordinator or to the volunteer table where we have flyers explaining what the CSA is, and how we work.
If you are volunteering this week, it is absolutely essential that you read the volunteer directions below. The directions are slightly different than last year, so even seasoned members need to read!
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Upcoming Events
Check out our (or Just Food’s) Facebook for some cool upcoming JF events.
A note from your farmers
Hello again!
A quick note regarding the blueberries… As you know, we had planned on including two weeks of organic blueberries inside the CSA Vegetable Shares this season. Unfortunately, the berry farm had a surprisingly early end to their season and are unable to provide us with the second week of berries for you. We were very unhappy about this ourselves, as we had been working out the details with them since last winter. Nevertheless, we are going to include an extra week of our own organic watermelons inside the Vegetable Shares a little later this summer as a replacement.
We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.  Please note that the blueberries arriving at the sites this week are part of the Non-Organic Fruit Share, not organic berries as part of the Vegetable Shares.   Please do not take any blueberries from the crates if you are not a paid Fruit Share Member.
This week we’re excited to harvest some beautiful Rainbow Swiss Chard, Walla Walla onions, the second planting of cabbage and some other delicious summer delights!
In other farm news, the resident raccoons have been helping themselves to the sweet corn in the fields. GAME OVER. We immediately put up an electric fence to keep them out! We’re irrigating daily, cultivating our crops to keep the weeds out, and between CSA harvesting, we’re finding time to continue seeding our successive plantings in the greenhouse and maintaining and tying our tomatoes! Stay tuned for a full farm update (with pictures) coming out later this week.
Until then, enjoy this week’s sunshine and summer flavors…Â
– Maggie & Farmer Matt
This week in the shares:Â
Walla Walla Onions – Another week, another fresh gourmet onion! These Walla Wallas are the state vegetable of Washington, where they hail from. They are juicy, sweet onions, perfect for grilling, caramelizing or eating freshly sliced and diced in salads. Discard the tops or use them for making stock…
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw/Cooked. When to use: Within a week.
Beets – Beautiful, sweet beets for grating raw in salads or boiling and slicing. They can be easily grilled too!
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw/Cooked. When to use: Within a week.
Swiss Chard – This is one of the few leaf greens that loves the heat of the summer. It’s best cooked in all recipes – it’s really not meant to be eaten raw or used raw in recipes. Its stalks are edible, but tend to take a little longer to cook. In most recipes, we recommend giving the stems a head start cooking and then adding the leaves a few minutes later. Try Grannie’s Chard recipe below if you are a chard newbie, or if you think you don’t like it. It’s divine and even my kids gobble it up!
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Cooked. When to use: Within a week.
Green Cabbage – This is a fresh eating green cabbage, which means that it is full of flavor and moisture! Cabbage can be enjoyed in so many ways – in slaws, stuffed and baked, in soups, salads…Try one of our great recipes this week.
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw or cooked. When to use: Within 5 days.
Red Batavian Lettuce – This wonderful variety of lettuce grows pretty well in the heat of the summer. It is sturdy and crunchy like Romaine, but it has a slightly softer leaf texture. It’s my favorite lettuce variety of all!
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw. When to use: Within a week.
Parsley – We love growing (and eating) parsley in the summer. It’s a nutritional powerhouse and adds such fresh flavor to all sorts of dishes!
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw/Cooked. When to use: Within a week.
Cucumber – They are starting to come in nicely!
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw. When to use: Within a week.
Summer Squash or Zucchini  – Still no word on the mystery with our zucchini and summer squash. We did hear from many of you who are experiencing the same issues for the first time this season. We’ll let you know what we can find out…
Storage: In an airtight (plastic) bag in the refrigerator. Uses: Raw, Cooked. When to use: Within a week
RECIPES
Grannie’s French Swiss Chard
Simple Swiss Chard & Potatoes
Roasted Walla Walla Onions with Pine Nut Butter
Simple Grilled Walla Walla Onions
Caramelized Walla Walla Onions
Raw Grated Beet & Parsley Salad
Flushing Community Supported Agriculture 