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The Funkiest Man In The Room: Topos Ferments' Jim Bovino on how to stay ahead of the mountain of produce overwhelming your kitchen - The Growler

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The Funkiest Man In The Room: Topos Ferments' Jim Bovino on how to stay ahead of the mountain of produce overwhelming your kitchen  The Growler

Your kitchen counter is covered with more produce than you can eat in the week ahead. What's an overloaded cook to do? Jim Bovino has a plan for that.

Week 14 from Valley Flora

Beet Box -

Week 14 from Valley Flora Pepperpalooza!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
View this email in your browser
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What's Cookin' at the Farm...
 
  • Halfway!
  • Sweet Peppers are On!
  • And the U-Pick Just Keeps Giving...
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What's In Your Share This Week:*
  • Walla Walla Sweet Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Head Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Carrots
  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Zucchini
  • Collards
  • Sweet Peppers
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Green Beans
  • Cilantro
  • Basil
*Harvest Basket contents may vary between pickup sites in a given week depending on what's ripe and ready on the farm. Don't worry - if something is on the list but not in your tote, you'll get it soon!

The VF Crystal Ball - What might be in your share next week...
  • Onions
  • Carrots
  • Cucumbers
  • Corn
  • Basil or Dill
  • Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Zucchini
  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Peppers
  • Hot Peppers
Halfway!
The totes are a little lighter this week, whew. I'm guessing most of you could use a small reprieve after last week's wheelbarrow full of produce (I hope no one sustained any back injuries lugging their veggies home...).

This week marks the tipping point into the second half of our CSA season: 14 weeks down, 14 more to go. Some of my favorite things begin to show up in the coming month, like sweet peppers! melons! more corn! The confluence of summer and fall makes for the best eating of the whole year, always. And for those of you who think the CSA season couldn't possibly go all the way into December, this is your reminder to mark you calendars: the final week of the CSA will be the week of December 2nd (December 4th for Coos Bay and the Farm, December 7th for Bandon and Port Orford).
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Sweet Peppers are On!
Which means two things if you are me:
  1. Eat as many peppers as humanly possible, for as long as possible, everyday while they are in season.
  2. Order yourself a bulk batch of peppers so you can continue to eat as many peppers as humanly possible, including all winter (in frozen, roasted and pickled form). To do so email Bets, the Grand Poobah of Pepper Production, and give her your NAME, PICKUP SITE, PHONE NUMBER and the QUANTITY and TYPE of PEPPER you want! They are $22 for 5 pounds, and you can choose from Stocky Red Roasters (that's the red Italian type pepper in your share this week) or a mix of Stocky, Gypsy (pictured below), and Glow (the orange pepper in your share).
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And the U-Pick Just Keeps Giving!
We opened up another couple beds to u-pick today, making for the most u-pick space of the whole season. There is still a lot of fruit coming out of the field, red and ripe and sweet! Take note that the late summer and fall strawberries always have a shorter shelf life, so we recommend either keeping them refrigerated or putting them in your freezer or jam pot right away. With school starting next week, we anticipate less traffic in the u-pick patch, which means the fruit should be ample and the crowds a little thinner.
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The Farmstand is Open for Summer Hours!
 
Every Wednesday & Saturday (rain or shine)
9 am to 2 pm

Fresh Produce
U-Pick Strawberries & Flowers
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags and u-pick containers!

Directions to the Farm
For Recipes & Cooking Inspiration:
 
Valley Flora Recipe Wizard
Our own collection of recipes gathered over the years.
 
Epicurious
A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients
 
Full Belly Farm
Recipes from one of my favorite farms in California, pioneers of the organic movement since the 80s.

Farm Fresh to You
A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient.
 
Helsing Junction Farm
A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes geared toward CSA members.
Copyright © 2019 Valley Flora, All rights reserved.


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Week 13 from Valley Flora!

Beet Box -

Week 13 from Valley Flora! Oh-so-sweet Sweet Corn!
Thanks for eating locally from our family farm!
View this email in your browser
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What's Cookin' at the Farm...
  • Heavy: Corn, Sweet Peppers, and Beautiful Annina
  • Pickling Cukes Still Pumping!
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What's In Your Share This Week:*
  • Red Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Head Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Carrots
  • Beets
  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Zucchini
  • Parsely
  • Potatoes
  • Sweet Corn
On Rotation:
(Some locations will receive it this week; others in a future week)
  • Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Romano Green Beans
*Harvest Basket contents may vary between pickup sites in a given week depending on what's ripe and ready on the farm. Don't worry - if something is on the list but not in your tote, you'll get it soon!

The VF Crystal Ball - What might be in your share next week...
  • Onions
  • Carrots
  • Cucumbers
  • Collards?
  • Cilantro or Basil?
  • Lettuce
  • Strawberries
  • Zucchini
  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Peppers
Heavy
I was compelled to weigh a packed Harvest Basket yesterday and it bottomed out our twenty-pound spring dial scale. I grabbed the forty pound digital scale instead and it read 25 pounds, which means about 22.7 pounds of produce is stuffed into one of those little Rubbermaids for you this week. Poor Amelia and Evan, our delivery angels! Lucky you.

Blame it on August, I guess. Some big fat ears of corn ripened up this week - a white variety called "Illusion." Super duper sweet. They also might be harboring a little surprise when you shuck them: corn earworm. I've never seen earworm so early on the farm; if we get it at all it's usually in our last planting, not our first. It's a harmless but gross grub that is simply trying to fatten up to become a nondescript brown moth (which happens to also have a voracious appetite for tomatoes and cotton). If you find any, just cut the tip off the corn and you're good to go. If you have a flock of chickens, they love a nice fat earworm snack.
Fun Farm Factoid of the Week: the nocturnal moths lay eggs on the corn silks and when they hatch the larva start feeding on the corn kernels, usually a little herd of of them pigging out together. But alas, they are aggressive and cannibalistic so in the end you usually just see one juicy earworm at the tip of your corn, with a belly full of other earworms. Kinda makes you glad to not be an earworm.
On top of the mountain of sweet corn and beets and potatoes and cukes and zucchini, Bets surprised us in the barn yesterday with the first bin of sweet peppers. It's the beginning of "jelly bean" season, she calls it, when life revolves around bins of shiny red, orange, yellow, and purple fruits, whether they be peppers or tomatoes or plums.

And then, the eggplant. Some weekend heat equaled a nice harvest on Monday, including our first haul of lovely Annina, the striped eggplant pictured above. I swooned when I spotted her in the seed catalogue last winter - and even though I am steadfastly loyal to our workhorse Traviata (the dark purple variety you are used to getting), I had to buy a (very expensive) packet of Annina seed. We planted just one bed out of five and what I've observed so far is that she's a few weeks slower than Traviata and is a vigorous, large-statured, matronly plant. There are so many baby eggplants under her canopy of leaves right now it reminds me of a mother hen sitting on a clutch of eggs. Hopefully that means we'll be eating a lot of Annina in the coming weeks, because the first broiled slab I had was amazingly creamy and sweet. Not everyone will get a glimpse of Annina this week, but soon.
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The Pickling Cukes Won't Quit!
I figured they'd have given up the ghost by now, but no, those little picklers just keep coming! I hope some of you still want to try making a couple gallons of my favorite "Bubbies" pickle recipe, because I have cukes that want a nice glass jar to call home. Email me your name, pickup site, phone number, and the quantity and size you want. Smalls (perfect for pickling whole) are $3.50/lb; medium (pickle whole or in spears) $3.00/lb; and large (ideal for for bread and butter or dill slices) $2.50/pound.
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The Farmstand is Open for Summer Hours!
 
Every Wednesday & Saturday (rain or shine)
9 am to 2 pm

Fresh Produce
U-Pick Strawberries & Flowers
Homemade Jam & Hot Sauce

Please bring your own bags and u-pick containers!

Directions to the Farm
For Recipes & Cooking Inspiration:
 
Valley Flora Recipe Wizard
Our own collection of recipes gathered over the years.
 
Epicurious
A vast collection of recipes, searchable by one or multiple ingredients
 
Full Belly Farm
Recipes from one of my favorite farms in California, pioneers of the organic movement since the 80s.

Farm Fresh to You
A storehouse of recipes, searchable by ingredient.
 
Helsing Junction Farm
A Washington farm that has a good collection of seasonal recipes geared toward CSA members.
Copyright © 2019 Valley Flora, All rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences 

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