In this Week's Box

When you get this week’s box home, keep the basil in a warm part of the refrigerator (such as the door), in its insulating paper bag. Tomatoes stay out on the counter. Remember, tomatoes will ripen faster in the sun than out of it, and you can accelerate ripening by putting them in a paper bag. Carrots, green peppers, fresh onions, and kale go in the refrigerator in a bag. Zucchini would like a warmer spot in the refrigerator. Garlic gets stored dry and cool, not in the refrigerator.

Round Red Tomatoes – From our greenhouses.

Sungolds - Ah, the sheer joy of Sungold Cherry Tomatoes. We really shouldn’t grow these in the greenhouse—their long vines have a tendency to take over despite our best efforts to slow them down - but we feel passionate about these little orange nuggets, even though we have occasionally had to get out our drywall stilts to harvest the uppermost fruits on this semi-wild crop! Does it get any better than this?

Gold Zucchini

Fresh Red Onions

Garlic

Kale – This curly green is loaded with all kinds of good things for you. When I feel blue or like I’ve got something coming on, I dive into the kale in a big way. I most often prepare it by sautéing stemmed and chopped kale in a covered skillet for a few minutes, then sprinkling on tamari soy sauce and covering again to let it stem for a few minutes longer. But the kids love it when I take a few extra minutes to make the crispy kale in this week’s recipes.

Carrots

Basil - Over the years, we’ve made a lot of pesto here, and I’ve learned that if you have a mortar and pestle, it is very much worth the extra work it takes to produce pesto this way rather than in a food processor; if you don’t have a mortar and pestle, it’s worth getting one for the extra-fine flavor and texture it provides. Besides, it’s much easier to clean than any food processor I’ve ever worked with. The kids and I made pizza this week with olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh basil, thinly-sliced tomatoes, and some fresh mozzarella cheese. It was outstanding.

Green Peppers – As I’ve heard from many other farmers this summer, our pepper plants are not doing as well as one might hope. We decided to dip into our supply of future red peppers to get some green ones this week.