We also add shelled, hard boiled eggs to the juice, and after 2 to 3 days, they are a beautiful purple all the way down to the yolk (and taste divine!). Slice these eggs, and they are a stunning garnish to salads.

Ingredients

• 6 medium to large fresh beets, scrubbed and tops cut off
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups cider vinegar (real–not cider flavored)
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 Tablespoon whole allspice
• 3 Tablespoons pickling spice

Preparation Instructions

Put beets in a large saucepan or stockpot and add enough cold water to cover them with 3 inches over the top. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to maintain a slow boil. Cook until beets are tender when pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes. Pour water off and let beets cool. Slip skins off once the beets are cool enough to handle. Slice and set aside.

Place the sugar, cider vinegar, water, salt, and spices in a smaller saucpan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Pour this pickling liquid into a large glass jar (1.5 liter or 1/2 gallon), add the sliced beets, cover with a lid and refrigerate. Let the beets sit at least a week before tasting.

Add shelled hard boiled eggs to the mixture as well. Try to use them in 2 to 3 days. If left in the pickling liquid too long, they turn rubbery.

Keep adding more cooked beets (and eggs) as needed. May keep in the refrigerator up to 6 months.

Helpful Hints

These beets make a delicious summer lunch accompanying good cheese and home made bread.

For vegan beets, make sure the sugar you use is vegan. Some white sugar is processed with bone char.

thespicehouse.com

Sml Lettuce Heads

Scallions

Beets – Try the Beet Chocolate Cake Recipe or Pickled Beets.

Tomatoes – variety of sizes, color, shape and ripeness.  They will ripen naturally on your counter.  Tomatoes do not need to be refrigerated.

Grean Beans or Yellow Wax Beans

Yellow Summer Squash

Broccoli – This end of season stuff will not keep long without browning plan on eating for dinner tonight.  (The best way to store broccoli is in a bowl of ice)

Basil – Lemon and Purple

Fresh Garlic

Cucumber

The boxes aren’t as fat this week for several reasons.  The beautiful head lettuces you have been receiving bolted all at once last week in the long summer sun.  The salad mix was beaten up by torrential rain fall.  The cauliflower had browned and I didn’t feel like it was good enough to put in the boxes.  We are at the end of the broccoli.  The swiss chard was holey and brown from overly wet hot days.  Also there were about three weeks of overly satureated fields.  We could not plant succession crops on time that we would be harvesting right now.  We are also right on the cusp of the main season crops beginning to produce.  There is some fruit but not enough to add to the boxes yet.

People are mistaken if they think farmers are loving all this rain.  Maybe if you have a monocrop that you planted only once this spring, you wouldn’t mind this much rain.  But for farmers who are trying to plant a variety of succession crops each week it has been really hard to keep things going.  After large amounts of rainfall we need several dry days to be able to get the tractors into the fields to prepare beds or cultivate.  Just before the fields were dry enough it would rain again.  We’ve lost crops to the weeds because we could not get in there to pull them without pulling out the veggie plants as wet clay soil clumps together. Plant disease grows and spreads in warm wet fields where the leaves never fully dry and there is constant standing water.

So we are sorry that mother nature has not been more accomodating to our planting plans this season.  And I assure you it is not do to lack of effort on our part.  It’s all part of sharing the risk of farming that you so bravely signed up for. But do not dispare this is not to say that all the boxes will be this way, far from it.  We are just experiencing a lull this week.  There are lots of full boxes of veggies yet to come!  August and September are big months for harvesting.  All of the main season crops that have been doing nothing but silently growing will burst into fruit!  The succession crops that we were late in planting will suddenly mature!  The weed pressure is lessoning as the light level begins to shorten each day.  And the cool loving fall crops will be showing their faces yet again!

Thank you one and all for participating in the realities of farming at the whim of mother nature.  It has it’s ups and downs but by the end of the season you look back and see that it all balances out!

Ingredients:

• 3 large beets
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.
2. Trim stems off beets, and wash off dirt. Drizzle olive oil over beets. Wrap loosely in foil and place on a sturdy baking sheet. Roast 45-55 minutes, until tender when pierced with a fork.
3. Remove from oven and let beets cool 10-15 minutes. Peel and cut into chunks.
4. Place beet chunks and applesauce in a food processor, fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until smooth.
5. Beat sugar, oil and eggs together in a large mixing bowl. Add cocoa powder and beet mixture. Mix well.
6. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually mix into batter until no clumps of flour show. Do not overmix.
7. Stir in half of the chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan.
8. Bake 40 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake another 2-10 minutes until cake is done.

To store all types of fresh basil, keep the stem ends in a glass of water and cover with a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator. Or, wrap in a paper towel and store in a ziplock bag and refrigerate. Basil can stay fresh for up to one week, but it is best to use as soon as possible as it is very perishable.  Have fun and use your nose to distinguish each variety!

Cinnamon basil’s deep green glossy leaves offer a unique cinnamon taste and release a matching aroma. This special variety of basil is reminiscent to spicy cinnamon when crushed. Ideal for adding subtle cinnamon flavor and a tempting cinnamony fragrance to Southeast Asian dishes.

Teas, vegetable dishes and fruit salads love cinnamon basil. Rub leaves on beef or cook with a pot roast or pork tenderloin stuffed with apples. Poultry, fish, veal and lamb dishes welcome its flavor. Use in pesto flavored with ground toasted walnuts and pine nuts. Drizzle leaves with a port and lemon juice vinaigrette. Pear and apple salads benefit from its goodness. Cinnamon basil sprigs add flavor and visual appeal to cranberry and apple juice, fruit nectars, chutneys and jellies. Excellent for tomato dishes, pasta sauces and cold or hot soups. Pair with beans, pasta, rice, cheese and eggs. Combine with other fruity flavored herbs. Flavor vinegar. Use as lovely edible garnish. This basil makes a fragrant potpourri herb. Add pizzazz to cheesecake or a cheesecake mixes with one-half cup chopped cinnamon basil leaves. Stir in just before filling the crust. Chill. Garnish with cinnamon basil sprigs. To store, treat fresh basil like a flower. Put stems in a pot or glass of water; use within three to six days. Refrigerating fresh basil causes this delicate herb to develop dark brown spots, which ruins its flavor and presentation.

specialtyproduce.com

Cinnamon Basil, Chicken and Nut Spread

1/4 c. sweet butter, softened
1 t. honey
1/3 c. very finely chopped cooked chicken
3 t. washed, dried and finely chopped cinnamon basil leaves
3 T. almonds, very finely chopped
Salt to taste

Blend softened butter and honey until smooth. Stir in chicken, cinnamon basil and almonds. Salt to taste.

Serve on very thin bread with crusts removed. (Think high tea….)

I don’t know where I got this recipe; I think it was from the Cooking Forum;

Lemon Basil can be used with almost any recipes that require basil, including seafood (mainly fish), chicken, pesto, sprinkled on salads.  Anything that’s good with Lemon and Pepper.

Seared Salmon with Lemon Basil Risotto

Place 1 teaspoon of the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.

Add the onion and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the arborio rice and stir for about 2 minutes.

Add the water, chicken broth, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low so that the rice is simmering. Cook for about 20 minutes until the rice is just tender. Add more water 1/4 cup at a time as needed to let the rice cook, but when it is done there should be almost no liquid left.

Add the goat cheese and reduce the heat to medium low. Stir gently so that the goat cheese melts. Reduce the heat to low.

Place a large skillet over high heat and add 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Sear the salmon and cook for about 2 – 3 minutes on each side.

Just before the fish is done, add the basil to the risotto and stir. Divide the risotto between two bowls and top with the salmon.

While the large skillet is still hot, toss in the green onions and toss for about 30 seconds until they begin to wilt. Place the green onions on top of the fish and serve.

Thai Basil tastes rather like anise, looks like sweet basil and is therefore sometimes called Thai Sweet Basil. Bai horapa is used in large quantities and in many dishes in Thailand, including stir-fries, salads and soups and Thai red and green curry. This tropical variety is the source of the unusual basil flavor in many Thai dishes. The leaves are smaller and a darker green then Western sweet basil, with purple stems and purple flower buds. The edible leaves and flowers have a distinctly licorice scent. templeofthai.com

Purple Basil use as traditional basil.

Salad Mix sml bag- Go through this one more time before storing.  It took quite a beating in the rain storms.

Carrots

Radishes

Tomatoes – mix of yellow, red and saladettes.  Eat the ripest ones first.  The less ripe tomatoes will ripen in a day or two on the counter.

Scallions

Garlic Scapes

Dill

Basil Bouquet – Tasting of lemon, purple, cinnamon and thai.

Broccoli – Soak in salt water before cooking, this will send bugs floating to the top.

Beets – Still trying to get excited about beets?  Try the Chocolate Beet Cake recipe!

*This is a lull in veggie production.  We had a few weeks with two much rain to plant succession crops.  The Cauliflower got too wet and was not good enough to put in the boxes this week.  All of the Head Lettuce bolted last week in the long summer sun.  And the main season crops are just ripening.  Which means there is plenty more to look forward too!!

“I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world”

- George Washington

Chop and blanch the Swiss chard leaves. Warm the oil with the garlic in a wide skillet over medium heat. When the garlic is golden, remove it. Add the raisins and pine nuts and cook until the raisins are plumped and the pine nuts are golden. Add the greens and cook until they’re heated through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

Red Leaf Lettuce

Green Leaf Lettuce

Carrots 6-8- remove greens for storage.

Radishes (greens removed)

Cauliflower – soak in bowl of salt water to rid of bugs (broccoli too).

Broccoli – store in coldest part of refridgerator, can even be put on ice.

Scallions

Garlic Scapes – cut off woody ends if needed

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Saladette Tomatoes

Dill small bunch

Cilantro small bunch

Bouquet Basil small bunch – includes cinnamon, lemon, purple and Thai

*check out recipe for freezing and drying herbs