Hi everyone, Jess here to recap the 5th Springdell Summer CSA pickup of the season. What a heatwave we’ve been having! I hope you are all staying healthy in this warm weather. It’s been tough to cook! The good news is there are lots of veggies in the share that taste lovely raw or cooked.
You may recall from the “Show” earlier this week that I had some trouble getting my veggies AND my head together for this photo, accidentally leaving out the bok choy!
All other veggie scraps composted unless otherwise noted.
I love that Farmer Jamie opened the “volunteer” sunflower field for all to pick this week. With these sunflowers cleared out (Mother Nature replanted these herself after Briar’s Sunflower Patch reseeded), Jamie will be planting another field. There are some lovely photos of sunflower bouquets from our Fellow Springdellians on the Springdell CSA Facebook Page this week. Thanks for sharing these summer beauties, Farmer Jamie!You may recall this meal of my son’s Slow Cooker Short Ribs earlier in the week. They were so delicious I wanted to mention them again. These yummy roasted beets ended up coming to New Hampshire and being sliced into a goat cheese and balsamic wrap. Here are the Swiss chard ribs, ready for this family fave. Instead of using egg noodles, I just threw the greens on top of this halfway through the cooking and let them wilt into the dish. Who needs noodles when you can have more Swiss chard?Here’s a favorite salad of mine with bok choy, half devoured before I remembered to snap the photo.I was heading north this week to a friend’s house and packed a bunch of veggies, some Springdell Beef Kabobs, and a jar of Simple Stir Fry Sauce. I wound up doing more of a simmer than a stir fry, but it all turned out just fine.I’ve been working my way through a big bag of frozen Springdell Strawberries this week. Here’s a smoothie in progress with said strawberries, kale, probiotic cashew yogurt, protein powder and a frozen banana. It’s been a “drink your breakfast” kind of summer.As I mentioned, my nine year-old has taken an interest in cooking, and I’m psyched! He made a “dessert pizza” this week using Springdell frozen berries, blueberries and black raspberries. There was some hand grated dark chocolate, marshmallows, Nutella, and a dusting of powdered sugar. Pizza dough was rolled onto the pizza stone and baked up with a brush of butter before the goodies were added and popped back in the oven for a few. Nice job, son!Finally, here’s a photo of quick roasted zucchini ribbons being prepped for tonight’s Meatless Monday Zucchini Lasagna. I roasted these last night while it was cooler to cut down on active stove time during the heatwave… With roasting these slices, I am trying something new to cut down on the water that accumulates in the baking dish as the zucchini releases moisture. My old modus operandi was to salt the zucchini and let it sit and drain in a colander, but in looking at the photos you’ll see there is still a significant amount of liquid. I’ll keep you posted on this one, I have a feeling I’ll be updating the recipe soon!
It’s been a pretty quiet week overall cooking-wise due to the heat and camping, but we managed to enjoy just about all our veggies (except the cabbage and much of the garlic, which thankfully store nicely).
A quick reminder that Springdell Family Night has been moved to this Saturday the 27th from 6-9pm. Bring your own dinner and any beverages that you’d like, and hang out with your farm family! Story Time (1pm) and Feeding Hour (4pm) are also coming up this Thursday. Hope to see you at some of these fun farm events!
