Summer's last hooray
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Greetings Folks!
Regardless of the fact that the first day of fall doesn't occur until the middle of September, there is little doubt in my mind that August is summer's last hooray. So much of summer is just a state of mind, a time for indulging, vacation, music, celebration. As we approach the last three weeks of August, I started to panic a bit...so much summer fun that I kept putting off and now that we are in the home stretch, I am hoping to squeeze it all in. Maybe one last trip to the river to swim. Maybe one more sunny outdoor concert. Maybe a quick over night camping trip up the canyon. There are many parallels that can be drawn with all the fresh food in the summer. I haven't even had a Colorado melon yet and time is slipping away! When am I going to get sick of heirloom tomatoes? Is it still too hot to turn on my oven? sigh. After much hand ringing with my co-workers about missing out on summer, we came to the consensus that there is not much more that says summer than farming...which made me feel slightly better because there has been A LOT of that lately.
There has been a lot of farming lately because we are in the middle of the "glut". The time when there is more food being picked than can possibly be eaten. Heirloom tomatoes are at their peak and we will be offering $15 boxes of uglies at the market this week and next. Heirloom uglies are great for cooking down into jam, saucing with some slicing tomatoes, or roasting and freezing for a small taste of summer in the depths of the winter months. Slicing and Roma tomato boxes will be available starting next week and we are predicting them to hold steady into the first week in September. If you have been waiting to put away pesto for the winter, don't wait too long. Basil doesn't love temperatures in the 40s and is a great thing to do while it is still hot out because you don't have to cook ANYTHING!
Some of you have discovered the pints of shishito peppers that we have been sneaking into the market and farm stand the last two weeks. We are picking them nice and small this year, so they should be pleasantly mild and prefect for blistering in your skillet with some sea salt. Oddly addicting, set them out for your friends to nibble on before serving the whole banana of a main course...perhaps a summer southwestern succotash or elevation burger with the "works" (meaning caramelized sweet onions, heirloom tomatoes, pesto, and a piece of good head lettuce). Eggplant is abundant right now. Make some room in your stomach for eggplant parmesan or some Shaksuka and sleep fat and happy.
Looking forward to seeing many of you soon!
Katie
This Week's Harvest
- Kale
- Chard
- Head Lettuce
- Cucumber
- Zucchini (some from Garden Sweet
- Yellow Squash (Garden Sweet)
- Carrots
- Beets
- Tomatoes...heirloom, cherry, slicing
- Eggplant
- Peppers, hot, bell, shishito
- Fingerling Potatoes (Strohaur)
- Sweet Onions
- Beans, Green and Dragon Lingerie
- Flowers
