This week your basket contains: snap peas or snow peas, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, spring onions, carrots, tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, beets, and broccoli.

THIS COMING SUNDAY, JULY 24^TH  IS THE DATE FOR OUR NEXT SUBSCRIBER DAY!  From 11:00 to 3:00 we are hosting a pot luck lunch (we’ll be making pizza), leading farm tours and getting to know our subscribers better.  BLACKBERRIES are ready (and free) for picking. Bring your containers and pick as many as you like! Come on out and enjoy an afternoon on the farm.

This week’s beets are tasty, tender and perfect for roasting (we put some around a chicken with other veggies and they were delicious).  This recipe (simple and readily modified to match your tastes) is a quick and easy way to use them.

5-MINUTE BEETS

1 pound beets

1 tablespoon butter

Salt and freshly milled pepper

Grate the beets into coarse shreds.  Melt the butter in a skillet, add the beets, and toss them with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste.  Add ¼ cup water, then cover the pan and cook over medium heat until the beets are tender.  Remove the lid and raise the heat to boil off any excess water.  If you don’t mind the shocking color, serve with a dollop of yogurt on top.  (We think it is beautiful!)   From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Serves 4 to 6

CARROT SALAD 

2 cups grated carrot

3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 grated apple

¼ cup coconut

½ cup orange juice

1/8 teaspoon ginger

Mix grated carrot and apple.  Add orange juice, lemon juice, coconut and ginger.  Mix well.  Serve chilled.  From The New Laurel’s Kitchen.  Serves 4

STEAMED FRESH VEGETABLES AND TOFU WITH SOBA NOODLES

1 ½ lb. broccoli

2 large carrots (optional)

1 medium onion

12-15 large mushrooms

¾ lb. firm tofu

8 oz. uncooked soba noodles

4 Tbsp. yellow, Hatcho or barley miso

6 Tbsp. almond butter

1 1/1 cup boiling water

To make the miso-almond sauce, place miso and almond butter in a medium-sized bowl.  Add a small amount of hot water (about ½ cup) and mash with a spoon until it becomes a uniform paste.  Add remaining water and mix until well combined.  Cut broccoli into 2-inch spears.  Slice optional carrots into ¼ inch thick slices.  Cut onion or leek into 1 inch cubes.  Quarter the mushrooms.  Cut tofu into 1-inch cubes.  Get two pans of water boiling.  Steam vegetables over one while boiling soba noodles in the other.  Both soba and vegetables should be ready in 6-8 minutes, depending on your taste.  Drain noodles, transfer to a bowl, add about ½ cup of miso-almond sauce and mix well.  Serve vegetables on top od lightly sauced noodles.  Ladle additional sauce over vegetables and top with toasted cashews or almonds if desired.  Serves 4. From Still Life with Menu Cookbook by Mollie Katzen.

HOT PEPPERS will be ready soon.  We only put these in your basket if you have asked for them.  If you were on the hot pepper list last year, we still have a record of that and will be sending them along to you as we can throughout the summer and fall.  IF YOU WANT TO BE ADDED TO THE LIST just email and we will add you.

BLUEBERRY orders have been far outpacing our production.  Many of you have ordered full flats, but it is unlikely that we will have enough to fill those orders.  If you would settle for fewer, please email us again and let us know.  We’ll do our best to get you as much as we can. EGGS continue to be utterly underwhelming.  We are working on the situation and hope to back in business soon.  We apologize for the lack of production.

FLOWERS ARE GOING CRAZY!  While we love the way the gardens look with beds of gorgeous flowers in bloom, we would like to share the beauty with you.  Polly will put together an amazing bouquet for you for only $7.  If you order 3 bouquets in a week they are only $18.  Why not fill your house with the beauty of summer!

CLOTH PRODUCE BAGS have arrived and we think they are great.  If you ordered and haven’t seen any in your baskets yet, drop us an email.  TO ORDER BAGS, just email us and let us know how many you would like.  They are $2.50/bag (our cost) asnd we recommend 4-6 bags (2-3 bags for each of your two baskets). Just email to order