This week your basket contains: Asian broccoli and/or European broccoli, cabbage, zucchini, cucumber,  BEANS, onions, beets, elephant garlic, and carrots.

FLOWERS ARE GOING CRAZY!  You can order a beautiful bouquet for your home any week (25+ stems for $10).  Also, in August , when Polly doesn’t go to Farmers’ Market, you can order 5 weeks of flowers for $50.  We’ll send them along with your veggies and bill you in September for any flowers you receive in august.  Just email to order.

We’re pleased that our planting of bush beans started to produce just as the peas were petering out.  The recipe below is one of my favorite ways of serving beans.

GARLIC BEANS WITH FILBERTS

1/2 lb. beans, cut to 1-2 inch pieces

2-3 small carrots, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup chopped filberts

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. butter

salt to taste

Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy frying pan.  Sauté onions and garlic until the onions are translucent.  Add carrots, chopped nuts (almonds or walnuts can be substituted for filberts) and salt.  I tend not to use much salt when I cook, but this is one recipe where I use more than usual.  The effect you are shooting for is for the nuts to take on a salted, roasted taste.  Cook for 3-5 minutes.  Add the beans and cook stirring until they take on a dark green color.  This recipe is also great with snow peas instead of green beans.

The recipe below has become one of our favorite ways to eat beets.

BEET ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD

2 to 5 beets

half a small onion

2 tablespoons vinegar

sea salt or kosher salt to taste

Pinch of sugar

2 to 3 oranges

2 tablespoons olive oil

handful of black, oil-cured olives, pitted and halved

Place beets in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then cook at a gentle simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or even longer, depending on the size. Just cook them until they are tender — when you stick a small knife into each beet, it should go in smoothly. Let beets cool in the water, then drain them and peel them. Cut each beet into wedges or small cubes and place on a serving platter. Season all over with salt.   Meanwhile, mince the shallot or onion and place in a small bowl. Cover with the vinegar. Season with a pinch of salt and sugar and set aside. Trim off the top and bases of the oranges, and with a sharp knife, slice down along the flesh of the orange to remove the peel. Remove the segments by slicing between the membranes. (Alternatively, cut the oranges into slices, then cut the slices again so that the oranges are in bite-size pieces.) Squeeze the membrane and any orange peels with flesh still attached over the bowl with the macerating shallots. Pour half of the shallot-vinegar-orange mixture over the beets and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Scatter the oranges over top. Pour the remaining shallot mixture over top as well as the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Scatter olives over top. Let sit a few minutes before serving. As you serve, spoon the dressing pooling at the bottom of the plate over the beets and oranges. You could, of course, give everything a toss, just know that the beets will color everything red.   Adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi.

We use the basic recipe below, but “spiralize” the squash for thinner ribbons that pickle almost immediately.

ZUCCHINI PICKLE RIBBONS

1 cup  cider vinegar

1 cup  water

1/4  cup  sugar

2 teaspoons  salt

1 teaspoon  mustard seeds

1 teaspoon  turmeric

1/2  teaspoon  crushed red pepper

8 fresh dill sprigs

3 garlic cloves, peeled

3 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced lengthwise

1 cup  thinly sliced onion

Combine first 9 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Combine zucchini and onion in a large bowl; pour hot vinegar mixture over vegetables. Cover and let stand at room temperature 3 hours. Chill 8 hours before serving.  Note: Store, covered, in refrigerator up to 1 month.