THIS WEEK YOUR BASKET CONTAINS: lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumbers, basil, TOMATOES (half shares) OR SWEET PEPPERS (full shares), BEANS, CELERY, and summer squash.

POLLY WILL NOT BE GOING TO THE FARMERS MARKET IN AUGUST, so we will have an abundance of flowers for the month. You can sign up for a month of gorgeous flowers (5 weeks, through Sept. 3^rd ) for just $50. Just email us and we will help beautify your house for the month of August.

HOT PEPPERS are not too far in the future.  We only send along hot peppers IF YOU REQUST THEM.  If you were on the list last year, you don’t need to do anything.  If you want on (or off) the list, just email us.

From time to time, we get spare baskets back that have reusable bags in them without a name on them.  As we don’t know who returned the basket, we can’t use them again and we have a bit of a collection of “orphan” bags.  IF YOU HAVE LOST BAGS, send us an email describing the bags as best you can, and we will get them back to you.

Polly made the recipe below the other night, and it was amazing!  She used goat cheese instead of burrata, and skipped the accompanying bread.  She also made pesto with just a few basil leaves, a bit of parsley, salt, and walnuts (in a mortar and pestle).

BRAISED CHICKPEAS WITH ZUCCHINI AND PESTO

2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 to 2 cups vegetable broth

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 pound zucchini, quartered lengthwise, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup basil pesto

8 ounces of burrata or 1 cup fresh ricotta

Grated parmesan cheese, to finish

Sliced sourdough or country bread, grilled or toasted

Place chickpeas and 1 1/2 cups broth in a large braiser or saucepan. Scatter garlic, onion, pepper flakes, salt, and zucchini on top and drizzle olive oil over. No need to stir. Bring the ingredients to a simmer and cover with a lid to cook for 45 minutes total. However, at the 15-minute mark, remove the lid (but still, no need to stir yet). At the 30-minute mark, stir ingredients to evenly combine. If all of the liquid is gone from the pan or the chickpeas are sticking to the bottom, add the remaining 1/2 cup broth. Remove pan from heat and stir in pesto in dollops. Make divots for the burrata, using your fingers to tear it into chunks before nudging them into the pan. Finish with some parmesan and extra pepper flakes. Ladle into low bowls and serve with grilled bread.  Adapted from SmittenKitchen.com

As we have in the past couple of years, we are growing tromboncini, an heirloom Italian squash.  They are crazy looking gourd-like squash that are very nutty flavored and would work very well in the recipe above.  We’ll be handing them out in rotation, so if you haven’t seen them yet, you will.

In our never-ending quest to diversify our lineup of vegetables we try different crops in new time slots.  This spring we tried an early planting of celery.  Unfortunately, in part because of the very early very hot weather it didn’t do so well.  However, what survived is fine for Mirepoix.  Mirepoix, raw, roasted, or sauteed with butter or olive oil, is the flavor base for a wide variety of dishes such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces.

MIREPOIX

1 cup diced onions

1/2 cup diced carrot

1/2 cup diced celeriac

Try to dice vegetables to a uniform size. You can dice into larger pieces for a longer-cooking recipe, smaller for a shorter cooking time. The diced vegetables can be sauteed in olive oil or butter over relatively low heat until starting to brown. A littlle tomato sauce can then be added if desired.