This week’s newsletter includes recipes for Green Sauce with Avocado, Tomato-Tomatillo Salsa, and Summer pasta.

Carnegie Hill Newsletter – Week 11

Dear CSA Member,

It seems that every year there is a vegetable of the season that just simply produces more than we could have imagined.  A couple of years ago it was the beets.  This year it looks like it will be carrots.  Carrots always amaze me but this year they have grown incredibly well.   Pete and I have wanted to move aside slowly so the next generation could move in and Peter and Arliss now have the complete responsibility of all our production and harvest.  They also do all of the driving to distribute the shares.  A lot on young shoulders.  They say the amazing carrot production is due to their superior management of the garden so confidence is not in short supply.  Not sure, but there are a lot of carrots. The seed of the carrot is so light and the plants take so long to germinate that it is a constant battle keeping the weeds under control and the feathery leaves of the carrots growing.  What a grand reward when we start to dig them.

What about the onions this season?  They are the sweetest and largest we have ever grown.  Try slicing them and roasting them.  Just delicious.  Peppers are so plentiful and the flavor is very good. Everything balances out in the end.

The tomatoes are plentiful although you may find that some have a green or yellow top.  Just too much rain and cool and not enough heat and sun.  But there are tomatoes and there is nothing like a tomato slice with a basil leaf sprinkled with salt.  The Sun Gold Cherries continue on and just can not be beat for their flavor. Savor the summer flavors.

Three notes:

1.  To place orders for Honduran Dark Roast Cloud Forest Coffee, Guatemalan Highlands Cafe Roast Coffee, Honey, Maple, Stoneledge Farm Dill Pickles, log into your account at CSA Locations on the farm website www.stoneledgefarmny.org.  Your order will be delivered with the CSA shares.  If you have questions or trouble logging in, just send an e-mail to info@stoneledgefarmny.org.  We will have coffee, honey, maple and pickles for sale the day of the Farm Festival as well.

2.  Mark your calendar for the Farm Festival September 10, 11-3.  Please bring your own place setting (plate, silver ware, cup) and a side dish to share.  There will be local pork and sweet corn on the grill, local fresh fruit and we have water and also coffee available.

We have just heard that Solar Punch, a solar powered eco-rock band, and members of the Sustainable Hastings CSA, will be preforming at the Farm Festival.  You can learn more about their mission and message at www.solarpunch.org. To hear some of their originals http://www.solarpunch.org/solarpunch/MUSIC_%26_VIDEO.html.

Carol Clement from Heather Ridge Farm will also be at the Farm Festival once again with her grass fed meat and poultry products.  She also has socks from her llama and sheep fiber, soap and candles.  I am placing a copy of her order form on the farm website on the Farm Blog.  You can download the PDF and place a pre-order if you would like.  Or you can pick up items at the Farm Festival.  If you order or would like to purchase meat and poultry, please bring a cooler with ice.  There is a country store near the farm and you can also pick up ice there. The meat is all frozen.  You can find out more about Heather Ridge Farm at www.Heather-ridge-farm.com.

3. Brenna is gathering recipes for the website.  If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it to her at stoneledgefarm2@gmail.com.  With all of the carrots coming, dig out your favorites using carrots and other root crops.

Enjoy the Vegetables

Deborah, for everyone at Stoneledge Farm

Pete, Peter, Arliss and Brenna

Full Vegetable Share
Slicing Tomatoes – 2 pounds
Cluster Tomatoes – 1 pound
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes -1 basket
Summer Spinach – 1 bunch
Edamame (Soybeans) – 1 bunch
Wala Wala Onions – 1
Carrots – 1 bunch
Cabbage – 2 heads
Lilac Peppers – 2
Serrano Peppers – take 3 if you like them.  They are hot, so be careful after cutting them.
Lime Basil – 1 bunch

Fruit Share
Red Clapp Pears – 1 bag
Ruby Queen Black Plums and Ruby Queen Red Plums – together in 1 bag

This week’s newsletter includes recipes for steamed eggplant with spicy peanut sauce, tortellini soup, and an heirloom tomato lemon mascarpone tart.

Carnegie Hill Newsletter – Week 10

Dear CSA Member

The middle of summer and the tomatoes are starting to ripen.  There are different varieties that will be coming your way as we go through the season.  The first ones are the small salad type that ripen first. They are solid and firm.  We are trying a new variety this season that was developed by Johnnys’ Select Seeds to be Late Blight resistant. In 2009 most of NY state farms, organic and conventional, lost their tomato crops to Late Blight.  Since that devastating year, we are on guard and willing to give a new variety a try if it proclaims that it is resistant to the Blight.  Hopefully we will not be put in the position to see it in action.  Not this season with the ample sunshine and dry weather.  Better safe than sorry, though.

Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes, small orange deliciously sweet, are a favorite and they also are some of the first tomatoes to ripen.  We will try to keep up with them as they fill the vines each week.  Just like a bite of summer.  They probably don’t make it home from the CSA pickup.

There will be orange tomatoes that are an heirloom variety, large round red tomatoes, plum tomatoes.  Each week we harvest the tomato patch and fill the crates for the CSA sites from the baskets as they come into the packing barn.  There is no telling which varieties will be delivered to which CSA site.  All delicious and the season comes and goes so quickly.  Enjoy them while the sun shines.

Upcoming Events:
Farm Festival Saturday September 10, 11-3.  Many CSA sites coordinate rides to the farm.  Check with your CSA coordinators.  The day is a big celebration.  Members are asked to bring a side dish to share and their own place settings.  The farm will have local pork on the grill, sweet corn, fresh fruit.  There will be water and also coffee.  We have tractor rides around the fields, walks around the fields to see what is growing, plenty of time to take a walk to the creek and see if the Bald Eagles will swoop by.
Mark the day on your calendar.

Enjoy the Vegetables
Deborah
for everyone at Stoneledge Farm