Pick List:
corn - tomatoes - summer squash - pickling cucumbers - garlic - blueberries - carrots
eggplant (japanese & chinese) - lime peppers - shishito peppers - basil
Alright team CSA, Pop-up PYO Blueberry “glean” is this Saturday Afternoon! I put the glean in quotations, because it is not the end of the season by any means, and these berries are terrific- so it’s more like a PYO til your heart’s content (or until 6pm, whatever comes first). Why are we doing this? Because, why not- yall are great and tis the season to harvest!
AND now, the details:
WHO: Open to the entire Edgewater Farm C.S.A. community
WHERE: if you are coming from the North End of River Road, go past the Greenhouses and McNamara Dairy- turn at the Cemetery.
THE ADDRESS for all your googling: 355 River Road/ Plainfield, NH
WHEN: This Saturday Afternoon!!!, August 5th.. 3:30-6 ; rain or shine though we will cancel in case of thunder and lightning
HOW: You pick! Bring your own containers, we will have zero supplies for you to pick into. FYI, if you have a used yogurt container and a shoelace, poke holes in the yog. container and make yourself a picking necklace- it’s fashion forward and an extremely efficient way to pick- very hip, all the kids are doing it.
WHY: So many reasons, here are a few... because it's awesome, the berries are free and delicious, it's the beginning of August and this is what you do at the beginning of August pick and preserve!
OTHER NOTES: it is so hot- especially underneath the blueberry net- come prepared! Large brim hats and water bottles and sunscreen are strongly encouraged!!
email me if you have any questions at all (jenny@edgewaterfarm.com)
In other news, our Summer Squash harvest has been insanely abundant and at this moment feels never-ending. I am trying so hard to remind myself how much I will miss summer squash in January and to appreciate it right now, while we pick bushels upon bushels of the yellow fruit out of the field… same goes for cucumbers (we have so much), but I’m a HUGE fan of pickling and that cold cucumber soup remains a staple in our house on these oh-so-hot days, so i’m not mad about it. Anyhow, I reached out to my dear friend and extraordinary chef, Claire on how the heck to get through Summer Squash season and not feel overwhelmed…. See recipes for all her suggestions and notes!! Thank you CLAIRE!!
TIPS - TRICKS - RECIPES:
(CLAIRE calls this recipe “BOMB PROOF”)
(Adapted From Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters, the original recipe calls for zucchini, however we turn to Summer Squash AND it works beautifully here!)
1 yellow onion
Olive oil Salt and pepper
1 branch fresh thyme
Fresh basil leaves
3 tomatoes
2 large yellow SUMMER SQUASH
Balsamic vinegar
Panko bread crumbs
Chop onion and sautee in olive oil until translucent. Season with salt and pepper, add thyme leaves and basil. Slice tomatoes and summer squash into rounds. Layer the onion mixture in a deep, buttered quiche pan. Add a layer of tomatoes in an overlapping, circular pattern. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. Add a layer of summer squash and alternate with tomatoes until the dish is full. Finish with a layer of summer squash and sprinkle with Panko bread crumbs, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in a 350 degree oven uncovered for about 30 to 45 minutes.
Another SUMMER SQUASH BY CLAIRE suggestion:
Truth be told: when I get a s-ton of summer squash, I slice it up, toss with olive oil and salt, and grill it with a bunch of sausage, onions, and green peppers (if I have them). Then that is dinner. Nothing else!
now on to cukes...
(this is my weekend plan, making half-sours with this recipe because they are o, so good!)
Excerpted from Wild Fermentation…
The strength of brine varies widely in different traditions and recipe books. Brine strength is most often expressed as weight of salt as a percentage of weight of solution, though sometimes as weight of salt as a percentage of volume of solution. Since in most home kitchens we are generally dealing with volumes rather than weights, the following guideline can help readers gauge brine strength: Added to 1 quart of water, each tablespoon of sea salt (weighing about .6 ounce) adds 1.8% brine. So 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water yields a 3.6% brine, 3 tablespoons yields 5.4%, and so on. In the metric system, each 15 milliliters of salt (weighing 17 grams) added to 1 liter of water yields 1.8% brine.
Some old-time recipes call for brines with enough salt to float an egg. This translates to about a 10% salt solution. This is enough salt to preserve pickles for quite some time, but they are too salty to consume without a long desalinating soak in fresh water first. Low-salt pickles, around 3.5% brine, are “half-sours” in delicatessen lingo. This recipe is for sour, fairly salty pickles, using around 5.4% brine. Experiment with brine strength. A general rule of thumb to consider in salting your ferments: more salt to slow microorganism action in summer heat; less salt in winter when microbial action slows.
Timeframe: 1-4 weeks
Special Equipment:
Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
1-gallon/4-liter jug filled with water, or other weight Cloth cover
Ingredients (for 1 gallon/4 liters):
3 to 4 pounds/1.5 to 2 kilograms unwaxed
cucumbers (small to medium size)
3⁄8 cup (6 tablespoons)/90 milliliters sea salt
3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3 to 4 (optional)
tablespoons/45 to 60 milliliters of any form of
dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or
horseradish leaves (if available)
1 pinch black peppercorns
Process:
Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you’re using cucumbers that aren’t fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold water to freshen them.
Dissolve sea salt in ½gallon (2 liters) of water to create brine solution. Stir until salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a pinch of black peppercorns.
Place cucumbers in the crock.
Pour brine over the cucumbers,place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn’t cover the weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1 tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don’t worry if you can’t get it all. If there’s mold, be sure to rinse the plate and weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every day.
Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down fermentation.
SHISHITO PEPPERS:
fry on stove or grill up until just slightly blistered- all they need is olive oil and salt and you will be in shishito pepper heaven, trust me on this one.