Week Eight

Well, remind me to be careful because when Kristin puts her mind to murder, things move quickly.

Within moments of contacting the USDA, they had a guy out to examine our crop damage, about six seconds after he left the farm the approval paperwork arrived in the mail, and in that same breath our friend Bob got his Wisconsin hunting license and transformed Evil Bambi into a freezerful of venison with a perfect headshot.

So that was pretty sweet. We enjoyed our first garden-fattened venison yesterday, with some jalepeno cornbread pancakes ( w/peppers & corn we’d grown), plus foraged raspberry sauce and a side of fried lobster mushrooms from our woods. It was a most satisfying meal to eat while surveying our little patch of heaven from the screen porch.

Edamame rests easy at night now
Edamame rests easy at night now

In the Box

Tomatoes – first of the season! You’ll find one of our larger tomatoes, either ripe or nearly so, and some ripe cherry tomatoes.

Cabbage or kohlrabi – Your veggie karma determines which one is in your box!

Red Potatoes – our first spuds harvested this year. They have very thin skins because they haven’t been cured; so you really don’t have to skin them for use in your cooking.

Zucchini – one each of three color varieties.

Cucumbers –including a few of a new variety we’ve been enjoying. (If you got a weird pale green, wrinkly thing in your box, it’s one of them! Enjoy.

A medley of Beans –  a mix of our yellow, green, and purples in with

a Bag o’ Broccoli – a mix of baby broccoli and side shoots.

Rutabaga – well, the beneficial nematodes were not a magic bullet against the root munching monsters. They definitely look a lot better than last year, though! You can roast them with your potatoes, scare a co-worker, or whatever.

Garlic – one head of our hard-won little crop of survivors that we planted last fall and left to fend for themselves throughout the harsh and hungry winter.

Parsley

Okra – a random three shareholders got a bag of okra this week! If you were one of the lucky ones, but you aren’t really sure what to do with it, here’s Kristin’s advice: “one popular way of preparing it is slicing it, tossing it with cornmeal, and frying it. I like to sautee the pods whole over high heat until they start to blacken a little, add garlic and cook for maybe another minute, then add soy sauce or salt.”

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