Janaki is gone this week, along with the family, to their summer get away in Illinois. He’s probably full up on sweet ice tea and peaches right now. Meanwhile, back at the farm, we’ll just be making things up as we go. Who will tell us to do otherwise? So we’re taking this opportunity to change a few things up – just a few basic improvements that have been needed for a while. Here’s a few of them:

We’ve contacted our organic certifier to let them know we are renaming all the fields. None of us can keep our field no. 15c straight from our 16f or our Z2b. So we’ve renamed them all after our exes. We do have 4 Michael- fields now, but we’ve arranged them alphabetically (north to south) by the brand of the guitar they played. And they all played guitar.

We have added “this side up” stickers to all the tractors, hoes, CSA boxes, fork lifts and to farmer John. If Janaki comes back feeling rusty, he should be able to catch back up with helpful signs like that.

Janaki had been spending so much time irrigating, and while there are aspects (like solar panels!) that make running a pump somewhat sustainable – we think we could take it a step further. So… we will be doing nightly showings of the Titanic followed by the Notebook and we’re inviting you, and all the surrounding communities, to watch in our fields and cry your eyes out into the soil. Please, no tissues. That would be a waste.

Our potatoes are pretty scabby this year- but we don’t think they should go to waste. We have contacted a vaping company and are developing plans for a vapeable (sure, it’s a word) potato essence. Do you love the taste, and that sort of content fullness and slowness that the feeling of eating potatoes offers, but you’re too busy to cook? No worries! Coming fall 2021, you can grab a whatever-they-call-those-canisters of your own local, organic potato essence and vape away for dinner!

Your CSA share might look a little different this week. We know that you, our members, like a fast pace of change, and are always looking out for the next best thing. How many times have you gotten your share just to see… carrots… again. Ugh – no thank you! That’s why this week, you each will get a bag full of MICRO carrots- that’s right! We’ve harvested our ENTIRE 4th and 3rd plantings of carrots to offer you this exciting new treat! And, we think Janaki will be happy that we will save so much time and STORAGE later on in the season since we’ve harvested them all now!

I could go on and on with other changes we’re making this week, but these are just some of the highlights! I can’t wait to see Janaki’s face when he sees how great things are when he comes back.

For the farm re-envisioning committee,

Karin

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In your share this week, for real:
Basil – Beets – Napa cabbage – Carrots – Cilantro – Cucumber – Garlic – Kale – Peas – Potatoes – Green Pepper – Hot pepper – Tomatoes – Zucchini

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Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan

From The Smitten Kitchen

• 1 medium-large (1 3/4 pounds) Napa (original calls for savoy…) cabbage
• 7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Scant 1/2 cup (1.75 ounces) walnut halves and pieces
• 1 large or 2 smaller garlic cloves
• 1 large lemon
• Red pepper flakes, such as Aleppo (optional)
• Grated parmesan, to taste

Heat oven to 475ºF. Remove any damaged outer leaves of cabbage and cut 8 (for small ones) to 12 (for a large one) wedges. Coat a large baking sheet with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Arrange cabbage wedges in one layer, drizzling or brushing them with 2 more tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes, until charred underneath (don’t panic if you see a few thin black edges; they’re going to taste amazing). Use a spatula to flip each piece over and roast for 5 more minutes, until the edges of the cabbage are dark brown.

Meanwhile, while cabbage roasts, place nuts on a smaller tray or baking dish and roast them next to the cabbage for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and scatter them, still hot, onto a cutting board and coarsely chop them. Scoop into a bowl and finely grate the zest of half a lemon and all of the garlic over it. Add remaning 3 tablespoons olive oil to walnuts, a few pinches of salt and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. If you’ve got a couple minutes to let it all infuse as it cools, let it rest. When ready, squeeze the juice of half your lemon in and stir to combine. Adjust flavors to taste, adding more lemon if needed; you want this dressing to be robust.

The moment the cabbage comes out of the oven, spoon the walnut dressing over the wedges. Grate parmesan all over, to taste. Serve immediately, while piping hot. There will be no leftovers.

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We wanted to send enough basil so that you could make a small batch of pesto. You may want to look at a recipe to get the quantities you want to make based on how much of your basil you want to use for the pesto. I have always found pesto to be very forgiving, so ratios aren’t the most important, but it is nice to have a ball-park amount.