Oh my goodness, I can’t believe we are already here. This is officially the last week of our Summer CSA for 2026.

Seems like this day arrived just in time, because on Sunday night, Mother Nature decided she was done with warm weather and gave us our first hard frost. The first hard frost means that things are changing. No matter how much we want to hold on to Summer, mother nature has forced us to say goodbye to Summer crops. The last of the cucumbers were cleaned out of the greenhouse over the weekend. The zucchini, dill, and cilantro got tilled in on Friday. We said our final goodbyes to basil and tomatoes as well. It’s always sad to say goodbye, but all great things must eventually come to an end.

The Summer CSA might be over, but the end of the farming season is still far away. Our amazing crew will continue working through mid-November. Once the Summer CSA ends, it is non-stop harvest around the farm. We have fields and fields of beets, potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, parsnips, and cabbage to harvest still. The next month is also an important time for us to make sure everything is cleaned, sanitized, and organized for winter storage. This means cleaning and sanitizing pallet boxes, inventorying and ordering supplies, moving vegetables to their winter homes, and sorting vegetables between what will be sold for wholesale and what will be sent in Winter CSA shares. There’s a lot to do!

Once everything is harvested and the 2026 growing season is officially over, the farm will shift into winter mode. This means we will say goodbye to our seasonal staff. We have 3 year round employees who will continue working through the winter. They will bag and box up veggies for the Winter shares, and put together wholesale orders. It’s still a lot of work, but it’s much easier since everything is already harvested.

Before we say our final goodbye to Summer 2026, we need to say a massive thank you to all of our incredible volunteers. They continued showing up and working hard through rain, heat, and smoke to help us get all of our shares put together. We could not make our CSA happen without all of you. We also need to give a big thank you to all of our site hosts. We know it’s not always easy having a bunch of people coming and going from your homes and businesses, but we so appreciate you letting us use your space. Without our gracious site hosts, we would not be able to get our vegetables to all of you. Our final thank you of course goes to all of you, our members. Thank you for believing in and supporting your local farmers. This is a crazy and unpredictable industry. Having all of your support makes it easier to get through the day. We love knowing our vegetables will end up on the tables of people who appreciate them.

In your box this week:

Brussels Sprouts – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Leeks – Red Potatoes – Pole Beans – Beets – Carrots – Garlic – Lavender – Onions – Spinach – Tomatoes – Sunshine and Delicata Squash

I know when most of us think of pancakes, we think sweet. Did you know they can also be savory? These pumpkin and spinach pancakes are one of my favorites for dinner or for breakfast. If you want, you can swap out the pumpkin puree for a puree of either the sunshine or delicata in your box. Just roast the squash, remove the skin, and blend. I like to top these with a garlic herb butter for even more flavor. Try topping with maple syrup for a sweet and salty combo.

If you want a fun appetizer for your fall parties, check out these brussels sprout skewers. They’re charred giving them even more great flavor. Paired with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce, what’s not to love.

A huge thank you to all of you that came to our open house on Saturday. We loved getting to see so many of you. It was really fun getting to watch you and your families harvest and enjoy carrots fresh from the field. Nothing beats a farm fresh carrot…even if it does have a little dirt on it.

Thank you to everyone who signed up for a Winter Share. We are officially sold out for the 2026-2027 season! If you didn’t get a share, but still want our yummy veggies through the winter months, you can find our veggies at both Co-ops, and various Super Ones in the area. If you don’t want to cook, but still want to enjoy our veggies, you can also find our produce on the menu at various restaurants in Duluth. We have one more week left of the summer season and we’ll begin signups for 2027 in late January.

Our crew was hard at work clearing things from the field last week. We got all of our squash out of the field. Thanks to the conveyor belt we got last year, it was a faster task than normal. This meant we got all the squash out of the field in one day. It was a long and sore day, but we did it! Now the squash will sit in temperature controlled areas to begin the curing process.

Since we finished squash in one day, we had a little time this week to also harvest the rest of our first planting of potatoes. It’s been a hard year for our potatoes. We had the worst potato beetle invasion the farm has ever seen. Since we grow potatoes year after year, we always deal with some amount of the beetles. Usually it’s a manageable amount, especially if we can get to the plants before the eggs hatch. This year, the beetles showed up in such large numbers, our crew never had a chance of keeping up. We created different contraptions in an effort to remove the beetles. It helped, but not quite in time for our early crop. The beetles chewed through the foliage too quickly, and stunted the growth of the potatoes. This means that we will have less potatoes than normal, and they are smaller than we’re used to. If you’re a fan of baby potatoes, this is your year! Our ingenuity appeared to be much more effective for the fall crop, so hopefully those will size up better.

This time of year is always filled with a little bit of anxiety. We spend so long waiting and watching vegetables grow, only to find out they didn’t grow very well. Plants with the harvestable part above ground are much easier to keep tabs on. This time of year, most things are growing below ground, and we’re crossing our fingers that they’re doing great things that we can’t see. Usually they are, but sometimes things don’t work out how we hope.

In your box this week:

Arugula/Greens Mix – Carrots – Potatoes – Cucumbers – Tomatoes – Winter Squash – Pole Beans – Cabbage – Celery – Onions – Cilantro

The nights are getting cooler, and soup season is starting. This Coconut and cabbage soup is one of my favorites to make year round. It’s bright and refreshing from the cilantro, lime, and lemongrass. If you want to make this a heartier soup, try adding chicken, pork, or tofu. The recipe calls for napa cabbage, but I’ve made this with different varieties of cabbage and it’s good every time.

This grain and celery salad is a great way to use up this week’s clery. It’s crunchy, sweet, and tart. Great served fresh, or eaten as leftovers. I also like to play around with this recipe by changing out or adding veggies based on what I have in the house. A great addition to this would be some roasted winter squash.

We want to remind all of you that our farm open house is this Saturday, September 26th from 10am-noon. So far, it looks like the weather will be beautiful. Come say hi to your favorite local farmers, enjoy some treats from down the road in Wrenshall, and take a tour of this amazing place. We love it out here, and can’t wait to show it off to all of you!

I can’t believe Tuesday marks the first official day of Fall, and we only have two more weeks of Summer boxes after this. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday we were standing around the greenhouse, starting the first seeds of the season. I can’t believe everything our crew has accomplished and grown in just a few months.

If this reminder about only two more weeks of Summer shares makes you sad, make sure you check out our Winter Share options. We still have a few boxes left, so sign up before they’re all sold out.

Our crew has been working hard to get all of our onions and shallots out of the field to start curing for winter storage. We only have a few beds of shallots left, then we can check that task off our to-do list.

That means this week will be spent getting more potatoes out of the field, and starting to get our pumpkins and squash out of the field. Some of the squash that we grow has a wetter stem. We have to trim these from the vines, and leave them out in the field to start drying out. If we cut them from the vine, and brought them straight into storage, they would add too much moisture to our squash curing room. We like to keep this room at very precise conditions so the squash stay fresh all winter long. Speaking of pumpkins, please take the pumpkin survey if you haven’t already! This lets us know if your family would like extras (so each kid can have one) or none at all.

We’ve spent the last few weeks cleaning up and “closing down” some of our greenhouses for the season. A few weeks ago, we said goodbye to a tunnel of basil. Last week was the final lettuce for the season, so we can start closing down that greenhouse. This week we will say goodbye to our cucumber plants, and begin closing down the greenhouse they were growing in. The process of “closing down” means that we take out any remaining plants, and clean up any debris that was left from the plants. Once things are cleaned up, we seed a cover crop of rye to begin adding more nutrients back into the soil. This cover crop will stay in the tunnels until next spring when we begin laying tarps down to kill the rye. It’s almost like a cozy blanket to tuck in the soil for its winter nap.

In your box this week:

Pole Beans – Carrots – Kale – Onions – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Potatoes – Sunshine Squash – Delicata Squash – Tomatoes – Zucchini – Rosemary

I you want all the fall flavors in one bite, this Cider glazed squash toast is the recipe for you. It’s got roasted pecans, apple cider, winter squash, and warming spices. Finish that off with some salty cheese. Absolutely delicious! The recipe calls for butternut squash, but I think this recipe is actually better if you use the delicata that is in your box this week.

If you’re looking for something to do with your kale that isn’t another fall salad, try these kale chips. They’re tossed in a miso and soy sauce for a salty and umami packed bite. Then they’re baked in the oven to get extra crispy. The longest part of the whole process is waiting for these to bake in the oven. If you’re fortunate enough to have a dehydrator, it makes the process even easier!

We know that we give out a lot of jalapenos. Most of you love it, but some of you don’t know what to do with all of them. If you have a little stock pile of jalapenos in your fridge, try pickling them with this recipe. They’re meant to be made and go straight into the fridge, so no prior canning experience is necessary. Our jalapenos tend to pack a punch, so I like to add a little bit of sugar to this recipe to help balance out the heat. These are great used on top of eggs, tacos, or my personal favorite is putting them on pork lettuce wraps.

Thank you so much to all of you who stopped by Harvest Fest on Saturday. It was wonderful to see so many of you, and get to say hi. If you wanted to say hello to your favorite farmers, but you missed the Harvest Fest, don’t worry. On Saturday, September 26th from 10am-noon we are having an open house on the farm. There will be a farm tour, tractor rides, and treats. It’s completely free, family friendly, and open to all. Invite your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. We hope to see many of you there!

Mother nature has flipped the switch and thrown us into fall weather. Sunday night and Monday night this week, the farm is predicted to have overnight lows in the high 30’s. This isn’t as terrible for the plants as a hard frost, but it does put a lot of stress on some of our warmer weather plants. Last week we picked the last of the melons. Even if we don’t get a hard frost, cool days and nights will prevent future fruit from properly ripening this time of the year. Melon season couldn’t last forever, but we sure enjoyed it while it was here.

The cooler weather has the potential to damage the leaves on the pepper and tomato plants, but the fruit should still be just fine until we get a hard frost. On the opposite end, our carrots and kale love this kind of weather. The colder weather means that the plants will start working overtime to convert starches into sugar in an effort to keep the plant alive and healthy. This means sweeter carrots and kale.

When we aren’t thinking of the weather, we’ve been harvesting away on the farm. Some crops are starting to slow down, but others are just starting to pick up. We’ve reached the end of our cucumbers just in time to say a big hello to winter squash! Onions are still coming out of the field, and being placed in drying areas so the paper skins can cure for winter storage.

In your box this week:

Basil – Green Beans – Broccoli – Carrots – Greens Mix – Leeks – Onions – Parsley – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Red Potatoes – Acorn Squash – Tomatoes – Zucchini

This Acorn Squash Salad is a great way to use up the squash and greens mix in your box this week. The salad still has some bright summer flavors from the greens mix and the lemon tahini dressing. However, it also leans into fall with the squash, cherries, and nuts.

My favorite way to use up an abundance of vegetables that isn’t soup, is to turn it all into lasagna. This Vegetable lasagna is a great recipe for that. It makes Leeks the star of the show. You can add other veggies such as zucchini, bell pepper, or carrots to this. If you aren’t a fan of kale, try swapping it out for spinach, or even try it with the greens mix in your box this week.

It’s been an exciting week over here at the farm!

We harvested more carrots, and sent the first of our purple carrots off to grocery stores. Onions started coming out of the field to begin their curing process. We finally got our potato harvester up and running. We were able to put it to use on Friday afternoon to get more red potatoes out of the field. 

The crops seem to be shifting away from bright Summer flavors, and we’re starting to see Fall crops filling up our coolers. We changed our washing set up from Summer carrots to Fall potatoes. The only thing not shifting yet is the weather. Mother Nature is still giving us Summer, and we are happy to enjoy it as long as we can.

We have a big week ahead of us. We plan for more potato harvesting, and getting more onions into the greenhouse to cure. We get to finish the week off with Harvest Fest. It’s basically a giant farmer’s market, down at Bayfront Park in Duluth. It’s this Saturday, September 12th from 10am-4pm. It’s free to enter, and fun for the whole family. There’s live music, crafts, and demonstrations. You can of course say hi and shop from over 20 local farmers. We’ll be there with all your favorite veggies, plus a few items you don’t normally get in your shares. We hope to see you there!

In your share this week:

Broccoli – Melons – Cucumber – Zucchini – Lettuce – Jalapeno – Bell Pepper – Tomatoes – Onion – Green Beans – Carrots – Cilantro – Red Potatoes

It looks like some cooler days may be in our forecast. That means soup season can officially begin. I always like to start off with this Carrot and spiced beef soup because the bright carrot flavor reminds me that Summer isn’t over yet. The spicy ground beef adds a nice flavor and texture to the soup. Also great with ground pork, or spiced white beans.

If you keep seeing cucumbers in your box, and you’re running out of ways to use them, try this Lemon and Cucumber cake. It’s light and refreshing. Perfect for a warm Summer night. It mostly tastes like a lemon cake, but there is a refreshing hint from the Cucumber.

***Labor Day is next Monday, and shares will be delivered as usual! Let us know if you would like us to save your box at the farm for later pickup, or switch to a Thursday site.

You’ll see that a new item has been added to your box this week. That’s right, potatoes! We dug the first of our potatoes last week.

Potatoes are generally harvested using a specialized harvester. However, our harvester is currently undergoing some upgrades to get it ready for our big fall potato harvest. We improvised by using our potato digger, and picking up the potatoes by hand. Our digger lifts the potatoes from the ground. Then they travel along a shaking conveyor belt to remove any extra dirt, rocks, or debris. The digger then dumps them out onto the ground in neat rows. Our crew picks up the potatoes by hand and puts them in buckets. Once all the buckets are full, they get carted down to the packing shed where we wash and sort them.

Last week was also a big week for onions. Each year, the onions tell us when they’re done growing. As the onion matures, the “neck” weakens and causes the tops of the onions to flop over. Once the tops flop over, we pull all of our onions and shallots out of the ground, and lay them on the plastic mulch to begin the drying process. Having the drying process start outside gives us time to move things around, and prepare for indoor onion drying. 

This week will be spent harvesting more potatoes and carrots, and relocating our garlic so we can start preparing our drying sheds for onions.

***In your box this week is a Carmen Pepper. It’s a sweet Italian frying pepper. Because it’s long and pointy it can often be mistaken for a hot pepper, but they are sweet and very tasty! You can use it the same way you would a regular bell pepper.

In your box this week:

Thyme – Cucumber – Zucchini – Sweet Peppers – Jalapeno – Tomatoes – Red Potatoes – Carrots – Lettuce – Basil – Green Beans – Melon – Onion

I’m still holding onto all the light, and bright flavors of Summer. This lemon and thyme shortbread is the perfect late summer treat. It’s bright, earthy, and not too sweet.

We gave big bundles of cilantro last week. If you’ve been looking for a way to use up the rest of it, this recipe for Sheet Pan Potatoes is a great way to do so. Crispy potatoes with a bright and spicy sauce. Absolutely delicious! There’s a lot of room to play around with this recipe. Try adding different proteins and veggies for tasty combinations. Tomatoes, bell peppers, and lettuce would be tasty additions from your box.

We know with school just around the corner, many of you are thinking about fall. Over here, we’ve skipped straight to thinking about winter. Winter CSA shares to be more specific. If you haven’t already, now is the time to sign up for your winter CSA share! It’s a monthly delivery, for 6 months (November- April). Your box is filled with all the classic storage crops: cabbage, beets, garlic, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, and rutabagas with a few extras on either end of the season like greens mix and celery. It’s a great way to keep getting farm fresh veggies throughout the colder months. You can sign up via this link that will take you directly to the CSA Shares page on our website, or you can log into your CSAware account and purchase a share that way. Please note that in the Winter, we offer more than one type of share. You might want to read through the descriptions to see if a half share, full share, or picky eater share is best for you.

This time of year on the farm is what I think of as “cruising altitude”. We spent all spring seeding, potting, planting, repeat. This happened over and over for weeks. Then we continue doing that while also beginning to harvest things. This is a little chaotic at times while we navigate all the moving pieces to ensure everything gets done.

Once October and November hit, we will be racing mother nature to ensure everything gets out of the field before the ground freezes or snow falls. This is one of my favorite times of year! You get to see all your hard work, packed into pallet boxes, and tucked away for the winter months. It’s non-stop motion, but it’s also really fun in its own way.

Before we get to the chaos of fall harvest, we sit in “cruising altitude”. There aren’t any new plants to get in the ground. We aren’t trying to juggle three schedules at once. Our crew has gotten into a rythmn with daily harvesting. Everyone knows how to harvest their crop, and is knowledgable about it. It feels like all the pieces have fallen into place. Our tray tables are down, our headphones are in, and we are cruising to fall harvest!

In your box this week:

Carrots – Green Beans – Onions – Garlic – Lettuce – Dill – Cilantro – Celery – Canteloupe – Bell Peppers – Zucchini – Tomatoes

Most of us eat our melons on their own. If you’re looking to spice it up a little, this Cucumber and melon salad is a great way to do that. It mixes the sweet melon with crunchy cucumber and spicy arugula. So many wonderful flavors and textures! If you aren’t a fan of arugula, you could swap it out for some of the lettuce in this week’s box.

If you’re looking for a quick side dish this week, check out these Roasted Green Beans. They have so many savory flavors going on thanks to the garlic, pine nuts, dijon, and cheese. This is also a wonderful way to use up some basil if you still have some leftover from last week.

This salad is the perfect bridge between Summer and Fall. The crisp celery, fresh herbs, and briny olives are perfect for a summer day. The anise flavor of fennel, and the toasted walnuts, bring in those cozy autmn flavors. This would be wonderful paired with chicken or white fish.

Last week was a big week on the farm. We started delivering carrots to various locations in the Duluth area, we got all our garlic harvested, and the curing process has begun, and we harvested baby carrots. 

We know many have been asking about where you can find our carrots. Up to this point in the season our CSA members have gotten exclusive access to our early crop, but now our carrots are back on shelves at both Duluth Co-ops, Kenwood and Cloquet Super One (Plaza and Lakeside soon), and Carlton Meat and Grocery. If you take a trip up to Grand Marais, you will soon find our carrots back on the shelves at the Cook County Co-op. 

Garlic can be eaten straight out of the ground. It has a mild flavor, and a subtle sweetness to it. The papery outside is still damp and not protective, so the garlic only lasts for a week or two before it will start to rot. This is why we cure our garlic. The curing process is where we spread out all the bulbs, and use fans to fully dry the protective paper. This process not only makes the garlic last for months, it also enhances the sharp garlic flavor. You’ll soon be seeing it in your share boxes.

At the end of the week, we got our first round of baby carrots out of the field. This means even more delicious produce will be hitting grocery store shelves very soon. 

This week will be spent doing lots of harvesting. Most of our vegetables seem to be hitting peak abundance right now. It’s also the time of year where we start harvesting some crops so we can till the field and plant a cover crop. If we sneak it in within the next month, a cover crop will still have time to grow before we lose too many sunlight hours.

In your box this week:

Tomatoes – Bell Pepper – Jalapeno – Carrots – Cucumber – Zucchini – Basil – Green Beans – Red Cabbage – Cilantro – Onions

This green bean salad is a fun summer side dish. It’s got crispy green beans, crunchy nuts, and creamy goat cheese. The recipe calls for radicchio, but you can easily substitute some of the red cabbage in your box. It won’t have the same bitterness that radicchio does, but it will have a similar crunch, and add beautiful color.

This cilantro sauce recipe is a bright and versatile sauce that is perfect for summer. If you’re feeling a little spicey, try adding in some jalapeno. This sauce is perfect on top of steak, chicken, fish, tofu, or beans. It’s also delicious as a salad dressing.

This tortellini with roasted veggies, is my go to “fancy” pasta salad. I call it fancy because there’s no mayo, and it uses tortellini which is arguably the fanciest of all pastas. It’s a great way to mix and match both veggies and flavors. The recipe gives you a great start on what to add to the pasta, but feel free to play around with whateve vaggies are in your fridge.

This week started off just like most weeks. We were weeding our little hearts out. Then all of a sudden, the end of the week appeared, and it was big decision time. Do we harvest garlic, or do we harvest carrots?

Ultimately, we decided to harvest carrots last week. We are way too excited to see those beautiful carrots on grocery store shelves, we couldn’t stand to wait any longer.

This meant breaking out and dusting off our carrot harvester. This hasn’t been used since we harvested our final box of carrots last fall. You might be asking, then how are those delicious carrots in my box being harvested? To that we say, lovingly by hand! Until now, every item in your box has been lovingly harvested by the hands of our hard working crew and volunteers. Each pepper, tomato, broccoli crown, cucumber, snap pea, etc. has been picked by hand. That means a lot of time, attention, and love has gone into ensuring that only the best produce ends up in your box.

The way our carrot harvester works is, a plough loosens the soil around the carrots. Rubber belts grab onto the top of the carrots, and it rides up a pulley system. Once it reaches the top of the pulley, discs work to slice off the tops. The carrot then fall onto a conveyor belt, and the tops get dropped back into the field. Once on the conveyor belt, our crew tests how fast their hands can move. Their job is to sort out any tops, weeds, or bad carrots…as the carrots go wooshing by at a fast speed. Once the carrots reach the end of the conveyor belt, they drop onto a fall breaker (a piece of fabric that helps to soften their landing so they don’t break), and into a pallet box. Once the pallet box is full, it gets taken down to our washing station.

Once at the washing station, the carrots are dumped from the pallet box onto a conveyor belt. This conveyor belt moves slower than the one on the harvester, so the carrots go through their second round of sorting here. Once the carrots reach the end of the conveyor belt, they are dropped into our barrel washer. This is basically a giant washing machine for veggies. The carrots spin around while water shoots down to clean them off. Once the carrots are clean, they drop onto an inspection table. This is a table with a bunch of rollers to rotate the carrots. This stage is when the carrots go through their final stage of sorting. They’re now clean, and the rolling table allows the crew to inspect all sides of the carrot. Once the carrots get the Food Farm stamp of approval, they drop into a new pallet box where they will stay until they get packed for their final destination.

Since carrots were taken care of last week, we get to spend this week harvesting garlic!

In your box this week:

Green Beans – Beets – Carrots – Jalapenos – Green Bell Peppers – Zucchini – Onion – Cucumber – Greens Mix – Tomatoes

This is the time of year where people seem to have too much zucchini. One of my favorite ways to use up extra zucchini is to make this Lemon Zucchini Cake. It’s super moist, and very light. I especially love it because you can make a bunch of these, and pop them in your freezer to save for the winter months when you want a little taste of summer.

This one may seem like an unlikely pairing, but the Summer Beet and Tomato salad is so good. The beets add a little sweetness to balance the acid from the tomatoes. Mix and match your favorite herbs. Then top it all with cheese. A delicious salad that is Summer on the plate.

We gave you big bunches of basil last week. If you still have some leftover, this Black Pepper Jalapeno Chicken Recipe is a great way to use some of it up. This dinner is also a quick and simple way to use up your bell peppers and jalapeno. You can adjust your heat preference by using more or less jalapeno. Our jalapenos are very spicey, so I’d reccomend stating with a little and tasting before you add more.

Time really flies when you’re having fun. Somehow we’re already in August, and this week marks the halfway point of our Summer shares. Feels like just yesterday we were filling the first box of the season.

Janaki has been taking some well-deserved time off of the farm. While he’s away, the crew is hard at work trying to beautify the farm for his return. What does this mean? Weeding, weeding, and more weeding! Every time we turn around, new weeds have popped up.

When we aren’t weeding, we are hard at work harvesting. It seems the crops were being shy the last few weeks, but we are about to enter veggie abundance. On the farm, we do what’s called succession planting. This is where you plant a vegetable, then a few weeks later you plant it again. You do this over and over until you have as much of a vegetable planted as you want. Sucession planting allows you to have a continuious stream of one vegetable. We do this with a lot of our crops. Cucumbers get 3 plantings to ensure they last for most of the summer. By the time the first planting of cucumbers is starting to slow down, the third planting is producing sizeable cucumbers. We do this with lettuce and broccoli as well. This is how these vegetables are able to keep showing up in your box week after week.

Sometimes we do a succession planting as a way to slowly bring on a crop, and eventually have it reach abundance at the peak of the season. We mostly do this with zucchini and basil. It slowly brings on the crop which is great for getting it into your CSA boxes, without overwhelming the crew. Then the next succession reaches its peak, and we suddenly have enough to start sending to wholesale or sending as preserving shares. The timing of each seeding and harvest has been carefully planned throughout the years. However, every once in a while, the crops and mother nature have a different plan. This year is one of those times.

The first planting of our zucchini wasn’t getting pollinated properly, so it took a while for it to produce useable fruit. The second planting of zucchini got pollinated well, and started producing useable fruit from the very beginning. Unfortunately, this means that the first and second plantings were producing useable zucchini at the same time. Cue zucchini mayhem! Our basil decided to do a similar thing this year. The first planting matured on schedule. The second planting shot up, and matured very quickly. We suddenly have basil abundance…and two more plantings starting to germinate and grow.

This talk of basil abundance is a great reminder that if you ordered a basil preserving share, keep an eye out for communication from Catherine on scheduling a day to get your basil. We want to make sure everyone gets their preserving share when the plants are looking their best. The plants are so happy, and the basil is beautiful right now.

In your share this week:

Lettuce – Cilantro – Basil – Cucumber – Zucchini – Kale – Carrots – Green Onions – Tomatoes

Blueberries are in season right now, and this Blueberry Basil Lemonade is the perfect thing for a hot summer day. It’s not too sweet, but it’s very refreshing. Raspberries are also in season right now, and are excellent in this in place of the blueberries. If you have some strawberries leftover from earlier this summer, you could try that too. Basically any berry mixed with basil, makes an incredible lemonade.

With Summer winding down, I’m eating all the fresh veggie salads I can. If you’re looking for a fun way to use your carrots and kale, try this Lemony Roasted Carrot and Kale Salad. Bonus, it uses parsley! If you still have parsley hanging out from last week, this is a great way to use it up.

This week’s box is begging for a salsa to be made. I love this Mixed Fruit Pico de Gallo when I want something that isn’t as tomato heavy. The juliets or the slicer tomatoes would work great for this recipe. swap out the fresno chili for the jalapeno that’s in your box. Serve it with chips, on fish tacos, or just eat it by the spoonfull.