This Week's Vegetable Harvest: Dragon Tongue Roasting Green Beans Leeks Celery Heirloom Tomatoes Toyko Bekana Broccoli Italian Peppers Garlic Shallots This Week's Fruit Harvest (from Mick Klug Farms, St. Joseph, MI) Raspberries Bartlett Pears 'Fredonia' Grapes

What's New at the Farm Stand

Lavender -  Emily and Justin Emanuel live in Prairie Crossing and during the pandemic, they decided to explore their love of the outdoors through farming. They rented land in Delavan, WI and started to farm lavender. They hope to expand and find the perfect property soon. In the meantime, we started to sell their all-natural lavender products in our farm stand. Give these products a smell and a try! The Farm Stand is open daily, 7am-7pm.

REMINDER: Two More Weeks to Order Bulk Tomato Cases We are again selling bulk quantities of our certified organic tomatoes for eating and canning. We are holding at our 2022 prices for members. Our availability and prices are as follows:  20 lb Heirloom Tomato Cases - $72 20 lb Paste Tomato Cases - $52  20lb Mixed 'Seconds' Cases - $42 - These cases include imperfect tomatoes (a mix of all varieties) that will need to be processed quickly as the tomatoes will not hold. Despite their imperfections, these tomatoes are delicious!  To place a reservation for tomato case(s), please fill out the following form. If harvests become limited, our 2023 CSA members will receive first priority. On the week of your delivery/pickup, we will send a confirmation reminder email to you. We are unable to provide replacement tomatoes if your case is not picked up. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Farm Journal

Good evening from the farm!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the CSA Farm Share member event. We had a really nice turnout! We hosted members from nearly all ten of our CSA pickup sites.

Members harvested basil, sunflowers, green beans, and kale while exchanging recipes and preserving ideas with one another. We heard from members that they planned to make everything from jarred dilly beans to homemade pesto to freezing greens for winter. Members also shared how they planned to transition the harvested sunflowers (once a cover crop!) into a lovely table bouquet.

Jeff provided a walking tour focused on the innovations we are working on this farming season. He touched on how we diversify our cover crop rotations, how we integrate no and low-till regenerative farming equipment in our farm, and showed how we're using climate-smart materials in our new greenhouse plastic and hoophouse rebuilding.

We were blown away by the kind words and thank you notes following this event. We also had several farm newcomers inquire with us about what going on at the farm. We shared with these newcomers the reason why we offer this event. We explained this was a CSA members-only event because we made a promise to our members. We all share in the risks of farming, so we all share in the rewards of farming, too.

Beyond sharing in the food, we found it thrilling to share a cover crop with both the soil and our members! Thank you for joining us at the event, with your shares, and with your time reading our newsletters each week. Please enjoy this week's later summer harvest. Your farmers, ~ Jeff, Jen, Gavin, David, Cleto, Miguel, Anacleto

Notes from the Farm Kitchen

Fredonia grapes are an early red concord grape variety reminiscent of Welch's grape juice/jelly flavor. These are the only seeded grapes within the fruit shares season. Some people find that grape seeds have a bitter flavor, however, they are safe for most people to eat.

This is the final week of the Tokyo Bekana / Asian cabbage season. Despite the name, we treat it much more like a head of lettuce than a head of cabbage. Simply chop as a salad, make it into spring roll wrap or lightly sauté, and add to cold soba noodles with tofu and other chopped veggies for a cool noodle dish. It is mild, crisp, and juicy, with just the barest hint of cabbage flavor.

Celery bunches are again included in shares this week. We have received the question: why do you harvest in bunches rather than in heads? Answer: This allows us to provide you with celery longer! By cutting the whole plant, you may only receive celery once in shares. By harvesting taller, larger ribs into bunches and allowing the smaller inner ribs to continue to grow, we can provide you with celery for multiple weeks. Store your celery in a plastic bag and use it within one to two weeks. Because we conserve the water we provide to celery, our celery is more flavorful, though slightly tougher than celery coming from other states. It is perfect for juicing, cooking, and a diced chop.

Seasonal Recipes in the Farm Kitchen Heirloom Tomato Sandwich Grape Upside Down Cake Stir Fry with Tokyo Bekana and Leeks Easy Celery Juice Bartlett Pears in Puff Pastry

• Tags: Celery, Grapes, Leeks, Pears, tokyo bekana, Tomatoes

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