Hi everyone,
We’re back from break and ready for the peak of summer produce! This week’s share is the heaviest of the season (20 lbs!) and we’re expecting them to only get heavy here on out. Despite the apparent abundance of our shares, Nichols has been having a tough season. They’ve experience multiple flash flood events over the last month that has cause a significant amount of damage to some crops. Fortunately, what wasn’t washed away is thriving and abundant and ready for us to enjoy.
One of my favorite parts of the CSA Club is the way we can take advantage of our shared volume to increase the diversity of produce we each get to try. In a normal Nichols share this week, each received one varietal melon. Some received one variety, and others received another. Across all our shares this week, we had three different varieties. Instead of only getting one variety, we each get to enjoy a little bit of all three. What fun.
Hope you all enjoy the share!
-Ben
This yellow fleshed and netted skinned muskmelon is a fun one. Ananas is the word for ‘pineapple’ in both Italian and French. It’s super easy to figure why its called that as soon as you taste it.
(pictured left) You’ve probably heard this called cantaloupe, but cantaloupe is actually a very specific variety of melon that is pretty rare in the U.S.. Nichols generally lists these as ‘varietal melons’ since they grow and distribute more varieties than they’re able to individually name. With the non-orange melons, I can do an okay job of figuring out what variety they are, but there are so many different varieties of orange muskmelon that I can’t confidently say which this is. I can say though its pretty tasty with notes of spices that resonate with me as cardamom.
Now with lacey yellow flowers, dill is reappearing in the shares and just in time for an abundance of cucumbers. The stars align.
Mirroring the red onion in the last share, we had spring white onions back in the second share of the season. Now summer onions, these are large but not yet cured to have the papery exterior and so still needing refrigeration. Pungent and zesty, these onions are great roasted, or as a garnish for tacos.
Swiss chard, or more generally, chard, are varieties of beet selected for large stems and broad leaves, rather than large tap roots (beets). The variety of colors is due to betalain pigments, the same that give beets their color. Betalains are water-soluble, so they will fade when cooked.
With dill in the share this week as well, the possibilities for cucumbers are endless. Make some quick pickles or give lacto-fermentation a try.
From On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee:
“After their domestication in Mexico (their name comes from the Aztec term for ‘plump fruit,’ tomatl), and a period of European suspicion that lasted into the 19th century, [tomatoes are] eaten all over the world… In the United States they’re second in vegetable popularity only to the potato, a starchy staple.”
Cucumbers and squash are both part of the cucurbit family, which also includes melons. Globally, cucumbers are the second most consumed cucurbit, only behind watermelon. These are sweet and crisp. We’ve been slicing them thinly and dressing with soy sauce, vinegar, and a touch of sesame of oil for an easy snack.
Nirvana is a supersweet variety of bicolor corn. The corn we had in the last share, Kickoff, is an early harvest variety but now with Nirvana we are getting into the sweetest corn of the season. We love to add corn to just about everything we cook this time of year. With it off the cob, its easy to just toss into a pan with whatever else is cooking (like maybe the swiss chard). The kernels freeze well as is but best practice would be to first blanch.
Galia is a green-fleshed variety of melon with a netted-tan skin, similar to cantaloupe. You’ve probably heard me rave about Nichols melons, so I want to make sure and mention that I don’t think this is the sweetest of melons that we’ll see this season. I don’t think it’s the variety, rather that it is early in the season, and we’ve recently seen a lot of rain (basically dilutes the sugar in the fruit). Don’t hear what I’m not saying though, they are still aromatic and delicious.
There are a couple different varieties of cherry tomatoes in this mix. A yellow one that is a nice burst of tartness. A skinny red one that has a more mild flavor. And one that is more similar to the multi-colored heirlooms that are coming into season at farmers’ markets.
Artichokes are truly a treat. The smell of them reminds me of sandalwood or incense. They take of bit of work and unfortunately because they oxidize quickly, it can’t be done ahead of time. Here is a great article on how to trim and steam artichokes. If you don’t have a lemon on hand, distilled vinegar would also work. Then all you need is a tasty sauce to dip the artichoke in. Artichokes also have a tendency to make other food taste particularly sweet thanks to a compound called cynarine, so maybe don’t serve with that special bottle of wine.
These are long slender varieties, which makes them a little easier to cook with. The old adage is to salt eggplant before cooking to reduce bitterness. I don’t know if it necessarily does that, but salting them does collapse air pockets in the eggplant that helps it cook more evenly.
