Kretschmann
Farm
Aug. 18, 2009
don@kretschmannfarm.com www.kretschmannfarm.com
Greetings from
the Kretschmanns,
When it’s hot and humid until late in the
night, the
proper term for it is, “dog days of August.”
The heat has hastened the long awaited tomatoes and since it’s been dry
also, late blight seems to be at bay for now.
We’re picking a lot of ‘maters and hope they hold up for you. See below.
You might want to eat them quicker than normally because they won’t hold
long.
With the tomato blight upon us, we will be
scrambling to fill in the gap. We’ve got
what looks like a great winter squash crop coming on and the carrots we’ve been
furiously digging are piling up (four bins
full last week). We had planned on
having more fruit this season, but both strawberries and blueberries were
shorter seasons than last year. Last
winter we spoke with a local peach grower about supplying us with peaches. We thought this would be an excellent way to
continue with a delicious fruit to fill the fruit season between blueberries
and apples. So next week we are planning
to have a few peaches in your box. They
aren’t organically grown, and if you’d prefer not to receive them, just send a
note.
The amount for the second half of the season
is now coming due. Generally, that is
$225 for the small, $275 for the medium, and $325 for the large boxes
respectively--this is if you had received all boxes or had donated them when away,
and hadn’t gotten anything extra. Amounts for the ½ smalls are either $118 or $97
depending on whether you started the first or second week in June. We’ll be sending out a detailed billing at
the end of the month (the half-way point in the season) which will include any
missed weeks, and any odd extra things you might have gotten.
Doggin’ it in the
heat, we are, sincerely,
Don, Becky, & The Kretschmann Crew
Note on tomatoes: There’s no danger to eat a tomato from a late blight
infected plant, just trim off any small bad spots as one normally would. They generally will not store as long as a
healthy tomato. When we were picking,
there were any number of nice tomatoes with a small mark indicating
blight. If these were red ripe and ready
to eat, we would generally pick them thinking they were edible now, but if they
required time to fully ripen, we tossed them.
The bottom line is that if you have tomatoes which are ripe, you might
want to eat them sooner rather than later.
Somehow, slaw is
particularly refreshing in the summer heat.
Coleslaw: At home as a child, we used to make coleslaw
by putting cabbage, carrots, and a little onion through a meat/nut
grinder. The dressing was mayonaise, vinegar, sugar and salt. Now we just slice with a knife or grater,
about as thick as a nickel. If you add
the salt when slicing the cabbage, one draws out the natural juice of the
cabbage. This then mixes with the other
dressing ingredients to marinate the slaw.
Low-cal dressing is simple--just vinegar, salt, and honey. (Or if you're
out of mayo) Approximate proportions for
a dressing are 1/2 c. mayonaise, 2 tbs. vinegar or
lemon juice, 2 tbs. honey, and 1/2 tsp salt.
Or make an Asian type dressing: 1T soy sauce, 1 T
vinegar, 2 T sesame oil, 2 t. minced ginger, ½ c creamy peanut butter, 1
t. honey, dash hot pepper. Add a little
chopped parsley, and green onion rings.
Mix it up, taste, and adjust as you like.
Here’s another interesting, delicious, and easy recipe from
Becky’s sister
Deviled
Pesto Eggs: Combine pesto and mayonnaise 50/50. Place a dollop in halved hard boiled egg
whites. Pesto:
2 c. fresh basil leaves, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1-2 tsp finely
chopped garlic, 2-4 T pine nuts (or walnuts), 1/2 c. olive oil, 1/2 c. grated
Parmesan cheese. Combine in blender or
food processor until texture is slightly grainy.
Leftover pesto? Try
tossing steamed green beans with pesto. Don’t
waste a drop of this ambrosian condiment. Pesto can be frozen in ice cube trays then
removed to a plastic bag for storage, or spread on a slightly oiled pie pan and
cut into cubes when frozen. Frozen pesto
makes for a gourmet quick-meal year round.
It’s hard to have too much frozen pesto stashed away.
Chard with white beans
and carrots:
Prepare any white beans until tender or be ready with canned ones. Saute 2 c. sliced
carrots, 4 cloves garlic and 1 c chopped onions in 2 tbs
butter or olive oil 3 min. Add chopped swiss chard
stems from 1 bunch, sautéing another 2 min., then add the chopped chard leaves,
sauté for another several minutes until wilted.
Add heated white beans, salt, pepper, a little allspice, oregano, basil,
and 1/4 c. sherry or white wine if desired and gently heat until meal-hot.
