It’s been an interesting week, but I guess I could say that every week. (Maybe I do.)

On Sunday, Field Marshal Kristin left for Cleveland, Ohio for five days, leaving me to run everything …. including the CSA harvest today.

It hasn’t been bad but it was a bit frightening to behold coming at me through the calendar.

Fortunately, the timing was good.

 

Things were pretty stable in the field, and for harvest I had help from two short-term but very supportive WWOOFers- Miami Juan & Miami April (AKA “the PhDs” (both are psychologists)), as well as Neighbors Dave & Marcie and Patriarch Jim Sehr.

The PhDs had actually been running backup for me since Kristin left – cooking delicious and interesting food, helping weed, and keeping company. And they did so with wonderful cheer in spite of the fact that they were both slowly being killed by the unseasonable August chill that had rode in on a daylong howling wind to banish last week’s Floridian heatwave.

 

Which is to say, it got really chilly, down into the 40s at night, and it did so right before these poor unsuspecting hot-blooded Miami natives arrived and found their bodies, wardrobes, and accommodations unprepared and unable to maintain sensation in their extremities.

My blood is thicker, but I suffered a bit with them – although I closed all the windows for the first time in months, sleeping was cold without Kristin there.  I swapped out the Albatross screens for storm windows, provided the PhDs with extra blankets. and draped a thick fleecelined flannel over old Cleo. (I could have run the woodstove, but I didn’t want to concede to winter. And even if I did, it would be demoralizing to the dwellers of the unheated Albatross, and it would chip away at our woodpile, which suddenly seemed too small, urgently in need of additional wood to get busy drying out.; the last thing I wanted to do was start shrinking it in August.)

 

The sun came out today though, for a gorgeous harvest day, the opposite of last week’s grey rainy scene.

 

Here’s what we put in your boxes in that sunshine:

Week 12 Box

 

(Kristin wrote in remotely to help me out today with this part!):

Savoy cabbage aka cabbage patch kids
The sweetest and most tender type of cabbage best type for eating raw in salad or use leaves for wraps. Can also be sautéed with butter/ tasty oil, garlic, ginger, pepper, lemon, whatever seasonings you like!

Thai basil
Add to soup, stir fry, add to peanut sauce zoodles.
Try making an Asian style pesto by blending:

2 cups fresh Thai basil leaves
2 tablespoons dry-roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves

Zucchini
http://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/sweet-and-hot-curried-zucchini-pickles

 

Edamame (aka fresh soybeans)
Don’t eat the pods! Basic serving suggestion:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/chile-garlic-edamame-recipe.html

Other edamame ideas:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5877128

Sugar baby watermelon:

(Drat, I opened one of the coolers today and saw a tree frog hanging out on the watermelon pile inside – but he hopped away all photo-shy when I pulled out my phone. So use your imagination here.)

Probably just eat it, right? That’s easiest. But it would also pair nicely with Thai basil. Here’s a refreshing drink:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-watermelon-basil-agua-fresca-recipes-from-the-kitchn-205390

Tomatoes
Gazpacho! Tomato soup served ice cold!
Tomato slices on burgers, sandwiches, and with eggs Benedict.

Broccoli
Cucumber
Onion
Sweet Corn

The challenge this week was fitting things into the boxes. Holy crap … you have less zucchini than you started with, and Plan A of putting BOTH a cabbage and a watermelon in the boxes was sensibly and necessarily abandoned … so the watermelons are a la carte.

Hope you enjoy the food!