Sandy Spring CSA

July 22, 2009: This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are: Sweet corn, kale, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, carrots, and beets with tops.

CSA Customer Service: Isn’t it great when your farmer has a face - and an open email box? If you ever have any questions about the condition of your produce, you should feel free to ask questions and Farmer Pam will answer them. One caveat here, of course, is that field fresh food is presented differently than the on-its-best-behavior, slightly plasticized produce that we often find in grocery stores.

Items in our boxes will sometimes still have honest dirt clinging to them, or may have shapes that are more individual than symmetrical, or may show a little more wear than does produce that is bred to travel well rather than to taste good. In the end, though, I’m betting that our vegetables will always taste better (and usually last longer) than supermarket produce! If you ever have concerns about freshness or edibility, please let Pam know. She cares.

Recipes: Chillin’ and Grillin’

I confess, in these long hot days of summer, I grill whenever I can find an excuse - it keeps the heat out of my kitchen, and our gorgeous CSA vegetables taste so good coming off a grill! Here are some grilling ideas for this week’s vegetables:

Corn on the grill is a no-brainer, but for those without much practice at it, this how-to site gives great instructions. Zucchini can be grilled too, either right on the grill itself (if cut the long way rather than in rounds) or in a special grill skillet. This recipe for Marinated and Grilled Zucchini and Summer Squash is my current favorite, though I substitute balsamic vinegar for the plain white vinegar in the recipe. As for potatoes, many of us may remember our scout days of wrapping diced potatoes in foil and throwing them on a fire to cook; try Grilled Potatoes and Onions with Herbs for a grown-up version of this old standby.

Grilling aside, another great option for summer is a risotto, which can be paired with a salad for a great summer meal. Rather than standing over a hot stove slowly ladling on the broth, however, I recommend cheating with a pressure cooker, as outlined in this terrific recipe for Kale-Potato Risotto. Or, for an interesting twist, try this Barley and Beet Risotto, which my family enjoyed last week. The leftovers became a side-saiad dish, served cold over fresh greens with a vinaigrette of lemon olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Food for Thought

Remember our post about the tomato and potato blight? This past Monday, WAMU radio host Kojo Nnamdi featured news and advice about the blight in his noontime broadcast: anyone who’s interested can listen to the audio file of the broadcast to find out more.

Oh, and remember the post on Michael Pollan’s article about the beef industry? Well, on July 13th, the Obama administration announced it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals, such as the use of antibiotics as part of feedlot practices to encourage rapid growth. The New York Times article on this subject speculates that the farm lobby will probably block this legislation, but quotes a leading advocate saying that the measure’s being granted a hearing at all was a “huge step forward.”