We try to keep the printed newsletter to a 2-page maximum, which means that we won’t list all the share items’ descriptions every week, but refer you to previous newsletters for information on items that have already appeared in your shares. In our newsletter, we try to give you an accurate listing of the produce in your box; however, since the newsletter is published before the harvest, we may sometimes substitute some vegetables for others. **Also, if you’re having trouble identifying any unfamiliar produce, please look for “Veggie ID” with additional information on our website under CSA INFO or under RECIPES.

 If you are new to our CSA, since you signed up with a prorated share, you can find all past newsletters on our website under the NEWSLETTERS section in the CSA Info tab.

THIS WEEK’S SHARE

ARUGULA: known as “wild rocket” with more deeply lobed leaves and a more pungent flavor; an aromatic, bright salad green with a peppery mustard flavor. See Week 1 newsletter for usage and storage tips..

GREEN BEANS (Jade): long, slender, deep green, filet bean.
-How to use: raw in salads, steamed, sautéed, stir-fried, etc.
-How to store: refrigerate in plastic bag for up to 1 week.

GREEN CABBAGE: You will receive either Savoy (loose, full head of crinkled leaves varying from dark to pale green; mellow-flavored cabbage considered to be superior for cooking) OR Tendersweet (midsize, flat heads; tender leaves are very thin, sweet, and crisp–perfect for coleslaw or stir-fries). See Week 6 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

SWEET CORN (Vision): exceptionally tender, super sweet, yellow ears; great for fresh eating and freezing. See Week 11 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

U-PICK FLOWERS (only available for picking on the farm): We welcome you to the farm to pick your flowers on any day of the week, but please contact us if it will be on other days besides Wednesdays and Fridays, so we can make sure to be around to show you where to go. This week you can pick up to 15 stems per household and with this recent rain they are exploding into color!  You may want to bring a vase/jar to keep your flowers fresh going home, but we will have donated yogurt containers to fill with water as well. Your bouquet is part of your share, although it is always greatly appreciated when you make a donation to pay for seeds and labor. Extra bouquets cost $6/bunch for 15 to 20 stems.

GARLIC: a bulb of several papery white cloves; believed to help in fighting infections, cancer prevention, bolstering the immune system, lowering blood pressure, and at least some people believe that it can ward off vampires and insects.
Cooking tips: to mellow garlic’s strong flavor opt for longer cooking; to enjoy its more pungent flavors and increased medicinal benefit, use it raw or with minimal cooking. See Week 7 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

FRESH HERBS: Everyone will receive a bunch of Prospera Italian Large Leaf Basil this week, an herb with a sweet aroma with notes of anise in its green leaves; traditionally used in pesto. It will last longer when stored in a jar, vase, or glass of water.
**PRESERVING TIPS: You are receiving a steady flow of basil this year, since it grows so well. If you don’t use it that quickly, you can easily save it for the winter by FREEZING it (wash leaves, pluck them off branch and stick them whole in freezer bag- when ready to use, crumble leaves while frozen into dishes). Also DRYING it (hang it upside with a paper bag clipped to stem to catch the leaves for 1 to 2 weeks and strip leaves off branches when dry and store in jar).

KALE (Green Curly): well-ruffled, curly green leaves on green stems; this variety makes a good, roasted “kale chip”. See Week 3 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

ONIONS: You will receive any of the following Ailsa Craig Exhibition (a huge, sweet, mild, yellow-skinned, heirloom onion that is well known by British gardeners who grow show-size onions), Red Long of Tropea (specialty variety of tall, elongated, red bulbs traditionally grown in Mediterranean Italy and France), OR Cipollini (a traditional Italian onion known for its flat, oval shape and delicately mild, sweet flavor; ranges in size from 1-3 inches; used for pickling and to season a wide variety of dishes and especially good grilled on a skewer). See Week 7 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

CHILI & SWEET PEPPERS: You will receive Shishito (sweet, mild, slender Japanese chiles about 2- to 4-inches with squarish end; often used in stir-fried dishes, salads, or as a pickled condiment) and Carmen (6-inch long, tapered fruit that ripens from green to a deep “carmine” red; sweet taste in salads and when roasted and fully red-ripe). See Week 12 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

POTATOES: You will receive Carola (yellow potato from Germany; smooth, creamy texture that is good for baking or frying) and/or Red Sangre (one of the prettiest of all red skinned varieties with medium-sized oblong tubers; creamy white flesh that is especially delicious boiled or baked) and/or Adirondack Blue (round to oblong, slightly flattened tubers have glistening blue skin enclosing deep blue flesh; moist, flavorful flesh is superb for mashing or salads; very high in antioxidants!). See Week 7 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

TOMATOES: You will receive any of the following– Green Zebra (ripe as a green fruit with a yellow blush and darker green stripes; delicious, tangy salad tomato; beautiful sliced into wedges for salads), AND HEIRLOOMS –Cherokee Purple (heirloom, medium-large, flattened globe fruit with color as dusky pink and greenish blush), Brandywine (large, heirloom, beefsteak tomato with a deep pink skin and smooth red flesh), or Striped German (very large, meaty, 1-2 lb fruit with red-yellow stripes and dense, juicy, red-yellow streaked flesh; excellent sweet, complex flavors), AND Geronimo Slicers (a beefsteak slicer variety; fruits are very large, firm, nice red color and good taste) . See Week 9 newsletter for usage and storage tips.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. ENDING SUMMER CSA DATES: The end is drawing near for Summer CSA. This is just a reminder that our summer shares are ending in just a few weeks. That means Sept. 28 (Wed.), Sept. 30 (Fri.), and Oct. 1 (Sat.) are the last distribution days for our Summer Shares.

2. VACATIONS or OUT OF TOWN: Please remember to contact us at least by Sundays to make changes in pick up days or locations for the upcoming week, or let us know since we can make administrative changes at least a day ahead. With Labor Day weekend coming up, please make all your changes ahead of time. If you can’t find someone to pick up your share, please let us know if you want to cancel your share or donate to a needy family.

3. HIRED HELP STILL NEEDED: We are looking for additional help for the rest of the summer and into the fall. Some of our summer crew were students and they are heading back to school, so we are short-handed going into the fall. We are looking for part-time and full-time workers who are interested in getting their hands dirty and enjoy healthy, hearty, hard work. We provide home-cooked lunches every day with food from the farm. Room and board are available for full time work, and part time work is available as well for an hourly wage. Please email us or fill out an application from our website at https://www.tantrefarm.com/internships/.

4. WANTED: TOMATO PICKERS!! Is there anyone interested in helping us pick tomatoes any weekday morning for the next few weeks, but especially on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday anytime from 7 – 11:30 AM? You may volunteer or we are able to pay $10/hr AND you can take home a few tomatoes.

5. ALREADY PICKED TOMATOES and CORN AVAILABLE FOR SALE: We have many tomato varieties and sweet corn ready for preserving. Please email us your name, phone number, amount needed in lbs or ears, and pick up location ONLY at the Markets or the Farm with BULK TOMATOES or BULK CORN in your Subject Line a few days ahead of time.

-Already Picked Tomatoes ($1.50/lb) – $30/half bushel (20 lbs)
-Already Picked Sweet Corn – $5/half doz or $10/dozen

6. U-PICK RASPBERRY PATCH OPEN SATURDAY and SUNDAY: We will be open this Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM-4 PM. U-pick is $6/pint and $4/half pint for Already Picked Raspberries. To keep informed go to https://www.tantrefarm.com/tantre-farm-raspberry-u-pick.

7. STILL PLENTY OF BOXES AVAILABLE FOR OUR IMMUNE BOOSTER CSA THIS WEEK: Please feel free to sign up for our weekly, collaborative CSA share if you would like to supplement your box or give it as a gift. The menu is updated on our website every Monday – Wednesday http://www.tantrefarm.com/how-does-our-immune-booster-csa-work/. Still time to sign up this week for a share!

8. PICK UP TIMES & LOCATIONS REMINDER:
*Ann Arbor Farmers’ Market (Wed.)—7 AM to 12 PM
*MOVE Fitness & Wellness Studio (Wed)—8 AM to 12 PM
*Farm (Wed.)—10 AM to 7 PM
*Washtenaw Food Hub (Wed.) –6 PM to 8 PM (Hub Farm Market open during this time!)
*Pure Pastures (Wed.)—9 AM to 11 AM
*Farm (Fri.)—2 PM to 7 PM
**Community High School CHANGED TO AA FARMERS MARKET (Sat.) —7 AM to 12 PM
*Washtenaw Food Hub (Sat.)—9 AM to 12 PM
*Chelsea Farmers’ Market (Sat.)—9 AM to 12 PM
*Argus-Packard (Sat) 10:30 AM to 3 PM
*RoosRoast-Rosewood (Sat)–9 AM to 11 AM
*HoneyBee U-pick (Sat)–8 AM to 12 PM

LOOKING DEEPLY AT AN EAR OF CORN
by Richard (and Deb)

 About 12 years ago, we bought a flat, 70-acre field two miles west of Tantre Farm on the Fishville Plateau just a few miles east of Grass Lake. The fields were bordered by mature Osage orange hedgerows planted maybe a hundred or so years ago. Within the first few weeks of our purchase, we seeded oats, alfalfa, clover, and pasture grass with the help of our good neighbor. The field has yielded hundreds of bales of hay, and over the years another farmer has raised many chickens and lambs, which were pastured and born there.

 Finally, after a dozen years of hay and pasture, we plowed down about ten acres this spring, turning the grass and the legumes upside down into deep chocolatey earth facing up to the sky, so that we could plant squash, pumpkins, sweet corn, and watermelons. We planted our sweet corn into 800-foot rows on half of this field making a total of 8 weekly plantings of 16 rows each with about an 8 week succession. As we planted our seed, the weather became dry. The seed came up here and there, but mostly it came up. Maybe a few kernels were too dry to come up. Maybe a few were eaten by the wire worms and other vertebrates that had been plowed down with the hay. It is a nice sandy field without much weed growth. We hilled the rows with our little tractor and waited for the tassels and the ears. Over those weeks they never got very tall, probably because of the weather and the decomposition of all that grass and root matter, but pretty soon we had some nice little fat ears. It was time to harvest! It started with a small trickle and then finally becoming a flood of larger ears. I started picking the corn by myself at first, gradually adding several people as the weeks went by.

 There is a fairly specific intention when picking corn. Snap the ears off the stalk. Snap the stems off the ears to fit carefully into a wooden crate, which holds about 60 ears of corn. All these neat little rows and layers. Its a beautiful site to see, and the corn is so sweet to crunch in the morning sunshine with the wild summer birds singing. With such a monotonous job, it gives me pause to sing the “happy farmer song” with the farm crew spread throughout the rows like so many crows listening to the late August crickets. Now it is time for you to enjoy and preserve the sweet corn, so we hope you appreciate its abundance and sing the “happy farmer song”!

RECIPES

GREEN BEANS WITH TOMATOES AND BASIL (from “From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce” by MACSAC) Serves 4-6
1 1/2 lbs green beans, cooked
1 garlic clove, diced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 slicer or heirloom tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

 Cut beans into 1-inch lengths; set aside. Saute garlic and onion in oil in skillet until soft. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook 2 minutes. Stir in basil and green beans. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in parsley, and serve immediately.

CORN RELISH (from “The Joy of Cooking”)
8 cups fresh corn kernels (about 18 ears of corn)
2 cups diced green bell pepper
2 cups diced red bell pepper
2 cups chopped onions
1/4 cups chopped garlic
1 Tbsp pickling salt
2 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 qt cider vinegar
1 cup water
2/3 cup brown sugar

 Put all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Pack the relish into pint or half-pint mason jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace, and close the jars with hot two-piece caps. Process the jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Store the cooled jars in a cool, dry, dark place.

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