Summer 2021 CSA - Week 16

Full Share: Carnival Squash, Carrots, Potatoes, Celery, 2 Leeks, 2 Heirloom Tomatoes, Frisee, Sage, Chard

Half Share: Carnival Squash, Carrots, Potatoes, Celery, 1 Leek, 1 Heirloom Tomato

Hi Folks,

My name is Tom, and I manage the greenhouses on the GVB property. I’ve enjoyed another season of

greenhouse growing, and I hope you enjoyed the CSA this season.

This past weekend we hosted a gleaning day to gather remaining produce and donate it to the Gallatin

Valley Food Bank. We had a great turn-out of CSA members, friends, and farm employees to help

harvest more than 1,500 pounds of produce including peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, tomatillos, summer

squash, and basil. We had a great time bonding around the harvest and a variety of snacks. Thank you to

everyone that helped! It’s exciting when we can share more produce with the community.

Notable pieces of the greenhouse season include an unexpected replacement of the plastic on

Greenhouse 5, which houses the French Heritage slicing tomatoes, a new variety of Japanese cucumber

and a great crop of basil comprised of four varieties we wanted to try. We also added a new crop to the

greenhouses…. I’m excited to introduce Lunchbox Peppers. They are small bell peppers that grow in a

mix of red, yellow, and orange. They are crunchy, sweet, and slightly citrus. Like the cherry tomatoes,

they are an easy and delicious snack. The peppers are grown in large pots in a mixture of peat moss and

our farm compost. The greenhouse team and I have enjoyed learning how to prune and trellis the

peppers, as well as manage the inevitable problem of aphids. Greenhouse-grown peppers are notorious

magnets for aphids, and we experienced that. However, we persistently used Neem oil, finger-

smashing, and the help of predators such as Ladybugs and Lacewings to successfully control the aphids. I

hope that the peppers can make it into the CSA next week, but if not, we hope they can be part of next

year’s CSA.

This week’s CSA includes produce for an easy and delicious dish: potato-leek soup with celery and sage,

if you have it.

Our celery is super fresh so it still has all of its leaves attached. You can put them in a salad or stock but another option is to make celery salt out of them. Just roast the leaves in the oven at 200 degrees until they become fully dry. Crumble them with your fingers, or put them into a spice grinder and mix with flaky sea salt. It’s delicious as a garnish on bloody marys, potatoes, or to enhance any soup or stew and a great way to enjoy some of that fresh celery taste throughout the long winter.

Also this weekend we have the first market of the Bozeman Winter Farmers Market! Come out and support your local farmers, ranchers and artisans at the Fairgrounds on Saturday, September 25th from 9am-noon!