Summer 2022 CSA - Week of July 25th

Full share: 2 lettuce heads, chard, fava beans, zucchini, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, broccolini, basil, dill

Half share: 1 lettuce head, chard, zucchini, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, dill

Good morning everyone!

The sun and hot temps of high summer are keeping things rolling on the farm and this week’s box brings a few new friends into your kitchens. Both full and half share members will be receiving the first of the zucchini harvest and new varieties of peas (snow for full share and snap for half) and some lovely dill to chop into a yogurt dip or season some fish. Full share will also be seeing the first kohlrabi (try it in fritters or a slaw) and delicious fava beans that can be eaten raw, blanched, steamed, fried, pureed, or roasted. 

A few reminders: 

• If you have any cookbooks, magazines, or recipes you’d like to share in our lending library, bring them by!

• We have flour from Conservation Grains, chickpeas and farro from Highland Harmony Farms, and coffee from Yellowstone Coffee Roasters available in the market stand.

• Even if you don’t have a flower CSA, we have beautiful bouquets available in the market stand. 

This week you’ll hear from Sadie Morris, one of our education team and members and a dedicated farmhand. Read on to hear about her experience of coming to the farm and a creative way to use your zucchini!

Montana and Rocky Creek Farm welcomed me with mud in June of this year. A fresh college graduate but an original resident of California, I was promised that it would actually be warm for a week or two this summer and I would be able to shed my nightly pile of layers. Nonetheless, I have fallen in love with Rocky Creek Farm: the people who I work alongside daily harvesting, weeding, and irrigating, the cottonwoods that line the creek, and the aspens that dot the hills. And, of course, the mountains. Farming, I have learned, is an occupation mostly conducted bent over—a reality that makes standing up to those illustrious mountain faces all the more breathtaking.

All in all, I am grateful to be a new member of the Rocky Creek team. My role as an educator means I get to alternate weeks between farm work and cultivating the minds of Bozeman youth who participate in our farm camp. Loosely the job is to make sure the animals don’t kill the kids, the kids don’t kill the animals, and no one steps on the crops. We also have fun playing in the creek, learning about all aspects of the farm, getting muddy, and making food. 

Outside of the farm, my interest in the intersection between environmentalism, culture, spirituality, and politics has led me to stay on as a managing editor for an environmental magazine. I also enjoy reading, cooking, and scrounging up the energy to explore my new Montana surroundings. 

This week, the CSA will be receiving its first of the zucchini harvest. These plants can be quite prolific once they get going so my mother growing up would turn them into relish that could be enjoyed all year round. My brother and I concur that it is better than traditional cucumber-based relish. Here is the recipe:

Zucchini Relish

1st Part

Grind 10 cups fresh zucchini

Grind 4 cups yellow onions

Mix together in a glass bowl. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons of canning salt over all and toss together. 

Let stand one night. 

Drain well in the morning and rinse through with water. Let drain again. 

2nd Part

In a large pot mix:

2 1/2 cups vinegar

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp black pepper

Bring the contents of the pot to a boil. 

Mix 1 tablespoon corn starch into the drained zucchini and onion mixture from the night before. Grind one red onion and one green bell pepper and mix into the zucchini-onion mixture. 

When the vinegar mixture comes to a boil, add bell peppers and zucchini-onion mixture. Simmer for one hour. Seal in canning jars.

Makes 3-4 pints. 

The lovely Sadie with one of the bouquets she made for last week’s flower CSA

Until next week!

Sasha