What’s In The Box with Recipe Suggestions
Orange Carrots: Nothing beats the crisp texture of a farm-fresh carrot. Orange carrots are extraordinarily crunchy and bursting with natural sweetness. While they make a refreshing snack when eaten raw, roasting transforms them into a tender, deeply caramelized side dish.
Carrot Cake French Toast Recipe
Juicy Chicken Carrot Meatballs
Cauliflower (Purple, Yellow, or White): Cauliflower is having a colorful week! We are harvesting all three colors of cauliflower this week, so your box will include either white, yellow or purple. You can roast it until golden, toss it into a curry, or turn it into a cozy soup.
Teriyaki Chicken and Cauliflower
Eggplant: This week we are sending the Black Globe variety. Inside you’ll find tender, pale flesh with a mild flavor that loves bold seasonings. Give it some heat! Grill it, roast it, or sauté it with garlic and herbs for a delicious seasonal dish.
Italian Garlic: Small bulb, big flavor! Store garlic at room temperature until you are ready to use it. Adding a little garlic to your meals every day is a great way to support your immune system!
Oven-Roasted Corn on the Cob with Garlic Butter
Leeks: Think of leeks as the sweet, gentle cousin of the onion. It resembles an oversized scallion, featuring long white and light-green stalks. Its flavor is mild, savory, and slightly sweet. Although traditionally considered a Fall vegetable, leeks pair beautifully with summer vegetables as well.
15-Minute Creamy Leek and Mushroom Pasta
Cheddar, Baby Leek and Tomato Sandwich Recipe
Melon (Sugar Cube, Canary or French orange) or Watermelon: Summer is nearly over, but we still have sweet treats fresh from the fields in this week’s box. The melons and watermelons are juicy and refreshing—standing out for their sweet, revitalizing flavor—and remind us of the warm days we are still enjoying. Chill them before slicing for a simple summer indulgence. Grab a slice, add it to a fruit salad, or enjoy it on its own!
Prosciutto & Melon Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Red and Yellow Onions: A great meal almost always begins with an onion; varieties like the crisp Monastrell (red) and the robust Sedona (yellow) are the perfect starting point for your cooking. Slice one fresh to add a crunch to salads and sandwiches, or slow-cook it until it breaks down, taking on a golden, caramelized sweetness.
Caramelized Onions for Burgers
Mujadara (Brown Rice and Lentils with Fried Onions and Yogurt)
Mini Sweets Peppers: Have you tried these little bursts of sweetness? Mini sweet peppers are small, colorful, crisp, and naturally sweet—with little to no heat. Their size makes them the perfect grab-and-go snack.
Italian Fryers Pepper Orange and Red: These exceptional peppers stand out for their flavor, not their heat. Italian frying peppers are long, slender, and mild with a naturally sweet taste and thin, tender walls.
One Skillet Beef Tips with Peppers and Onions
Red Ace Bell Pepper: Red, ripe, and ready to shine! Red Ace bell peppers are large, smooth, and beautifully bright red. They have a crisp texture and naturally sweet flavor with no heat.
Easy Roasted Chicken with Peppers and Potatoes
Ukraine Pepper: Ukrainian peppers are a unique variety resembling traditional bell peppers; they offer a versatile flavor ranging from mild and sweet to slightly spicy, depending on the specific variety and stage of ripeness. You can easily use them as a direct substitute in any recipe calling for conventional bell peppers.
Ukrainian Borscht with Tomatoes and Bell Peppers
Peter Wilcox Potatoes: This week’s potato variety is the nutrient and flavor packed Peter Wilcox! Characterized by dark purple skin and gold flesh, this potato was bred for higher nutrient density and flavor. This variety has waxy flesh making it most appropriate for pan-frying, roasting, adding to soups and stews and gratin.
Crispy Garlic Parmesan Fries Recipe (Double Fried)
Red Tabby Spinach (not pictured): What makes this spinach truly special is its incredible combination of red and green colors, the exclusive Red Tabby variety. It is incredibly delicate, fresh, and delicious. To enjoy its vibrant flavor, add it raw to a crisp salad, briefly sauté it with garlic and olive oil, or stir a handful into your favorite hot pasta dish.
Fully Loaded Spinach Salad with Bacon & Blue Cheese
Vegan White Lasagna with Spinach and Mushrooms
Small Tomatoes: These bite-sized tomatoes are colorful, juicy, and naturally sweet. They’re perfect when you want something quick and fresh—just wash, grab, and eat! Toss them into a salad, roast them with garlic, or keep a bowl on the counter for an easy snack.
Variety of Large Tomatoes: Tomatoes are a very delicate item. We recommend you remove the tomatoes from the paper bag as soon as you get them home. Wipe away any moisture with a clean, soft towel, then spread them out on a plate to ripen at room temperature. If they are nearly ready to eat, store them in the refrigerator to slow the ripening process and use them as soon as possible. If you have more tomatoes than you can eat, you can preserve them by freezing them raw or cooking them down into a rich sauce before freezing.
Marcella Hazen’s Tomato Sauce with Onions and Butter
Sweet Corn: It looks like this is our final week of sweet corn. If you haven’t had your fill of buttered sweet corn on the cob, this is the last chance!
Corn Bread with Fresh Sweet Corn
CHOICE—Italian Basil: Fresh basil adds a delicious flavor to your meals, and as we approach the end of the basil season, enjoy it while it lasts by adding it to your dishes.
Vegetable Feature: Leeks
This week, we’re enjoying leeks, a member of the Allium family. We plant them from seed in the greenhouse in late February. We then transplant them in the field early in the season, just after we transplant all our storage onions. They need more time to grow than onions, which have already been harvested. Although they may look like a large green onion, leeks have a much milder and sweeter flavor, especially when cooked.
Leeks are one of the vegetables that can actually become sweeter after cooking! Their delicate flavor makes them perfect for soups, risottos, quiches, roasted vegetables, and sauces.
When preparing leeks, remember that the layers can hold a little soil, so give them a good rinse after slicing. They are best cooked using more gentle methods such as braising, lightly sautéing, or cooking them into soups, sauces, and broths. When cooked using these gentle methods, the texture of leeks becomes silky and tender. Leeks have less sugar than onions, so they do not caramelize in the same way as onions. When you are sautéing leeks, do so at a low to medium temperature just until they are soft. Do not try to brown them.
Leeks pair well with many late summer and fall vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, celeriac, and other root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots. They are often incorporated into cream soups, gratins, and egg dishes such as quiche. A traditional use for leeks is to make Leek & Potato Soup, but there are many ways to enjoy them.
Keep unwashed leeks loosely wrapped in the refrigerator, where they can stay fresh for several weeks.
We hope you enjoy this delicate allium and appreciate the subtle way it adds flavor to your meals this week! .
Farm Update
Autumn has arrived, and you know what that means – With the change of season, it is time to say goodbye to some of our favorite summer treats. We have officially wrapped up our final harvests of sweet corn, cucumbers, zucchini, and watermelons. We truly hope you enjoyed eating them as much as we loved growing them for you!
The good news is that a new season brings new delicious options. We are officially transitioning to our crisp autumn root vegetables. We are keeping a close watch on the jicama right now and hope to start harvesting the first batch for you as early as next week.
