Soup Share

Both the weather, and the share today, are perfect for hot soup. We've got a few stalks of celery, a carrot or two, and a little thyme in the bag. There's also a beautiful leek and a bit of chard. We have more sweet peppers, which are still not really turning color on the plants, but are doing fine once they get inside the kitchen. The big, exciting item today (not that they're not all exciting) is the Delicata Zeppelin squash.

A few of the items may warrant notes this week, especially as many of them are new for the season. The squash is fresh off the vine and fine to eat now, but may actually improve a bit if you let it sit in your kitchen a few weeks. If you've never prepared one before they're super easy. The easiest way is to just pop it in a 350 over, whole, for about 45 minutes until a fork easily penetrates the squash. The skin is thin enough to eat, along with the flesh. You can also strain out and toast the seeds.

The leeks may have some dirt in between layers. The easiest way to clean them is to slice them in half lengthwise and then run them under water, exposing the different layers. Both the green and white parts are good, but the white is what is really prized.

The Thyme is fresh and good to eat. If you leave it on your counter it'll dry and you can use it later. The carrots this week are probably best cooked, either is a soup, or even just by themselves. The same goes for the celery, it's probably best cooked in dish such as soup as we didn't really pump it up with water the way they do with the big heads. This also means it should add a bit more flavor to dishes than your run of the mill varieties. Both can be eaten raw, but their highest use is probably in a cooked dish this week.

With the full moon approaching the night temperatures have been dropping and the fields were lightly frosted this morning. We pulled all of the summer squash to make way for plantings of overwintering onions and garlic and we hope to have those in the ground on Thursday.