This week’s box includes: yellow squash, watermelon, green beans, Kirby cucumbers, white onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, garlic, watermelon & sweet corn. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne Ward Cameron over the years.
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How I managed to completely forget writing this message this week? Blame the heat. But surely by now you’ve dug in hard to what I like to think of as the primal eating time of the year.
Why primal? These beautiful veggies required almost zero (nil!) prep before you put them on the table. Watermelon wedges grace on our table with every meal. Slice tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, drop of balsamic vinegar and a confetti of fresh basil leaves deliver a punch for little effort. Layer in some sliced mozzarella and it’s Caprese, our Salad of the Week.
We’re already down to 3 ears of sweet corn, perhaps enough for this recipe for Oreccheitte with Caramelized Onions, Green Beans, Fresh Corn & Jalapeno (as Conne suggests, any pasta will do) or Squash and Corn Tacos, a recipe that I think originally came from Bobby Flay. The taco recipe includes instructions on how to roast peppers – tip of the week. It’s a process to be sure, but one that imparts a lovely smoky flavor that is absoltely worth the effort.
In case you’re still uninitiated to the corn ear worm, note that the tips of the ears may have a little freeloader who also loves corn present. I haven’t seen one yet this year, but it’s possible. We don’t spray pesticides, even those approved for organic certification, because heck, it’s food and people will be eating it.
The corn ear worm is something we talk about year after year. I found this gem (below) from 2006, courtesy of Ranger Dan’s Box Populi series. We asked Dan, may he rest in gin, to write a weekly message helping subscribers figure out what to do with the produce in their boxes. This beret-wearing gormound responded with dispatches like this one, probably 20 years ago.
As I shucked the corn this week, the first ear had a small, dead brown worm. Trimmed it. The next two ears contained live, plump green worms. I looked at them, they looked at me, I realized that I know these worms. I asked myself “WWGPD?” Memories of Joshua Tree and strange nights in Austin washed over me. I am currently abstaining from strong drink but I felt the need to check the liquor cabinet for old-times sake. No vodka, gin, whiskey, or scotch. Just three bottles of absinthe, certainly no match for a Southwestern treat. But what’s this? An aged bottle of Cuervo with two fingers remaining! Grievous angels danced about me, sweet Annie Rich scratched my itch. The trimmed corn was wonderful grilled with with okra and curried chicken and served with pink-eye peas with chanterelles and porcini. ©
Did he add the copyright symbol? Can’t remember, doesn’t matter. His Hunter S. Thompson-esque kitchen escapades resonante in our neighborhood. He hated cookies.
The okra may be coming soon.
~Suzanne