This week’s box includes: Cabbage, corn, cantaloupe, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, okra, yellow summer squash, Kirby cucumbers, sweet Italian peppers. 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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Do not be intimidated by the basketball-sized cabbage in the boxes today! Yes, it may be too large for your neighborhood catapult but there are so many ways to sail through a large cabbage in your kitchen. There are – no kidding – 16 slaw recipes on our cabbage recipe page and 13 salad recipes including my 2026 favorite Roasted Cabbage Salad with Spicy Lime Dressing. Thank you to Conne for the hundreds of recipes she contributed to our site over the years. Not a dud in the bunch.
I’m leaning heavily into the NY Times Cooking site this week because *somehow* they always have the perfect recipe that I didn’t know that I needed. First up, Salad of the Week: cabbage-forward Spicy and Creamy Cashew Chicken Salad. I bet that you could skip the chicken or sub tofu and have a vegan version.
Spicy and Creamy Cashew Chicken Salad
Andy Baraghani, NY Times
3 tablespoons cashew or peanut butter
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
2 teaspoons honey
1 to 2 medium-hot green chiles, (such as serrano or jalapeño), finely grated
1 garlic clove, finely grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ medium head green or red cabbage, coarsely chopped or torn (8 cups)
3 cups/about 12 ounces shredded cooked chicken
2 small cucumbers, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 cup mixed tender herbs (such as cilantro, basil and mint, very coarsely chopped)
½ cup roasted salted cashews, coarsely chopped
In a large serving bowl, whisk the cashew butter and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. Gradually stream in the lemon juice, olive oil and soy sauce, whisking constantly. Stir in the honey, chile and garlic. If the mixture looks a little grainy, add another splash of water until it loosens and smooths out. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the cabbage and toss well, getting in there with your hands and massaging the cabbage a bit to help soften it. Add the chicken and toss again and let it sit for about 5 minutes to really soak up the sauce.
Add the cucumbers and herbs and toss again. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt and pepper before topping with the roasted cashews to finish.
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Sweet corn in the boxes always makes me smile. Remember, lop off the top before you store it to evict any pesky corn ear worms that may be lurking. But I’m happy to see corn this particular week because I’ve been saving this recipe that also (bonus!!) features cabbage. At the risk of being repetitive with your protein choices, substitute Riverview pork chops for something different. Or, pan fry up twice as many chicken thighs as this recipe calls for and use them in the Cashew Chicken Salad too.
Smashed Chicken With Corn and Cabbage
Ashley Lonsdale, NY Times
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds skin-on chicken thighs, bones removed (see Tip)
½ cup plain full-fat Greek yogurt
¼ cup chopped bread-and-butter pickles, plus 1 tablespoon pickle brine
2 tablespoon chopped dill, plus more for serving
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 small or ½ medium Savoy or green cabbage, cored and finely chopped (about 4 cups)
2 tablespoons vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Tabasco
In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high. Add the corn and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the color deepens. Season with a sprinkle of salt, transfer to a bowl and wipe out the skillet.
Cut a large square of aluminum foil wide enough to cover the same skillet. Pat the chicken thighs dry and season on all sides with salt and pepper. Swirl the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to coat the bottom of the skillet and set over medium-high heat. Lay the chicken thighs skin-side down in an even layer, then cover with the foil and set a smaller heavy skillet or grill press on top to weigh them down. Cook chicken until skin is golden brown and crispy, 8 to 10 minutes. Flip, cover again with the foil and weight, and cook until chicken is cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more.
While the chicken cooks, prepare the salad: In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, pickles, pickle brine, dill and garlic powder. Stir in the cabbage and corn and season with ¾ teaspoon of salt and a few cranks of freshly cracked pepper. Top with more fresh dill.
Remove the skillet from the heat. Pour out (or reserve for later use!) all but 1 tablespoon of chicken fat. Add the hot sauce plus 2 tablespoons of water to the skillet. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits left behind on the bottom of the pan. Pour the spicy pan drippings over the chicken and serve alongside the cabbage salad.
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I’ve been madly preserving produce here the last couple of days to try to create some wiggle room in the refrigerator. All of the languishing peppers have been diced and frozen on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet before being transferred into a ziploc bag for future pizzas, caramelized onions with sausages, and our favorite grits breakfast casserole. The pickle surfeit is headed for this relish recipe that saw us through last winter. Heck, this week we even dried canary melon slices overnight in the oven. Conclusion: they will rock your world.
I haven’t even mentioned our fig harvest from two trees. Perhaps I should not have planted the second one? (Note: a group of three walkers just approached the mother tree, one exclaiming “Oh my God, it’s enormous!” Yes, it is. It lurks over the sidewalk. The walkers sampled some ripe figs and moved on.) Dealing with the fig harvest simultaneous with the farm’s bounty ALWAYS reminds me of past CSA subscriber Kevin’s declaration of fortitude when faced with summer’s abundance: “Game on, people!” Yes, now we make hay. And, preserve.
This week – plus last week’s – cherry tomatoes are headed for a Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce. I first fell in love with blistered cherry tomato sauce during the pandemic courtesy of Jen Nylander’s Good Food Kitchen. (Jen makes regular appearances in the chef pop-up tent at the Freedom Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Get what she’s serving up, do not pass it by!) Blistered tomato sauce accompanied her salmon cakes that I bought by the dozen. While I don’t have her exact recipe, perhaps this one will do. I’ll be freezing the sauce in half-pint servings to top salmon cakes, meatballs, toss in salad, on pasta … wait! There might not actually be enough to save for later.
Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce
2 pints Cherry tomatoes
½ onion – Peeled and cut into medium wedges
4 Garlic cloves – Peeled
5 Thyme sprigs
¼ cup Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4 Basil sprigs
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Line a rimmed baking tray with parchment paper. Array cherry tomatoes in a single layer along with smashed garlic cloves, onion, and thyme sprigs. Drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper.
Roast in the oven uncovered until bubbly and the cherry tomatoes have burst and shrunk slightly, about 35-45 minutes. A little caramelization is desired.
Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool slightly. Discard thyme sprigs. If desired, transfer mixture to a saucepan and blend with an immersion blender if you’d like a more blended sauce.
Add the basil leaves to sauce.
If mixture is too thin, simmer on low to medium heat until sauce reaches your ideal consistency. Serve.
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Summer! It’s the best.
~Suzanne