This Week's Delivery Saturday July 23, 2011

Gonna be a scorcher. Again.

But our farmers are working hard and here's what they have provided for us this week:

Store In The Fridge:

Ambrosia Melon-Northern Neck Fruits and Vegetables

Green Beans-Northern Neck Fruits and Vegetables

Cucumbers-Northern Neck Fruits and Vegetables

Corn-Miller Farm

Store In A Cool Dry Place:

Roma Tomatoes-Northern Neck Fruits and Vegetables

Sweet Ring Onions-Miller Farm

If you have a kombucha bottle to return, you can just leave it on the table.

Also Available:

Organic Pastured Chicken Eggs: $4 a dozen

Whole Milk Plain Yogurt, Made by Christy (Ingredients: Local Pasteurized Grass Fed Whole Milk, Yogurt Culture (from Local Grass Fed Biodynamic Yogurt)-Please Return The Glass Jar

$3 for a 16 oz jar, $6 for a 32 oz. jar

The yogurt is tangy and there is no sweetener added. If you have little ones this is a great flavor to them accustomed to early on, as early as 7 or 8 months. Our kids will eat an entire bowl of plain yogurt without blinking. For a treat we may add homemade granola, fresh fruit, or raw honey. We also use it to top oatmeal, put it in smoothies, or for dressing and dips.

Kombucha is not quite ready-still fermenting. Each batch is tasted and tested until it's at the proper pH before I bottle it for a second fermentation. Hopefully you guys who got some last week enjoyed it! Lots available next week.

Recipes and Information

Ambrosia Melon:

Ambrosia melon is an exotic melon hybrid that might be confused with a cantaloupe, but it’s quite different. Its flesh is very sweet, tender and pale orange in color with a flavor described as “a combination of all melons plus flowers.”

• 
  

Quick Picked Cucumber Melon Salad

from food52.com

4 small or 2 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thin (if using large remove seeds)

3 cups sweet melon, cubed

2 tablespoons plus two teaspoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon salt

black pepper, to taste

2 slices proscuitto or favorite cured meat or 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

In a bowl, mix together the cucumbers and melon. Sprinkle over with the sugar and salt. The salad will begin to expel liquid almost immediately. Let sit 10-20 minutes and drain well. Return to the fridge until ready to serve.

Before your picnic/casual lunch/classy dinner party, drain the salad again and remove to a serving bowl. Add a grind of black pepper and sprinkle over the prosciutto or feta (using both will add too much salt; not recommended). Spoon into bowls or eat straight from the serving dish with your fingers, trying to keep the cucumber-melon juice off your chin.

Chili Oil Green Beans

1/2 LB green beans (washed and make sure the stem end it snapped or cut off)

2-3 TBS of Chinese chili oil (depending on how much heat you like)
2 TBS soy sauce or Tamari sauce (Tamari is a Japanese version of soy sauce that is deeper, richer and earthier, and gluten-free)


1 TBS sesame oil


Heat the oven up to 450 degrees.
Mix together the soy sauce, chili oil and sesame oil.
 Put your green beans in a big bowl and toss with the sauce mixture.
Pour out into a baking tray lined with foil, pop in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Once in a while you can go in an toss the green beans around to avoid the bottom layer burning.
 Enjoy!

with thanks,

christy and tom