Chatfield CSA E-news for September 2- 5
Dear shareholders,
Goodbye August! Hello September - which really means hello to tomatoes! Lots of them! We wanted to provide a little guide to the tomatoes you have been receiving at distribution so please keep reading. In addition to the extra bags of tomatoes for purchase (see below) - we also have leeks that are ready! Leeks are amazing in any tomato sauce so we will also provide all the sauce basics including garlic,onion,basil and fennel stalks. Happy sauce making!
Important reminder: We are at St. John’s Cathedral for Tuesday’s distribution September 3. This will be the last date we are off site for the season; we appreciate your willingness to move locations so the Denver Botanic Gardens' concert series runs smoothly.
If you are headed out of town for Labor day, and won’t be picking up your share on Tuesday then please communicate with your pick up friend what to do at distribution!
tomato seconds for sale!
If you would like to purchase bags of tomato seconds for sauce making, 10 pound bags will be on sale for $10 a piece at both distributions. Please remember your wallet! Also, please share any amazing sauce recipes you have with our community and we will print them out for members. Tomato varieties will vary, but all will be good in sauce.
CSA potluck september 12 - preview the corn maze!
Please join us Thursday September 12 for our fall potluck. We will still have distribution occurring during the potluck so there is no reason not to stop by and share food with your CSA community. Also for people who live in downtown Denver, let’s get a ride share going so we can have more of our Denver community join us for food and fun on the farm. All CSA members will be able to go through the Chatfield corn maze for just $5 dollars a family! For ride shares to the potluck please email: [email protected]
tomato varieties available this week:
Orange Blossom: Heirloom quality fruit, ripens early with a great taste and beautiful orange color for salsas and salads.
Martha Washington: The fruit has a pinkish skin with a melting texture and medium sweet flavor.
New Girl: A small red tomato that holds up great in sauce. Also a good slicing tomato for sandwiches, etc.
Cherokee Purple: green on the top and purple on the bottom – exceptional complex flavor. Slice and serve on its own or in simple tomato dishes no need to cook this beauty.
Striped German: A huge full tomato often large enough to feed a family with one fruit. Eat these right away as their skin is very thin and they tend to over ripen quickly.
Prudens Purple: A smaller purple tomato with rich flavor and thicker skin – great for roasted or cooked dishes.
Valencia: Deep orange or almost gold in color, smaller cylindrical shape with a meaty interior and few seeds. Holds up as a good slicing tomato.
Sweet Aroma: Red and round - strange.
produce list for september 2 – 5
*this list is tentative and subject to change
Leeks!!!
Basil
Onions
Garlic
Tomatoes
Fennel stalks Leeks!!!
Kale (may still have a tiny hail damage growth)
Tomatoes
Bulk tomato bags ($5)
Tomatillos Peppers Beets Herbs
Weekly Bread: Multigrain with sesame
Weekly Fruit: last week of peaches! One bag please.
Featured Recipe:
Getting Saucy with Lena: The Marinara Edition
from Lena Tenenbaum, CSA grower and volunteer field coordinator
8 heirloom CSA tomatoes
1 onion, diced
1 eggplant
4 cloves of CSA garlic, chopped
1 cup of mushrooms or leeks or both
2 TBSP butter
4 TBSP olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 TBSP basil, chopped
2 TBSP parsley, chopped
2 TBSP oregano, chopped
1 -2 diced fennel stalks (you can lightly sauté these ahead of time or directly add)
Salt, pepper, and to taste
Boil tomatoes for 5 min and transfer to bowl of cold water. Remove skins and squish tomatoes into a large pot. Set to a low boil around medium heat and add basil, parsley, and oregano. Heat 2 TBSP olive oil in skillet and add onions, summer squash, and fennel seed. Sauté until translucent and add to pot. Skin and dice eggplant. Toss with salt and let it sweat in a colander for 30 min. Sauté with 2 cloves of the garlic until soft. Add to pot. Sauté mushrooms/leeks in the butter with the other 2 cloves of garlic and add to the pot. Add the balsamic vinegar and let the pot hang out on the stove simmering away, stirring occasionally for as long as possible. My best batch spent 7 hours on the stove, but I like my sauce on the thick side.
Grower’s Perspective: The beauty of storms
CSA Volunteer Field Coordinator and Grower - Lena!
We took a hit last week as Chatfield shareholders know--many of them hid out under overpasses on C-470, hunkered down in our washstand, or rode out the weather stranded in their cars in the parking lot while 50mph winds howled, an inch of rain fell in 15 minutes, and nickel sized hail pelted the earth. When I asked friends and family in Denver how they fared in the storm, they asked, "Storm? What storm? I guess it did rain a bit..."
As a CSA, we are more connected to our food system than grocery store shoppers. One weather event in Chatfield affects our shareholders all across the metro area. We all took the hit. You'll see a few more dings in your produce than you might in the market. But that's the beauty of a CSA--if we were trying to sell our produce in the market, the farm alone would take the financial hit and the blemished produce would go straight to the compost pile. However, our shareholders understand. You've all looked closer at the what, the how, and the why of your food and are graciously going to welcome less than perfect looking food into your home. But this is real food. And sometimes it has hail marks.
So bring me your bruised, your holey, your torn, and your tasty. Bring me your octopus carrots and five pound tomatoes. This is a CSA and this is the beauty that comes out of weathering a storm together!
