touchtheearthfarm.com Blog

Wow, it’s the beginning of August, and it’s starting to feel like the summer’s already over. Kids are heading back to school all across America, and even the weather is turning fallish. Not to mention the days getting shorter. But I’ve just started to harvest my tomatoes! Surely we have a few good weeks left to revel in the glorious food of summer.

Last year, we enjoyed tomatoes into October, so I remain hopeful.

This week’s meal for the One Local Summer blog challenge features some of those glorious tomatoes, though I was so excited about my mozzarella that I let it hog the camera. This is a fabulous(ly easy) bruschetta, featuring multicolored heirloom tomatoes: German red strawberry (red), German striped (yellow with sunsplashed rays of red), ananas noire (green—donated by CSA member Carrie P.) and the non-heirloom sungold (orange, sweet, and tasty!).

Also in the bruschetta are purplette onions, basil, garlic and fresh mozzarella from our cow’s milk, which was absolutely divine. I’ll be making that much more often, I can tell you. We enjoyed this atop some bread baked local to my in-laws, who were kind enough to bring a giant bag down for my freezer last time they visited. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to pull something out to reheat rather than baking from scratch.

To round out our meal (though I would’ve been happy with just the bruschetta and wine!) was a whole chicken, roasted with butter, rosemary, thyme and Russian banana fingerling potatoes, another heirloom veggie—all fresh from our farm. If you’ve never tried fingerling potatoes before, you’re missing a real treat. They are creamy, buttery goodness: roasted in homemade butter and herbs, they approach Nirvana.

An heirloom potato, this little gourmet nugget is a scrumptious treat. If you’re a potato lover, once you have these, you’ll be in love forever. They’re creamy… buttery… an absolute delight in the mouth.

Originally from the Baltic region, Russian banana fingerlings were brought to America by early Russian settlers. These potatoes are featured at high end restaurants for good reason: they melt in your mouth with little fuss. Just wash them well, boil them just until done, toss with a little butter, maybe some fresh herbs, sea salt, and voila! They also cost a pretty penny if you can find them in the markets, so enjoy!

Here’s a link to a fun article about them: “Fingerling Potatoes Pack a Fistful of Flavor.”  It offers recipes and storage tips, so definitely worth checking out.

• farm fresh eggs
• 1 qt sungold tomatoes
• 1 qt Russian banana fingerling potatoes
• mixed beans (L)
• Asian cuke (L)
• slicking cuke
• purplette onions
• bell peppers
• Serrano hot peppers
• Anaheim hot pepper (L)
• summer squash / slicing tomatoes / eggplant (S)
• basil
• tarragon / rosemary
• chives (L)

• farm fresh eggs
• Anuenue lettuce (L)
• swiss chard (S)
• mixed tomatoes (gold nugget, sungold, sweet olive)
• mixed beans (L)
• summer squash (S)
• purplette onions
• green onions (L)
• red new potatoes (L)
• slicing cuke
• Asian cuke (L)
• mixed carrots
• green peppers
• Anaheim pepper (L)
• dill
• basil

This is our first year growing purple dragon carrots, and while the Belgian White Carrot was a dismal failure, purple dragon looks to be a permanent addition to our seed stock.

Purple carrots originated in Asia Minor and have been grown at least since the 10th century, and probably much longer. Besides their colorful appearance, these carrots are sweet with a rich, spicy finish. Use them raw or cooked to dress up a dish.

Carrots have a high vitamin and antioxidant level, and these are picked within the day of delivery to ensure the highest nutrition. They will keep nicely if stored in a cool dark place, but really, they’re too good to keep around long.

• farm fresh eggs
• mixed baby greens
• mixed carrots: red core chantenay and purple dragon
• mixed beans: Isar French fillet, Royal Burgundy, Rocdor yellow wax, Provider green bean
• summer squash (L)
• slicing cucumber
• Asian cucumber (L)
• red new potatoes
• purplette onions
• green onions (L)
• borage
• basil
• dill (L)

• farm fresh eggs
• mixed baby greens
• summer squash
• qt mixed beans
• bull’s blood beets (L)
• carrots
• red new potatoes
• slicing cucumber
• Asian cucumber (L)
• purplette onions
• green onions (L)
• dill
• borage
• basil

• farm fresh eggs
• mixed baby greens (L)
• baby head lettuce (S)
• bull’s blood beets
• carrots
• purplette mini onions
• summer squash (L)
• 1 qt mixed beans (S)
• green onions (L)
• dill
• garlic scapes

Kohlrabi may be new to some folks, as it hasn’t really caught on in mainstream American cooking though it’s widely used in Asian and European cooking. There are several ways to eat kohlrabi from raw to cooked, and although the greens are edible, they can be a bit bitter like raab or turnip greens and are best blanched before sautéing. The kohlrabi bulb will store better with the leaves trimmed.

Try peeling and grating the kohlrabi directly into a salad, or grating it into a carrot slaw.

Kohlrabi Potato Pancakes

kohlrabi, washed peeled and grated
potatoes, washed and grated
finely chopped onion to taste
2 eggs slightly beaten
2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Grate kohlrabi and potato and squeeze out any excess moisture.

Combine all ingredients except oil in a large mixing bowl, and mix until well blended, forming into small pancakes.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Fry kohlrabi-potato mixture in batches; sautéing until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side. Drain on rack or paper towels, and serve with sour cream. This is even tastier, in my opinion with garlic sour cream.

• farm fresh eggs
• bouquet of buttercrunch lettuce
• bouquet of speckled bibb lettuce*
• bouquet of red salad bowl lettuce (L)
• hakurei turnips
• white kohlrabi (L)
• chard/ kale mix (S)
• purplette onions
• citrus thyme
• rosemary (L)
• dill
• oregano (L)
• 1/2 pint mixed raspberries (L)

*Note: Carrie P. gets the prize for correctly identifying last week’s speckled lettuce as bunte forellenschluss, not speckled bibb.