This week at the farm...

In your box this week….

• Grey: Wynootchee Apples, Green Bartlett Pears, Red Bart-lett Pears, Melons, White Peaches & Yellow Peaches

• Woodinville Veggies: Luscious Sweet Corn & Herb bunches (cilantro or chives)

• Veggie Boost: Bell Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Jalapeno Pep-pers & Tomatillos

This Week at the Farm 1

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Melons 2

Apple Pie Filling—to freeze! 3

Coming soon! & Trivia 3

Recipes! 4

Inside this issue:

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Week 9, 2016

August 23rd & 27th This week our crews are focusing most of their attention on picking D’anjou pears for the warehouse. This will be the last of the “big” warehouse harvests this sea-son since we took out most of our Golden Delicious trees this past spring and planted new varieties of peaches in their place. We have four warehouse pickings left for 2016: Golden Delicious apples, Bosc pears, Fuji apples and Braeburn ap-ples.

This photo is an aerial view of the orchard from mid-April, looking south.

1—Peaches & Nectarines 2— Pears (including Asian Pears)

3—Cherries 4—Apples 5—Apricots 6—Plums 7—Apriums & Pluots

The total area covered by this photo is roughly 60 acres and is where the vast ma-jority of the contents of your CSA boxes comes from! The melons are grown in our annual crop blocks (some are near the bottom of the photo), which are scat-tered around the farm in areas that used to be a giant alfalfa field.

In Woodinville, we will be harvesting sweet corn this week! Our bi-color ears will be ready by Friday, if not before. We also started harvesting beets this past Fri-day and they are now available for purchase at our fruit stand or at the Redmond Saturday Market.

Many of you have asked about whether we will be offering a fall CSA this season. Unfortunately, this season is a low production year for our apple varieties and we will not be able to offer a fall CSA. We will still have apples, pears & winter squash available at our farmer’s market stands and Woodinville Fruit Stand, though! Our summer CSA runs through the last week of September (Tuesday, Sept 27th is the final pick up date for this season).

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T ONNE MA KER CSA

Melons! We have two types of cantaloupes that may be in your boxes this week—orange-flesh and green-

flesh.

If your melon looks like this one on the right, then it will have orange flesh. It may also have orange flesh if it looks like the photo to the right.

You melons should be ready to eat when they come home with you, but if they have super green stripes or aren’t terribly fragrant, then let them sit on your counter for a day or so before diving in!

If your melon has a pale– to spring-green color to its skin and is smaller in size (these may be one of the melons in your grey boxes) then it will also have orange flesh. This is a new variety for us this season called “Pixie” and is ready to eat even when it doesn’t have a strong perfume.

We also have three types of honeydew melons that may be in your boxes this week—yellow-

skinned, white-fleshed honeydews, Santa Claus melons, and white-skinned orange-fleshed hon-eydews.

If you have a yellow-skinned honeydew in your box, its skin should be bright, sunshine yellow be-fore you eat it. You can keep your mel-on on your counter until the

color deepens a bit and it begins to perfume your

kitchen, or you can keep it in your fridge to prolong the ripening time (if you have lots of other fruit to eat before you want to dive in to your melon!). Your white-fleshed honeydew will be very sweet and have slight-ly softer flesh than a green-

fleshed honeydew.

If you have a Santa Claus mel-on in your box this week it will look some-thing like the one in the photo to the right. The green color changes to yellow as the melon ripens/matures, so if your Santa Claus melon looks really green, let it sit on your counter for a while. Otherwise, dive in! Santa Claus melons have a pale green to pink flesh and are very sweet and juicy with a slight floral aro-ma.

If you have a white-skinned honeydew, your melon should have a slight pink pallor or glow to it when it is ready to eat. Also, the skin becomes somewhat rougher (like the texture of a volleyball). If your melon has little cracks on the skin, then it is ripe and ready to eat now! Our orange-flesh honeydews are one of my favorite melons due to their firm, sweet flesh.

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What’s in season next?

• Gala Apples—next week

• Honeycrisp Apples—late August/early September

• Macintosh—late August

• Akane—late August

• Pluots—September

• Winter Squash—mid-September

• Bosc Pears—late September

Frozen Apple Pie Filling

Starts!

Here’s a BIG hint: there are at least 2 of these in your box this week :)

(answer on page 4)

Which crop is it?

Here’s a quick recipe for using up all those Wynootchee that may be accumulating in your fridge :)

3/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp lemon juice

6 C apples (peeled, sliced and cored)

Combine sugar, cinnamon and flour together. Stir all ingredients together until well combined. Filling may be used immediately or frozen for up to 6 months.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Cream butter with sugar & eggs. Add vanilla. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and add alternately with milk to bowl. Put dough in a greased 9” pie plate (or if doubling the recipe, use a cookie sheet).

Mix 2 tbsp. flour, 1 tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle half on dough.

Arrange fruit and sprinkle remaining topping on fruit.

Bake at 375 for 1 hour.

Open Fruit Cake

Ingredients: 1/2 stick butter 2 Tbsp sugar 1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 3 Tbsp milk

Ripe & ready to use fruit—1-2lbs

2 Tbsp flour 1 Ttbsp. sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Answer: melons!

Sweet & Spicy Pickled Peppers

Ingredients

• 1 pound assorted chiles (can use just about any

pepper!)

• 2 shallots, thinly sliced (I left these out this time

around, but they’re a nice addition)

• 2 cups white wine vinegar

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 3 tablespoons water

• 2 sliced garlic cloves

• Big pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Wash and dry a jar with soap and water. Pat dry and set aside.

2. Carefully (gloves are recommended) stem and seed the chiles. Slice them into 1/4-inch rounds and

pack them into the jar.

Bring the white wine vinegar to a boil with the sugar, water, garlic and salt. Pour the boiling vinegar over the chiles and cover with the jar lid. Allow to cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat them (give them at least 24 hours to start absorbing the vinegar).

Preparation time: 30 minute(s)

Cooking time: 5 minute(s)

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/08/sweet-and-spicy-pickled-peppers.html