August 26th, 2009 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

This week we are bringing back Sundance Farms sweet onions before they disappear.  These are so nice you can eat them raw or use for cooking, but I highly recommend tasting a slice before you do anything else to them.  I love one or two thrown whole on the grill!  The fruit this week is a pound of muscadines from Whippoorwill Hollow Farms.  Yes, we are in Georgia and these are our native grapes.  I popped a few in my mouth on the way back to the city today but hopefully I did not eat in to your share (smiles).  You can also cook these if the skin is just too tart for you.  I will post a muscadine jam recipe on the website since we will get them again this month, I am sure.

We are enjoying some of Rashid’s vine-grown spinach this week again.  This is a very hardy leaf but please be careful not to crease the leaves when storing or they will turn dark like many varieties of spinach.  You can eat the smaller stems but as they get larger, they will be a little tough or stringy.  You will find a bulb of garlic from Full Moon Farms in your basket too.  This will help with the pesto or stir-fry.  Let me know how you like the local garlic.  I find it much different than what is shelved at the stores for us.

I am hoping for one more rally of tomatoes in the next couple of weeks.  Cross your fingers!  We could get more slicing heirloom tomatoes in a week or two.  The farms are really struggling to get fall crops planted now but the weather is so unpredictable right now.  As you enjoy your food this week, chew on this – For every $1 of money you spend locally, it shifts $4 to $14 into the local economy.  We are all in this together and eating locally is the best grassroots campaign I have ever been a part of! Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Mixed small tomatoes (sun gold & juliette red)
sweet peppers
eggplant
yellow onions
okra
spinach
garlic
basil
muscadines

Our fall trip to the farm is now scheduled for Saturday, Sept 19th and we will enjoy a beautiful brunch at Farm 255 Restaurant in Athens.  I hope you will consider joining us.  More details will be on the website by Friday.  Have a beautiful week and remember I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe