July 28th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

This week has been a little crazy searching for food when we are in the middle of summer growing season.  It seems that that the dry weather has severely slowed production on several summer staple for Georgia.  One thing I have been really trying to get for us are the lovely zephyr squash.  I promise I will find them and they will be ours!  I did promise organic peaches, and this week we have them!  They are not from our own Georgia farmers but only just across the line in South Carolina.  Watsonia Farm does all organic fruit and participates in research for organic sustainability programs with the university there too.  Let me know what you think of the peaches – we might get them again.

Serenbe is still providing us with the tasty chard this week.  It is such a treat when we were missing dark leafy greens for a few weeks.  We also have micro greens grown for us by Woodland Gardens.  Those of you that have had these before know what a wonderful delicacy they are.  I see a toasted egg salad sandwich with micro greens in my future.  Alice and Tim at Mills Farm worked late into the night last night to provide us with purple hull peas today.  We should be able to get more of these in the next week or two so pop them open and steam them up.  They are so good raw that I can’t wait to actually enjoy a bowl of properly cooked peas.  I will be sure to post a recipe to the website tonight too.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Sweet peppers

Swiss chard

Micro greens

Purple hull peas

Juliet tomatoes

Basil

Peaches

Blueberries

I am cooking up a little celebration of our community soon.  Vegetable Husband will be two years on the streets in August.  I am hoping that some of you can join us for a good simple potluck with the finest ingredients Georgia can offer us.  I will give you more details as I figure them out.  Last week I had the good fortune of having dinner with one of our clients at a potluck.  She made a gazpacho from the sweet peppers, cucumber and lemon basil from last week.  Wow!  It was amazing so I look forward to all of us sharing some favorite treats and celebrating all the wonderful nourishment we have right around us.  That includes you!  So remember, I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe

July 21st, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

I am so excited to be bringing us the first of our summer sweet peppers.  There are several varieties from Woodland Gardens and they are beautiful colors so I hope you enjoy.  Woodland Gardens also proved us with the cucumber once again.  Your basket has a bunch of leeks from Walker Farms a little further south.  These will always come out of the ground a little sandy when we are getting regular storms.  They can be difficult to keep whole and remove all the dirt from the core.  When I slice them for cooking, I always soak the slices in a bowl of water to remove the excess dirt that gets in the inner layers.  Cooking it whole you can slice it in half lengthwise can help with the cleaning.

I am happy we are still getting carrots this week but Paige at Serenbe said the bed was getting fairly ready to turn.  It’s been fabulous having carrots and the tops for so long!  Enjoy them while you have them.  They are going away as summer crops continue to appear.  The sweet peppers are the newest in the summer line up this week but the okra and eggplant is around the corner.  Serenbe harvested the swiss chard for us this week and I know several of you have missed the cooking greens.  These will be available next week too! Yeah!  I think the lemon basil will go well with it.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Sweet peppers

Swiss chard

Rainbow carrots

European Cucumber

Arugula with roots

Leeks

Lemon basil

Blueberries

This morning started off rough with our vegetable husband van having a flat tire.  I had no way to call the first farm to let them know I was delayed but I just kept working to solve the problem quickly without getting frustrated.  I really believe that our food taste so much better because it has been loved from beginning to your table.  I would not want to bring any hostility to our harvest but car problems and delays can be tough in the heat.  Thanks to some help from a few great people along the way, the tire got patched, I got on the road and my own daddy went to one farm for me as a way to get me back on time.  Team work!  I am so thrilled that no veggies were stranded on the side of the road in July!  Life has a way of working out, and my dad seemed to enjoy seeing the farm.  Have a beautiful week and remember, I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe

July 14th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

The heat is only relieved by the insane evening storms we are having these days.  With this extreme weather comes some extreme outcome in your food.  Some of you had issues last week with one of your veggies.  I will say that the arugula was not up to its usually standards, and there was a reason.  It was not grown in the same way.  This week I promise you will be thrilled with the young arugula in roots.  Thanks for letting me know.  I value your input, and so do our farmers.  This is a group effort to shift the way we access our food, the way we eat, and the way we spend.  I want you to know that I am working extra hard to find us a green veggie each week.  Greens are not really growing in the hot temperatures, so we depend on the arugula this week grown indoors for us, and a green cabbage from a farm a bit north of us, in North Carolina.

This basket is full of surprises.  Be sure to empty everything out because you each have a nice bulb of garlic in the bottom from Woodland Gardens.  Savor your fingerling potatoes because we have been told this might be the last week of these beautiful treats from Brooks Garcia’s farm.  I will see if there are any out there from another farm before I give up on the goodness of the tatie altogether!

You have the first of our cherry tomatoes this week from Woodland Gardens, and there is a variety of types.  They look great, and I did do a little tasting off the vines when I picked up so I can say they are quite tasty!  Woodland Gardens also shared the lovely cucumbers with us once again.  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Green cabbage

Fingerling banana potatoes

Rainbow carrots

Cucumber

Cherry tomatoes

Arugula with roots

Garlic

Blueberries

Thanks for your notes on our facebook site.  I want you to know that the Creative Loafing Best of Atlanta ballots are out, and they have a section that asks for farm-to-table restaurants as well as a fave CSA program.  So fill one out if you have time.  We have added a wonderful recipe this week that uses your carrots, potatoes, garlic, and cabbage, as well as a few recipes for those carrot tops, thanks to one of YOU who shared some tips.  As usual, I am always happy to TALK FOOD!  Have a great week!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe

July 7th, 2010 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

First of all, this Saturday is my birthday and I have to tell you how happy I am to look back on this year and look to the future of next year WITH YOU and all of our farmers!  I may not have much that the bank can count but I have such a rich life and I cherish our community of folks that care.  Thanks for trusting me to do such an important job for all of us!  I hope you had a great holiday last weekend - I will have another one this weekend.

The tomatoes are starting to really come in and we have a variety of heirloom slicers this week.  These tomatoes are from Serenbe Farms.  They also harvested the first eggplant of the season for us today.  Let me know what you think.  There are several recipes on the website to help you with preparing eggplant, but I will certainly add more as the summer continues.  This week’s new recipe is for carrot greens pesto.  Tonia and I were talking about how tasty this pesto is, made from what most of us discard so take a look at it and see if it sounds like something for you.

Last week I really missed having some sort of green in my diet so I found some arugula for us this week from the guys at Neva Farms.  Greens will be tough to find in the heat of the summer so enjoy them when we get them and settle into summer veggies like our tomatoes, eggplant and squash this week.  I am thinking squash and green onion quesadilla for supper tonight!  Quick, easy and super tasty – my kind of meal!  Below is your list of goodies for this week:

Eggplant

Rainbow carrots

Tomatoes

Arugula

Green onions

Yellow squash

Basil

Blueberries

I would love to invite you to log on to our facebook site for Vegetable Husband, and let me know what your favorite recipe is that uses some of our summer food.  If you don’t want to write on the facebook site, then email us.  I will use one of your recipes for next week’s basket so let’s see what you recommend.  Of course, as always, I am always happy to TALK FOOD!  Have a great week!

All the best,
Margie Thorpe

July 1st, 2010 by Margie

Well thanks to Kelly Dorsett Photography and Amy Herr (for passing this to me), here is a cute image of our Veggie Husband table at the recent Lady Rogue Business Networking Pop-Up show. It was such fun and thanks to the folks at William Turner gallery for hosting all of us!