Letter 158

August 31st, 2011 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

I hope we have all enjoyed our summer season because it is quickly coming to an end and Labor day weekend marks that end for many of us. As I drive from farm to farm to pick up one vegetable at each instead of many, it is obvious how hard our farmers are working to harvest in this dry climate with scorching sunny days. The ground is no longer soil in places, but now is a hard floor of clay that can easily be swept clean. It is funny how a few weeks of severe weather can change everything around us. The okra still thrives for now so we each have a bag of mixed red and green okra this week. We also have some garlic, some is from Serenbe and some from Jenny Jack Sun Farm but each of you have Read the rest of this entry »

Seed to Plate: A Garden Story

August 30th, 2011 by Margie

Nice video here about an innovative Portland, Oregon restaurant with a lovely rooftop garden. They are providing the chefs with a bounty of Read the rest of this entry »

Letter 157

August 24th, 2011 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

Be kind to your veggie driver today as we are loading watermelons to your home!  Riverview Farm has harvested each one of us a whole juicy watermelon for this week.  Since this is such a large item for our baskets, we will only have a total of seven items this week.  I thought you would prefer this to eight items and getting a half of a melon.  Plus, I did not want to risk cutting it and properly wrapping all these for us.  Enjoy it!  I love watermelon mint salad or juicing it is great too!  We also have the lovely mountain fresh slicing tomatoes again.

Walker Farms brought us some beautiful okra for this week so you might have red or green Read the rest of this entry »

Letter 156

August 17th, 2011 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

This week we start with an apology to those of you that were disappointed by the peaches.  Many of last week’s peaches were not favorable even though they looked fine as they went in the baskets.  For this reason, this week you have nine items.  I am making it up to you with a huge melon from Riverview and two different varieties of tomatoes from two local farms.  The small ones in the paper bag are great for saucing or any type of cooking. Of course the slicers are just plain good!

We also have mixed eggplant once again this week.  I am adding tips for using our eggplant harvest to the Read the rest of this entry »

Letter 155

August 10th, 2011 by Margie

Dear Vegetable Husband Customer,

Most of our food comes from one lovely farm this week and that is Chris and Jenny at Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm. You will notice that your okra and the green beans have been bagged together to cut down on our use of plastic. Feel free to separate these at home. It might help preserving them in the fridge. My okra will not need to worry about preservation. It is hitting the skillet tonight! I will let you know that this week might be the last of the green beans as our crops of field peas start to come in this month. I will be happy to post more recipes for the green beans or the field peas when we get them. I personally have loved making a garlic sautéed green bean and adding yogurt to the pan before serving. It has a strong garlic flavor and the yogurt gives a more refreshing tone to them for a summer side dish.

We are lucky enough to have the sweet sun gold tomatoes again this week. Try not to eat these in one sitting. I can’t seem to stop once I start with them but I am hoping they will last long enough to do a simple red pepper-tomato salad with a bit of cheese and onion if I still have one of our sweet onions. Your eggplant is either the longer Japanese eggplant of the small Italian (black beauty) variety. These are great sautéed or roasted. Of course cooking them with the sweet peppers is an old favorite. Yes, you see peaches in the basket and enjoy them with ease because they are organic. They are from our neighbors in SC since they are the closest organic orchard (Georgia has none). Let me know what you think of these. I am hopeful they will be tasty!  Below is your list of goodies:

Mixed eggplant – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Okra – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Sun Gold Tomatoes – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Sweet mixed peppers – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Green Beans – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Butternut Squash – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Garlic bulbs – Jenny-Jack-Sun Farm

Peaches – Watsonia Farm, SC

After spending a few restful days at the lake, I am back here and super grateful for the food I access everyday. When you see your food through the eyes and bellies of others, you realize how special it really is. Now I am all excited about planning our anniversary celebration. The date is September 17th and we are still confirming our location but get ready to come meet and sup with your farmers and VH community. Last year was a blast and some of the best food I have had at any potluck! There are several restaurants adding their dishes to our potluck party too! I will give you details as we get them. For now, eat well and remember I am always happy to TALK FOOD!

Gratefully,

Margie Thorpe

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