Week Ten Newsletter and Recipe

Greetings Friends and Members,
Welcome to Week 10 of our season together.  It is hard to believe how quickly the weeks go by, and that here we are already past the half-way point of our season.  Hopefully we'll even have some more summer to enjoy before we're through!  We're doing our best to keep our chins up over here, and we have really appreciated all of your supportive e-mail.  Suffice to say, we could all use a break from the rain.
 
In terms of how all of this will impact our season, let's just say that it will be significant.  We haven't planted or seeded anything outside in almost a month, and eventually that is going to catch up with us.  However, before the rains started, we'd already planted a whole lot of stuff out there, so we've got some fuel left in the tank.  Thousands of pounds of potatoes are sitting out there in the mud, waiting until it's dry enough to get them out of the ground.  As well, our two corn seedings look great.  You can see them growing in the fields at Pizza on Earth.  The later of the two seedings is our personal favorite variety, Silver Queen, and is over seven feet tall.  Both should be coming your way soon, along with lots of other crops-- tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, onions...and many more hopefuls.  One of our saving graces in terrible years is that we grow so many different crops that lots of them are bound to work no matter how bad the weather.  That's the idea, anyway.
 
In other news, we're going to be the focus of a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot/facelift this week.  We're not sure what kind of impact this might have, but presently they are planning to visit on Tuesday and take some pictures for a story (for next year) about farmstands and U-Pick flowers.  Don't be surprised if things look a little different as they spruce us up!
 
So, as another red band of thunderstorms approaches on our radar screen this Sunday afternoon, we wish you well and we deeply appreciate your participation in our community supported farm.

D, E, & e
 
This week's share:  Lettuce, squash & zucchini, scallions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers (maybe), carrots, cabbage, fennel
 
U-Pick:  Flowers, beans, herbs, cherry tomatoes (?? depending on how they're faring ??) 

RECIPE:  Fennel Gratin with Tomato
 
Ingredients:

2 large bulbs fennel

2 medium cloves garlic peeled and minced

1 cup diced tomato

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup warm vegetable (or chicken broth)

2 tablespoons whipping cream

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Trim off and discard fennel stalks. Cut bulbs in half lengthwise, then slice thinly. In a gratin dish, combine the fennel, garlic and tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the warm chicken broth over the vegetables and bake on center oven rack in a preheated 350-degree oven 1 hour, or until fennel is very tender. Stir every 20 minutes. Remove dish from oven. Turn oven to broil and place an oven rack at highest level. Drizzle fennel with cream and sprinkle with Parmesan. Broil until the top is golden. Cool a few minutes before serving.