I must be starting to sound like Chicken Little, but it seems like the bad news just keeps coming. On Sunday we found late blight in our potatoes. I’m not 100% certain that it’s late blight, but there are few diseases of potatoes and tomatoes that can decimate crops as quickly as late blight can and it seems a likely suspect. If you haven’t been keeping up with Maine news for the past month or so, there is an epidemic of late blight affecting growers across the state. We had hoped that we would be isolated to avoid it, but I guess not. Late blight is the same disease that caused the famed Irish “potato famine” in the mid-1800s. In most years late blight is a minor problem late in the season, but this year a large wholesale grower of tomato seedlings in Alabama sold several hundreds of thousands of infected plants into the big box store supply chain, at which point the plants were dispersed all over the northeast and midwest. The cold, wet conditions of the early part of the season provided a perfect environment for the blight — which is very fungus-like — to develop and spread. Once it has gained a foot hold and reproduced, it’s spores can travel for miles on the wind. Organic growers have few options for dealing with late blight; most adopt of regimen of spraying copper solutions on their susceptible crops every 5 days. The copper treatments will not reverse or cure an infection, but they will hold off further infection. We would have been doing this were we not so short handed this year. So far we’ve just removed the plants that have displayed obvious signs of infection — although our understanding is that this will only slow down the infection; not stop it. All in all, it’s pretty frustrating.
But all is not lost. Even if we don’t have loads of big tubers through the fall and winter, we’ll still have plenty now. And as you can see in your share this week, there’s plenty of crops that are doing just great. So long the blight doesn’t jump to our tomatoes right away, we’re hopeful that we can start putting some in the share this week or next. Keep your fingers crossed.
Detailed share information, notes about the veggies, storage tips and recipe tips are all inside the full post.
All shares contain:
- Rainbow Carrots
- Basil
- New Potatoes
- Garlic
“Full” shares also contain:
- Cherry Tomatoes!!
- more potatoes
- Asian Eggplant
- Collard Greens
Bread shares: no bread this week.
Veggie Notes
Rainbow Carrots – Multicolored carrots are beautiful and — though they all taste “carroty” — each has it’s own flavor. We find that the orange, purple and white ones taste the best, while the yellow and pink ones are … well, yellow and pink!! The purple carrots will fade a bit when cooked, but the rest of them will hold their color — we tend to just eat them raw. You can remove the tops and compost them.
New Potatoes – Delicious fresh spuds are — if a potato can be — juicy. Treat them just like normal potatoes or like you would those little red potatoes that seem to be at all of the road side stands this time of year. The white ones are Green Mountains, an old heirloom variety reknowned for it’s flavor and it’s texture, which is perfect for frying and mashing. The purple skinned ones are a new variety for us this year called Purple Majesty. They have purple flesh!
Collard Greens – Very closely related to kale, collard greens are said to be better for eating during the heat of summer. I’m not sure I buy that — we like them both all year round — but they are delicious. These have been picked small and tender. Use them as you would kale.
Storage Notes
Store carrots, eggplant, garlic and collards in a plastic bag in the fridge, basil w/ the stems in a jar of water on the counter, potatoes in a paper bag in a cool spot (but not in the fridge). Eat the cherry tomatoes up or keep them in an open bag on the counter.
Recipe Ideas
Eggplant – We roasted some of these with chopped garlic on top a few weeks ago and they were great. So simple and delicious.
Cherry Tomatoes – I found this recipe from our CSA newsletter in 2007. We make this dish a lot during cherry tomato season.
Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp hot pepper
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1-2 tsp thyme
¼ c fresh basil, chopped
¼ c Parmigiano cheese, freshly grated
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Toss the cherry tomatoes with the olive oil, thyme, pepper and a pinch of salt. Spread them in a single layer in a baking dish large enough to handle them and roast them in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until they have released their juice and it has begun to cook down into a thick juice or sauce.
While the cherries are roasting, bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook one pound of pasta until “al dente” or still lightly firm. When the pasta has cooked and been drained and the cherries are finished roasting, toss them all together in a large pot or bowl with the Parmigiano, parsley and basil. Taste and adjust for salt and pepper and serve.
As always, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems. Also, please send along any recipes you’d like to share.
We hope you enjoy the share!