Week Sixteen Farm Share

Hi everyone out there. Welcome to week sixteen of the farm share. The nights are getting cooler, leaves are looking a bit more yellow, orange and red and we are harvesting a lot of really great food! This week you will find tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, radishes, collards, kale little gem lettuce and the first poblanos and padron peppers. Smokey poblanos are a perfect crossover vegetable in terms of seasons. Pair them with grilled onions and a steak for an outdoor barbeque, or use them later in the season with roasted winter squash in a warming soup for when fall actually gets cold. Poblanos are the traditional pepper used in chili rellenos. They are the forest green shiny peppers in the boxes. Have a favorite recipe? We would love to hear it. At the farm we like to stuff vegetables with more vegetables, so that means chili rellenos made with summer squash, onions, tomatoes, even kale sometimes and topped with cheese and baked. They are great with beans, shredded chicken, chorizo, really anything goes. Just cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and stuff. From there, bake till insides are hot and peppers are soft. It is best to cook stuffing contents before stuffing and baking. In addition, there is the traditional way of stuffing with cheese, coating with flour and egg and deep frying.

This post we would like to focus on the padron pepper. For those of you not familiar with this little pepper, they are the bright green ones in the pint containers. They are usually wrinkly and on the small side. In Spain, they are a traditional tapas dish, served sauteed and salted. Some are hot, some are not. The story goes that if you get the hot one, the next round is on you. Some of them can be quite hot, so be mindful if serving them to young children. Despite many theories and varied criteria, there really is no way to tell which one will be hot without tasting them. If you taste them raw, do not be discouraged. They do not have much flavor or interest as a fresh eating pepper. Years ago, I tried one off the plant after hearing so much about them and was confused by all the hype. A few days after, I had them lightly blistered and salted, then I understood and was a padron convert. Once heat is applied to these little peppers, something pretty magical happens and suddenly they are the worlds best snack or appetizer. The best way to cook them is in a really hot pan, with some olive oil, sauteed just a few minutes till they are blistered slightly. These spots should be a lighter golden brown, not black. At this point, sprinkle on some nice sea salt and serve right away. This is the time to break out that fancy salt from the deli section of the grocery store if that is your thing. The padron is a great thing to serve for company, as it is one of the easiest items to prepare and always gets wonderful reviews. They are also a good pepper for using on the barbeque. Try skewering them before cooking for ease of flipping and to make sure they don’t fall through the grill rack. They are also good additions in curries and stir frys, or try the cooked peppers on sandwiches.

We are fine tuning the winter farm shares for those of you that don’t want fresh local eating to end once fall is over. As of now we are planning on having them available for pick up every other week December through March. The winter shares will always have a good amount of heartier items like cooking greens, roots and winter squash, and they will always have rotational items like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower. Weather permitting, each share should have fresh eating winter salad greens. Pricing, exact dates and pick up locations to come.

Thanks again to everyone supporting us.

-The Simgington Gardens Team