Announcements:

You might have heard of the term “regenerative agriculture,” and you might be wondering what it means. Check out the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s primer.

This Week’s Share:

Arugula and Tokyo Bekana (a very mild mustard green that tastes and looks like lettuce)
Tomatoes — cherries and full-size
Hakurei turnips (even turnip haters should try a bite of one of these sweet, crunchy gems) and Pink Beauty Radishes
Eggplant
Garlic (If you’re starting to accumulate a stockpile, don’t worry! They store for months. You’ll be glad to have them in the winter—almost as glad you’ll be if you roast a few heads for dinner tonight.)
Peppers — green bells and ripe, sweet peppers
Optional chili peppers, tomatillos, and okra

U-Pick is available all week for the crops on this list.

Tomatoes and chilies, across from the washing station, inside the fence, below the high tunnel

CSA shareholder Rachel Zuercher sent us this great tomato soup recipe that she made with Clagett Farm ingredients. Thanks Rachel!

1.75 pounds of fresh tomatoes (preferably not varieties that are too sweet), halved
1 onion and/or equivalent shallots
1 head garlic, top third cut off to expose the cloves
olive oil
salt and pepper
3 cups vegetable broth
1-2 bay leaves
a handful of fresh thyme sprigs
chopped basil (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place the halved tomatoes (cut side down), onion, and garlic on the sheet.
Drizzle olive oil over everything and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast for ~40 mins or until the tomatoes start to blister.
Transfer the tomatoes, onions, and de-skinned garlic (just squeeze the cloves out) to a soup pot. Pour any remaining tomato juice from the baking sheet into the pot.
Add the vegetable broth and herbs to the pot. Simmer for ~25 minutes.
Remove the bay leaves and remaining thyme sprigs.
Transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth.
Garnish with fresh, chopped basil.

Salad greens will continue in fits and starts through the end of the season (mid-November). Kale and collards are coming soon.
Winter squash will return, probably next week.
Turnips and radishes will continue on and off, with different varieties, through the end of the season.
Fresh ginger soon! Probably next week.
Enjoy these final, sweet weeks of tomatoes. We’ll miss them when they’re gone! You’ll know the era has ended when you see green tomatoes in your share (and I mean the unripe ones—not the green zebras).
We think peppers, eggplant, and okra will continue producing until the end of the month and maybe longer, depending mostly on evening temperatures. These tropical plants will survive some cold nights but, you know, their joie de vivre will leave them.
Garlic, your two heads never fail to delight.
We’ll probably give out sweet potatoes in late October.