As we come to the end of the month of july, we hope that you are finding some time to savor the beauty of summer. Be it taking in a film or two at the film festival, or spending an evening at your favorite beach, we also hope that you are finding the time to feed yourselves well. For this week's cooking pleasure, your box contains: sweet onion, garlic, Yukon gold potatoes, celery, green beans, zucchini of various hue, cucumbers, eggplant, a green bell pepper, a bunch of kale, broccoli, salad mix and purple opal basil. Fruit shares receive peaches galore. Premiums receive tomatoes, a jalapeno hot pepper and a couple of lemon cukes which are round and well, lemony looking and Italian parsley. Please remember to wash the tomatoes; we are spraying an organic spray to deter late blight which easily comes off with water.- The tomatoes continue to grow well and to ripen fruits, although the cool nights of this week slow that process down a bit. We still just have enough tomatoes for premium shares, but are hopeful that soon enough we'll have more tomatoes than we can possibly imagine.

We are excited to pass along some beautiful purple basil to you. There are so many different kinds of basil, and they all have their strong points. The basil this year is incredibly gorgeous, so we hope that you don't mind receiving plenty. If you ever feel that you can't get through your basil bag, you can either process it and make pesto to freeze, or simply put into a Ziploc freezer bag and throw it in the freezer. This is my favorite way to have fresh tasting basil all winter long and one that I happened upon purely by accident(or providence?) One year we had a 4# bag of extra basil tops(that's just the top few leaves, not a lot of the stem) and we were busy as usual and I decided to just put the bag in the freezer. It wasn't even a freezer bag, but what I found when I unearthed this bag months later, was nothing short of a miraculous revelation. I reached into the bag and what emerged was crispy, frozen basil that was easy to crush in my hands and add to any number of pizza or pasta dishes all winter long. It tasted fresh! Now I always replicate this experiment, and we eat basil in everything all year long......we hope that you'll find some ways to be creative with this beautiful purple basil.....here's a recipe to try:

SUMMER BOLITO MISTO

-several slivered cloves of garlic -1 onion, sliced -1 tsp peppercorns

-several parsley and thyme sprigs -2 tsp olive oil -2 tsp salt

-yukon gold potatoes, sliced 3/8" thick-1/2# green beans, tipped and tailed

-celery ribs, cut into sections(leaves for broth) -one zucchini, sliced 3/8" thick

-your little eggplant, cut into small chunks -carrots, scrubbed and cut into nice shapes

-lots of fresh opal purple basil

Simmer 2-3 qts water in 2 wide skillets, each with a flotilla of slivered garlic, onion, peppercorns, parsley and thyme sprigs, 1 tsp olive oil and a tsp of salt. Use one pan for longer cooking vegetables, and one pan for shorter. Start with hardest and work to lightest. When the vegetables are done and tender, arrange on a platter. Pour over a little broth with celery leaves and spoon olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil. Cheese would be a nice addition, but not necessary. Also, a bit of chicken stock in the simmering water would be tasty. Serve with crusty bread to mop up juices.......enjoy and have a wonderful weekend. Love, the meadowlarks

This page last updated on 1/20/2012.

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