I spent part of the day Tuesdy plowing the greens that will soon be in your shares. Even though we are in the first days of fall, it was still 95 degrees and 18 degrees above average for the year! The weeds seem to love the heat and are doing nicely, so I thought I would put an end to at least some of them. With just me, the heat and the dust alone in the field for most of the day, I started thinking of you all going about your day doing the work you love to do, much the same as I. While I'm in the field ending the life of weeds, you're in your workplace providing services for our community; services without which would prove to be a void in society. We have members from all walks of life in our CSA program, and we all go about our day providing those services with an open heart, loving the work we do and making the life of others a little easier. Isn't it great that God gave us all different talents, put a dream in our heart and instilled the love of a particular career and way of life in our soul and brought us all together to make our life complete?

We have been so blessed to have you all in our lives and it's good to contemplate and realize how each person has touched our lives and made us who we are. Sometimes we need to stop and let you all know how much we appreciate you and thank you for choosing us to feed your family. So we'll continue growing your food, and you all continue being great Moms, Dads, Actors, Authors, Musicians, Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Dentists, Web designers (Thank you Chris), Film Producers, Artists, Craftsmen, Landscape Architects, Inventors and all the walks of life that make you the beautiful members and friends we know and love.

To that end, I thought that we do have a common thread, and since we all provide different services, it might be good to support each other's efforts. If you all would like to let each other know the type of business you own, the type of service you provide, I would love to help in the process. I would make a directory for our members that you could pick up along with your shares. This directory would describe your business along with address and telephone number. I've talked to many of you and heard you talk with other members asking if you knew of a good acupuncturist, or doctor or computer repair service, etc. and felt that good people are drawn to good people. This would give everyone information and a way to get to know each other and support our efforts.

If you would like to be included in the directory, just email your information to me and I'll get to work on it!

This week you will enjoy:

Slicing Tomatoes
Yellow Tomatoes
Zucchini
Butternut Squash
Watermelon
Irish Potatoes
Cucumbers
Peppers
Eggplant
Roma Tomatoes
Basil

Drive safely and we'll see you all tomorrow!

Recipes Are Below...

Gazpacho

1 small sweet onion, quartered
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and quartered
2 medium cucumbers, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 large fresh ripe tomatoes, quartered
2 cups tomato juice, or use canned whole tomatoes with their juices
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Hot sauce (optional)

Directions:

Place the onion, pepper, cucumbers, garlic and fresh tomatoes in a processor; process until very finely chopped. Add the tomato juice, basil, salt, pepper, vinegar, olive oil and optional hot sauce. Process until soup is the desired texture. Taste for seasoning; chill for at least one hour before serving. If desired, garnish with finely chopped cucumber or whole basil leaves. Notes: If the soup is too thick, stir in more tomato juice. If desired, use all fresh tomatoes and omit the juice entirely.