Hello Friends,

Another week of warm weather and beautiful skies brings us more delicious summer produce. This week we have the following items for you (everything organic and natural as always)

Recipe Ideas

Mussels – if you’ve never cooked mussels before here’s what you need to know. Mussels need to be soaked in cold fresh water before cooking. The best thing to do is put them in a large bowl of cold water, wait about 20-30 minutes. They will open and close and flush out any mud or sand that might be inside. Pull them out of the water trying not to stir up any of the grit that has fallen to the bottom of the bowl. Rinse them in running water and repeat for a 2nd saok. You should see much less grit in the bottom the second time. If you still see a lot, then maybe do a third rinse.

Once you have clean mussels, the cooking is quite easy. I recommend you start some butter and garlic in the bottom of a tall pan and saute the garlic. At the same time you could add onion, celery, carrot or any aromatic vegetables and cook them down until brown/translucent…Or add the fresh basil and herbs…or fennel…or bacon if you have some left over from last week… Once you have the base, toss in the mussels, the Saffron Fish Stock, and half a bottle of white wine or water. Cook until the mussels open up. You could add some cream to the broth at the end too.

Tenderloin – One of the most tender cuts of beef. It is great as a steak served rare or medium rare. It is also really good in little pieces in a pasta sauce with green onions and tomatoes. You can BBQ or pan sear it with some butter finish with some brandy or whiskey and some cream…

Purple Sweet potatoes – I like them best cut into thick wedges and drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and baked on high heat for about 40 minutes until they brown. You could also make a purple mashed potato..

Cranberry beans – you’ll need to take them out of the pods first, but then you can cook them in salt water or steam them. I like to put them in a frying pan with a little bit of water, steam them with the lid on first and then once the pan dries up or the beans start getting soft, add a little olive oil and lemon juice.

Corn – this time of year, corn is so sweet. You can steam it but I like it best on the BBQ in its husk so it steams itself on the inside. Then take the husk off and brown it for a few minutes and butter it up.

Lots of great fruit this week. Eat it raw, cook it down with some sugar, make a crisp…Whip up some whipped cream and eat it with strawberries…

Wild arugula is my favorite green. Just olive oil, lemon juice and salt. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again 🙂

Lemon Cucumbers (they look kinda like lemons) – these are so delicious! The skin can be a little tough so you can peel them ( I still eat the skin, I don’t mind) They are the best salad cucumbers…just alone tossed with a little vinegar and salt and pepper. Or a cucumber and avocado salad perhaps?

The green onions from Blue Heron Farms are seriously the most tender and delicious green onions I’ve ever found. I like them soaked in water and grilled until a little crisp. But they work well in scrambled eggs, on meat.

Boudin Blanc is a mild French sausage. It would be great with Cranberry beans. Its good in eggs. Its good grilled with mustard and salad.

The whole duck recipe we recommend is to salt pepper and dry herbs (fennel, rosemary) rub the duck. Put it in the fridge overnight so it gets nice and flavorfull. Put it breast side down on a rack in a pan in the oven. Cook at 250 for 2.5-3 hours, until the leg bone can pull out easily. At the end you can crisp it up in pieces in a pan or just broil in the oven for a few minutes.