An Abundance of Corn and Tomatoes

Before I begin to talk about the produce that we received this past week, I want to remind everyone that this is the last week of this particular 12 week block. This means that next week will be the first week of the new season, so anyone that has not already renewed their membership or anyone that is interested in starting a new membership should do so soon! This can be done through our website, tempecsa.org. Additionally, there is fresh bread that can be purchased through the website and members can pick it up with the rest of their produce at their particular pick up location each week. There are both loaves of bread and fresh bagels, so there is definitely something for everyone!

For the first time this season, we had corn at the Tempe CSA! They come in their husks with some caterpillars crawling in them, but they are absolutely delicious once you get them home and cook them! They are smaller than the corn that can be found at the store because they are organic and are grown completely naturally. This means that their taste is full of flavor and a much better option because it is completely local and natural. There may be a few bad ones in the bunch, but I would choose these over corn from a grocery store any day!

We also had some awesome tomatoes this week at the CSA, and the great thing was that the farm had an abundance of them so our members were able to purchase 15 pound boxes of them if they wanted them. The tomatoes were so delicious that I was able to take them home and eat them plain without even putting them in a salad or cooking them! I have always been a huge fan of tomatoes, so I was especially excited about this.

Last, I wanted to share this picture of lemon cucumbers because I wrote about Armenian cucumbers last week and I wanted to show another form of them! Again, these cucumbers are extremely similar to the regular cucumbers that most people think of, they just have a shape and size that is much different. They taste like cucumbers and can be great mixed into a nice salad with some other fresh vegetables!

All About Armenian Cucumbers

Before I begin, I want to remind anyone that reads that the last day of this session at the CSA is June 20th, so there are only two more weeks left. If anyone would like to renew their membership or if there are new people that would like to join the CSA for the first time, it is recommended that you sign up before this date so that you will be ready to start on June 27th.

We have been receiving Armenian Cucumbers each week at the CSA, and I wanted to do some research to find out why these particular cucumbers are different than other types of cucumbers, and what our members can do with them once they have them at home! These cucumbers look different than the regular cucumbers that can be bought at a grocery store. They are lighter in color, have larger ridges on the outside, and look slightly different inside as well. The taste is very similar to the taste of traditional cucumbers, so they are light, mild, and slightly sweet. There is no bitterness in the skin of this type of cucumber, so people that are using them for their meals can feel free to eat them without peeling the skin off first because the taste will not change.

I took the second picture to show a scale of how much larger than my hands these cucumbers are. They can reach up to a length of three feet, so they are also sometimes referred to as the "yard-length" cucumber. They are not very flavorful at this length, though, so they are better to eat when they are about one foot long.