Reading · Beyond the Bounty

Bean Mix: Provider and Golden Goal
Beets: Cylindra
Chard: Rainbow Mix
Cucumbers: Assorted varieties
Garlic Scapes
Green Top Onions: Patterson
Head Lettuce: Assorted Varieties
Summer Squash: Assorted varieties

and perhaps one of the following: (Please see the note after "🥕 Storage & Handling Notes" below.)

Broccoli: Castle Dome
Japanese Cauliflower: Song
Sugar Snap Peas
Snow Peas

🌿Herb It! option: Sweet Basil, Dill & Lemon Thyme

🧉Jam It! option: Black Raspberry Jam & Cherry Peach Jam

🧂Spice it Up! option: Purple Basil Salt

💙 Farmer Favorite: Bean Mix

🥬 Something New to Try: Green Top Onions

🎉 Coming Soon: Potatoes

🧄 Notable Event: Garlic Harvest begins!

It was a hot one on the farm this past week - and I'm guessing it was where you were, too!

In temperatures like this, taking care of the crew takes priority over getting tasks done in the field. Our goal is taking a mandatory shade and water break once an hour, in addition to individuals encouraged to take water breaks anytime they need one. The FarmHer in Charge becomes the Nag in Charge, as I spend half my time nagging them about water intake.

Tough conditions aside, we did get some good work done. We did the most physical work like cultivating and clearing spent crops in the mornings when it was a bit cooler, then spent the afternoons on less arduous tasks like trellising and trimming tomatoes and adding irrigation lines. I think its safe to say that everyone on the farm, plants, animals and crew were happy to see the temperatures cooling back to normal this week.

We were thrilled to miss most of the alarming weather this week, with just 1.4” rain Fri/Sat. It was still more than we needed, but so much less than the 10+ inches that some experienced. What a crazy, volatile growing season this has been.

The crops are hanging in there, and I haven’t noticed any new losses. We’ll spend some time this week clearing the spent choi and Beijing Express as it all bolted in last week’s heat but the big project for the coming week is the garlic harvest! After having to replace all our seed garlic last fall due to a virus, I’ve been watching the new crop with anxious anticipation, hoping it wouldn’t be offended by all the excess rain. It’s been looking good so far, and I was pleased with what we pulled for last week’s Bounty Boxes, but I can’t bear to wait any longer. Garlic harvest is one of our big seasonal projects as each head is pulled by hand, bundled and carried out of the field. Then, loaded on the Ranger and moved to the packing barn where it is unloaded, moved upstairs and hung to dry and cure. It’s hot, dirty, physical work and such a relief when it is done!

I saw the first ripening cherry tomatoes this weekend…not many yet but they are the delightful sign of delicious things to come! And the beans and summer squash have hit their stride so everyone is getting those this week. We’re also sending out quite a bit of broccoli this week and you may see it and wonder, “why does my broccoli look so weird?” Well, it’s because broccoli hates hot weather and “looking weird” is the broccoli version of a temper tantrum. It is showing it’s displeasure in the only way it can (besides dying). Don’t worry, it still tastes delicious!

1. A little joy after the storm 2. First red tomatoes of the season 3. This is what a broccoli temper tantrum looks like 4.Popcorn, cover crop and pollinator strip looking good!

As we mentioned in our earlier emails, this year we’re celebrating not only our 20th Bounty Box season, but also the people who made it possible: YOU.

Each week we’ll draw a name from our membership list to receive a surprise from the farm. It might be one of our favorite kitchen tools, a product from the BGF Pantry, or another fun farm-inspired treat.

This week’s winner is: Sarah S.!

Sara’s gift is another of our favorite eco-friendly kitchen items - Swedish Dish Cloths . Originally invented in Sweden in 1949, Swedish dishcloths are made from cotton and wood pulp. They start out stiff when dry but become incredibly soft, absorbent, and reusable when wet. Ours have become one of our favorite kitchen tools.

Congratulations, Sara! And good luck to everyone in next week’s drawing. There’s lots more fun to come!

20 years ago, in our first CSA/Bounty Box season we had three membership seasons. A Spring Share, Summer Share and Winter Share. It was a crazy amount of administrative work, but we wanted to provide as much fresh, seasonal produce to our members as we were able. Our VegEmail program now covers the spring, fall and winter slots.

These aren’t scallions—and they aren’t storage onions either. Green-top onions are freshly harvested, full-sized onions that haven’t yet been cured. Because they go straight from the field to your box, they’re incredibly juicy, sweet, and full of fresh onion flavor.

The white bulb can be used anywhere you’d use a regular onion, while the green tops are delicious chopped into eggs, soups, stir-fries, salads, and potato dishes. Think of them as the best of both worlds—an onion and a scallion all in one.

💡 Pro Tip: Use the whole plant! Slice the bulbs for cooking and save the green tops just as you would scallions.

🍽️ BGF Green Bean Sauté see recipe at the end of the newsletter

🍽️ Bonus Recipe: Roberta’s Roasted Onion Tops (scroll to the bottom of the page)

This week’s box is full of vegetables that can work together.

Try building a simple “clean out the produce drawer” meal by sautéing the green-top onions, garlic scapes, chard, beet greens, beans, and summer squash together with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Top it with a fried egg or serve it alongside grilled meat, and you’ve got a quick summer dinner that tastes like the farm.

Some of our favorite meals don’t start with a recipe—they start with whatever’s staring at us from the produce drawer..

Here’s our downloadable one-page guide to storing all things produce!

Store it Fresh Guide

This section contains the crop-specific storage information, handling suggestions, and preparation tips for everything in this week’s box.

BEANS: Fresh beans are an easy “store.” Just leave them in their plastic bag and keep them in the produce drawer. Can last up to 2 weeks.

BEETS: Cut off greens, leaving an inch of stem. Refrigerate the unwashed greens in a closed plastic bag and use as you would chard or spinach. Store the beet roots, unwashed, with the rootlets (or “tails”) attached, in a plastic bag in the crisper bin of your refrigerator. They will keep for several weeks, but their sweetness diminishes with time. Just before cooking, scrub beets well and remove any scraggly leaves and rootlets. If your recipe calls for raw beets, peel them with a knife or vegetable peeler, then grate or cut according to your needs baby/young beets usually don't need to be peeled.

BROCCOLI/CAULIFLOWER: Wrap loosely in a plastic bag and keep it in the vegetable bin of your refrigerator for up to a week. Immediately before cooking, soak head down, in cold, salted water (1 teaspoon salt to a 8 cups of water) for 5 minutes. Any [organic] critters will float to the top where you can rescue them or allow them to suffer a salty death. (Note: If soaked in salt water before storing, it will become too rubbery and wilted to enjoy.) Slice the juicy, edible stems and use them wherever florets are called for. Peel particularly thick skin before using.

CUCUMBERS: Store unwashed cucumbers wrapped in a cotton towel in a sealed plastic bag in the vegetable crisper bin for about a week. Keep cucumbers tucked far away from tomatoes, apples, and citrus—these give off ethylene gas that accelerates cucumber deterioration. You can do a lot of fancy things to the skin of a cucumber, but when it is young, fresh (and unwaxed), it really only needs to be thoroughly washed. However, if the skin seems tough or bitter you can remove it; if the seeds are bulky, slice the cucumber lengthwise and scoop them out.

GARLIC SCAPES: One of our favorite crops of the year. These curly green things are the emerging flower stalk from a hardneck garlic plant. We remove them to redirect more of the plant’s energy into the bulb, but it also provides us with a delightful fresh garlic treat. These keep very well in a plastic bag in your produce drawer and can be used in any recipe calling for garlic. They make a great pesto and can be minced and added to room-temperature butter, which is then stored in log shape, in the freezer for a last minute dollop of goodness for vegetables, breads or meat. We also enjoyed them tossed whole in olive oil and grilled as a side dish.

GREEN TOP ONIONS: As you might note from their name, these are young, freshly pulled, uncured onions. They can be used as you would any onion, the difference is in the storage. Since they don't have a layer of dried skin to protect them, please store in a sealed bag or container in your refrigerator and plan to use within 2 weeks. As long as the greens are still fresh, you can use them like scallions, or try out the baked onion top recipe in the 7/1 newsletter!

All of your GREENS will keep best if stored in a plastic bag, with the top folded over and placed in the produce drawer of your refrigerator. We find the longest storage is achieved by having a layer of cotton or paper towel between the greens and the plastic. If leaves become limp, retrim the ends and a quick soak in cold water will often restore their crispness.

PEAS: We grow snow peas (flat pod with little bumps showing immature peas inside) and sugar snap peas (rounded pods with mature peas inside).Both have edible pods and can be used interchangeably in recipes. They are particularly good in stir-fries and salads, though we tend to eat them fresh as a snack. Peas keep best in their plastic container in the produce drawer of your refrigerator.

SUMMER SQUASH/ZUCCHINI: Refrigerate unwashed zucchini and summer squash for up to a week and a half in a perforated plastic bag or in a sealed plastic container lined with a kitchen towel. These do not need to be peeled to use, just slice them up and go!

** NOTE: You will notice over the course of the season that some box contents listed above say “Perhaps one of the following...” These are items that we can’t harvest in sufficient quantities for the whole CSA to receive at one time. We do track who gets what and we will do our best to ensure that everyone eventually receives each item. On some items this may take several weeks, so please be patient.

Need extra produce this week?

Our VegEmail program makes it easy to order additional vegetables, pantry items, flowers, eggs, cheese, baked goods, and more from Blue Gate Farm and our partner producers.

Place your order here by Thursday at noon and pick up Saturday at:

SingleSpeed Brewing (Downtown Des Moines)
Grand Theater (Knoxville)
Blue Gate Farm

It’s one more way we’re helping make local food easy.

You’ve seen our photos—now we’d love to see yours.

Share pictures of your Bounty Box haul, your favorite recipe, your garden-inspired dinner, or even your kids helping unpack the box. Email, text, or post them in the Blue Gate Farm Community group.

We’ll feature member photos throughout the season.

Facebook: Blue Gate Farm

Community Group: Blue Gate Farm Community

Instagram: @bluegatefarmfresh

Questions? Just hit reply or click the comment button below

Bounty Brief - 7/07/26

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