The end of July has arrived and with that the end of our CSA subscription. We could renew for the next three months but instead we have other plans (more on that soon).

For our final week the share included:
- Green beans
- Field peas
- Tomatoes, roma and round
- Sweet peppers
- Garlic
- A small yellow melon

Tonight I made a deep dish pizza using a spring form pan. Thank you Evil Mad Scientist for the instructions. Inside the pizza I started with a thick coating of my homemade collard green olive pesto, then some five cheese blend from Trader Joe’s followed by a whole container of mushrooms, some finely chopped onion and small slivers of the sweet peppers from the share. On top I put more cheese followed by a homemade red sauce using the roma tomatoes and garlic from today’s share. It turned out amazing, like a perfect, restaurant deep dish. Yum!

Earlier this week I did make that summer salad and I have to say that field peas pretty much suck. First you have to shuck all the peas and the skins are tough and the peas don’t want to come out. Once you get a pile of them, they are hard and tasteless. After boiling them on the stove for a while they are no longer hard but instead have the texture of lima beans. Putting them in my salad seemed to actually detract from the salad, sadly. Overall I would never buy field peas. Yuck.

In the past week we didn’t make much progress getting through our share, and now it is time for yet another, which really is the problem with the CSA. You need to keep eating or it gets out of control fast!

In this week’s share:
- Tomatoes
- Snap Beans
- Basil
- Arugula
- Garlic
- Cucumbers
- Corn
- Field Peas
- Edame
- Summer Squash

From a different stand at the market I also picked up a small watermellon and some hydroponic, tender lettuce.

This week I’m thinking I will make a batch of summer pasta salad with tomato, basil, garlic, snap beans, chick peas, and cheese with a balsamic dressing.

We are now entering into the hot, dead part of summer. Did I mention hot?

In this week’s share:
- field peas
- green beans
- squash
- cucumbers
- garlic
- collards
- tomatoes
- basil
- green onions
- edamame

The bonus item: Cut flowers. I chose 6 sunflowers to brighten our home.

I’m thinking a nice cucumber, tomato, basil, onion salad with a light champagne vinnaigrette.

What to do with collards? I’m getting tired of the tough leaf and bitterness.

I’d never heard of field peas until last year, when I bought some and promptly over cooked them. Maybe this time I’ll actually get to try them.

By total luck and timing, I came into possession of an advance reader’s copy of Neal Stephenson’s new book Anathem, due out in early September. I smiled the rest of my way through work on the fourth with the book by my side. What a great prize for working on the holiday.

I have tough choices as I head into my week of vacation. How do I split my time between knitting my highly addictive red cardigan and reading the, not even released, book of one of my favorite authors? Plus all the boating, berry picking and general hanging-out to be done with good friends.

Isn’t vacation wonderful?

Our neighborhood has a weekly farmer’s market, just three blocks from our house. Last year I got to know one of the local farmers and this year that farmer started a CSA (community shared agriculture). I’ve been meaning to catalog the bounty that has been arriving weekly since May. Now that we’ve entered July it is time to begin.

This week’s share:
- Arugula
- Kohlrabi (purple)
- Zucchini
- Summer Squash
- Tomato
- Assorted Hot Peppers
- Edamame
- Sweet Corn
- Cucumber
- Garlic

From a different vendor I also picked up a pint of fresh, north Georgia mountain, blueberries. Yum!

On the menu for this week, marinated grilled veggie kabobs, grilled sweet corn, homemade salsa, and some sort of stewed greens soup. Tonight I’m thinking a baguette with basil chevre from a local goat farmer, topped with tomato, and cucumber and then fresh, hot, salted edamame on the side.

I’m still not sure what to do with the Kohlrabi and we now have about 12 heads of garlic. Oh the fun of the CSA.