CSA Box #6 • August 2026

We’ve officially reached that wonderful point in the season when the garden starts giving us a little bit of everything. Box #6 is packed with summer vegetables, herbs, potatoes, and a few of the first signs that tomato season is finally on its way.

What’s in the Box

Shirofumi Edamame

Fresh edamame is one of those summer treats that tastes completely different from the frozen version.

• Storage: Keep refrigerated in the pods and use within a few days. For longer storage, blanch and freeze the beans.

• Try it: Steam or boil the pods for 4–5 minutes and finish with flaky salt. Add shelled edamame to grain bowls, salads, or fried rice.

• To eat: Don't eat the pod! Squeeze or pop the beans out after cooking.

Helenor & Navone Yellow Rutabaga

Rutabaga is a cross between a turnip and cabbage, with a mild sweetness that becomes especially delicious when roasted. If you've never cooked one before, don't let the humble exterior scare you off!

• Storage: Remove the greens and refrigerate the root in a produce bag. It will keep for several weeks.

• Try it:

  • Roasted rutabaga: Peel, cube, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast at 425°F until deeply browned and tender.

  • Rutabaga mash: Boil with potatoes until tender, then mash with butter, salt, and plenty of black pepper.

  • Maple-roasted rutabaga: Roast cubes with olive oil, salt, and a little maple syrup. Finish with fresh thyme.

  • Rutabaga fries: Cut into sticks, toss with oil and seasonings, and roast until browned and crisp at the edges.

Fiesta F1 Broccoli or Rober Cauliflower

Both are versatile, flavorful varieties that are especially good roasted, grilled, or added to everyday meals.

• Storage: Refrigerate unwashed in a loose bag and use within several days.

• Try it: Roast with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add broccoli to stir-fries, pasta, or grain bowls; try cauliflower with tahini, lemon, and fresh herbs. Both are great simply roasted until deeply browned.

Ping Tung Eggplant

Our long, slender Ping Tung eggplant has tender skin and creamy flesh, making it especially good for grilling and roasting.

• Storage: Refrigerate unwashed and use within several days.

• Try it: Slice lengthwise, brush with oil, and grill until tender. Roast with garlic and herbs. Add to stir-fries, curries, pasta, or ratatouille.

Gladstone Onions

These are fresh, uncured onions, so they’re more tender and juicy than a cured storage onion.

• Storage: Refrigerate in a loosely closed bag or container and use within a couple of weeks.

• Try it: Slice fresh into salads and sandwiches, or cook into eggs, sauces, soups, and roasted vegetables.

Peppers

There is a fun assortment of peppers in this box.

🌶️ A QUICK PEPPER PSA: Our sweet peppers have been occasionally delivering some spicy surprises this season! We suspect a little cross-pollination in the field. We recommend taking a small taste before chopping an entire pepper into your dish—just in case.

• King of the North sweet peppers

• Red Sheepnose Pimentos

• Our first few Picnic peppers

• Jalapeños — and these are definitely spicy this year!

• Storage: Refrigerate peppers in a produce bag. Jalapeños can also be frozen whole for later use.

• Try it: Roast the sweet peppers until blistered and tender, or chop them into eggs, tacos, sandwiches, salsa, or pasta. For the jalapeños, start small—you can always add more heat!

Bolero Carrots

These carrots took a few unexpected turns in the soil! Grown from starts rather than direct-sown seed, they developed some wonderfully wonky shapes along the way. The funny shapes don't affect the flavor one bit.

• Storage: Refrigerate in a produce bag.

• Try it: Snack on them raw, roast them whole, or chop them up for soups, stews, and salads.

Lettuce Mix

Store your lettuce mix in the refrigerator in a loosely closed bag or container with a towel to absorb excess moisture. If it begins to wilt, soak the leaves in very cold water for a few minutes and spin or pat dry.

German Butterball Potatoes

One of our favorite all-purpose varieties. They have golden flesh and a creamy, buttery texture.

• Store potatoes somewhere cool, dark, and dry. Avoid storing them in the refrigerator, which can negatively affect their texture and flavor.

• Try it: Roast them whole or halved with olive oil, salt, garlic, and rosemary until crisp outside and creamy inside. They are also excellent simply boiled and tossed with butter and parsley.

Blue Curled Scotch Kale

A classic curly kale with sturdy leaves; refrigerate in a bag and massage into salads, sauté with garlic, or add to soups and stews.

Golden Oyster Mushrooms

A little farm surprise! Our Golden Oyster Mushrooms are grown in 5-gallon buckets on a substrate of hardwood and prairie grasses. We can't reliably tell the mushrooms when to fruit, so they tend to make spontaneous appearances in CSA boxes throughout the season as they decide they're ready.

Golden oysters have a delicate texture and savory, slightly nutty flavor.

• Storage: Keep refrigerated in a paper bag or loosely wrapped container. Don't wash until ready to use.

• Try it: Tear into pieces and sauté in butter or olive oil until golden and crisp around the edges. Add garlic and fresh herbs, toss with pasta, pile onto toast, or serve alongside eggs.

• Important: Cook before eating; oyster mushrooms are best enjoyed thoroughly cooked.

Fresh Herbs

This week you’ll find basil, mint, and parsley, as well as our little Herb Trios of thyme, rosemary, and oregano.

• Storage: Refrigerate wrapped loosely in a paper towel inside a bag or container, or keep the stems in a little water.

• Try it: Make a quick sauce or dressing by combining chopped herbs with olive oil, garlic, lemon or lime juice, salt, and pepper.

Farm Made Goodies

Red Enchilada Sauce

We made this rich, deeply flavored enchilada sauce with a blend of Guajillo, Ancho, Pasilla, Ají Rico, and Árbol chiles, along with tomato, garlic, onion, Mexican oregano, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and a few other pantry staples.

It has plenty of chile flavor without being all about the heat, making it perfect for enchiladas, tacos, eggs, roasted vegetables, or as a simmering sauce for chicken.

• Storage: This sauce is refrigerated, not shelf-stable. Because the jars are filled quite full, transfer some to another container before freezing and leave plenty of room for expansion. Keep refrigerated and use promptly.

Chili Crisp

Our chili crisp is packed with layers of savory, spicy, aromatic flavor: dried Thai chiles, garlic, ginger, shallots, scallions, Sichuan peppercorns, toasted sesame, roasted peanuts, and warm spices, all infused in avocado and peanut oil and finished with soy sauce, Chinkiang black vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and a little MSG.

• Try it: Spoon over eggs, rice, noodles, or dumplings. Drizzle over roasted potatoes or vegetables. Stir into soups or sauces. Add to avocado toast or sandwiches

• Storage: Keep refrigerated.

Flowers from the Field

This week’s bouquets are full of the colors and textures of high summer.

You'll find a mix of: dahlias • zinnias • celosia • scabiosa • dianthus • mint • cinnamon basil • amaranth

For the longest vase life, give your flowers a clean vase with fresh water and change the water every few days. Zinnias especially appreciate clean water!

Field Notes

One of the realities of growing a diverse vegetable farm is that the harvest rarely gives us exactly what we want, exactly when we want it. This week was a good example.

Our Tuesday Waukegan CSA delivery received a slightly different mix than our regular pickup members, based on what was ready in the field at harvest time. Their boxes included Ping Tung, Diamond Purple, and Black Beauty eggplant, as well as Tokiwa cucumbers and sweet corn. The corn was a bit of a gamble this week, and ultimately only made it into our Tuesday delivery. More is growing and should make a debut later on—fingers crossed!

We removed the husks before packing so we could get a better look at kernel development and make sure we were harvesting ears at the right stage. Since the corn was already husked, it’s best kept refrigerated and used as soon as possible for the sweetest flavor.

The Tuesday boxes also received something else that didn't make it into tomorrow's pickup: Spicy Green “Salsa Falsa.”

This bright, tangy green sauce is made with: Zucchini • tomatillos • jalapeño • Serrano pepper • onion • avocado oil • garlic • lime • cilantro

It has the brightness of a salsa verde with a little more body from the zucchini—and a serious kick from the jalapeños and Serranos.

• How to use it:

  • Spoon it over tacos, grilled chicken or fish, roasted vegetables, eggs, or potatoes. It also makes an excellent dip for tortilla chips.

  • For a simple summer dinner, try roasted potatoes + grilled sweet corn + sliced peppers + a fried egg, finished with a generous spoonful of Salsa Falsa.

• Keep refrigerated and use promptly.

It's a small glimpse into the ebb and flow of the farm. The boxes change with the field, and the field doesn't always follow the schedule we've made for it.

Bouquets included a mix of: dahlias • zinnias • sunflowers • celosia • gomphrena • dianthus • marigolds • cinnamon basil • strawflower

The Long Wait for Tomatoes

There are certain moments in farming when patience is less of a virtue and more of a requirement.

Tomatoes have been one of those moments this year.

We've been watching the plants grow, watching the green fruit develop, and waiting—and waiting—for that first real flush of ripe tomatoes. This week, we finally started picking a handful of cherry tomatoes that were ready for the harvest basket.

It feels almost comical how exciting a few ripe tomatoes can be after waiting this long.

But we're hopeful that the wait is nearly over. There are plenty of green tomatoes hanging on the plants, and if they all decide to ripen at once, our next delivery may look very different.

So we're practicing one of a farmer's most important skills one more time: patience.

And hopefully, very soon, we'll be swimming in tomatoes.