Hola, Misfit Members! Here’s what you’ll find in your basket this week:

-Carbon, Rutgers, Scarlet Red tomatoes

-Roma tomatoes

-Cherry tomatoes

-Peppers (Hot dwarf banana, bell, and pimiento)

-2 of the following: Eggplant, Green beans, Turnips

-Zucchini Bread

This week your basket included a little homemade goody from me, just for fun! There were a couple of random straggling zucchini that I missed because I thought all the vines were done, so they got huge. And what better use for giant zucchini than zucchini bread?

Side note- apologies for the shrimpy bell peppers. I mixed up some flats of pepper plants, so some that should have been in the high tunnel ended up outside, and vise versa. But bigger bells are coming shortly!

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

-1 large or 2 medium eggplant, sliced into ½” slices

-2 tbsp kosher salt

-1 ½ cup Italian breadcrumbs

-3 eggs

-1/2 cup milk

-4 tbsp vegetable oil

-3 cups marinara sauce

-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

-1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

-Handful of basil leaves (optional)

Directions

-Salt both sides of the eggplant slices and place in a large colander in the sink. Let the liquid drain for 45 min or so.

-Brush off the excess salt after your eggplant have finished draining liquid.

-Preheat oven to 375.

-In 2 shallow dishes, add breadcrumbs to one and whisk eggs and milk together in the other. Dip the eggplant slices into milk/egg mixture, then into the breadcrumbs.

-In a skillet over medium high heat, add 1 tbsp of the oil. When the oil is hot, fry 2 eggplant slices at a time until both sides are golden brown, then place on a large plate with paper towels to drain.

-In a large casserole dish, add 1 cup of the marinara to the bottom of the dish. Add a layer of the eggplant slices. Add about 1/4 cup more of the marinara on top, them a generous amount of the cheeses. Repeat the payers until you run out of slices. Top with more cheese.

-Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. Serve hot and top with basil if desired.

Guess what we have (finally): Corn!!! Okay, so it’s still tiny corn, but it will hopefully be ready next week!

A quick announcement… Next Thursday, the 15th I have to be in Louisville all day for training, so I will have to deliver your veggies to you either Wednesday or Friday, so just let me know which day works best for you. Sorry to have to switch it up, but I didn’t realize this training was on a Thursday. I may be able to drop one or two on my way that morning, but it will be suuuuper early.

Fun fact of the week… Okay, so a couple weeks ago I dropped a little science on you, now I’m going to throw some entomology at you. These stubborn hungry jerks are tomato hornworms. (stock photo because I couldn't find any to take a picture of. For once.)

Those of you who have raised tobacco in the past may recognize them as a tobacco hornworm, but they are actually 2 very closely related species; although both feed on solanaceous (or nightshade) crops such as tomatoes, tobacco, and peppers. They can do significant damage in just a short time, stripping the leaves clean off of the plants and taking big bites out of each fruit. They tend to show up in early July, and are worse in my high tunnel for some reason, so I’m always scouting for them every single day to make sure they aren’t in there wreaking havoc.

I usually just pick them off and feed them to my chickens, but when I find them with large white projections sticking up out of their back, like this, that’s when I leave them be. These are eggs from the braconid wasp, which is a parasitizing wasp that preys on these types of caterpillars specifically. They will hatch and basically eat the worm from the inside out. Nature is seriously hardcore sometimes! It gives me joy to see these because they are doing my work for me naturally. Creepy? Yes. Barbaric? Maybe. But that’s nature for you!