7.26.17 Wisconsin Grown | Part 12

For me, it doesn’t officially feel like summer until the tomatoes arrive. There may be plenty hot sunny weather, warm nights filled with fireflies, plenty of thundering summer storms, but until I taste those first tomatoes, it always feels to me like some part of summer is missing. Then suddenly, boom: tomatoes are in, and I’m eating them for every meal if I can get away with it. This week, we found our first ripe tomato in our garden (a sungold, that was promptly devoured), and the first few tomatoes started trickling into our CSA boxes. Summer is here completely, and before we know it, we’re going to be drowning in an onslaught of summer tomatoes. I can hardly wait.

Besides tomatoes, we found plenty of other summery goodies in the CSA box this week - the first of the peppers and potatoes, plenty of green beans, summer squash, and cucumbers. I can’t wait to get cooking with it all. Here’s what I’ll be making this week:

This season’s first Red Norland Potatoes are thin skinned and absolutely lovely. Also, I’ve found, they’re basically perfection when they’re grilled up with plenty of butter and fresh dill, a favorite side dish of mine with rainbow trout. Luckily, we’ve got some Dill to work with this week as well, so this is obviously happening.

This week, we’re seeing the first of the Green Peppers of the season, along with another beautiful Walla Walla Onion, both of which are getting sliced thin and used to top pizza. Grilled pizza, of course, because it’s summer.

The season’s first Tomatoes demand to be eaten outright, whether by the handful, or with some creamy burrata and plenty of fresh Basil.

I can think of nothing better to do with this week’s Green Beans (and Basil and Garlic) than to whip up some of Bowen Appetit’s Vietnamese Lamb and Green Bean Stir Fry.  

I’m basically obsessed with burrata these days, so why not eat it with our Carrots too, as in Food52’s Roasted Carrots with Carrot Top Pesto and Burrata.

We’ll be snacking on Cucumbers all week, most likely in the form of these Peanut Chile Cucumbers I’m thinking.

We’ve got loads of Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash on our hands, which begs the question - do we go the savory with them and make The Leek and the Carrot’s Summer Vegetarian Cobbler? Or do we go sweet with Dishing Up the Dirt’s Zucchini Cardamom Bread? Here’s hoping we can make both happen.