If you ask the ten foot tall beanstalk, the height of Summer is upon us. Popping cherry tomatoes, slicing up cool cucumbers, and enjoying sweet stone fruit—it doesn’t get much more divine (or physically demanding) than the onset of August. Our burgeoning to-do lists are testing the constraints of our yellow legal pads and inboxes this week, but the good stuff coming out of our fields is a reminder of what it all adds up to…exciting, delicious, life affirming food that it is even better shared.

After too many months of waiting, it is officially tomato season. Though we aren’t opening up bulk sales just yet, we have Wild Hare tomatoes for the whole CSA this week (and some extras for sale too—little ones to start the week, and maybe some heirlooms by the weekend—we’ll see what four hot days in a row does on the ripening front!) We’ve also managed to grow a successful test crop of fresh Walla Walla Sweet Onions this year, so a nice Tomato, Cucumber & Sweet Onion Salad should be near the top of everyone’s menu this week.

They’re big, they’re flat, and they’re all that—the Romano Beans are ready! As a primer, Romanos are bigger than your standard green bean, but they're still plenty tender. And in my opinion, this only makes them more versatile. They’re a lot like a green bean or wax bean—they just look like someone ran them over with a steamroller. Just pop off the stem ends and prepare them as you would any other green bean. You can cut them down to your preferable size or leave them whole. Whatever floats your boat. Since welcoming Fagiolini All’agro aka ‘Finger Beans’ into my life as the consummate summer snack, we have managed to make them disappear into our bellies almost as quickly as they size up in the field. Almost:)

To August,
Katie