Twenty Bag | Jul 4

In the July 4 Twenty Bag: Lunchbox peppers, cucumbers, scallions, vine ripe tomatoes, basil, fingerling potatoes, Sungold cherry tomatoes, Shishito peppers.

Thank you Harleston Towles and Rooting Down Farms!

I’m celebrating the 4th of July with a veggie-heavy menu thanks to my incredible CSA—keeping me on a healthful path and out of the supermarket as much as possible.

Italian sausage sandwiches will be loaded with a mix of sauteed peppers and sweet Vidalia onions. I plan to enlist a head of cabbage from a previous Bag for Post House chef Nathan Hood’s creamy cole slaw—a recipe as easy as it’s delicious.

The lovely leeks in this week’s Bag will be put to good use in this recipe for potato leek soup. With a base of buttermilk and cream, it’s rich and as good served chilled as warmed.

For more ideas, a quick search of sweetgrass + grits will take you to plenty more recipes—all curated with an eye toward the weekly Twenty Bag harvest.

Harleston’s storage tips: If greens of any kind begin to wilt at any point or at pick up, put them in a big bowl of ice water for 20-30 minutes. Almost all produce is washed and should go in the refrigerator. Tomatoes can stay on the counter.  Cherry tomatoes may be ok in the fridge but not for long. Sungolds are not known to keep very long either so enjoy soon!  Peppers, cucumbers, and scallions in the fridge in a bag.  Basil can also go in the fridge protected in the bag, but if not wilted too bad, can go in a vase of water on the counter.  Potatoes in a cool DARK place.  Light will cause them to turn green.