Cockroaches and corn smut.

The CSA newsletter for this week is posted online, you can find it right here.

The peppers are setting in, this week’s CSA share included two varieties of jalapeños. The bell peppers are coming along quickly. The Chimayo and Jimmy Nardelos are developing at a more relaxed rate, but they’ve still got some time. No rush. Not yet. We’ve started in on the shishito harvest. This is very exciting. Shishito peppers are something we really enjoyed growing and eating while we were in New Mexico. They are prolific at the fancy Santa Fe Farmer’s Market, it’s a cash crop ($10/lb. Truly.) and they are everywhere -so much so we’ve heard them called ‘the cockroaches of Santa Fe’. Cockroaches aside, shishitos are delicious. They are not hot. Sauteed in olive oil, just so they blister, sprinkled with salt. If you’d like some, let us know. If my charming description of them doesn’t convince you, try checking out Deborah Madison’s more eloquent write-up about them.

As it turns out we are also growing huitacoche, more familiarly known as “corn smut.” We’ve been nervously watching a weird fungus develop and swell on our popcorn cobs. It has been appearing out of nowhere. And it grows fast. Alarming, tumorous growths, ballooning out of the husks of the cobs. Pretty gross. We took some photos to send off to our seed source friends for advice – but did a quick google search for “weird corn fungus” first. This is what we found. Complete with recipes, here and here. Looks like we’ll have a wonderfully fun surprise for the CSA next week: Mexican corn truffles. ¡Que sabroso!