Ask any Utah farmer (of human food, not the alfafa farmers who take more than their fair share of water, grow hay and sell it to China for their cattle) and they'll tell you that 2026 has been a rough year. The super warm March that caused the stone fruit trees to blossom early, only to lose those blooms - and nearly the whole stone fruit crop - with subsequent hard frosts. The little-to-no rain we've had. And now the really hot summer with multiple triple-digit temperatures in northern Utah, making the food crops ready faster, but also shortening the season for cooler weather veg, like lettuces. Even now, the green beans and corn are tougher sooner. But I'm still proud to support local growers through our CSA and am excited every week to see what we get in our boxes. It encourages creativity in meal planning and keeps money local.
Our third box had a good, if on the verge of overripe, cantaloupe, carrots, apricots, donut peaches, green beans, five (!) ears of corn, a cucumber, a zucchini and sugar snap peas. We ate the corn and beans ASAP, of course; and had the peas, still in their pods, sauteed in a ginger sauce with tofu and rice. The melon and cucumber got eaten and the stone fruit was flash-frozen for baking later.
Box #4 contained a yellow watermelon, a cantaloupe, four ears of corn, green beans, pickling cucumbers, a couple of squashes, regular peaches and donut peaches. Again, the corn and beans were consumed immediately. The melons were chunked up and about half the watermelon was flash-frozen for margaritas, while the rest were eaten - sweet enough for dessert. The squashes were shredded and flash-frozen (I'm imagining zucchini bread, cornbread filled with zucchini and zucchini fritters, all when it gets cool enough to cook). Still haven't come up with something for the little cukes: there are only a handful of them, so maybe a very small batch of refrigerator pickles.
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