ELIJA THYMES

Week 7 | July 22 - 26 | 2025

WEEKLY HARVEST

FARMER'S CORNER:

MEET JIMMY!

Jimmy is our newest farmhand this season though he's no stranger to the farm after taking farming, baking, and meditation classes at ELIJA for over a year. He's always up for getting his hands in the dirt with weeding, processing veggies, or spraying down our huge stacks of harvest bins. The farm is the perfect place for Jimmy with his love for all kinds of insects and animals. Outside of the farm, Jimmy is a singer in a band and also takes broadcasting classes! 

Weekly Reminders:

• Please return your waxed cardboard boxes each week for our learners to gently clean for reuse all season. Delivery members, please put your flattened box out on Thursdays wherever your shares are usually dropped off. Thank you!

• Our Marketplace is open during weekdays 8 am to 4 pm and during CSA pick-up hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Grab your fresh chicken and duck eggs, baked goodies of all kinds, microgreens, and extra field produce from the yellow fridge inside our big greenhouse! (If the fridge is empty, that means it's on the fritz and everything is inside the farmhouse fridge so you can ask farm staff to help you grab something.)

CROP OF THE WEEK: CARROTS

Carrots are a popular root vegetable known for their orange color, though they can also come in purple, red, yellow, and white! They are in the Apiaceae family which includes parsley, dill, celery, cilantro, and more. All of these are hosts to swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Its wild ancestor, wild carrot (Daucus carota) or Queen Anne’s Lace, can be identified by pulling up its roots and smelling for the signature carrot-y scent. 

Carrots are rich in vitamin A, K, C and B6 as well as beta-carotene an antioxidant compound that supports eye health and the immune system. Not only are the roots edible but the leafy tops as well! They may be a bit bitter raw but can be very tasty cooked, made into a pesto or thrown into a broth.  

On the farm, carrots are one of the trickier crops for us to grow. Weeding carrot beds is a constant task, but the harvest is always very satisfying – especially pulling up a small carrot top to reveal a big sturdy root! It is said that carrots are sweeter when harvested in the afternoon after it has time to photosynthesize after using up sugars overnight. We haven’t fully confirmed this, but all our carrots taste pretty sweet to us!

thewhiskaddict.com

Roast the chickpea flour.

1. Add 2 tbsp of chickpea flour to the frying pan on medium low flame.
2. Stir it continuously and roast for 2 minutes, or until it turns golden brown and smells nutty. If you have never roasted chickpea flour before, you will notice that in the beginning it is hard to stir the chickpea flour, but as it gets roasted the flour lightens and moves around beautifully. This is when you know, that your chickpea flour is roasted. The key is to roast it on low flame, stirring it continously. This extra step helps you bring out the nuttiness of the chickpea flour and the fritters won't be sticky in texture. 

Make the fritter batter.

1. Finely slice the cabbage head and shred the Carrots.
2. Add the cabbage, carrots, cilantro and green chilies to the mixing bowl bowl.
3. Next add in the semolina, roasted chickpea flour, and almond flour.
4. And next add all the spices mentioned in the ingredients list. Mix everything well with your hands. This will help the cabbage and carrots sweat all the water out for us to make the batter.
5. The batter doesn't have to be runny. It has to be moist enough, so we can bind everything together. If your batter isn't binding add a tablespoon of water and try bringing everything together.
6. Once your batter is ready and binding together: Take 1.5-2 tablespoon full of batter, roll it between your palms and flatten them. Don't worry if they are not perfectly round.
7. Shape all the fritters, and set them aside.

Cook the fritters.

1. Place a frying pan, and add 3 tbsp oil to the pan on a medium flame.
2. Once the oil is hot, add fritters to the pan. The key is not to crowd the pan and let them cook evenly for 2 minutes on each side on medium flame. I cooked 4 at a time in a 10-inch pan. You can use a bigger frying pan to make more at the same time.
3. Keep cooking the fritters until you are done.
4. Serve them hot with whipped yogurt with a drizzle of hot honey and pinch of salt, or mayo mixed with some sriracha.

TIPS & TRICKS: HOW TO STORE BASIL