August 24th, 2026 Newsletter

BOX CONTENTS FOR WEEK OF AUGUST 24 - 30:

1 pint Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes

2 pcs Painted Serpent Cucumbers

1 pc Sugar Cube Melon

.75 lb Gypsy Peppers

1 lb French Fingerling Potatoes

1.50 lbs Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes

Farm Notes:

If you’ve been keeping up with the recent farm notes, you might remember us talking about cucumbers being done and summer squash production slowing down.

Well, they’re finally back! We stagger our plantings throughout the season so we can continue harvesting as one planting finishes up and another comes in. We’re now harvesting from the last planting of cucumbers and summer squash. Once we’re done with this planting, that’s it for the year!

We also started transplanting today and will continue through Saturday! We’re starting with all the kale varieties: dino, curly, red bor, and red russian then moving on to lettuce. We hope to start harvesting both before the end of October!

Thank you,

Evelyn Cordova

RDF Bookkeeper

Exciting/New in your box this week:

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes:

Perfect for snacking, but they’re also great in salads, roasted veggie dishes, or a quick tomato sauce. During tomato season, I eat pasta almost every day! Tomatoes, fresh garlic, olive oil, seasoning, and maybe some cheese is all you need. It takes less than 20 minutes and is honestly one of my favorite easy meals! RECIPE LINKED BELOW

Sugar Cube Melon:

Crisp, juicy, and lightly sweet. Perfect eaten chilled, added to fruit salads, or blended into smoothies/agua frescas. Our sales manager recently mentioned making an horchata de melón. While looking into it, I found this recipe that uses the melon seeds!

French Fingerling Potatoes:

Creamy and moist with a rich, earthy/nutty flavor. Some may even have pink marbling throughout the flesh! The thin skin gets nice and crispy when roasted, but they’re also great boiled, fried, or tossed into a potato salad.

Painted Serpent Cucumbers:

Sweet, crisp, and never bitter. They’re perfect for slicing into salads, snacking fresh, or marinated for cooling summer snack. Their mild, refreshing flavor even has a hint of melon. Best enjoyed within a few days as their delicate skin makes them softer over time! No need to peel ‘em, just wash & enjoy!

Gypsy Peppers:

Sweet, mild, and crunchy with a fresh pepper flavor. Gypsy peppers are great for snacking on raw, slicing into salads, or adding to cooked dishes. Their thin skin makes them perfect for quick cooking like grilling, roasting, or sautéing. Check out this website which shares 32 gypsy pepper recipes!

Early Girl Tomatoes:

A classic everyday tomato with a balanced sweet-tart flavor and juicy texture. Perfect for slicing into sandwiches, adding to salads, or roasting.

Heirloom Tomatoes:

Heirloom tomatoes are grown for flavor rather than uniformity, so they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors! Their soft texture and rich, complex flavor make them especially delicious fresh with a sprinkle of salt, layered on toast, or used in summer salads like Tomato & Halloumi Panzanella.

Cherry Tomato & Feta Pasta

Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Servings: 2 people

Ingredients:

2 handfuls pasta (of your choice)

1 pint cherry tomatoes

feta cheese (to your liking)

2 garlic cloves (freshly minced)

salt (for pasta water & sauce)

extra virgin olive oil (for pasta water & sauce)

black pepper (to taste)

pasta water (as needed)

Instructions:

1. Cook the pasta. Before draining, save some pasta water.

2. While the pasta cooks, add the cherry tomatoes to a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

3. Cook until the tomatoes soften, then burst tomatoes. (or cut in half before cooking)

4. Add the freshly minced garlic and cook for another minute or so.

5. Add the crumbled feta and mix until combined.

6. Then add the cooked pasta and a splash of pasta water.

7. Toss everything together, adding more pasta water until the tomatoes loosen into a saucy consistency.

Tip: use angel hair pasta for faster cooking time

Check out our Instagram @riverdogfarm where we share images of the crops, farming, re-posts of your farm fixings photos and videos and provide market/CSA updates!