2009

This week marks the second winter squash of the year and lots of green stuff.  In the far back we’ve got wax beans, then a buttercup squash in front of them.  Okra and eggplant are in the middle, bok choy is in the bag up front.  The left side has radishes and peppers both sweet and hot.

I went a bit jam crazy this week.  I picked up two jars of Peach Sunshine Marmalade and then two of Peach Hot Pepper Jam.  You can almost see the habanera peppers peeking out from behind the butternut squash at the base of the jams.  There are also some red onions, a pattypan squash, some eggplants, and 8 beautiful gala apples.  The eggplants and pattypan squash have been roasted for freezing, the habaneras are for jerk chicken, and the butternut squash is for a pasta dish to supplement the buttercup squash above.  I had intended to make turkey with stuffing with the apples, but it completely slipped my mind during meal planning.  If they make it until next week, I’ll do it then!

Beautiful grape and cherry tomatoes for salads and munching.  

Two flats of tomatoes plus about 6 or 7 yellow tomatoes on top.  All for roasting and freezing.  I figured I should stock up since tomato season is so close to ending.  My freezer is almost full now, so it’s probably time to stop buying so many every week.

This is the 14th week of our CSA and we’ve learned that the market ends the weekend before Thanksgiving which means we’ve got 12 weeks to go!

Out box this week had peaches!  How exciting!  We also got spaghetti squash which is the first of the winter squashes we’ve seen.  Starting at the top and going clockwise we’ve got radishes, okra, potatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, Chinese long beans, spaghetti squash, and wax beans and peaches in the middle.

I picked up more tomatoes to roast and I’ll be making panzanella with a few of them.  

I then bought a lone cucumber for the panzanella, blueberries for Art, and some jams.  The Peach Sunshine Marmalade is fantastic stuff made with peaches and pineapple.  It’s lovely on toast or even ice cream.  

I wasn’t feeling that adventuresome while at the market, so that’s all we picked up.  Plus some of my plans for last week were foiled, so I still have veggies from last week that need to be used up!

This week is lucky number 13. 

Our box contained lots of tried and true favorites.  Starting at the top and going clockwise you see eggs, tomatoes, a cantaloupe, okra, corn, potatoes, wax beans, and there are some hot peppers through the middle.

Then I picked up some more tomatoes for roasting at 475*F for 45-75 minutes.  Those are then frozen and used for sauce in the future.  I made amazing sauce last week with my previous stash of frozen roasted tomatoes.  It tastes so much fresher and brighter than anything I’ve bought in the store.  The little tomatoes will go in salads or just get munched.  The two tomatoes in the back are “ugly” heirloom tomatoes and they work quite well in sandwiches. 

From there I picked up some eggplant and squash for grilling, potatoes to round out what came in the CSA, and some red peppers that will be used in either Red Pepper Risotto or grilled for future use. 

The only thing I’m not sure on for the week is the okra, which might just be fried, and the cantaloupe which I love but shouldn’t eat due to the fructose content.

I was out of town for the weekend but Art was vigilant and not only did he pick up our box, he also took a picture!  

Starting at the top left – Tomatoes, small tomatoes, Swiss Chard, green peppers, hot peppers, okra, wax/yellow beans, and eggplants and potatoes in the middle.  

The tomatoes will be roasted or used in a tomato Caprese dish, the eggplant will be grilled for use in pasta sauce, and I’m hoping everything else will either last till next week (potatoes and peppers) or go into some simple side dishes (chard and wax beans).

I wasn’t as with it this weekend for produce photography as I usually am; the week of GenCon is usually a bit spastic.  I did manage to find the time to roast more tomatoes.  

The tomatoes in the front are heirloom tomatoes that will be used on sandwiches and burgers during the week.  The small ones on the right will be roasted on Wednesday if they’re not eaten before I leave.  The other two containers of tomatoes all got roasted today.  (I roast the fist-size ones at 475*F for 45-75 minutes.  I freeze them and, later, I’ll puree them in the food processor to use as a base for sauces.)

A dozen ears of corn, bought for the purpose of grilling.  I figure six ears will be sufficient for dinner; Art will remove the kernels from the rest of them for future use.  

Starting in the front and sort of working clockwise around – yellow zucchini, eggplant, lima beans in the pods, blueberries, sweet and hot peppers.  Hidden in the middle you can sort of see the okra.  Blueberries will be eaten by Art or put into pancakes.  The eggplant and zucchini will be grilled.  The lima beans are going in Lima Bean Hummus (which I had no idea existed).  The okra will be used in “Gumbo Laya.”  And the peppers will be used in an assortment of things like Jerk Marinade.  

What a delicious week!

Since I was gone over the weekend, I wasn’t able to shop for veggies at the market like I normally do on Saturday.  When I planned my meals for the week, however, I planned my late-week meals to include veggies that I was sure to be able to find on the Wednesday market day.  I also decided to roast a lot of tomatoes…

Here are some of the tomatoes I’m going to roast.

I’m also going to roast these.  

These will also be roasted.  

These will be eaten on salads.  

These eggplant will be grilled and eaten with an Italian pasta dish later in the week.  

These zucchini are going to go into a baked pasta dish.  

And this beautiful heirloom tomato followed me home and I couldn’t tell it no.  It will probably go into some BLT-B sandwiches for lunch!

This will be a very brief post.  This coming weekend, Art and I are going out of town to visit my family.  Due to our travel, we arranged to pick up our CSA box today.  This also meant that I didn’t buy any other veggies because I’m going to be out of town and don’t want to buy things that will just go to waste.  I might make a quick trip to the market next Wednesday to make up for things.  

Starting at the top and working mostly clockwise you see yellow squash, carrots, Swiss chard, okra, many tomatoes of varying sizes, hot peppers, tomatillos and eggplant.  Gorgeous and delicious, all of it!

This is the ninth week of the CSA and market.  Okra is the new offering for us and it’s one I’ve never had before.  

I decided to try something different this week and take fewer individual vegetable pictures.  This one shows everything in the CSA box.  Starting from the eggs and working, roughly, clockwise you see sweet peppers on top of some yellow squash, carrots, okra, hot peppers right there in front, a pattypan squash, green and purple tomatillos, and a whole bunch of tomatoes in the middle.

Since I have plans to make tomato sauce as well as salsa this week, I picked up a few more tomatoes from our CSA farmer. 

Art bought some blueberries since he and Lance both love them and I’m happy to do something with them for the guys. 

Potatoes, onions, and homemade Peach and Hot Pepper Spread.  The Spread was a pleasant surprise and we’ll use it in the coming weeks once I figure out something fun to use it for. 

Then I picked up a few more tomatoes.  These are “seconds,” not that you can tell at all. 

While it’s not time for another Corn Fest yet, I did want to try adding some fresh corn to my salsa.  Three ears seemed like the right amount and Art has already removed it from the cobs for me. 

Then I picked up a few more tomatoes.  For salads and munching.  They look like perfect little red jewels.

Our CSA is in now in its eight week and I’m loving all of the tomatoes.  The hanging baskets in my kitchen have never been so full.  

These are the tomatoes that were in my box.  I can never remember all of the names of the heirloom varieties, but there are a bunch of them here.

Another dozen beautiful brown eggs.  I think this means we’re due for quiche or omelets for dinner in the coming weeks.  This week I’ll be using a handful of them in potato salad.  

And speaking of potatoes, here are some great new potatoes from our CSA farmer!  

This squash has already gone into the squash casserole I had planned for last week.  The carrots will go into salads or be used up next week.  Thankfully carrots have a relatively long fridge life.  

More lovely basil which will be used in some of the pasta dishes this week.  The bell pepper will go into gazpacho and it’s unclear what I’ll do with the hot peppers.  

Beets!  Beets are definitely my favorite thing that the CSA has introduced me to.  Art requested that I revisit the Roasted Beet Risotto I made a few weeks ago, so we’ll be enjoying that later in the week.  

Yes, I have a tomato habit.  These will be used up in the various dishes I’m making this week, gazpacho, and salads.  These are all from our CSA farmer, but not from the actual veggie box.  

These zucchini are huge.  I bought them specifically for stuffing.  I’ve never made stuffed zucchini before and I’m very excited to try.  

I’m a fool for red onions.  Enough said.  

As long as the cucumbers keep coming, I’ll keep making gazpacho!  Green onions and white onions will be used in various dishes throughout the week.  

I went to the market with the goal of getting the ingredients to make potato salad.  This means I got to buy extra potatoes.  

Yes, I bought even more tomatoes.  

These are “mucho nacho” jalapeño peppers.  Art got them to fill with goat cheese and wrap in bacon.  

Lance loves radishes in salads, so I couldn’t pass these up.  

And, of course, Art needs his fresh fruit fix for the week.  This week we managed to pick up 3 yellow peaches (free stone, even) and 3 nectarines.  The $30 budget for the market worked much better this week!

This week is our seventh week of our CSA and the first week that we’ve really started to see tomatoes in full force.  We’re also seeing corn in abundance and more and more squash every week.  I really need to plan for stuffed zucchini boats one of these days so I remember to buy the large ones.  

Lots of little hot peppers and the larger ones which are labeled “chiles.”  Art says that he’ll just munch on these although I am making a few recipes that call for a pepper or three.

This is a beautiful, tight, compact head of red cabbage.  Most of the recipes I can find for red cabbage involve apples in some manner and I try to avoid apples aside from Thanksgiving stuffing.  I’ll be serving this red cabbage with pork chops instead.  The selection of bell peppers will be going into gazpacho.  I’m slowly coming to accept green peppers as being edible.  

I believe these were the last of the eggs that my farmer had!  She really sells out quickly.  However, I’m in luck for future weeks since we’ve got a new farmer at the market who specializes in honey and eggs.  

This basil will find itself in Caprese later this week.  

I think these are gorgeous.  Heirloom tomatoes are always a bit funkier looking compared to regular tomatoes, but they flavor is just insane.  Most of them will be going into gazpacho, so it doesn’t matter too much what they look like to begin with.  Sadly, I forget the variety.  I really need to take notes.  

Three yellow squash and two teeny pattypans.  These will be going into a casserole along with some zucchini.  

These are wax beans and completely new to me.  I found a recipe for Honey-Glazed Wax Beans that I’m looking forward to trying out.  They’re a beautiful shade of yellowy-green.  

Tomatillos are on the left and tomatoes on the right.  I’ve never had a tomatillo before, but I understand they’re the main ingredient in salsa verde.  I’ll be making a layered enchilada dish that will incorporate these in the sauce.  

The three tomatoes in front are green tomatoes and the traditional way to eat them is fried.  I’ve always wanted to try these, ever since reading the fantastic book, but have never had the chance.  That will change this week!  The tomato in back isn’t quite ripe, but will ripen to be a nice purple colour.  

Freshly harvested new potatoes.  I’m probably going to be roasting these again now that I’ve gotten the hang of how to do that.  

These carrots will be roasted along with the potatoes.  

Cucumbers and onions from another great farmer.  Sadly she says that onion season might be coming to an end, but I’ll buy them when I can!  I regretted only getting three last week, so I got six this week.  The cucumbers will be going into the gazpacho.  

This is the first time I’ve seen red onion at the market, so I bought the only bunch left.  They’ll be split between gazpacho and burgers.  I love red onions best when it comes to raw onion consumption.  

I love corn.  I grew up with amazing corn on the cob every summer and it’s something I look forward to every year.  Sadly, I am the only true corn lover in the family so I try to restrict myself to only having it once or twice a year.  When I do have it, I tend to go all out.  We got 12 ears total today and that was lunch.  Delicious, boiled, corn on the cob.  My cooking method is to bring a large pot of water to boil, add corn, and boil for 5 minutes.  Then I serve it with butter, salt, and pepper.  

This is corn from a different farmer.  We did a taste test and got 6 ears from each of two farmers.  Both were delicious in their own way.  

We have a new farmer this year who seems to specialize in squash.  Since I didn’t get any in my CSA box, I picked up some zucchini from him.  

Three yellow peaches.  I only had $2 left when I got to peaches and Art loves them so much.  If we run out mid-week, we might have to stop by the market on Wednesday to pick up a few more.  

An assortment of little tomatoes which will be used for salads throughout the week.  

These are Japanese eggplant.  They’re long and skinny and very dark purple.  I’m going to be contrary and use them in an Italian recipe.  I can’t wait to try them!  

One of our favorite farmers makes homemade pesto with ingredients she grows herself.  This is the first time this year that she’s had it so we had to get a container.  It will be going into Art’s favorite Egg Pesto Pasta.  

And that, as they say, is that.  Up until this week I’ve been sticking to my $20/week budget but I as we get deeper into the growing season and I get a better grasp on what we can use, I think I’m going to up it to $30/week.  I’m finding more and more things that I can buy at the market instead of at the grocery store, and I want to be able to take advantage of that option while I can.