Produce

Local Food 7/16/2011

I went a bit crazy at the market this week.  Tomatoes are in full swing and I was there and they called to me and I couldn’t resist! 

I started off with a case of tomatoes for roasting. 

Then I picked up these three gorgeous heirloom tomatoes.  They’ve got great names like Brandywine and Virginia Sweetie, but I forget the name of the third. 

Then I found myself in possession of lots of different types of little tomatoes, four greenish-pink tomatoes, orange tomatoes and yellow tomatoes!  So many tomatoes!

I also picked up some red  potatoes and a bunch of sweet onions of the Candy variety. 

And, for the green in my life, I bought cucumbers, zucchini, and some red-green bell peppers. 

Using everything during the next 7 days will be challenging.  I’m not sure why I do this to myself!  I hope I’m not the only one with eyes bigger than her meal plan when at the farmers market.

Local Food 7/14/2011

Our meat CSA had a nice selection of meats this week!  We came home with a small ham, ground beef, a “mock tender” steak, and a dozen eggs. 

I also picked up two half beef briskets for Art to work his magic on and two skirt steaks that are about a pound each.  I’m not sure yet what I’ll be doing with this great stuff, but I know it will end up fantastic.

Local Food 7/9/2011

Art, who is awesome, went to the market without me this week.  I’m envious that he got to go and I didn’t!  As always, he did a fantastic job picking out veggies for us for the week. 

First he picked up lots of tomatoes.  Little ones, big ones, heirlooms, yum.  Tomatoes are the best. 

Then he got two cabbages, more cucumbers for my hummus sandwiches, and zucchini. 

He also bought potatoes, yellow squash, and a cinnamon bread whoopee pie. 

And, due to scheduling, our CSA pickup was changed to Saturday instead of Thursday.  This week our CSA included eggs (plus eggs from last week), a chicken, bacon, ground beef, two rib eye steaks, and a package of beef kabob meat.  I can’t wait to use it all!

Local Food 7/2/2011

Today was a great day at the market!  There was even a hot dog stand due to the holiday, although Art and I didn’t have any because we were heading to Panera for our post-market lunch.  Even though we didn’t get hot dogs, we did get lots of fantastic looking vegetables. 

Lots and lots of little tomatoes as well as well as summer squashes.  The yellow squash has little bumps all over it which is something I’ve never tried before. 

Then we picked up red potatoes, red onions, and sweet onions. 

And, finally, corn, kale, peaches and cucumbers. 

It was another great day at the market and I’m very pleased with all of the veggies we came home with.  I can’t wait to get cooking!

Local Food 6/30/2011

Our 6th week of the CSA and we forgot to pick up eggs.  Oops.  Art also headed out without me for the Thursday farm run because I wasn’t feeling so hot.  (It’s looking like I’ll have the kidney stone issue resolved by the end of the month, so there is an end in sight!) 

Our meat share this week included a pound of maple sausage links, a beef chipsteak, and two pounds of ground beef.  The logic behind the ground beef is that everyone will be grilling burgers for the 4th of July.  We’ll be grilling the 2nd and the 3rd, but not the 4th.  Go figure!  I’m not entirely sure yet what chipsteak is, but google is my friend and I’ll figure it out before too long.

Local Food 6/25/2011

Finally!  My first real trip to the market.  Technically it’s my second, but I was going out of town after the first trip so I wasn’t able to buy as much produce as I would have liked.  This week, however, I had no such constraints and I happily spent every penny of my market budget.  Now I just get to figure out what to do with all of it!  But that probably won’t happen until tomorrow. 

This is a very green week!  I picked up cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, teensy spring onions, and some Bermuda onions which are apparently a sweet variety.  Art was also lured by the call of blueberries, so we picked up a pint of gorgeous bluebs. 

Tomatoes are starting to come to the market and you all know how their siren call affects me.  The gorgeous red tomatoes are “seconds” but they look perfect to me.  I also picked up a bunch of yellow tomatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, two heads of broccoli, two club size zucchini which will be nice for the grill, and three little loaves of cinnamon bread made by the ever awesome Sue Herbert.  I think that gazpacho might be in my future. 

It was a nice day at the market and I’m happy that I’m in town for the next month.  Next week the market is having a big 4th of July bash which should be fun times!  Life is good and local produce helps it to be even more so.

Local Food 6/23/2011

This is our fifth week of the meat CSA and the first pick up after The Great Freezer Disaster of 2011.  I’m not sure when we’ll have our second freezer back in working order, so I only picked up a package of sweet Italian sausage on top of what came in the CSA.  We also had chats with the farmer and it seems like we’ll be getting in on the September slaughter for both cow and pig.  Sadly it looks like we won’t be able to get another pork belly until then so my Ultimate BLT idea will have to be shelved until next year. 

Our CSA included a chicken, ground beef, a gorgeous London broil, maple sausage, and eggs.  In addition, I picked up some sweet Italian sausage.  Once the second freezer gets sorted out, I’ll figure out what we want to do in terms of bulk purchasing other meats.

Local Food 6/18/2011

Since I was out of town again, Art went to the market without me.  As always, he does a great job of marketing, but I am so happy I’ll be home for the next 6 weekends!  Just in time for tomato season to begin too!  I can’t wait for tomatoes. 

This week Art picked up zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes, and Japanese eggplant.  I’m glad he didn’t go too overboard since this week proved to be a short cooking week for us.  Next week, however, we’ll be going crazy at the market.

Local Food 6/16/2011

Our fourth week of the meat CSA!  This was a pig week so we came home with pork chops, bacon, fresh sausage, a ham steak, and a dozen eggs.  Outside of the opening credits in Dexter, I’ve never actually seen a ham steak, so I’m not sure how I’ll be using it yet.  However it gets used, I’m sure it will be delicious!

Local Food 6/11/2011

Finally!  I got to go to the market!  Oh happy day!  I tried not to go overboard because I’ll be heading out of town next weekend and won’t have that much time to cook during the week, but I came home with a few scrumptious things. 

The first potatoes of the year are showing up so I had to get a few pounds of those.  Art has requested that I roast them.  Beets are starting to arrive as well so I picked up two great looking bunches.  I also picked up some spinach and four pounds of sweet Italian sausage since we’ve run out of the sausage from our first half pig.  (Only one pound is shown, the others were already in the freezer.)