Cooking

The one thing about fresh vegetables is that you spend a lot of time preparing them. And then cleaning up after them. It always feels worth it once dinner is ready, but you have to get dinner ready! I've been eating a lot of raw veggie wraps, just lettuce, peppers, turnips, dressing.

This week I made a nice edamame cous cous. The farm tells us to just pull up a couple edamame plants and pick off the pods when you get home. This means that you have these plants at home, and you have to deal with them before you even start cooking! But it's efficient at the farm. Anyway, I picked off the pods, then washed them and boiled them until the pods softened. I cooked up a cup of cous cous and added some sunflower seeds. Then I removed the beans from the pods and added them to the cous cous. A bit of salt n' pepper, and some poppyseed dressing, and it was good stuff. It has protein and sunflower seed fat, so it's been a satisfying midafternoon snack.

Today I made a squash kale risotto that came out great. I also made a spicy ham apple stirfry that was just weird. I think that I tend to enjoy the adventure more than the final product.

And on to this week's share!

• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 bag of salad mix
• 2 bulbs of garlic
• 2 green tomatoes (I made fried green tomatoes last year and they were awful, but they were awful in the movie too, so maybe that's just how they are)
  
• 10 leaves of kale
• 1 bag of mix n' match, including onions, hot and sweet peppers, potatoes, turnips large and small, and beets.
• 1/2 pint of husk cherries. I didn't get any of these all year by choice, but I tried them today in the field and they're really good!
• 1 pint of tomatillos. I've been skipping these too, but since tomatoes are sparse and they seem to be holding up well, and I need more vitamin C, I picked up a bunch.
• 2 edamame plants.
• 1/2 a pint of raspberries.

It was also ok to get more beans, flowers, and herbs, but I skipped on these this week.

Fruit share:

• 1/2 peck of apples. I need to make another pie...

And tomorrow is the meat share! I got an email from the farm saying that the place where they get the lambs processed in New Hampshire was flooded recently, so no lamb this month. I hope that the plant is able to recover. Anyway, looking forward to the share, and to the last time the share is during the Arlington Farmer's Market. I believe that they close at the end of this month, so it's a good time to check them out. I like to pick up the flavored goat cheese and fresh fish, plus there are plenty of veggies, a nice shrub stand, and lots of other interesting products.

Ah, fall

I'm finally on a new computer, which means that I should be able to do exciting things like post pictures of our food again. Jean and I had a friend over to help me with the computer (Vista is terrible, in case anyone is wondering), and in return we fed him.

One of Elena's "signature recipes" is her spaghetti squash. We got a beautiful one from the The Food Project farm a couple weeks ago. Just cut it in half and pull out the seeds, pop it face down in an oiled pan at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour. Stick a fork in it to see if it's good n' squishy.

While it's cooking, you can make a sauce for the cavity in the squash. I fry up garlic, onion, and several kinds of hot and sweet peppers in my wok. Then I add chopped up Italian sausage from Chestnut Farms. Once it is brown, I add a can of tomatoes, and this time some thyme, salt, and pepper. Let it simmer until the flavors are blended, a good ten minutes or longer.

Take out the squash and flip it so that you can fill the cavity with the sauce. When you eat it, you pull the spaghetti strands with your fork and grab some of the sauce with it. Yummy, and filling!

I haven't yet blogged this week on the veggie farm, so here we go:

• 1 carving pumpkin! It's on our table, and looks really nice. I'd heard it was a lousy pumpkin season, so I'm happy we got one.
  
• 4 nectarines, full of flavor and just perfect.
• 1 bag of salad mix.
• 10 leaves of Swiss chard.
• 4 small tomatoes. I think tomatoes are about done for the year.
• 1 bag of mix n' match, including large turnips, small turnips, an eggplant, onions, peppers, carrots, and potatoes.
• 1 bag of pick your own beans. The beans have about had it, and taste a bit old. And yet, still better than the store.
• 1/2 pint of red raspberries. Jean and I don't even try to save these. When she gets home from class, we just wash them and snack on them for the night.

And then the fruit share:

• 1/2 peck of apples.

Jean and I made an apple pie this week! I bought vegetarian shortening to make the crust with, but it didn't seem to jive with my Fannie Farmer cookbook. It didn't hold together too well, so though the bottom crust was ok, the top crust was sort of a, um, patchwork. We didn't have to vent it. And then it never browned. Yet, despite it's ugly ducklingness, it tasted really good. Yummy apples, flakey crust. The shortening container has its own crust recipe, so I'll try that next time. I just want to get away from lard, having known a number of people who can't eat it. When there's pie, everyone should get a slice.

Restraint

One thing I always have to remember is that if I don't eat something, it goes bad. And if I don't actually take something from the farm, it is either sold or donated to families who don't get enough veggies. Yesterday I shorted myself in the fields. We had a bunch of tomatoes go bad...I pick them when they're very very ripe, and sometimes they split and start rotting within 24 hours.

And I was also rushing it, because it was primary day in Massachusetts. There were a couple of races where I wanted to get my say, so I rushed home between the farm and chamber music to get my votes in.

This week's veggie share:

• 1 spaghetti squash! Yay! It's the start of winter squash season. Spaghetti squash are great because you bake them, flip them and fill them with pesto or sausage or whatever, and then use a fork to pull out the long, mild spaghetti strands.
• 1 bag of salad mix, which I skipped because I still had a half bag left from last week.
• 1 head of lettuce.
• 2 tomatoes, as the season wanes.
• 2 bulbs of garlic.
• 10 leaves of kale.
• 1 bag of mix n' match, including peppers, hot peppers, onions, carrots, beets, turnips, and potatoes.
• Pick your own tomatoes, so I took a few little tomatoes.
• Pick your own beans, but I skipped them.
• Pick your own raspberries, so of course I picked a pint. Jean and I made raspberry pancakes!
• Unlimited herbs, but again, I have enough.

(Right?)

And the fruit share included:

• 1 bag of apples.
• 3 peaches.

My farm is offering a winter share. The deal is that it's only two pickups, one in the second half of November and the second in the second half of December. Apparently you get 40-50 pounds of food each share, or at least that's how it was last year. Potatoes, rutabagas, garlic, squash...all the winter veggies. And you get some breads that the farm produces. All for $130. One couple raved about the share during the picnic the farm had this summer. Plus, there was an optional apple share, 20 pounds of apples for $25. I signed up, and can pay in two installments. It's a fun thing to do for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Last year Elena and I were practically dying for local veggies by spring, so hopefully this will stave off the cravings. It's going to be 90 in South Korea this week, so I'm guessing the winter isn't quite as long over there! They have the coolest little peronal-sized melons that I'm jealous of. Lots of fun fruit, and lots of fish. I'm looking forward to visiting!

Blanching

OK, again, I should know better. When the forecast calls for rain on a farm day, it's not a good idea to wear strappy heels and new pants with a "Dry Clean Only" tag.

Silly me.

Anyway, I wandered through the fields with rolled up pants and muddy toes, and this week's share was:

• 1 head of lettuce.
• 1 bag of salad mix.
• 1 tomato.
• 1 bulb of garlic ("It's very small" said another woman, "Yes," said I, "but it's stronger than normal.")
• 10 leaves of really massive red kale.
• 1 bag of mix n' match, including, onions! as many as I wanted! that fit in the bag!, peppers of all kinds, broccoli, red cabbage, potatoes, carrots, nice looking beets, pat-a-pan squash, and my turnips are back so I can have them on toast for the fall!, and this just in Diacon radishes. Yay!
• Unlimited green beans (see below).
• Tomatoes, including unlimited plum, 2 heirloom, a pint of cherry, a pint of little plum.
• 4 edamame plants.
• 1 pint of raspberries!
• Unlimited herbs, but I didn't take much because I haven't frozen or used last week's.

Plus! There was a fruit share which consisted of:

• Apples.

Yep.

So today I blanched green beans. It was my first blanching extravaganza. You blanch beans before you freeze them. The first thing you do is start boiling water. While you wait, wash the beans and break them into pieces. Boil them for three minutes and then put them in ice water for three minutes. Immediately put them into freezer bags and the freezer. Yay! Beans in winter.

Yesterday I was watching Rachel Ray, and I just happened to have all the ingredients for the pasta dish she was making. You boil cut up potatoes, add some pasta, and then add shredded cabbage. Meanwhile, melt a stick of butter and add sage leaves and two halved cloves of garlic. Let the butter sauce blend a bit, then remove the sage and garlic and add chopped sage. Then you drain the pasta reserving one cup of the pasta water. Add the water to the butter, then mix in the pasta. Add salt and pepper and some romano. Mix mix mix. Yummy!

Elena and I are discussing the gigantic plums in South Korea, and I realized that I forgot to post about my fruit share last week! The fruit share is $72 for 2 months of fruit. It comes from a "low-spray orchard," and I'm not quite sure what that entails.

I think we get a half-peck of fruit. This week we got mostly apples, and a small bag of itty bitty plums. I love these plums! I ate them all, since Jean has only eyed them suspiciously. And the apples are really juicy and yummy. But now, back to Elena on Skype!

And meat this week too!

My meat share this week was:

• 2 packages of ground beef.
• 1 beef loin t-bone steak.
• 1 package of ground pork breakfast sausage (excellent-looking omlette material).
• 1 beef round top round steak.
• 1 package of chicken breast.
• 1 package of three Italian sausage.
• 2 pork fresh boneless ham steaks.
• 1 beef chuck steak boneless.
• Plus I arrived in time to buy 2 dozen eggs! Jean: "These eggs are way different than normal eggs." They're better.

Since I went away for about a week in August, I still have some meat from last month left. I have a steak marinating in the fridge. I used to never buy steak because it was so expensive and I didn't know how to cook it, but it keeps getting better. Jean brought a grill pan that makes cooking it far more fun! Sizzzzzle.

I wandered around the farmer's market in Arlington afterwards. I steered clear of most stuff, because we have more food right now than any household should. I stopped at a nice stand that sells shrubs. My condo building does not allow us to have Christmas trees. I'm trying to scam the system and buy a live evergreen plant that I can decorate at Christmas time. The stand had all of these gorgeous evergreens, and it made me sad that I don't have a yard. I told them about my plan, but the wizened head farmer assured me that his trees would die if I tried to keep them inside. Alas. I'll keep looking.

Fall harvests

Ah, so it's fall time. Fall time means that it's time to pick things as rapidly as possible so that they won't go bad! I picked up my veggies on Tuesday, and here's the take (from memory!):

• 1 bag of salad mix.
• 1 head of lettuce.
• 1 bulb of garlic.
• 3 field tomatoes.
• 8 leaves of kale.
• 3/4 a bag of mix n' match, including all kinds of green, purple, hot, red, big little peppers; carrots; onions; potatoes.
• 1 watermelon (I haven't opened it to see if it's great or red yet).
• Pick your own tomatoes, including a pint of cherry, a pint of plum, a few heirloom, and then unlimted of this one kind for sauce and gazpacho.
• Unlimited pick-your-own beans.
• 4 plants of edamame. When I got to the farm, people were walking around with all these plants...they told me it was easier it we just pulled up the plants. They are covered with edamame pods!
• Unlimited field herbs, plus herbs from the tea and herb gardens. More to freeze!

It was my sister Christine's birthday, so Jean and I trekked up to New Hampshire and we all made mango chicken and a yummy salad. Mango chicken doesn't use much from the farm, except onions and garlic, but it's one of the best things ever...especially when you add a can of coconut milk. I'm still looking for something grown in MA that could replace coconut milk, but I've had to cut back to just using the stuff only every now and again.

Jean is a bit overwhelmed by veggies. We had a meal that included a beet and carrot slaw, roasted beets potatoes carrots beans and peppers, corn on the cob (so sweet, didn't need butter or salt!), and ground beef with a bunch of peppers and eggplant. Yum stuff.