CSA Week 15

I’ve put another gallon ziplock of tomatoes in the freezer; this week we only got 3 more pounds of sauce tomatoes…the beautiful small ones are done for the year. I did pick up an heirloom tomato from the overage box to savor with a little salt and fresh oregano.

New in the crisper this week are chard and scallions. I have eggplant to make into balls - a big batch. The garlic supply is replenished. There were 3 kinds of peppers (bell, snack and hot; I traded the hot ones for more chard).

There were also 2 more pounds of potatoes. Fortunately they last without refrigeration since the other items were bulky.

Overall - the bag for this share was seemed heavier that previous shares (except for the ones that included a watermelon).

My crispers are full and there are bins in the other part of the refrigerator. It is all good eating - but almost too abundant. More than tomatoes may need to be processed into the freezer. 

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 22, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Why statins should be viewed as a double-edged sword - The results of a study from Tulane that indicates that statins may not be appropriate as a preventative measure for those who do not have cardiovascular disease…because statins increased aging and death of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); MSCs can become all types of cell types including bone, cartilage, muscle cells and macrophages. Thus - the risk/benefit for people without cardiovascular diseases need careful consideration.

Four Ferns for Dry Places - I planted some Christmas fern under my deck and it is thriving!

Smart Windows Just Got Cooler - I’ve always thought it would be great to have windows that could selectively block light - and it seems like there is ongoing work. This start up is based on chemical engineering work from the University of Texas at Austin. It would be great to not need to close the draperies in my west-facing office on hot summer afternoons!

Survey reveals best practices that lead to high patient ratings of hospital care - It turns out that it is not about high-tech resources!

Butterflies in Peril - Droughts and habitat fragmentation….hard on butterflies. Many are becoming locally extinct. We are not in a drought here in Maryland but we are very away of the decline in Monarch butterflies in our area.

The Next Great GMO Debate - Evidently Monsanto is learning how to modify crops by spraying them with RNA rather than tinkering with their genes. What about unintended consequences? I’d rather we focus research on sustainable agricultural practices rather than new sprays that may have a short term benefit and potentially have a long term consequence.

An inside look at the world’s biggest space telescope - An update on the progress on the James Webb Telescope (video and pictures).

Cherokee Purple: The Story behind One of Our Favorite Tomatoes - These are the type of heirloom tomatoes we’ve been getting from our CSA; they are tasty. I enjoyed hearing about the history of how it became one the favorite heirloom tomatoes

The Periodic Table’s Endangered Elements - There are 9 elements that may ‘run out’ on Earth within the next 100 years and 7 additional ones that may join the list because of increased use.

Field recording Irish traditional music - Instrumental, song and dance videos…the roots of Riverdance.

CSA Week 12

Wow - do we have tomatoes! The four pounds of red tomatoes we got in this week’s share have already been processed (minimally - the top of the core and blemishes cut out, otherwise whole) and are in the freezer. I plan to slice and eat the heirloom tomato as soon as possible since it is very ripe. Then I have a little over 3 pounds accumulation of the small multi-colored cherry tomatoes (I traded my poblano peppers for another 1.5 pounds!); they’ll be my snacks for the whole week; they taste good and I like the variety of their colors.

There are a lot of peppers too (even without the poplanos) - 5 snack peppers and a red bell pepper. They’ll be additions to salads and stir fries

I haven’t decided what I will do with the eggplant…maybe include it in a stir fry or cut it in wedges and roast it.  It was a different shape that the traditional eggplant - still the same deep purple color.

The spaghetti squash can be quite a treat….as a veggie ‘spaghetti’…as another ingredient in a stir fry…as a component of quiche or custard. I won’t have any trouble eat it up.

Fortunately the onions, garlic, and potatoes will keep just fine not in the refrigerator...because I have a watermelon taking up a lot of space right now!

CSA Week 11

It’s a good thing that some of the veggies this week do not need to go into the refrigerator (onions, garlic, potatoes) because we got both a watermelon and cantaloupe along with 3 kinds of tomatoes (3 heirloom, a pint of cherry, and 2 pounds of romas) and 2 kinds of peppers (1 bell and 4 snacking (since I traded my 2 jalapenos for snacking)). I decided to put the thyme in water on the window sill since I am using it up pretty quickly (I’ve already finished the bunch I got a few weeks ago). I had to make two trips to the car for this share since the watermelon was so heavy it had to be carried by itself; the same thing happened to me last year.

I am enjoying the herbs from the CSA (thyme, basil, chives and oregano so far) and the ones I have in my garden (basil, chives and mint). They - along with the garlic and onion - definitely add a lot of flavor to foods very quickly. Stir fry sauces are not needed when there are so many herbs readily available around the kitchen!

Am I to the point of freezing the cherry tomatoes? Maybe. I did it last year about this time and they were very easy to pop into soups - still frozen - to provide tomato flavor and color in the dead of winter. I like to just make sure they are clean then put them into a plastic container to freeze. Usual their skin does not break - or if it does the tomato is already frozen enough that the juice does not leak out. For me - it is the fastest way to save the goodness of summer tomatoes until winter.

Beautiful Food - August 2015

With the bounty of fresh veggies in August, it is easy to prepare a beautiful plate - full of color, great flavors, and nutrition. One of my favorites is a large heirloom tomato with cucumber….a little sprinkle of salt and a few leaves of fresh oregano.

Apples are often not so good in August because it is just before the new harvest. I had a bag of apples that should have been great for eating fresh but they had too many brown spots - so I made a huge apple crisp to use them up. I modified the recipe to give it a summer flavor by replacing the cinnamon with lemon and mint. And I replaced the flour with flaxseed meal and teff flour since I already had them on hand.  There is beauty in the ingredients, the big skillet in the oven, and the finished product! I always like the hint of red in from the cooked apple skin.

Topping:

• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 3/4 cup teff flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• Pinch baking soda
• Pinch baking powder
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Apples+

• 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves (or 1/4 cup dry mint) --- optional
• 10 cups apples
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 cup water

Spray the pan with cooking spray. This recipe will take a large one!

Process/grind the oatmeal if you want a fine texture topping. Combine topping ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork until the lumps are small.

Cut the ends from the lemon and then cut into 8 wedges. Take out the seeds. Put the wedges (pulp and skin) into the food processor along with the mint leaves. Process until pureed.

Use the slicer on the food processor to slice the apples. I cut an apple into 8 wedges, cut the seeds/core and any bruise away, then start the food processor. Drop the apple wedges through the smaller opening in the top of the processor to get even slices (this was recommended in the booklet that came with my Cuisinart food processor).

Heat the oven to 350⁰ F.

Place the apple slices with the lemon/mint pulp into the pan. Use a spatula to distribute the apples and lemon/mint evenly in the pan. Sprinkle sugar and flour over the apples then drizzle the water on top.

Arrange the topping mixture on top of the apples.

Cook for 45 minutes.

Enjoy just out of the oven or cool from the refrigerator. It is good any time of day - for breakfast, snack or dessert!

CSA Week 10

About all I have left from the week 9 share is chives, onions and leeks…a few purple skinned potatoes. But I think the week 10 share is a bit overwhelming.

The variety and amount of tomatoes skyrocketed this week: 2 big heirloom tomatoes, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, and 2 pounds red tomatoes. There was some fresh oregano which encourages me to make homemade tomato ‘something’ - soup or sauce.

We also got potatoes - this time with red skins. Fortunately potatoes last long enough that they won’t go to waste even if we don’t eat them this week.

The assortment of peppers went up: snack peppers of all colors (I got red/green ones), bell peppers, and jalepenos (which I promptly exchanged for another bell pepper).

We had a choice between cucumbers and summer squash; I picked the squash to I can make squash hummus again.

We had our choice of cantaloupe, red watermelon or yellow watermelon this week. I got a red one - just to be different from last week’s yellow one (which we enjoyed).

One of the items available on the overage table was lettuce….it will go well with the tomatoes and peppers for summer salads.

Once again - the next week is going to have a lot of good eating --- enjoying the bounty of summer foods!

CSA Week 9

Hurray! The share this week included a small watermelon! I had a choice between yellow and red….and chose a yellow.

There were also two kinds of peppers (bell and snack), two kinds of tomatoes (cherry and heirloom), two ‘onions’: chives and purple, purple skinned small potatoes that were still wet from a rain a few hours before our pickup time. I had a choice between lettuce, eggplant or okra and I chose lettuce. And I chose leeks from the overage table.

I envision all kinds of good meals this week…the ones I am thinking of right away are:

Large salads with lettuce, tomato, pepper, chives (edamame or peanuts for protein to make it a meal)

Hash browns made with shredded potatoes (leaving on the purple skins), onion, and bell pepper

Eggs with chives or leek

Stir fry with leek, pepper  and mushrooms (the last ingredient from the grocery store)