We have our farm share pickup every Friday afternoon, about a block from our organic supermarket of choice, so we usually do both together: shop for meat (for Jamie), cheese, bread, and other goodies at the store and then pick up the giant Rubbermaid bin full of our farm goodies. (The farm is
Groundwork Organics, by the way.) Some of the veggie goodness we've received in the past share or two: salad greens AND a (giant) head of lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumber, onions, fennel, basil or parsley or cilantro (very generous bunches), carrots, tiny potatoes, beans or peas of some variety. Because of Jamie's restricted diet, it's been up to me to eat all this food in the course of the week! And I've already made it my personal responsibility to gorge myself on all the berries that are ripe and local right now. Coming from the East Coast, however, I didn't realize that strawberries AND cherries AND raspberries AND now blueberries are all be ripe and local at once. I am overwhelmed! (And so is my digestion....)
So I am gathering tips and recipes that involve cooking copious amounts of food down into preservable or at least more compact concoctions. So far I have made: pesto, zucchini soup, frozen strawberries, strawberry sauce, and cherry-lemon scones-- all of which are in the freezer. I am thinking it is time for a summer vegetable soup (i.e., throw all the leftovers into a pot of stock), cilantro sauce (?), and PIE. Any other suggestions?
Funny, though, how the potatoes always seem to get eaten....
Hey, there you are! So glad to see you posting!
ReplyDeleteBerries can be frozen whole, just lay them flat on a cookie sheet and then once frozen you can transfer them to freezer bags and they'll stay separate. That way you can use them whenever you like for things like (fruit crisps, smoothies, in oatmeal, with yogurt, etc).
1. Throw a few berries into each slot of an ice cube tray, add a little lemon or lime juice to the water you fill the tray with, and you have special summer ice cubes for cocktails, lemonade, hibiscus tea, etc. It doesn't make much of a dent in your berry abundance, but it's one way to keep using them after you've become sick to your stomach from popping them straight into your mouth for days
ReplyDelete2. Gazpacho!!! It's the easiest use of so much summer produce. I just mush a bunch of tomatoes through a strainer, plus some of the pulp, throw in chopped up cukes, onions, bell pepper, jicama; minced garlic, cilantro, parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper, etc.; and what the hell--throw in the beans and carrots, or even some arugula, and you've got what Linda calls "liquid salad!"
3. Speaking of Linda, you should ask her for her recipe for chilled cucumber soup--it's SO delicious!
4. Wait, Jamie's eating meat again?
One more thing: My idea 1 above presents the perfect excuse to host a [cocktail] party! Yay! Which, by the way, will make it easier to consume a whole lot of your culinary abundance. Yay ice cube/salad/berry party!
ReplyDeleteAnd something else: I recommend you get yourself a big ol' ball of fresh mozzarella, and go to town with those tomatoes and basil. Mmmmmmm!