CSA Week 9
This week you MAY have corn (butter and sugar or Mirai yellow) peppers, eggplant, apples, beans, a red tomato?
Tomatoes are starting to color up! I was canning at this time last year and I think it is going to be a month before we have those quantities of dead ripe maters.
Paula Red apples this week -as with all early apples, store in fridge if you are not going to eat them right away.
Someone called me a farm snob about 30 years ago and it stuck. I don’t think she was thinking about how those two words sounded when they rolled off her tongue, but I liked it and decided it was okay to own it. I mean, NO ONE had ever looked at farms or farming as something elitist or something you could be snobby about – almost an oxymoron. And, furthermore, if being very knowledgeable about growing and fussy over how things are done makes me a snob, fine. I am a tomato snob too! (you got this year’s Stillman’s bag right?
Farm snob alert: If you are new to fresh, local tomatoes, you cannot handle them as those rock-hard things masquerading as tomatoes at the supermarket. Be very gentle with them, knowing that they don’t like being squeezed, dropped, or having other produce piled on top of them. Also, wipe from your mind that a tomato is supposed to be firm, or soft for that matter. We have been programmed to squeeze produce to check for ripeness. Just don’t. Also, I have observed people over the years that pick up a tomato and if it gives to the touch (because it’s being squeezed), they put it back, as though it is supposed to feel like a supermarket tomato. Wrong. Just remember that the supermarket tomatoes, even those labeled “vine-ripe” are NOT. “Vine-ripes” are harvested when “pink” starts to show at the blossom end versus harvested at “mature green” or “breaker”. Then they run the tomatoes through sorters to grade them by size, then pack them. Usually they are refrigerated (a huge no-no for any unripe fruit); then they are shipped and gassed with ethylene during their journey to “ripen” them. By the way, ethylene is the natural gas produce by fruits to ripen, so it’s not harmful, just leaves me with the feeling of lab created. How on earth can you do all that to a ripe tomato…you can’t. And why would you want a fresh, harvested by hand, ripe tomato to feel or resemble those sold in the super? You don’t, it’s not real. OK, tomato rant off. If you love supermarket tomatoes or the hard, flavorless, pink circles on your sandwich, I am truly sorry if I offended…but you’re probably not going to like our tomatoes then
Just kidding – We actually do grow a very firm variety called Market Pride just for you – but they are red, LOL :~}
Eggplants! If it looks like an eggplant, it probably is – they come with many different skin and shape variations.
Recipes
Fresh Salsa
Sharon’s Summer Arugula Wrap
Eggplant with Tomato Coulis
Any Fruit Crisp
Prepare any fruit you have laying about.
With my fingers, I blend a stick of butter with ½ cup flour, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup oats/fine nuts (you know I don’t really measure anything). Prep your fruit, toss with a coulpe tablespoons flour and a sprinkle of sugar if desired. Top the fruit with this mixture (if this is new to you, it is crumbly, so just sprinkle/spread it around the best you can). Bake at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until the fruit is tender and bubbling and the top is crisped and golden. YUM!
A few notes:
- crisp gets soggy the next day but is still delicious; I have enjoyed it on yogurt or oatmeal for breakfast.
- You can mix fruits freely, but apples cook at a different rate than peaches, so take that into consideration.
- Crisps and cobblers are a perfect way to use soft fruit that no one wants to eat fresh.
- The crisp topping may benefit from cinnamon and nutmeg, especially with apples and feel free to add a little granola or finely chopped nuts or seeds if yo have them
- If your fruit is dry (as apples can be), you may want to sprinkle a little water and lemon juice over them before topping.
- Substitute whatever flour you like, I have had the best success with corn flour, but have used blends of rice flour too.
- Cook with The Force, I do!
*Wet fruits like peaches, nectarines and blueberries really need the addition of some thickening agent, if you skip that you may have a runny, yet delicious, mess. I mostly use wheat flour because it is handy, but I can go gluten free any time with instant tapioca, tapioca flour or potato starch – so make necessary substitutions but not omission 😉
Farm Dirt
Well, if we are supposed to start eating bugs, at least they can be interesting ones and not smelly crickets, LOL. NO, we are not doing anything to harm these beautiful Hummingbird Moths or Clearwings (BTW, they were hummingbird Sphynx Moths back in the day. I have had a great week with creatures!
The winter squash is looking really nice, I think the major onion harvest is going to happen soon, super excited to pick the first apples, and Glenn says the herbs we planted a few weeks ago should be ready in time for some nice parings with your veggies. Yes, there is a lot of water out here, as we have seen even our neighbor in the paper, we have tried to keep it upbeat in these letters so as to not depress you 🙂
Taking Faith to college this weekend! It’s going to be strange around here without her.
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
