CSA Week 9
This week you MAY have corn (butter and sugar or Mirai yellow) tomatoes, eggplant, Paula Red apples, nectarines, something green?
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
This is one that appears in the boxletter yearly, by request, and contributed by member Lisa. It is always yummy…even better when you think you have overcooked it. My tips: don’t undercook, also, no just omitting key ingredients, look for a sub for the soy sauce, wine, etc. We’ve has members sub water for the wine, soy sauce, and then use unsalted, low fat cheese and then express dismay when it was not very interesting. Might as well poach all the veg and move on 🙁
On the bottom of a nice sized baking/serving dish place a layer of thin-sliced eggplant, on top of that a layer of thin-sliced zucchini, then a layer of sliced (or canned whole) tomatoes. Use plenty of vegetables. Layer it twice if you have enough room in the pan.
Then take a cup of red wine, mix it with half a cup of melted butter, about four tablespoons of soy sauce, pepper, garlic, oregano and basil. Pour it over the vegetables and top with a thick layer of grated swiss cheese. Bake uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the dish. The cheese should be crusty on top, and the liquid should bubble.
This is a nice one dish meal or side dish with meat. I like this on a nice baguette.
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
Glenn and I walked through the peppers today…I seem to keep getting myself caught in a downpour this week – I think I will be permanently wet! LOL. Anyway, we were scoping out the Shoshito after enjoying some for dinner last night. Seems someone must have picked some other similar looking, HOT! peppers and mixed them in. They tasted really nice, just hot, and for all the heat wienies out there, (you Faith), we know you just want to grill your pepper sand enjoy them without the drama. Anyway, Glenn is going to advise to stop picking green chilis and hold off on the Shoshito for a week to let them size up again. I’d like to get some into your CSA bag, but again, drama free 😉
I was showing my niece and nephew around the farm last week and we picked some corn. Boy o boy these bears are trashing the place. It is kind of funny, but it is also now at the point where I would like to ask them why they cannot pick what they need and not tear the stalks out, throw them around, run through sections, knocking down and flattening large sections. Meanwhile, the deer are chomping off the corn silks as they walk by, as well as munching on summer squashes, cauliflower leaves, apples, and and and. The rain has caused a lot of tomatillos and tomatoes to split, causing us to throw a lot on the ground. If you get tomatoes with cracks in them, it is because we deemed the cracks/splits to have healed over and basically are stretch marks…blessedly no one is tossing me out due to mine, hee hee. I have been enjoying less-than-perfect tomato slices on assorted sandwiches. YUM!
Looks like the major onion harvest is going to happen soon, Brussles sprouts are growing sloooowwwwly, broccoli is popping up here and there, so I expect you will see it soon. I am super excited to pick the first actually good apples, LOL and as we get into later and later varieties, the flavors and hardness improve. Having said that, I really like Paula Reds, very juicy, flavorful, tangy!
We’ve had plenty of rain out here, it is crazy wet. If you come out to the farm, please wear smart shoes with traction (the mud is very slippery) and be careful. Still lots of blueberries to pick if you are out here.
Faith is headed back to school in VA on the 16th – going to miss her making me matcha lattes and beautiful bouquets!
Eat well,
Geneviève Stillman
