week 7

Cooking in Season

week 7

It is the end of July now. I feel like I have to say that to remind myself not to complain about the heat. If this year was like every other year, it would be sweltering and 90, but perhaps I am heaving a sigh of relief too soon. We still have all of August…

While picking today, I fear it might be a light week. The melons just keep growing and growing, the tomatoes are sooo slow, the peppers are still rather small, the squash is dying like a Shakespearian actor, and my boss picked all the blue berries at work for her pies. Our first tomato turned red, a nice roma ox heart type. Our second tomato turned yellow, a golden jubilee. Prepare thy tomato recipes. We are about to get bombarded.

I did pull some turnips up yesterday while a neighbor farmer told me turnip stories and how to cook them – cut them in cubes and boil them like potatoes until they are no longer crunchy, then drain the water and add heavy cream and spices (not sure what spices he meant) and put back on the heat, stir constantly until the flavors meld together. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but this is just the first pass through the field, thinning out the ones that are too close together. Usually you can eat the leaves but I picked them yesterday and they lost a lot of water with the heat.

In good new, the cucumbers are coming on now. I think that nothing is better than just peeling and slicing a cucumber and putting garlic salt or soy sauce on it and eating it fresh. I have no idea what is going on this year but some of the skins are a bit bitter. It depends on the fruit but it seems to only be skin deep, which is easily remedied with peeling.

Here is a recipe submitted last year by Linda Chen. Simply delicious!

-----This is the recipe for the Taiwanese cucumbers - I'll give my mother-in-law credit & call them 'Betty Chen's (Taiwanese) Pickled Cucumbers'!

~ 1 cucumber, cut into 2 inch sticks or cut to your preference (but not too thin)

~ 1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt

~ 1 TBsp apple cider vinegar

~ 1/2 - 3/4 tsp brown sugar

~ garlic, 2 cloves minced or to taste

~ 1 tsp sesame oil

~ tiny bit of hot chili bean paste (doe ban jan) - you can probably substitute with chili oil, dash hot sauce, or red pepper flakes

cut cucumbers & sprinkle with salt - let sit for 15 min - mix vinegar, sugar, garlic, sesame oil, & chili bean paste - pour over cucumbers, toss & eat!

It tastes just as good if the cukes don't sit for 15 min.

*sesame oil* - Not all sesame oil is created equal, I've tried several. My & husband I agree that Kadoya is the best!- thumbs down on Ty Ling brand

- I always refrigerate my sesame oil since it's not used quickly. This will retain freshness & prevent rancidity.

Enjoy….

~Janeé

week 6 extra pics

My morning basket




Here is the kale picked with the dew still on it along with some beet tops, chard, and fresh basil.

Throw it in the skillet!
Add some fresh eggs... thank you ladies for all your hard work.


Breakfast is served.

week 6

Cooking in Season

week 6

Today I feel like such a hunter – gatherer. With my dog at my side and thunder clouds rolling overhead, I dove hands first into the wild black berries in the orchard which are flourishing this year after we cleared out some non-productive filbert trees. They seem very happy and vigorous now, so laden with berries that they bend down to the ground. I am grateful for the few years I invested in ballet as a kid as I tip toe, balancing on one leg to avoid the prolific brambles. I am also shocked that the birds have not found these wild gems as well yet.
There are a few things in this world that I have the hardest time growing but completely love. One is melons, which Travis is taking care of this year. Another is onions that never get big, but my sister planted them and hers are doing very well so far. And my biggest envy of the garden is carrots. Even as a kid, the only thing that I ever wanted to plant was carrots. Every year I would fuss with the tiny seeds, fight with the weeds that always grew faster than the tiny carrots, and at the end of it all I would harvest these gnarled little roots that has all the flavor of a stick. Carrots have been my white whale and I always wonder who can get their carrots to grow in the perfectly straight perfectly orange way that ends up in bags at the supermarket.
This year I tried again, going for the short growing orange ones and branching out to some cosmic purple carrots and some sweet yellows. I pulled one up to see how it tasted and was pleasantly surprised. It must be the chill in this July air. They still look a bit gnarled, but they make up for it in taste.
This morning I had the most delicious breakfast. I woke up and picked the greens that are enjoying this mild July. I am shocked at how long the cool weather veggies have been producing and even this morning our new fire loose head lettuce looked good enough to pick. The kale is doing well as I snipped off the tender leaves still covered in dew. I pulled up a couple garlic cloves that, while very small, are still pretty delicious and also grabbed a yellow crook neck squash. I went to the hen house, thanked the ladies and took out a couple eggs.
Here is my simple recipe for delicious fresh greens omlette.
1 onion, sliced thin
1 clove of garlic
2 sprigs of basil
A handful of greens chopped thick- anything from beet tops to chard to kale will do
1 summer squash, sliced
2 eggs per person, scrambled
Salt and pepper to taste
Sautee the onions and garlic together until the onions start turning clear. Add the summer squash and cook for another few minutes. Chop the greens coarsely and the basil fine. Add ¼ cup of water carefully so not to splash the oil and then add the greens and the basil. Cover with a lid and allow to steam until the leaves wilt, about 3 minutes on medium.
Uncover and drain any excess water. Stir up eggs and add to the pan. Cook until the eggs are no longer runny, stirring constantly. Check out pictures of my breakfast at highmillcsa.blogspot.com
From here, you can cover with cheese or sour cream, salt, pepper, hot sauce or whatever makes you happy in the morning. This works for almost all greens and it is an excellent and healthy way to start your meal. I would recommend this recipe with spinach… but then again, that’s another thing that I have a really hard time getting to grow well here.
Oh well, enjoy the berries and see you next week!
~Janeé

week 5

Cooking in Season

week 5

First things first –
Cook out this Sunday, July 19th from 1 – 5pm

This Sunday we are grilling straight out of the gardens. Stop by as we showcase local foods made by local people for our potluck style cook out. We will even have some local beer to sample and possibly some local beef as well. It’s a free day and all members are welcome to invite anyone to come out for a laid back day of fun here at the Park. (swim at your own risk)

Anyway, just a reminder – we reuse the baskets so please return them.

For the most part, planting is finished for the season. I just got a hundred tomato plants in gallon pots donated to us and they are already in the ground and happily adjusting to non-pot bound life. I only have a couple more flats of cabbage and some random flowers to put in the ground and that’s it.
This is the part of the season where things feel like they are coasting. The baskets just keep morphing in all shapes and colors as you will notice some different colors of beans. Not one to be bound by the traditional green bean, we have some purple and yellow beans along with some dragon tongue heirloom types. All of them can be cooked like green beans as long as we are picking them small. We might have some shelling beans coming soon, but those really took a hit from the varmints this year.

This is probably the last week for zucchini as the squash bugs are carrying our plants to heaven as we speak. Here is a recipe submitted by our CSA member Linda Hartman for how to use and freeze the last of this years bountiful harvest.

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup of vegetable oil or you can use apple sauce
2 cups of sugar if you use apple sauce you can reduce the amount of
sugar by at least half.
2 cups of grated zucchini (just wash and grate don't peel or seed!)
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Beat eggs and add sugar and oil. Then add grated zucchini and nuts to
egg mixture.
combine dry ingredients then add to eggs & zucchini
pour into two un greased bread pans
bake at 325 for an hour or an hour and 15 mins
allow to cool on a rack and remove from pans when cool enough to handle
This bread freezes very well and makes a yummy breakfast treat

~Janeé
p.s. all recipe submissions are welcome. Just email me! janeehouston@gmail.com

week 4

Cooking in Season
week 4

I was picking for this weeks basket and thought, wow – looks a lot like last week. The cucumbers are poised and ready, with tiny little pickles sitting next to their happy yellow flowers. The tomatoes are little green pebbles atop giant happy green plants. The peppers are tiny versions of their future selves, kinda waiting for the hot sun that July usually offers. The basil is going crazy. The purple beans are threatening to produce. The unique pole beans are climbing but not flowering. I am sneaking under the potatoes, pulling out the new tender potatoes a little at a time. I apologize for any knicks and cuts from my trowel. The skins are really thin right now.


Our berries are so spread out and it takes hours just to get a cup. I can’t even imagine picking enough for jam or a bunch of pies. After his huge melon patch endeavor, Travis is looking around trying to find out where the berry patch will be. The blue berries at work are huge and covered with tiny berries that I stare at every day, just thinking that they are blushing a little more. The transition colors from green little berries, to blush, to purple… I am still waiting for the blue part.

We are slowly sneaking kohlrabi in the baskets. It is a very underappreciated vegetable. We tried the purple variety this year as it was said to be a bit sweeter and I have a second planting of the green variety for later in the season. Kohlrabi isn’t a root but an enlarged stem right above the ground with the leaves coming right off like flower petals. It is very high in potassium and fiber and low in calories. I like to ask people what it tastes like just to hear the responses, which are usually a combination of two veggies like – a cross between a potato and a turnip or a radish and a cabbage.
I cut mine up into thin slices like coleslaw and throw it in salads. Jason’s grandmother from Austria loves kohlrabi, but I forgot to grab the recipe.

Here is a simple kohlrabi salad recipe from epicurious.com that is a summer time fast food.

• 3 medium kohlrabi (2 pounds total)
• 1/2 small red onion
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons drained capers
• 2 ounces mâche (lamb’s lettuce; 4 cups) or other small tender lettuce
• Equipment: an adjustable-blade slicer
Peel kohlrabi. Slice very thin with slicer and put in a bowl.
Slice onion very thin with slicer, then rinse in a sieve and pat dry. Stir into kohlrabi.
Stir together lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper, then stir in oil and capers. Pour over vegetables. Toss with mâche, then serve immediately.
Enjoy,
Janeé

week 3

Cooking in Season
week 3

Today has been a really hard day. We buried our best little gray cat and our most friendly little lamb. It is half raining, which is appropriate weather for such a sad day. They will both be missed. We will plant a peach tree in their memory.

The wind is blowing and the rain is coming frequently, which means that our organic apples will get beaten up and not look pretty… but looks can be deceiving. Our crop last year was so full and delicious. I hope this year is as prolific. I do know that our pears are starting to look really good. We’ll see how it all works out.

Anyway, our beans are on the way, coming in waves thanks to the deer that keep sneaking in and lopping the tops off. The peas are on their way out and are half in between sugar snap and pod peas. Our raspberries are just starting and we’re out there fighting with the birds to get the best berries. Our blue berries are coming, but they are new little bushes so I am not holding out for very high production this year. Our lettuce has fizzled, our chard, kale and celery are thriving… and everyone should batten down the hatches and prepare for ZUCCHINI season!!!!

It is a joke among farmers that during zucchini season, you should never leave your car doors unlocked anywhere or else someone will drop off a bag of zucchini in your back seat without you knowing. It is a very difficult veggie because a) it is delicious but… b) it comes all at once and… c) you can’t really freeze, can or dry it so you have to use it all at once. I slice mine lengthwise and throw it on the grill with a simple olive oil sauce. My second fav way to cook it is… Lasagna!

2 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 2 medium)
1/2 lb lean ground beef (I use 1 lb.)
1/4 cup onion chopped
2 small tomatoes cut up
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano - 1/2 teaspoon dried basil - 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese (or low fat or fat free ricotta)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded (I use 8 oz. divided)
1 teaspoon flour

Directions
1 Cook zucchini until tender, drain and set aside. Fry meat and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain fat. Add next 8 ingredients and bring to a boil.
2 Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups.
3 In small bowl slightly beat egg.
4 Add cottage cheese, half of shredded cheese and flour.
5 In (1 1/2-qt.) baking-roasting pan arrange half of the meat mixture. Top with half of the zucchini and all the cottage cheese mixture. Top with remaining meat and zucchini.
6 Bake uncovered at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes.
7 Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer.
8 Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Delicious! ~janee