week 15

Cooking in Season

Final Week

September is rounding out the end of the season and this will be the last cooking in season newsletter. Next week is a BOYB - bring your own basket. We'll pull out everything we have left and let all our members stock up for the winter. Bring your own containers and take only what you like. We’ll have keeper squash, potatoes, maybe some sweet potatoes, apples, possibly a few carrots (I’m still terrible at carrots) and whatever else we can pull up.

Our first grape harvest at the vineyard is this weekend and I will be driving the grapes down to North Carolina to watch the first pressing, which means I might not be back to bid you all farewell, so I swiped a couple bunches of Marquettes, which are the grapes set to be harvested and put a few in the baskets. They are almost good enough to be a table grape, very sweet but also very seedy. I also have some more no spray apples, which my mom is whipping into pies as we speak for the freezer. And the corn is no spray and it’s bud worm season so do not be alarmed. Just cut off the ends and enjoy not eating chemicals.

I feel as now is a good time to break the bad news... our tomatoes are all but dead. The best part about fall is being able to walk outside the back door to pick a fresh, red ripe tomato from the vine and put a big slice on, well, pretty much anything and everything. The sad part about this year is that with the weather being cool, a late blight is wiping out all tomatoes that aren't heavily sprayed with fungicide. The blight started with plants shipped out of New York to big box stores and there's not much that anyone can do right now. It's depressing and spreading like wildfire so if you have tomatoes at home (and they're still alive) look for black spots, which is an early sign, and the organic treatment is copper, but you should use according to the directions and with caution. With how interconnected our food distribution system is, it’s amazing that this doesn’t happen more often or get more attention. Sometimes the world seems so small when diseases spread this quickly with trucking and distribution. Oh well, at least we’re taking a step in the right direction as we hope to start more of our own plants next year in our own greenhouse using our own seeds we’ve saved this year.

Actually, that sounds kinda exciting, but I think it might be too early to think about next year already.

Anyway, with next week being our last week, it's time to really start thinking about putting veggies away for the winter. I am very partial to freezing as with most small batch veggies, it’s easier than canning and leaves a lot of the vitamins. Just make sure to mark everything well while you still know when you put it away to avoid the freezer burnt beans in the back corner of the freezer from –who-knows-when. Maybe even some of your basket will make it from storage to the thanksgiving table (oh, especially the sweet potatoes) and you can enjoy autumn with the most delicious holiday and think of us.

Peppers Preparation – Select crisp, tender, green or bright red pods. Wash, cut out stems, cut in half and remove seeds. If desired, cut into 1/2-inch strips or rings.Heated – Good for use in cooking. Water blanch halves 3 minutes, strips or rings 2 minutes. Cool promptly, drain and package, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal and freeze.Unheated – Good for use in uncooked foods because they have a crisper texture, or in cooked foods. Package raw, leaving no headspace. Seal and freeze.

Melons Preparation – Select firm-fleshed, well-colored, ripe melons. Cut in half, remove seeds and rind. Cut melons into slices, cubes or balls. Syrup Pack – Pack into containers and cover with cold 30 percent syrup. Leave headspace. Seal and freeze. Unsweetened Pack – Pack into containers, leaving headspace. Seal and freeze.

Beans Preparation – Select young tender pods when the seed is first formed. Wash in cold water, snip and cut into 2 to 4-inch lengths. Water blanch 3 minutes. Cool promptly, drain and package, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal and freeze.

Squash Preparation – Select firm, mature squash with a hard rind. For spaghetti squash, mashing the cooked pulp is not necessary. Cook until soft in boiling water, in steam, in a pressure cooker or in an oven. Remove pulp from rind and mash. To cool, place pan containing pumpkin in cold water and stir occasionally. Package, leaving ½-inch headspace. Seal and freeze. Or….. Pumpkins and most winter squash should be harvested when mature, before frost. You can tell if they are mature as the skin will be hard and difficult to scratch with a fingernail. Leave an inch of stem on when cutting, then “cure” near a furnace or warm area (80 to 85 degrees F) for 10 days. This will harden the rind further, and heal any cuts. Then store dry between 50 and 60 degrees. Below this and they can get chilling damage. Above this and they can get stringy. Acorn squash should be handled similarly, only don’t cure as such warm temperatures will make them stringy.

It’s been a great season. Glad you all joined in. Check the website for updates and winter laments. I hope to be back by next week but if not, enjoy the last of the bountiful harvest.

~janee

week 14

Cooking in Season
week 14

I am so happy. It has been a few months of searching through the massive amount of apple trees at work, taking a bite out of each tree to find plenty of cider apples or wild apples with that mealy texture and mild taste, thinking maybe they’re not that bad. This tree is it. Laden with a bunch of juicy but crisp apples, these are the apples I was searching for. I know I asked the name and it’s one of those combo names that’s escaping me right now like jonafree or jonagold. In any case, they are delicious and no spray… but I still strongly advise as I always do to wash before eating. Most blemishes are only skin deep, but with all apples, a small hole can mean someone already found the tasty fruit and might still be inside. Oh, and we should be pressing cider soon, which is always exciting.

We also have a couple grapes too scattered throughout. They all have seeds. I have a concord seedless planted, but at the rate it’s growing, it will be years before I start picking the fruit. If the seeds are too much for you, you could always enjoy some juice, although one bunch really won’t give you that much. The internet has some creative ways of extracting juice like boiling and straining, but if you just want a glass of very fresh grape juice, just wash and stem the grapes, put them in a ziplock bag, mash, and then strain. You don’t get a lot of juice, but it’s delicious and no seeds to worry about..

Anyway, on to the veggies…
I remember the first time I ever cooked eggplant. It was at the start of my culinary explorations when I was young and I picked up an eggplant out of the produce aisle for it’s beautiful purple color and lovely shape. I figured it couldn’t be that hard and it reminded me of zucchini so sliced it up and sautéed it in a pan all by itself. Excited to try my new dish, I shoveled the first flimsy piece in my mouth only to spit it back out. The texture was like a raw fish, it soaked up all the oil like a sponge, and there was this overwhelming bitterness to it which made me vow never to cook it again.
I have since gotten over that with a simple tip I plucked out of a vegetarian cookbook – an hour before cooking, slice your eggplant, lay it on a paper towel and flip it halfway through with a dash of salt and it will sweat out all of the bitter juices. So that was one problem solved. The next was how to cook it without saturating it completely with oil and loosing the firm texture. I find that with all super absorbent veggies, when sautéed I used half water and half oil, allowing the water to soak in first and then adding the oil so it doesn’t stick. A step up from this is throw it on the grill and brush with seasoned oil or butter. In the end, I find it has a firm texture which reminds me of steak or a good portabella mushroom.
After the initial fear of eggplant left me, I found it is great stacked into a lasagna or sautéed with squash on a bed of scalloped potatoes. This recipe is simple (and would be great with a grilled half of a sweet pepper too) and with the sweating preparation out of the way, it might make you look at this beautiful vegetable in a different light. If not, well it’s always great breaded, deep fried and covered in cheese like a good eggplant parmesean.

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich
4 teaspoons Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, finely chopped1 1/2 teaspoons chopped, Fresh Basil2 small Eggplants sliced1/2 cup Cream Cheese, Low-Fat Whipped, or Goat Cheese4 pieces Focaccia or other good quality bread, sliced in half, lengthwise2/3 cup kale or other greens, washed and dried4 slices Tomato
Preparation:Preheat grill to medium heat. Add olive oil, garlic, salt, and fresh ground pepper and ½ teaspoon fresh chopped basil to small bowl. Stir to combine. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil mixture. Grill eggplant over direct heat, 3 minutes per side. Mix cream cheese, 1-tablespoon fresh chopped basil, salt, and fresh ground pepper in small bowl. Spread 4 halves of focaccia bread with cheese mixture. Top with kale, slice of tomato and focaccia bread slice.

See you next week ~janee