week 3

Cooking in Season
Week 3
It’s July 4th weekend already. I walked out this morning to look at the gardens and I saw our squash plants, laden with happy, yellow flowers… but only two zucchini for all the cookouts this weekend. So I went to Holmes County to see what’s happening and got some zucchini and summer squash. The farmers down there are watching the impending doom of late blight on tomatoes. Right now, the big demand for local tomatoes has everyone growing in hot house greenhouses to try to beat the killer late blight. It’s in the soil, can spread up to 5 miles, and nothing can stop it. Super scary, but home grown tomatoes are so delicious that we all try anyway. And if we pull together, grow heirlooms, and save seeds from the few that make it through, we just might find a crop that will beat it. My grandma snatched up the first tomato that blushed already this year. We’re hoping there’s more to come before the blight hits, but there’s only so much we can do. Oh, and the ground cherries are starting to turn for acidic sweet deliciousness soon.
It’s cucumber season as well. We will be canning pickles next week, probably on Tuesday night after CSA pickup at my parent’s house if anyone would like to join. We trade working in the kitchen for jars of delicious pickles, or any empty canning jars you might donate for a couple jars full of pickles. Now if my dill would just hurry up and grow!
And I wish that I had sweet corn for all your picnics, but we put it in as early as we could and it’s just not ready yet. The corn at roadside stands right now is from Southern Ohio… or Florida The super early sweet corn we planted at my work got nipped by that mid-may frost. Oh well, maybe in a few weeks we’ll have some. The blueberries are coming on up there as well but my boss really likes his fertilizer so… not organic. The bushes are taller than I am and just about as old as I am too. We’re gleaning some blackberries and wild black raspberries from our canes here, but I never have enough so some are hand-picked from a farm in Navarre. They’re so sweet no sugar needed. And the ground cherries are coming soon…
Anyway, here’s a cucumber – green onion salad recipe that will cool down any hot 4th of July party. I peel my cukes if they’re larger in long stripes, leaving just a little green in between to hold them together. I’d put the green onion tops in this salad and save the tender baby onions for a sauté’ on the grill with some garlic spiced butter and summer squash. The beets can be roasted on the grill with a modification from the recipe from last week, wrapped in aluminum foil.
3 cucumbers
1 bunch green onions
MARINADE:
1/2 c. white wine vinegar1/2 c. sugar1 tbsp. dill weed1 tbsp. salt1/2 tsp. white pepper
1. Slice cucumbers – thin or thick, depending on preference. They keep their crunch at about half inch slices.2. Slice green onions diagonally as thinly as possible. Add to the cucumbers. 3. In small bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, dill weed, salt and pepper. Whisk with fork until blended. Pour over onions and cucumbers. Turn with spatula to coat all pieces. Marinate 1 hour or more. (overnight works well) 4. Lift cucumbers from marinade and serve – slotted spoons work great to make for not so soupy plates

- a modification of this would be adding a scoop of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon for Greek pickles. Or send me your favorite marinade (or zucchini recipe) . Happy 4th everyone! - Janee