peacefrog's lilypad

Winter is coming.

Ah, the late-season veggies. And second-to-last week. Blah. The farmers market will continue for another month, anyway, and then there will be the winter market, but still, winter.

Last week I made mashed turnips as well as sauteed turnip greens, which worked rather nicely on a plate together with some quick gravy. There will more of the former soon, but alas, no greens this week. Still have some leftover marinated kale anyway, and I hope to get more to do at the FM today.

Now might be a good time to make some pot pies to freeze. And the squash situation is like whoa. There should be soup asap.

• 2 bunches Carrots
• 2 lbs Turnips
• 2 lbs Beans
• 4 lbs Potatoes
• 2 Butternut Squash
• 2 Buttercup Squash
• 8 lbs Golden Delicious Apples
  =~37#

Again, I thought I posted this the day after I posted 16, but clearly I didn't, and this explains why nobody responded to the veggie offer. (Now removed since they've been eaten.)

Turnip greens sautéed with garlic, more bruschetta with the remaining non-cherry tomatoes. I really need to work on apples. Big bag of dried apples! (Though actually I still have plenty more to work on.)

• 8 ears Corn
• 2 pints Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 bunches Raab
• 2 bunches Turnips (+greens)
• 2 bunches Cilantro
• 2 Sugar Pumpkins
• 2 lbs Green Tomatoes
• 8 lbs Apples
  =~35#

And so there was more pot pie and more bruschetta and of course straight-up amazingly delicious corn. Also mashed turnips with carrots. No soup yet, but soon. Most of us are sick right now which sucks big time, and today's big project is trying to deal with a flat tire.

• 2 bunches Carrots
• 2 bunches Japanese Turnips (+greens)
• 8 ears Corn
• 2 pints Cherry Tomatoes
• 4 lbs (Red) Tomatoes
• 2 lbs Potatoes
• 2 bunches Parsnips
• 2 bunches Celery Root (+tops (i.e., "celery"))
  =30.2#

That's actually *this week*. Woo!

• 4 lbs Tomatoes
• 2 lbs Potatoes
• 2 bunch Bok Choy
• 2 bunches Japanese Turnips (+greens)
• 4 Cousa Squash
• 6 Poblano peppers
• 2 bunches Carrots
• 2 Eggplant
  =24.4#

All the book choy plus some of the turnips and carrots are currently fermenting into kimchi. Got some pears from a friend's tree frozen.

Need to get more olives to make a ton of caponata. Also gotta get more stuff into the dehydrator and probably freeze most of the poblanos, but it's so hard to get things done. If anyone wants to come over sometime today, lemme know.

(Anyone need boxes, btw? We have a ton.)

Once again, a week behind (I started this a week ago).

• 2 bunches Tatsoi
• 2 bunches Mustard
• 2 bunches Broccoli
• 2 pints Cherry Tomatoes
• 4 pounds Tomatoes
• 6 Peppers (still not ripe)
• 4 Zucchini
• 2 Eggplant (absurdly huge)
  =24#

Once against, preservation was mostly on the freezer and dryer front. (As temps cool, I expect canning to become more likely, though I'm still planning to once again do a frozen tomato sauce because it was so much better than anything I've ever had out of a canned jar.) More beet burgers were frozen, the first tray of pesto packed away and another tray made (with almonds this time). More dried tomatoes and also lots of squash chips (summer, zucchini, and cousa). I'm glad to find a healthy method of preparing summer squash that makes me want to eat it. I've already made two dehydrator's worth and they're all gone. Plenty more squash to dry, though. Also processed the peaches from a friend's tree enough to be able to pack and freeze them for later use. And the rest of the tomatoes turned into bruschetta.

Last night we used previously-frozen celery, farmshare carrots & onions, tatsoi, and assorted previously-dried herbs to make red lentil soup. Is it soup season already??

[ETA: I should note that much of the above would not have been possible without help. Most notably, Mark, but this week also Cee (without whom I wouldn't have had most of the tomatoes, and much of the end result went back to her, of course) as well as Carl, without whom most of the peaches would probably would have rotted before I got to them. And D pretty much made the soup while I nursed, but I figure the work I put into the ingredients ahead of time (which also included freezing cubes of tomato paste, though not homemade) warranted it. :]

And the nightshades are ramping up! The tomatoes are amazingly good. Looking forward to more next week, too.

• 2 bunches Beets (+greens)
• 2 pound Sweet Onions (loose)
• 4 pounds Squash (mix of summer and zucchini)
• 6 Cucumbers
• 6 long Italian Eggplant
• 6 Green Peppers (dunno if we'll ever get ripe ones :P )
• 2 bunches Red Russian Kale
• 2 pints Cherry Tomatoes (I took one red and sungold)
  =25.2#

Last week there was once again awesome coconut curry into which the Asian eggplant just melted. This week I made a sort of eggplant parm casserole that disappeared pretty quickly. I'm thinking I may do some eggplant tomato sauce, which I wouldn't have thought was my thing, but I really enjoyed the one at DFP. Most of the celery from last week was chopped and frozen for cool-weather soups (it's not really a raw munching type of celery) and the rest into mashed chickpea salad. Nomnom. Most of the kale was raw-marinated and is now gone. Should probably do that with the rest. And I made a double batch if crazy yummy beet burgers. Still have more beets, should make more of those.

Kind of unbelievable that I'm managing to do any foodstuff at all (and I'm not doing as much as I want to be), but it's really only because lately Mark is here most of the time helping to entertain the little guy thus allowing me to do things like shower, cook, and maintain some semblance of sanity. I've let go of the idea of anyone else helping which makes it easier to deal with the reality of it and just appreciate the folks who at least take the time to be social with us and bring over hand-me-downs, which we dig. Speaking of the awesome little guy (seriously, how did we luck into such a beautiful baby??), he seems to be more and more interested in the things we eat. I'm not especially looking forward to having to put actual thought into what to feed him (not to mention the changes in output), but it's coming soon. (One of the bonuses of EBFing is not having to think about what or how much or anything like that.) Probably about time to start reading about BLW and search out one or more of those mesh baggie things.

Latest meltingly cute thing he's doing is reaching his arms out to me when he's done with other people holding him.

PS: Since our garden didn't happen this year (last week I finally got two of homemade earthboxes prepped and seeded some leafy greens), your extra tomatoes are always appreciated. :D

As soon as I saw this week's selections, I thought to myself, "coconut curry!" And thus an awesome Thai red was made last night. In an attempt to be proactive and have even more leftovers handy, I also put all the beets (along with the remaining carrots and some kohlrabi) into another shredded salad. Damn, but I love that salad. Or slaw. Whatever. And I steamed down all the greens for later use. It's funny how at a glance, it seems like there were no leafy greens this week, but as always, the beet & turnip tops were so voluminous and lovely, it's like extra bonus veggies.

Now I want to make the Baitcon red cabbage slaw, whose recipe will hopefully come my way sometime today. And some of those green beans are definitely going into Manjula's amazing recipe. Which reminds me, does anyone have a bean Frencher I could borrow? I know it's an obscure little appliance, but I figure someone must.

• 2 bunches Chioggia Beets (+greens)
• 2 heads Red Cabbage
• 2 bunches Spring Onions
• 2 bunches Broccoli
• 2 bunches Asian Turnips (+greens)
• 6 Zucchini
• 2 lbs Green Beans
• 2 lbs New Potatoes (Yukon Gold)
  =25#

I've got everything I need for kimchi except the cabbage! Anyone with a different share get any cabbage (ideally Napa) and want to trade?

• 2 bunches Golden Beets (with greens)
• 2 bunches Asian Turnips (with greens)
• 2 heads Red Leaf Lettuce
• 2 bunches Carrots (yellow)
• 2 bunches Scallions
• 2 bunches Kohlrabi (with greens)
• 2 bunches Kale
• 1 lb Sugar Snap Peas
  = ~22.5#

As will hopefully become a habit, we cooked something using lots of the greens last night: peanut stew using the kohlrabi and turnip greens, as well as fava tendrils from last week. Which made for a huge amount even without the beet greens or kale. Helps everything fit in the fridge, anyway, and nummy. I also put in some of the carrots as well as previously-put-by jalapeño peppers, winter squash, and broth from the freezer.

No other preservation updates since last night's post. :)

Farm share started last week! Yay! This year we are back with only Parker. I think it's a much better value than Red Fire. RF sometimes has a little more variety, but the amounts are often too small to be useful, plus it's cheaper for me to just buy that stuff at the farmers market if I want it.

• 2 bunches Beets (with greens)
• 2 bunches Cilantro
• 2 bunches Swiss Chard
• 2 bunches Kohlrabi (with greens)
• 2 heads Red Leaf Lettuce
• 2 heads Romaine Lettuce
• 2 bunches (4 heads) Broccoli
• 2 bunches Collards
  = 25 lbs(!)

For some items, it's great to have enough to really do a proper dish with it, but for other items, even a little bit can be too much. (*cough*cilantro*cough*) Anyone want cilantro? Either these or in the future?

Did a nummy saute using the beet and kohlrabi greens, along with some Chinese fake-meat and barbecue sauce and it was so good. Then last night, thanks to M. being over to hold J. so that I could cook while DD finished work, we had stuffed shells! It was my first time making them and I put together a plan based on a mix of recipes I'd seen. I used all the chard, plus a quart of the roasted tomato sauce I made last season (best f'in sauce ever!), as well as basil from the porch. It was SO GOOD!

Right now we're aiming to use up everything in the freezer and get a fresh start, so have been eating a fair bit of tomato sauce since I froze it rather than canning to both avoid having to adulterate its awesomeness by acidulation as well as skip boiling any flavor out. I finally canned the strawberry mash I'd prepared last year from almost two gallons of fruit, yielding a whole bunch of Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper Jam, plus some extra mash that I'm thinking may come to Baitcon. Also canned a big batch of whole berry cranberry sauce. The ton of blackberries will be getting blended to oblivion (cuz damn, I hate those seeds) for use in something frozen at Baitcon and also roll-ups.

Other preserved items that we've used lately have included arugula walnut pesto on pizza along with rehydrated dried tomatoes and eggplant, frozen peppers in various dishes, frozen squash in greens-peanut stew, and various powders and herbs to flavor dishes.

Urban homesteading FTW!