CSA Week 15

I’ve put another gallon ziplock of tomatoes in the freezer; this week we only got 3 more pounds of sauce tomatoes…the beautiful small ones are done for the year. I did pick up an heirloom tomato from the overage box to savor with a little salt and fresh oregano.

New in the crisper this week are chard and scallions. I have eggplant to make into balls - a big batch. The garlic supply is replenished. There were 3 kinds of peppers (bell, snack and hot; I traded the hot ones for more chard).

There were also 2 more pounds of potatoes. Fortunately they last without refrigeration since the other items were bulky.

Overall - the bag for this share was seemed heavier that previous shares (except for the ones that included a watermelon).

My crispers are full and there are bins in the other part of the refrigerator. It is all good eating - but almost too abundant. More than tomatoes may need to be processed into the freezer. 

CSA Week 13

My husband picked up this week’s share…there will be processing and good eating when I return home (the day before the CSA week 14 share will be distributed. The 5 pounds of red tomatoes will go into the freezer and maybe some of the 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes will too. My husband kept the poblano peppers rather than trading so I am planning something he will help be eat!

The ‘new’ foods this week are marjoram and acorn squash. I’ll have to search my recipes for one that requires marjoram. I already know I want to back the acorn squash and eat it with butter and cinnamon; I remember eating it cooked that way at a Yosemite lodge more than 25 years ago and it has always been my favorite way to enjoy the squash.

My husband chose watermelon from the overage table and is saving it for when I return. Good choice.

CSA Week 12

Wow - do we have tomatoes! The four pounds of red tomatoes we got in this week’s share have already been processed (minimally - the top of the core and blemishes cut out, otherwise whole) and are in the freezer. I plan to slice and eat the heirloom tomato as soon as possible since it is very ripe. Then I have a little over 3 pounds accumulation of the small multi-colored cherry tomatoes (I traded my poblano peppers for another 1.5 pounds!); they’ll be my snacks for the whole week; they taste good and I like the variety of their colors.

There are a lot of peppers too (even without the poplanos) - 5 snack peppers and a red bell pepper. They’ll be additions to salads and stir fries

I haven’t decided what I will do with the eggplant…maybe include it in a stir fry or cut it in wedges and roast it.  It was a different shape that the traditional eggplant - still the same deep purple color.

The spaghetti squash can be quite a treat….as a veggie ‘spaghetti’…as another ingredient in a stir fry…as a component of quiche or custard. I won’t have any trouble eat it up.

Fortunately the onions, garlic, and potatoes will keep just fine not in the refrigerator...because I have a watermelon taking up a lot of space right now!

CSA Week 10

About all I have left from the week 9 share is chives, onions and leeks…a few purple skinned potatoes. But I think the week 10 share is a bit overwhelming.

The variety and amount of tomatoes skyrocketed this week: 2 big heirloom tomatoes, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, and 2 pounds red tomatoes. There was some fresh oregano which encourages me to make homemade tomato ‘something’ - soup or sauce.

We also got potatoes - this time with red skins. Fortunately potatoes last long enough that they won’t go to waste even if we don’t eat them this week.

The assortment of peppers went up: snack peppers of all colors (I got red/green ones), bell peppers, and jalepenos (which I promptly exchanged for another bell pepper).

We had a choice between cucumbers and summer squash; I picked the squash to I can make squash hummus again.

We had our choice of cantaloupe, red watermelon or yellow watermelon this week. I got a red one - just to be different from last week’s yellow one (which we enjoyed).

One of the items available on the overage table was lettuce….it will go well with the tomatoes and peppers for summer salads.

Once again - the next week is going to have a lot of good eating --- enjoying the bounty of summer foods!

CSA Week 9

Hurray! The share this week included a small watermelon! I had a choice between yellow and red….and chose a yellow.

There were also two kinds of peppers (bell and snack), two kinds of tomatoes (cherry and heirloom), two ‘onions’: chives and purple, purple skinned small potatoes that were still wet from a rain a few hours before our pickup time. I had a choice between lettuce, eggplant or okra and I chose lettuce. And I chose leeks from the overage table.

I envision all kinds of good meals this week…the ones I am thinking of right away are:

Large salads with lettuce, tomato, pepper, chives (edamame or peanuts for protein to make it a meal)

Hash browns made with shredded potatoes (leaving on the purple skins), onion, and bell pepper

Eggs with chives or leek

Stir fry with leek, pepper  and mushrooms (the last ingredient from the grocery store)

Deck Garden - June 2015

Mid - June - and the garden is mostly green. The only plant that is blooming so far is one of the purple pea vines. It is climbing on the peacock pot sticker that the gold finches like to perch on.

There are buds on some of the other plants. By July there should be more color.

I am enjoying the greens at the moment.

Some purple basil came up in the pot that I planted some seeds from a packet that was over 5 years old. More of the seeds were viable than I anticipated! I’ve been pulling seedlings to use in salads so that there will be a mix of green and purple basil leaves in plants that have enough room to grow.

The mint in the turtle sandbox is root bound and can’t seem to grow any more around the edge. I’ll give it a through trim at some point then churn up the sandy soil and start over. There is a very thick mat of stems entwined over the surface so I’ll start the churn with long handled pruners!

I’ve already harvested some of the red potatoes (posted about it here) but there are several more plants from those same sprouted potatoes. My plan is to harvest when any of the potatoes peek above the soil. The pots are probably not large enough to get an outstanding crop….but maybe over the course of the summer they will all yield a serving!  The lighter green leaves of the celery that sprouted in the kitchen window sill is a nice contrast to the the darker greens of other plants.

I was trying to use old seed so I probably have cucumbers in some of the pots too. There were a few seeds left from last year and the cucumbers did well as ‘spillers’ in many of the pots. Thrillers will be whatever is not green. I am anticipating zinnias and sunflowers but there could be some other flowers too from seeds in the soil from last year. July will tell! RIght now i am enjoying the delicate red in the stems of last December's poinsetta!

Red Potato Harvest

Last February some small red potatoes sprouted before we could eat them. I decided to cut them into pieces and root them in a shallow tray in front of a kitchen window along with the stubs of celery stalks. In February - any green plants were welcome relief from the white snow on the ground outside the window!

The potatoes did very well; their roots formed a dense mat in the tray and I planted them in some pots on our deck in late April. The plants grew rapidly - making large leaves and stems. Last week when I was watering all the pots (before the rains came), I noticed that one of the pots had what looked like a good sized potato peeking through the soil. Yesterday I ‘harvested’ the potatoes from the pot. There were 4 of them - a small serving. That's a pretty good crop considering they have only been in the dirt for about 6 weeks. The potatoes were all very close to the surface. None of the other plants have visible potatoes yet so I will let them continue growing…and next time I’ll plant the potatoes in bigger pots! 

Coming Home

I enjoy traveling…but coming home always feels good too. This past weekend was no exception.

The flight from Texas was smooth until just before landing in Baltimore when gusts of wind started buffeting the plane. The pilots did an excellent job getting the plane to the runway; there was applause in the cabin. All around us on the runway snow was swirling and the runway was just as white as the air. There was a little delay getting to the gate so we all had time to notice how bad the weather was and realize that there was a 50 degree temperature difference between the Dallas afternoon we had left and the Baltimore evening. Walking through the jetway to the terminal gave us a hint of the cold. When I got to baggage claim, it was even colder because of doors opening and cold air coming up with the luggage which was delayed in arriving due to wind and snow challenging the baggage handlers. Before it came, an announcement was made that the airport was closing. After that - the situation improved for me: my baggage came, my husband arrived just outside the terminal, and we got home without incident (even though we saw cars in ditches along our route). It was scary enough that I didn’t think to take pictures.

When I got home there were piles of books I’d requested from Paperbackswap - using up my credits. What joy to have them just in time for the really cold days of this winter!

And the snowy scene from my office window is appealing too.

Another joy - plants at the kitchen window that survived the 10 days I was gone (my husband watered them).  The green leaves sprouting from the celery cores and the pleats of the red potato leaves are like a little spring garden with the snow and ice of hard winter in the background.

Last but not least - I actually enjoyed shoveling the driveway yesterday. It was the first time for this winter and was a very light snow that was easy to shovel. I am still celebrating the winter season!

It is so good to be home again!