Bountiful Fall Food

September is the transition month for us – from summer to fall. At the beginning of the month there were still tomatoes in our CSA share. Now we have lots of leafy greens (mizuna, arugula, kale, bok choi, lettuce, cilantro, great beans) with color variety from peppers, winter squash, and garlic. There are so many ways to prepare these goodies.

I always cook the winter squashes whole (pricking the skin with a fork) then take out the seeds just before I eat the first serving. Left overs are easy to use up. I like spaghetti squash in salads and stir fry. Any leftover acorn squash, sweet dumpling or butternut squash is well suited for making muffins or custard.

One of my husband’s favorite sides for meat loaf of hamburger patties is sautéed peppers, onions, and garlic. I like the peppers in salads but recently have used them all in the side dish – the colorful peppers are the highlight of the plate.

Of course – sometimes all the bounty is overwhelming and I revert to my favorite snack, anytime of year: popcorn. We don’t buy the packages of microwave popcorn anymore since the Nordic Ware bowl for popping the kernels in the microwave works very well for us. When I am dieting, I only add a little salt. Yesterday (pictured), it was buttered and salted!

Raw, steamed, stir fried, baked…I like these fall veggies so many ways. I am savoring the bounty and fresh flavoring now - trying not to think about when the CSA will be done for the year at the end of October.

CSA Week 2

My pickup on Wednesday afternoon at the Gorman Farm Community Supported Agriculture was very breezy…and full of green. Picked a red leaf butter lettuce to just get some color variety.

When I got home I rinsed everything and organized it into bins, bags, and trays: red leaf lettuce and half the scallions in one bin….the lettuce needs to be eaten before the other greens since it will wilt first; the older half of the scallions and romaine lettuce into the second bin; the kale and garlic scapes into the third bin; the collard cut in half and into a gallon Ziploc, and the thyme spread out on a small tray to dry. With the exception of the thyme – it will all go into the refrigerator.

I managed to eat everything we got in the week 1 share but I’m already anticipating that it will be more challenging with the second week simply because it is larger. I already am planning to make Kale chips from all the kale leaves (the stems will go into a stir fry as will the collard stems). I am going to skew toward salads immediately to use up lettuces and scallions and some of the garlic scapes. Hopefully having everything in closed bins and plastic bags will help keep the rest in good shape long enough to get it all eaten!

CSA Week 1

Our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) started this week right on schedule; the last few weeks have finally gotten warm enough and dry enough for the veggies to grow very quickly since a week or so ago it appeared that the start of the CSA would be a week or two late. This first week included lots of green: kale, garlic scapes, chives, pac choi, mizuna, and lettuce (I got the red leafed variety just to break the green monopoly). The strawberries also added a nice color contrast. I like everything in the share this week – but the garlic scapes are probably the most ‘special’ because they are not generally available in grocery stores and they are only available for a few weeks; I’m already thinking about how I want to use all 8 of them in the next week!

I used a bin left from some greens bought at the grocery store (and already eaten) to store the veggies I washed right ways: chives, lettuce, and mizuna. The other veggies went into the crisper in the same form I picked them up from the bin at the CSA.

Then I enjoyed a serving of strawberries with coconut milk – my summer afternoon snack.