Boxing Day, July 15

There are six ears of corn hiding in the back.

Hi John,

I’m hoping that the maintenance team is successful with today’s dishwasher repair. I was hoping to be baking a pie right now (unless I was collapsed taking a nap), but with a team of three in the kitchen, I think we’re going to wait another day.

I know today is a minor inconvenience. But it does convince me more that I don’t want to buy a house where we anticipate a kitchen renovation. I’m happy to live with dated cabinets, and changing out hardware is no big deal. Appliances that are halfway through their lifecycle, well, I’d rather get five years out of the dishwasher than have it disposed prematurely. To the extent that we can avoid a remodel though, that’s not a project I’d like to take on.

In This Week’s Box

  • Blackberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Asian Cucumbers
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Carmen Peppers
  • Centercut Squash
  • Green Kale
  • New Red Potatoes
  • Sweet Fresh Onions
  • Sweet Thai Basil

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Volunbeans–I thought they were green beans when I picked six on Monday. I went back today and they looked like they might be a shelling bean. At least the ones I picked had more like beans inside and I wouldn’t have thought that it’d been long enough for them to be overgrown.
  • Tomato? You picked three cherry tomatoes from the volunteer yesterday!
  • Basil! Thai or lime or purple or Italian
  • Cilantro

Still in the Fridge

  • Cherries
  • Peaches
  • Blueberries
  • Herbs: Fennel, Dill
  • Greens: Dandelion, Savoy Cabbage, Lacinato Kale
  • Onions: white and red
  • Zucchini
  • Celery
  • Beet
  • Sunchokes
A different type of baby pepper. Think this is the paprika.

Considering the options

  • If we get enough green beans, then I want to make the green bean potato salad (I even bought potatoes before we heard we were getting them in the box in anticipation of this). But if we decide not to treat them as green beans then maybe not.
  • The corn and blueberry salad from Halfbaked Harvest. Need to buy an avocado for this! Soon! Before too many of the corn sugars have converted to starch.
  • Maybe we roast the peppers with a corn and rice stuffing. Or maybe we roast them and freeze.
  • We have the long cucumber and the pickled radish and the seaweed and rice to make gimbap. Especially if we use matchsticks of zucchini instead of carrots. Flavor substitute, not at all. But veggie switcharoo that might really work. Perhaps served with another Korean cucumber side?
  • Or this smashed cucumber salad
  • Or the Chinese Pickled Cucumbers from Woks of Life
  • Or the cucumber and celery salad from Six Seasons that we ate at the picnic on the 4th of July
  • More kale in my morning smoothies, I think. I don’t love the flavor, but it does help us get through the greens. I bought some extra bananas for me to consider while doing this.
  • Kale and chickpeas. What doesn’t get eaten to be dehydrated.
  • Squash and basil and parm. My dad made a side dish back in the day. Panfry/steam the squash. Add the basil near the end. Sprinkle with parm from a jar when serving. I wonder if actual cheese will replicate the taste of memory.

There are several cucumbers, so we can probably do two or three of those cucumber options. Once we can get in the kitchen again, I’m going to cook up the kale and beans in the hopes of clearing out some space. Otherwise, we probably want to focus on dishes that will help us consume the CSA basil early on. All the more reason to grab an avocado from the store to make that corn salad ASAP.

~s

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