Month: October 2021

Boxing Day, October 21

planorcanLeave a comment
Offcamera, frustration at the squash that had been on display and is now rotting. Oooops.

Hi John,

It’s Wednesday and I am walking for my errands. I’ve wandered through to the next neighborhood over, because it is my favorite place to listen to episodes of a favorite podcast, and I am thinking about things I love.

I love Little Free Libraries, and pop-up protest art, and the Little Free Art Gallery that make each walk a hunt for treasure.

I love the sparrow splashing in the bird bath in the front lawn.

I love the feel of sunlight through green-brown leaves, and the shelf of fungus around the tree trunk.

I love all the different ways that parents are carting their kids on bicycles, from the dad walking his bike with his little in the seat clinging on the handlebars, to the full-on cargo bikes, to the back-wheel kiddo racks.

I love the way this neighborhood throws itself into holiday decorations and being a quaint little town, despite it’s actual location centered in the metropolis. I love the house that has become a pirate ship and the garden boxes crawling with spiders and the robotic raven that squawks whenever anyone walks by. I love the scarecrows and pumpkins and my memory of the chute that people built last year to deliver candy.

I love not knowing what the fruit is on the trees on the center of the boulevard, asking the guy who is also waiting for the light to change if he does, and the camaraderie of shared curiosity.

And you.

In This Week’s Box

  • Bosc Pears
  • Granny Smith Apples
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Jalapeno Peppers
  • Leeks
  • Mixed Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Red Dandelion Greens
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Thumbelina Carrots
  • White Cauliflower

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Last of the tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans for drying
  • Maybe a tomato? Maybe?
  • Dahlias
  • Radish sprouts when we thin them

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Gala, Empire, Jonagold U-pick
  • Bartlett Pears, Asian Pears
  • Greens: 1/2 a cabbage, 1/2 bunch collards, Savoy Cabbage, Romain lettuce
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Tomatillos
  • Broccoli
  • Edamame
  • Peppers: Yummy, Lombok, Starfish, Banana
  • Carrots
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Spaghetti, Robins Koginut
  • Garlic
  • Potatoes: Blue, Sweet
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Blueberry peach jam
  • Apple sauce
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Things we may enjoy eating

  • Soup of the week: Curried apple soup from Enchanted Broccoli Forest looks interesting. And can help keep our fruit drawer manageable.
  • The edamame’s been around too long wanting for the right moment. We gotta just boil it and snack on it. It is time.
  • It’s still looking like side salad season. Though greens + turnips + granny smith apples + blue cheese + vinaigrette = meal
  • Volunbeans and dandelion greens and fennel and miso! Basically follow the recipe from Cool Beans.
  • Time to roast up the last of the tomatillos, some onion, a few of those jalapenos for one last salsa verde. Freeze what we won’t eat immediately. It’ll be gone soon.
  • Broccoli should be tossed in salads or roasted or stir-fried. I don’t know how we want to use it, just that we really should.
  • Are the pomegranates looking good in the grocery store? My notes for the roasted cauliflower and hazelnut salad say to make again when the pomegranates are in season.
  • I think I’m going to hold onto the leeks for one week, in case we get potatoes next week (and make potato-leek soup). Or chard (and try to adapt the wheat berries & swiss chard with pomegranate molasses from Jerusalem).

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, October 14

planorcanLeave a comment
It is not that the squash is that small. It is that the apples are that big.

Dear John,

We returned to the apple orchard on Monday. It’s the first time this year, and the first to this orchard. But we missed 2020, because, well, 2020. I’ve been finishing off the last of our 2019 apple butter and apple sauce in anticipation of new jars being put up. That might have been a mistake

I’m going to pause here to say that, although we did not have the excess of apples obtained from trips to pick many, many apples, in the past couple of years I have extended the trick of my veggie stock back to also include an apple stock bag. When I cut an apple (or pear) in half, I’ll core it with a melon baller. Drop that core in a bag that lives in the freezer. When it’s full, they all get cooked down and I make a jelly or a mostarda or a chutney. I might not have made applesauce or apple butter in two years, but had many successful cannings of apples. So it’s a bit of a surprise that my attempts this week have been disappointing.

First attempt, I was multitasking with the laundry and ended up burning the bottom of the applesauce pot. The bitterness from the burnt flavored everything, so I added sugar and spices and cooked it in the crock pot until it was thick. I think the caramelization process of making apple butter succeeded in muting the badness. And yet, it’s underspiced compared to the 2019 version. I must have been too nervous about already having ruined it?

Second attempt, I decided not to use the pot that I’d failed with the day before. Cooking everything in the crock pot from the start and avoiding burning things. But that is a slow way to get apples to turn to mush and by the time I processed it, the sauce was well on the way to thickening. To be clear, it’s not the flavor of apple butter. But it’s also not the consistency of applesauce.

We’re going to stick with those though. There are more apples, but they can go in tarte tartin, apple crisp, and apple ginger squash soup.

In This Week’s Box

  • Asian Pears
  • Jonagold Apples
  • Banana Peppers
  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Green Kale
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Savoy Cabbage
  • Orange Carrots
  • Robins Koginut Squash

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans for drying
  • Maybe a tomato? Maybe another few weeks. Probably some cherry tomatoes.
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Gala, Empire, U-pick
  • Bartlett Pears
  • Greens: 1/2 a cabbage, 1/2 bunch collards
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Sungold cherry tomatoes
  • Tomatillos
  • Celery
  • Edamame
  • Green Beans
  • Peppers: Bell, Yummy, Lombok, Starfish
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Spaghetti
  • Sweet onions
  • Garlic
  • Potatoes: Fingerling, Blue
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled cucumber skin
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermenting habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Blueberry peach jam
  • Apple sauce
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

What to do with the food

  • Super Side Salad! Use peppers liberally. Add carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli as you wish.
  • First instinct is to make the carrot top pesto from Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds that I really like. But there’s a salsa verde on the same page that uses pickle juice and the dill pickles are pretty much consumed. Just a cucumber skin, a sprig of dill, and the garlic in brine. Let’s try this recipe to use both the juice and the carrot tops!
  • Simply in Season has a recipe for Sweet Potato salad that would use up our celery and make a dent in the peppers. I’m not sure how excited I am about it, but it’s on page 191 if you want to try.
  • Apple cabbage slaw. I thought I had a recipe saved from years and years ago. I do not see it in my bookmarks. RIP Delicious that was beyond the 1,000 that were exported?
  • Curdito if we feel like we have excess carrots. But don’t use the savoy cabbage for it. Green cabbage.
  • Now that we have broken into soup season, I anticipate the fridge continually having a jar of one leftover or another. (Currently it’s the squash-collards-peanut combo I suggested last week.) I have so many tabs open with soup recipes from threads where people share their go-to faves. It may be time to follow the crowds to Roberto.

~s

Boxing Day, October 7

planorcanLeave a comment
Cabbage is playing peek-a-boo.

Hi John,

This week I curled up with a storybook. Layers of tales, echoing past each other. Before the hardback was returned to the library, I’d downloaded the audio reading.

The next book I picked up is for book club. It is not a book for Sarahs. At least not yet. We discuss it in a week and I’m thinking there’s a good chance I won’t finish it.

That switch, from the story that I want to rehear over and again to the story that I struggle to get in, is so familiar. I think it’s why the beloved stories are treasured so. Their power to imagine a world that I want to experience, to explain a part of existence, to create the actions required.

In This Week’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Empire Apples
  • All Blue Potatoes
  • Collards
  • Edamame
  • Green Beans
  • Green Cabbage
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans
  • Maybe a tomato?
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Honeycrisp?, Gala
  • Greens: NONE. We ate them all.
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Peppers: Yummy, Lombok, Starfish
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Carnival
  • Sweet onions
  • Garlic
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled cucumber skins
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermenting habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Blueberry peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Garden Update

I pulled up the cucumber a few weeks ago. Then you helped turn the compost and rescued some volunteer greens.

They tried, but they didn’t survive.

We took out a basil and a tomato that were done. Stopped by the store to get some seeds.

And now we have sprouts!

Radishes. Carrots. Spinach. Stir-fry mix of greens.

I’m not sure what will make it. The soup beans we planted mid-summer are dying instead of climbing. I put a second batch of radishes in the center of their tent-poles. Willing the roots down deep.

I’ve been thinking about Rachel Held Evans’ posts on Madeline L’Engle’s reflections on planting onions. L’Engle was talking about planting onions in the spring being an act of faith in the future when she was afraid for our planet. But I’m considering planting them this fall, and the faith it requires that we will come through winter to more growth. (Confession: I did not heed the warnings in the emails and did not reserve shallot bulbs. Maybe we see if we can plant from the garlic the CSA sent last week? Maybe we let it go for this season.)

I’m trying to save seeds, even though we can’t do the isolated crops that are recommended. Beans are obvious, easy. Just don’t eat them all. Cilantro was straightforward. Basil’s proving fiddly to separate, since we don’t have a screen. I’m currently fermenting seeds from our volunteer cherry tomato. Doing the action that faith calls forth.

Faith-filled Meals During Changing Seasons

  • Dessert first! There’s enough pears to make baked pears with balsamic and goat cheese and so we will do that.
  • Our first taste of sungolds this season! So late. Still will use the “stuff my face” method of consumption.
  • The roasted potatoes and green beans with pine nut vinaigrette the other week was good stuff. Let’s consider that for our fall green beans recipe.
  • Edamame as a side
  • I’ve held off on decreeing it soup season. But consider making a sweet potato, peanut, and kale soup only with squash instead of sweet potato and collards instead of kale.
  • Similarly, is it risotto season? Because a squash risotto is always yummy. Can use Six Seasons recipe, but be mindful about the fat if we want to dehydrate for backpacking meals.
  • Cabbage season is starting up again I see. Using the cabbage is low priority, it’ll keep. But consider the braised glass noodles when we do.
  • It might be time to quickle the fennel stems. Though maybe that’s next week’s project. There are still a few fronds to adorn salads.

~s

Boxing Day, September 30

planorcanLeave a comment
I wasn’t expecting garlic and picked some at the store before I got the CSA. On the one hand, whups. On the other hard, it’s not like we won’t use garlic.

Dear John,

It’s been a busy week of writing for both of us as we usher papers out the door. Reading an evergrowing stack in the search for the right citation. Banging angrily on keyboards. Sighing heavily. Sending off to colleagues when the words are as good as they’re going to get that day. Fitzing with formatting like a student trying to match a teachers’ page requirements. Neither of us are getting graded, but the spirit remains more or less the same.

My paper’s back to the editor’s inbox. You’re about to begin the process for publishing yours. Weekend’s coming early today, and I am so ready.

In This Week’s Box

  • Gala Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Carnival Squash
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Frisee
  • Green Mustard
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • White Garlic

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Paprika
  • Jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans
  • Maybe a tomato?
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Honeycrisp
  • Greens: Arugula
  • Herbs: Cilantro, Fennel tops,
  • Peppers: Yummy, Habanada, Paprika, Red Jalapenos
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Butternut
  • Sweet onions
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled cucumber skins
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Apple sauce
  • Quince jelly
  • Strawberry freezer jam from your mom
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Comfort Food for Mindful Meals

  • The writing took up all the time, which meant I never made the mole verde squash last week. Hopefully tonight!
  • So many greens this week! Mustard greens make me hope for palak paneer or saag feta or chana saag. Frisee for salads, with radish to emphasize the kick.
  • We’ll see how the weather plays. But it may be time to start soup season. Squash Apple Ginger soup from Simply in Season, perhaps?
  • Chard garlic spaghetti from Six Seasons until we choose something else to do with it.

And a few more plans

  • I think I want to try drying paprika and grinding it to a powder. Fingers crossed!
  • Let’s roast the jalapenos and combine with the habanadas for a brine mash ferment. It’ll be another experiment.

~s