Dear John,
The fireworks are echoing down the street. I’m wiped from watching parade in the summer heat. You’re in the kitchen making everything neat.
Today’s Box
- Blueberries
- Dark Sweet Cherries
- White Peaches
- Fennel
- Red Beets
- Red Spring Onions
- Slicing Cucumbers
- Yellow Patty Pan Squash
Things in the fridge
- Cherries
- Watermelon
- Peaches
- Fennel bulb
- Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collard
- Carrots
- Green plums
In the Garden
- Green beans from neighbors
- Rainbow chard
- Turnips + greens
- Radish + greens
- Beets + reds, beet + greens
- Sad looking ending the pea season
- All the lettuce (17 slugs, 1 earwig)
- Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
- Dill flowers
- Garlic chives weeding forever
- Calendula flowers getting dried by the trayful
- Rosemary
- Oregano
- Calendula and cosmos bouquet
Open Preserves
- Preserved eggplant
- Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
- Pickled banana peppers
- Pickled banana peppers with oregano, garlic, and black pepper
- Pickled kale stems
- Pickled fennel stems
- Radish kimchi
- Green tomato chutney
- Tomatillo salsa
- Cran-kin kraut
- Cranapple chutney
- Watermelon rind dill pickles
- Probably still more uninventoried
Garden glimpse
We pulled the peas, and planted beans to take over the tent. Two volunbeans, four from the soup pack. Harvested the last of the spring planted radish and turnips. I’m debating if we plant something else short there, or wait for the cucumber and strawberry to spread as they grow.
The beans we planted (two weeks ago?), have all popped up. The chard keeps getting thinned, so even though it’s growing, I feel like we might not be totally overwhelmed. Nevermind how loaded the bike was before we left.
I checked the internet’s horticulture wisdom and realized we needed to prune all of our tomatoes – it’s an indeterminate year.
Meals to make to celebrate summer
- Internet browsing brought me to a newsletter with a series from Pandemic Part I. There’s this salad that looks great for cleaning out bits and ends. I made it last week and it was a hit. Not sure it’s calling me again so soon, but wanting to save.
- It’s been so long since we made smashed cucumber salad. I miss it. We are making it this week. (I spied the first baby cucumber fruiting today. Maybe we’ll have some of our own to harvest.)
- And the patty pan squash means it’s time for my annual making of the roasted squash and herbed chickpeas from chocolate & zucchini.
- Green beans and tofu?
- We just tossed fennel pesto that had gone moldy. So we can make some again. But learn from our mistakes and FREEZE it. Also, toss fennel on a salad of lettuces + peaches + toasted pecans.
- How to use this week’s beet greens? (The beets will keep. Fine dice and roasted. Sliced on pizza. I’m not worried about them.) And what about the supply of chard? Last week brought a quiche with a mix of parm, cheddar, and gouda. Another quiche, but this time with chevre sounds potential. Honestly, it’s been a bit since we had pizza. That sounds kinda good. So does having it with pasta in a tomato sauce.
- Last thought, if we have extra cucumbers, maybe this salad but with fennel.
Love,
Sarah
PS The wedge salad was as good as I dreamed and makes me want to get iceberg lettuce again. The toppings we used–roasted beets, toasted nuts, green onions, parsley, blue cheese dressing–feel so similar to my autumnal salads. But those are served with kale and that makes all the difference.
Planning Inside The Box 