carmen peppers

Boxing Day, August 19

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A garden bounty this week.

Dear John,

Beach day. Swimming pool. Garden time. Church. Faire.

Pesto. Fig jam. Preserved eggplant.

It was an exhausting weekend. It was wonderful.

Today’s Box

  • Nectarines
  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Mixed Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Orange Carrots
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Yellow Straightneck Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Roma tomatoes
  • Cabbage: Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage,
  • Nectarines, Plums, Pears

In the Garden

  • Basil by the bundle
  • Parsley
  • Mitsuba yanked from the ground because I saw the flowers and thought weed before I remembered it was intentional planting. Ooops
  • Handful of cherry tomatoes and ground cherries
  • Figs
  • Few peppers that I don’t remember anything about
  • One eggplant
  • One radish
  • One tomatillo
  • Collards
  • Sunflower! Dahlia! Basil Flowers! Zinnias! Feverfew! Okay, some of those are from the yard. Pretties!

Open Preserves

  • One day we might organize the cabinet.
  • Another day we might organize the fridge.
  • Then we might know.
  • Fig jam

Pantry Beans

  • Split Red Lentil
  • Good Mother Stallard
  • Rio Zape
  • And more tucked on other shelves…

Can we cook this week? Maybe!

  • Ratatouille! It’s happening! The temperature is cooler and we can turn on the oven for three hours. If we can find a day where chopping and then stirring every so often over three hours is reasonable. Plus side, ideally it will use a surplus of veggies, be yummy, and freeze well. I’m hearing the siren call of a polenta/grits base.
  • Bacon, Basil, and Tomato sandwiches using the basil leaves that are as large as lettuce leaves. Small lettuce leaves, but still.
  • While the oven can be on, I want to make pizza too. Pesto pizza? Maybe. Tomato sauce pizza? Not opposed.
  • Also while the oven is on, roast eggplant and make a baba ganoush. Or the eggplant dip from the Indian cookbook.
  • I keep looking at the parsley vase and thinking of soba eggplant noodles topped with parsley. Or tabbouleh made with fonio.
  • The plums that haven’t been eaten should just go on the dehydrator. She says as if the processing step is easier. (It is not.)
  • More curdito. It’s been delicious on tacos and quesadillas and crackers. And hey, we just got carrots and we still have cabbage.

Love,

Sarah

PS Freeze more pesto.

Boxing Day, July 26

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Missing: peaches. But this week we got all the bread!

Hi John,

In the heat wave that’s been happening, I have not wanted you to turn on the oven. Last night, the temperature came down enough that we finally got to use the pizza dough that’s been sitting in the fridge, make those candied nuts I’ve been asking for, and refill my crouton stash.

I’m a bit nervous about how we’re going to use the produce this week. A cousin is bringing dinner tomorrow. Your parents are here this weekend. On the one hand it’s more mouths to make a dent in the burgeoning list of things in the fridge. On the other hand, I’m ceding the meal planning to all y’all and I don’t know your intentions. Letting go of control is hard, even when I desperately want to.

Supposedly in Today’s Box

  • Peaches
  • Watermelon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Carmen Peppers
  • Green Beans
  • Green Zucchini
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Blueberries (farmer’s market)
  • Peaches
  • Fennel
  • Cucumber (farmer’s market)
  • Cranberries
  • Lemon squash
  • Green bell pepper
  • Celery
  • Greens: Napa Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Kale
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radish
  • Sweet potato
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Coming in from the Garden

  • Edamame
  • Basil
  • Kale
  • Tomatillas (just a few, but they’re here!)
  • Tomatoes (only two so far, but again, they’re here!)
  • Occasional ground cherries
  • Peppers? Soon?
  • Garlic? Perhaps
  • Dahlias and marigolds and nasturtium
  • Rosemary for remembrance

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals that probably won’t get made because of that aforementioned letting others plan the meals scheme

  • I’ve dissected the cantaloupe into its various parts. Already mixed up the muesli-like cantaloupe-pulp oats from Lindsay-Jean Hard‘s book. Seeds are drying and can be roasted the next time the oven is on. Fruit is chopped up in the fruit drawer for snacking, and freezer for a papaya-melon-dragon fruit smoothie. But…if the bounty of summer fruit overtakes us, I am very intrigued by this risotto.
  • You’re making peppers stuffed with lemon squash (adapted from the Moosewood New Classics cookbook) for dinner tonight. I’m considering the Enchanted Broccoli Forest’s green pepper and zucchini enchilada filling for later. Bet it’d go well with a tomatillo-tomato salsa.
  • Green bean and pesto potato salad season!!!
  • Keep the summer slaws coming to work through the massive cabbage from last week. Maybe to top a taco?
  • The stuffed zucchini from the Moosewood cookbook (a page before what you’re working on right now) looked really interesting. Tomato-cinnamon sauce!

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, November 4

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Smaller CSA share coming to you for Fall 2021.

Hi John,

Yesterday I called you from the garden. Should we try to find row cover before the forecast freeze? Went to the closest plant store, they don’t carry it. Decided that we have enough going on in the next few weeks that maybe it doesn’t make sense to put in more effort and extend our work. Sorry summer plants.

So we’re saying goodbye to the tomatoes and eggplant. Been separating basil seeds at the dinner table. We picked the first fall radish and the pink bulb feels like magic.

In This Week’s Box

  • Asian Pears
  • Empire Apples
  • Garden Gem Tomatoes
  • Green Acorn Squash
  • Mixed Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Pink Celery
  • Red Leaf Lettuce

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers
  • Volunbeans for drying
  • Final tomato, possibly to ripen on counter
  • First radish, when we want it

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Who even is able to identify the apples filling the fruit drawer?
  • Bartlett Pears, Asian Pears, Bosc Pears
  • Greens: Savoy Cabbage, Dandelion, Spinach
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Leeks
  • Celery
  • Peppers: Yummy, Lombok, Starfish, Banana, Jalapeno, Carmen, Cubanelle
  • Kohlrabi
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Carrots
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Spaghetti, Robins Koginut
  • Garlic
  • Sweet onions
  • Potatoes: Blue, Sweet
  • Ginger
  • 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
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Apple sauce
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Probably still more uninventoried

New Menu Suggestions

  • Quiche? On the one hand, I like the idea of an eggy dish that has leftovers. Shredded beets and goat cheese? It’ll all be pink. Sliced tomatoes, sauteed peppers, and cheddar cheese?
  • Nominating this acorn squash for being stuffed come Thanksgiving.
  • Celery or cabbage salad with chickpeas, a garlic anchovy dressing, croutons for me
  • Celery and apple salad. (There’s a celery, apple, peanut salad in Six Seasons that we haven’t tried yet. It also uses medium-hot chilies. The star peppers could be fun.)
  • Cabbage fried rice

Reminders of Meals Already Brainstormed

  • Pizza with delicata squash slices
  • Soup: Ginger, apple, squash OR leek and potato
  • Dandelion greens with beans and fennel (I have now cooked the beans. We just have to cook the meal.)
  • Stuffed spaghetti squash
  • Kohlrabi, apple, ginger salad
  • Pickle the banana peppers already

Love,

Sarah