carrots

Boxing Day, December 2 (and anticipating December 9)

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Dear John,

We skipped produce pickups while we were out of town. We ate radishes and peppers and carrots dipped in ranch fun dip on the road. We took squash and sweet potatoes and parsley and peppers to family and friends. But sick weeks followed by travel weeks meant we ended up with some very sad foods in the fridge. Some got tossed in the compost (applesauce that molded weirdly quickly), some got sauced (lettuce into a cream dip), some is destined for soup (chard once the Royal Coronas finish cooking).

The chill is finally in the air. I want to curl around casserole dishes and soup bowls. I also want to be able to eat soon after coming in the door and not after the oven has preheated and the casserole has baked for an hour. So, um, things to consider.

CSA Box

  • Braeburn Apples
  • Goldrush Apples
  • Gala Apples
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Purple Carrots
  • Red Veined Arugula
  • Stripetti Squash
  • *Arkansas Black Apples
  • *Cranberries
  • *Fuji Apples
  • *Broccoli
  • *Carnival Squash
  • *French Breakfast Radishes
  • *Green Chard
  • *Purple Gold Potatoes

*Items are predicted for next week since I was not actually able to sit down and do this properly until Sunday.

Community Produce

  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Cucumbers
  • Zucchini
  • Green Pepper

Things in the fridge and on the counter

  • Asian pears
  • Apples
  • Reddening cherry tomatoes
  • Celery
  • Greens: Lettuce
  • Chard
  • Beets with greens
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Leeks
  • Sunchokes

Picked at the Garden

  • Closed for the season? At least I haven’t stopped by
  • Though we should try to do a final clean up of our plot
  • Maybe there’s some more parsley? Or collards?

Open Preserves

  • Fridge still organized!
  • Fridge still not inventoried!
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Pickled peach
  • Curdito
  • Fermenting green cherry tomatoes

Pantry Beans

  • Yellow Split Pea
  • Split Red Lentil
  • Black Caviar Lentil
  • Garbanzo Bean
  • Buckeye Bean
  • Good Mother Stallard
  • Pinto Bean
  • Christmas Lima
  • California Corona
  • And maybe one more on the shelf?

Cozy meals

  • We walked in the door at 5:15. We considered ordering delivery, but that requires it’s own decision tree. I made the chickpeas and pasta while you unloaded the rental car. Solid meal from the pantry, yes please. Since then we’ve made dragon noodles with carrots and the remaining leaves of cauliflower or broccoli. Crispy potatoes with the aforementioned lettuce cream sauce.
  • We have three pumpkins and another three squash currently serving as decor. They are overdue for being eaten. Chop one, roast, and serve with the tahini yogurt sauce a la Ottolenghi and Tamimi. Pumpkin Parmesan from the Good Food Cook Book? A curry with tofu? I’m trying to think what else I want to eat that will be better with whole pumpkin/squash chopped than puree and kinda thinking puree for the freezer/muffins/soups/pies/pasta sauce sounds reasonable. But then make puree in either oven or instant pot or crock pot. (I should use the better squash for puree for the cheesecake that looks so tempting.)
  • At Thanksgiving, you saw a kid’s magazine with a spread of cucumbers topped with cream cheese and pretzels or pickles or berries. We should put the cucumber to use.
  • I was trying to remember what baked rice dish surprised me last year with how well it worked. Remembered correctly that I’d texted it to a friend–not as a link but photo from a cookbook and found the Golden Carrot Bake in Simply in Season. Wouldn’t you know it, we have plenty of carrots right now. Also saw the kimchi rice bake, which is probably better for a rushed weeknight.
  • Zucchini feels harder to deal with when there’s snow in the air. Zucchini and pepper and some beans for a chili? A zucchini dal? Or with the royal coronas in a pizza beans set-up? I think the pizza beans if we have time, but the dal if I want to come home to an already made meal. The trick of cooking the rice and the dal at the same time seems worth trying at least once!
  • Speaking of the instant pot, we are at the time of year where I switch to oatmeal breakfast. Definitely going to be tossing a handful of cranberries into the pot with the oats and water. As a reminder, 1 cup of oats + 2.5 cups water + 15-20 minutes at pressure.

Love,

Sarah

PS If the swap box has cabbage, take it so we can make cran-kin-kraut!

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 22

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Dear John,

Our current CSA is the combined efforts of dozens of farms. Which means we often don’t have an overwhelming amount of a vegetable in a season. I think the last was the fall and winter of large sweet potatoes. (I’m still waiting for the month of watermelon this year.) Though, I think we also started getting smaller boxes after that and maybe that is a contributing factor?

I finally used the last leaves of the Napa cabbage. Which means with this delivery we have three heads of cabbage, all different varieties, in the fridge. Clearly we are not making enough slaws. Or okonomiyaki. Or balsamic cabbage noodles.

I think it’s time to ferment. Saurkraut here we come. ‘Tis the wrong season to make cran-kin-kraut. But we have new carrots. Let’s make curtido! Maybe one day we’ll make pupusas to go with them.

Today’s Box

  • Shiro Plums
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Athena Cantaloupe
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Orange Carrots
  • Pink Chard
  • Red Cabbage
  • Red Tomatoes

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Lettuce
  • Cabbage: Napa Cabbage, Green Cabbage,
  • Onion, Garlic
  • Peaches, blueberries

In the Garden

  • Basil by the bundle
  • Pinches of parsley
  • A few cherry tomatoes
  • One eggplant, that was still on the green side, oops
  • Collards
  • Blackberries enough for a cobbler
  • Sunflower! Dahlia! Calendula!

Open Preserves

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

Pantry Beans

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

Keep the meals coming

  • I wish I knew what our tomato harvest was going to look like. Right now, I’m feeling pessimistic. Let’s savor these tomatoes in slices on BLTs; with pesto and mozz; maybe on grilled cheese though I’m not sure I want even that little heat applied to them. Later in the month, I bet I’ll go for salads. By September, maybe, I’d choose to cook these to the tomato risotto. Now, I want the burst juices of red sunshine.
  • It’s not a year to make pie. I want pie. The crust is work though and storebought doesn’t have the top crust and it’s not a year to make pie. We made a blackberry cobbler–batter 50/50 rice and buckwheat flours. Had some for breakfast with yogurt. Would repeat. First though, let’s try a blueberry-peach crisp.
  • We have so much basil coming in. I think that means we have to use the chard in the peanut butter + basil + banana + chard wrap. As weird as it sounds. I remember it being good? Also, make more pesto. And then more pesto.

Love,

Sarah

PS Freeze the pesto.

Boxing Day, May 27

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Thank you for taking the photo. Next time, can you take the netting off the berries so we can see the prettiness?

Dear John,

We had a low-key weekend planned. Not much beyond procuring seed starts and getting them in the ground. I’m writing this on Sunday night and am very grateful that tomorrow is a holiday so we can go back to the garden tomorrow to get the last of the starts in the ground. Well, the last of the purchased starts. Tomatillos were out of stock, so we’ll go back for them later.

This year we have a variety of cherry tomatoes and one or two larger; sweet peppers because we still have hot sauce in the freezer and I didn’t see jalapenos; a bunch of eggplant that who knows whether they’ll do better but the sound fun; a single cucumber; another attempt at ground cherries. We have more basil and parsley than I know where it will fit. Undoubtedly some will end up at the house. Something might end up in the community herb plot. Worst case, maybe we leave something on the porch of one of those neighbors who has a curbside herb plot?

As the tomatoes and peppers and eggplant went in the ground, I had to remind myself that it was okay to pull up plants we had. The peas were always expected to be pulled when the tomatoes went in. The radishes are being poked in the ground wherever in part because they’re quick growing and if they get yoinked out early, it doesn’t feel like a disappointment. I didn’t expect to need to pull the greens, and may well plant some more soon. Perhaps we try to transplant a calendula or two to our house and put in some chard or collards down there? Or give up on the dream of strawberries in favor of beets? They both stain fingers pink!

Regardless part of me feels disappointed that we’re unlikely to have much to harvest the next few trips to the garden. I type, blatantly ignoring the carrots that will need to be harvested when the tomatillos come. And the peas that are remaining between the tomatoes for a bit. And the radishes that did not get pulled yet. And the fact that we’re already getting blooms for a tabletop posy. And that the raspberries in the community brambles were beginning to pinken. It’s our fifth year planting in this plot and I’m hoping for some fun surprises.

Today’s Box

  • Green Kale Swapped for Beets
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Red Scallions
  • Strawberries

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Rhubarb
  • Green Garlic

In the Garden

  • Peas and their plants
  • Radishes, ready to pick
  • Baby Radish Greens
  • Two baby beets and their leaves
  • Carrots + so many greens
  • Chard, Collards, Mustard?
  • Calendula

Open Preserves

  • Still to be done.

Pantry Beans

  • Also still to be done.

Making the most of our garden rearrangements, erm, harvest

  • At this point we have a handful of peas (not overwhelmed by the thirty some odd plants I planted). Enough for snacking but I’m not feeling the need to do more than eat them raw.
  • I am, however, experimenting with eating the pea leaves. They’re most just chewy enough that I don’t want them in a salad. Feel like it’s either stir-fry them, pesto/sauce them, or put them in an all the greens curry.
  • Well, all the greens except the carrot greens. Those have been getting chopped and mixed with nuts and cheese for the carrot top pesto for weeks now. Put it on a cracker/toast. Add some more cheese. Call it lunch. Tonight I also made a carrot top salsa verde with a back of the fridge pickle juice and some cashews. Think it’ll be yummy on eggs or a grain bowl. Maybe hummus/white bean dip bowl?
  • The mustard greens aren’t quite enough to make me want to curry them. So probably putting in a stirfry thing. Maybe as simple as getting into a fried rice. Maybe it’s the turmeric coconut rice. Something was eating the chard, so we have more stems than greens. Those can be tossed in whatever too.
  • I swapped out the kale for a pack of beets. I’m not sure which of the Six Seasons beet salads to make. Pistachio butter and grated beets? Roast and add avocado and sunflower seeds? Or the end of the citrus and olives? Honestly, probably the last one because there’s some lingering grapefruit that should really be consumed.
  • We’re getting lots of supermarket strawberries these days. I’m taking the tops and macerating them and tossing on lettuce dressed with vinegar. Chevre is a bonus. Radishes were a fun addition.
  • Which will leave the Napa cabbage as the lingering green vegetable. I’m already thinking about the gingery slaw that might be sent to work in your lunchbox. Or okonomiyaki for dinner. Or probably both of those and then a half dozen other dishes because it is cabbage after all.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, May 13

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Green to white ombré.

Dear John,

We hosted. Success! We reset, at least a little. We home maintained–getting both HVAC and plumbing professionals out to diagnose leaks. We came down with colds and have had soup for three of the past four meals. Here’s some things I’m thinking about if we get to feeling better. Perhaps to serve to our next guest who arrives in…40 hours or so. Hopefully we’re feeling better by then!

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Collards Fennel
  • Green Garlic
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • White Scallions

Things in the fridge

  • Asparagus ends
  • Sunchokes
  • Rhubarb
  • Radish
  • Lettuce

In the Garden

  • Radishes
  • Carrots
  • Hardy Greens Mix (Kale/Collards/Mustard)

Open Preserves

  • Still to be done. Though we did use a vinaigrette on a celery and chickpea salad we took to a picnic with friends this weekend. One fewer jar!

Sniffling through springtime
(still dreaming of the celebrations though)

  • Despite the lack of rhubarb in our first box, I had plenty to work with when it was delivered from a visitor’s yard. I made a rosemary rhubarb crisp and two rhubarb custard pies. And then we got more delivered in last week’s box. Another custard pie is tempting. But so is rhubarb vanilla jam. Or rhubarb mulberry jam. Nevermind that I haven’t spotted mulberries yet.
  • It’s spring allium season. I think it might be time for triple threat galette. We didn’t make it for Easter this year, but we can still celebrate.
  • I picked up the fennel from the swap box (and left collards) thinking of the fennel sardine pasta. Looking at my search bar history, I’m tempted to try the fennel fritters again. But fennel and white beans sounds yummy too. Perhaps in another soup? Or maybe make the cassoulet?
  • The soup we are making in the next day or two is one more round of the asparagus ends soup. Use the leftover potato peels instead of oats!
  • How do we want to use the turnip tops this week? I’m tempted to go beans and greens route and cook up the kale and collards from the garden at the same time. (Coming soon: an inventory of our beans so that we can better consider which beans might integrate into our menu each week.)
  • Turnip bottoms into the Six Seasons turnips and yogurt salad.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, June 25

planorcan1 Comment

Dear John,

Two years ago, the Stir-Fry Greens mix was successful, especially the kale. Last year, we grew rainbow chard. This year, the greens of choice are collards.

I grew up in collards country. They’re a frequent side in the meat and three menu, where macaroni and cheese counts as a vegetable. But I didn’t grow up with them at home. New Year’s! Not everyday.

I do love the Lee Brother’s Four Pepper Collard Greens. Especially on a grilled cheese sandwich. And a simple sauteed side is always good, especially with a pot of beans and rice like we had for dinner tonight. Or as a topping on a greens and grits bowl. Here’s some preemptive brainstorming for other ways to use them:

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Gold Beets
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Purplette Onions
  • Thumbelina Carrots
  • Red Kale

Things in the fridge

  • Broccoli
  • Celery
  • Cauliflower
  • Kohlrabi
  • Sunchokes
  • Greens: Lettuce, Cabbage
  • Roots: Fingerling Sweet Potatoes
  • Alliums: Garlic scapes, Green garlic, Onions

In the Garden

  • Collards
  • Herbs: Dill, Basil (as pinched), Zatar, Rosemary, Oregano, Mint
  • Calendula and Cosmos

Open Preserves

  • Ha! We need to do a fridge check. I’m just going to leave this as a placeholder.

Forever trying to keep the cooking cool during this heat. But cooler this week so maybe we can do a roasting night?

  • The beet greens ended up with some collards for dinner tonight. (Last minute plans having friends come to dinner is the life I want to live. It was not a fancy meal. But it was delicious. And, hey, rice and beans is their toddler’s favorite food!)
  • When I picked up the box, another woman was getting her veggies. She commented on the carrots and I said I’m excited for the greens. Time to pull out Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds and make carrot top pesto! I don’t have any specific plans for the little knobs of carrots though.
  • I was serious about trying the zucchini with collard greens pesto. If we can brave turning on the oven.
  • That roasted beets with avocado and sunflower seeds from Six Seasons was yummy AND made a dent in our pickled peppers. Maybe let’s do that again! Else the beet slaw with pistachio butter on the previous page.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, June 27

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Dear John,

The days where it rains, those are fine. We can sit on the porch and still feel a bit of space from being outside. The days when we’re sick, not great. But being inside feels appropriate then. And we can sit on the porch and feel sun on our face. (Can you tell I like having a porch?)

But these days where it’s smoky. When the haze obscures the view down the street. When we put on masks to go outside, and try to stay indoors. They get hard.

The concerns of climate change continue to mount.

We advocate for change at a structural level. We have conversations and try to model small shifts at a social level. And we do what we can to care for each other. To share abundance with it comes and to buffer blows as we are able.

Today’s Box

  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Fava Beans
  • Green Cabbage
  • Iceberg Lettuce
  • Thumbelina Carrots
  • Sugar Snap Peas

Things in the fridge

  • Blueberries
  • Watermelon
  • Cherries
  • Radishes
  • Peas
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collard
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Rainbow chard
  • Turnips + greens
  • Beets + greens
  • Peas for the sampling–snap, snow, and shelling
  • Lettuce, when we’re ready
  • Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
  • Dill flowers
  • Calendula flowers getting dried
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and oregano bouquet supplemented by Black Eyed Susans someone tossed in the compost

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

We’re wrapping up the turnip and radishes from the spring plantings. They’ll be back in a couple of months. Expect we’ll be pulling the pea plants soon, so we can be a second batch of beans in the ground. (The first batch have all sprouted! And there was rain so I think we’re looking promising.)

Meals to consider and pickles to prep

  • Good news. I pickled a pint of cherries and that salad only used a cup, so we get to have the snap peas and pickled cherries salad again.
  • Last week’s watermelon rind + dill flowers + garlic have started a slow ferment down in the basement. It was so easy! The hardest part was peeling the rinds. They taste like dill pickles! Expect more experiments all summer long.
  • Toast + almond butter + chevre + cherry halves
  • I snuck a leaf of the iceberg lettuce that had fallen loose in the box. And promptly spent the whole walk home day dreaming of a wedge salad with a good blue cheese dressing. Maybe we can roast some beet lardons to be a topping instead of bacon?
  • Fava bean pistachio pasta. (Make stock with the pods?)
  • Grits ‘n greens
  • Carrot top pesto
  • We may keep using the cabbage as easy grab and go salad fixings. But if we need a heartier dinner, I’m leaning toward caramelized cabbage noodles.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, May 23 (and 16)

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Dear John,

A week ago, not long after we’d picked up our lettuce and bok choy for the week, some neighborhood friends texted. They’d gotten a CSA and now had a fridge full of greens that would surely go bad before they ate them all. Would we like some?

So, I came back home with a bag full of chard and kale and fennel and I don’t even remember what else. I suggested asking around to find someone to split the share for the rest of the season. And also sent an email with a few of our favorite ways to cook up greens, when salad won’t go through them quickly enough. I have a feeling we’ll be needing these in the coming weeks, so for easier searching.

  1. Instant pot Indian Curry – Can switch out potatoes for chickpeas pretty easily.
  2. Coconut turmeric rice with greens – What I made for dinner that night. Toss a can of beans in it to round out the meal.
  3. Beans and greens pasta – Classic.
  4. Braised beans and greens – Also classic.
  5. Green shakshuka – Kale and eggs! Maybe another way?
  6. Turmeric black pepper stir fry – Okay, not vegetarian as written. We sub the chicken for tofu and asparagus for greens. or green beans.
  7. Braised cabbage and glass noodles – They have some other cabbage and glass noodle recipes that we also use. Dried mushrooms are a kitchen staple for us now. Also, this is one that we haven’t tried with other greens.
  8. Steamed greens and tofu in a glaze – In case you have a health struggles and suddenly go on extra low-fat watch, but are still allowed sugar. But really, I’ve used this one for years. Usually with brown rice.
  9. Sweet potato, kale, and quinoa fritters – Maybe more in the fall when sweet potatoes are in abundance. definitely served on top of salad, using even more greens 😉
  10. Tacos! – Cannot vouch for this recipe. I read the list above to you and you said tacos were missing.
  11. Enfrijodlas – Ooooh. I do like this recipe though. And would totally stuff them like enchiladas, but with wilted greens
  12. When all else fails, Greens Jam – Legit good. Tips on how to use it here. Great for picnics!

Today’s Box

  • Garlic Scapes
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Strawberries

Things in the fridge (from last week and beyond)

  • Cranberries
  • Red Butterhead Lettuce
  • Bok Choy
  • Fennel
  • Some bitter greens from the neighbors
  • More greens from the neighbors
  • Scallions, Green Garlic
  • Hakurei Turnips
  • Orange Carrots
  • Sunchoke
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Lettuce, if we’d like
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Turnips + their greens
  • Calendula leaves, from the thinning
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

And when we peek at the garden

We bought starts on Saturday. Put them in the ground on Sunday. When we arrived, I was surprised at how green our plot already was. The radishes and turnips (pictured) were thriving–we left with a shopping bag full. The lettuce was actually forming. The calendula row from last year was quickly becoming thick with plants, so we’ve thinned and tried replanting at home. One edamame was actually recognizable. The peas were tall enough to think about training them on their tent poles. I think we have cosmos volunteering, but who knows, maybe those sprouts are actually weeds.

Beyond the greens

  • Look, I picked up extra fennel from the swap box before we got fennel from the neighbors. We’ve already had fennel with braised lentils. Twice. And turnip yogurt poppy salad with fennel fronds as our herb. I’m eyeing this fennel and bean casserole. Planning to pickle up some stems (because we’ve actually used up the previous jars). Contemplating a fennel pesto vs fennel fritter.
  • We have yet to make lettuce soup, but it has been mentioned previously. This might be the week for it. (Especially since the lettuce from yesterday’s box hasn’t made it to the refrigerator yet….)
  • If we don’t feel like fried ricing it, salad from the cabbage?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 20

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Psst, photographer…hide the twist ties/rubber bands. Or at least make them less prominent?

Hi John,

My parents texted this morning that they’re on the road. They’ll arrive tomorrow and be here through next Tuesday, when we switch from the one-size winter box we split to the small-size summer box that’s just us.

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Cilantro
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Dandelion
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Scallions
  • Spinach

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Radishes
  • Cilantro
  • Carrots of the rainbow
  • Sunchoke
  • Red Beet

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Dinners with visitors

  • It turns out that the parsley I picked up as a bonus last week is actually cilantro. And we got more cilantro today. And rotted cilantro is a heartbreak. So, let’s use this. Cabbage and peanut slaw with cilantro on breakfast tacos and maybe in spring rolls. Roasted beets and carrots in a Thai-inspired curry. Ginger-garlic-not-quite-pho. Note: all of these should also use up the scallions.
  • Usually we’ve cooked up dandelion greens with beans. But we have pizza dough left from earlier in the week. Dandelion greens, garlic, and goat cheese?
  • The cilantro slaw will presumably be our main salad of the week. But let’s have spinach + turnip + carrot as our go to side salad.

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 6

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So many onions. Such an easy staple to use, that I’m not even going to pretend to look for recipes for them.

Dear John,

Easter dinner is upon us. Macaroni and cheese. Biscuits. Triple threat galette. Simple salad. Some sort of lemon cake, or cake with lemon curd, or lemon cream tart. Friends. Family. Seemingly straightforward. With luck, we’ll have leftovers to carry through a busy week of work. (Time to raid the freezer if we don’t!)

Today’s Box

  • Asian Greens Mix
  • Broccoli Rabe
  • Cilantro
  • Onions
  • Orange Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Radishes
  • Spinach  

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Italian Parsley
  • Spinach
  • Yellow Carrots
  • Yellow Onions
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots
  • Sunchoke
  • Red Beets

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Quick meals for busy days

  • We have cilantro. We have chard. You know what to do.
  • Simple salads. Greens + carrots + radish. Add quinoa and a miso-tofu dressing. Add beans and the leftover oregano-lemon dressing. Switch it up for greens + beets + grapefruit + blue cheese.
  • Really the broccoli rabe is the thing that isn’t essentially a salad or soup staple these days. I vote pizza.
  • And we should see if that squash is still good…. It’s been a minute. Stuffing it would be a solid dinner.

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 30

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Lettuce and spinach and dandelion greens and parsley.

Dear John,

The equinox has come. Easter is quick on it’s way. Garden scheming time is here. This weekend we pulled out our box of seeds to start scheming. I’m surrounded by slips of paper scribbled with notes. Trying to decide what goes where. This year we’re going to try planting the tall plants on the north end of the garden and the shorter on the southern end.

Currently in the north end of the plot, it turns out the plants that we thought were the garlic that we sowed but then never figured out when to harvest are actually garlic chives. Which can take over as much space as we give them. So maybe let’s give them less space? And harvest a bunch? Which means cooking a bunch. Make some compound butter. Dehydrate some and make into a salt. Try some egg noodles where the chives are the noodles. Or just some eggs. If we ever make it to the Asian grocery, pick up some dried shrimp and try these or see if the spiced tofu is gluten free and we can make this stirfry.

Today’s Box

  • Italian Parsley
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Little Gem Romaine Lettuce
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Yellow Carrots
  • Yellow Onions
  • Green Dandelion

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Red Beets

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Dahlia bulbs
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

Goes well with garlic chives (or not)

  • It feels like a stir-fry week. Mix up some sauce, put some rice in the pressure cooker, chop some veggies, and play.
  • We have beans in the freezer that are waiting to be cooked with dandelion greens. Let’s pick up some sausage and see if we feel comfortable pinching sage leaves from the herb plot in the garden. We have some dried if not.
  • Salads! We’ve been talking about adding more fish into our diet, perhaps we try a variation on a salmon salad? The ladolemono dressing sounds yummy! Or in for a vegetarian, but add oil, approach time to top with smashed sunchoke. I’m wondering if there’s a way to use the sunchokes instead of artichokes in a quinoa salad dish like this. Maybe easier to try adapting a pasta salad that’s halfway there first? (Use last summer’s pesto from the freezer!) Or just a straightforward green salad.
  • We haven’t been eating risotto as much recently, probably because we ate it so much for required diets previously. This sunchoke risotto intrigues me.

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 9

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It is important that we keep the garden sunchokes separate from the CSA sunchokes. Nevermind that the garden sunchokes were sprouted from last year’s CSA sunchokes.

Dear John,

With the health complications of the fall, we sorta-kinda killed the yogurt starter. I tried starting up again with a sample from a Meditarrian restaurant near my parents, but it hasn’t really taken off. So I bought some packets of starter. And apparently it can take a few activation rounds before it gets good. And the milk that we were using went off quickly.

We have a lot of yogurt that I don’t want to eat but don’t really want to throw out.

So….baking projects it is! Subbing the yogurt for milk in our favorite chocolate muffins (not these, but same person). Maybe we should try her chocolate chip muffins too? Cornbread with a pot of beans and greens? (Looking at you, kale.) Morning glory muffins with shredded carrot and parsnip? Use some in the pancakes this weekend. The lemon-poppyseed scones that I made in college and keep in the freezer even though it is poison to you? I’m trying to think what else will bake and freeze decently well. Maybe it’s just chocolate muffins forever. They are a yummy recipe (she types after licking her fingers from the one nibbled while writing).

Today’s Box

  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Purple Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Beets
  • White Scallions
  • Green Kale Hearts
  • Asian Greens Mix

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Parsley
  • Half a parsnip
  • Carrots
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots

Open Preserves

For when we’re not baking yogurt

  • Chard and spaghetti from Six Seasons.
  • We need to restock our Asian pantry items. We’re out of the good chili oil and low on dried shiitake. Nevermind the rice flour and rice noodles and kimchi and soon tofu. Which is to say the scallions won’t be topping stirfries until we make it to the specialty grocery. Which means…..scallion-onion-garlic galette time again?
  • Purple beets! (I know they’re red, but, have you seen them? They look purple.) These are getting roasted, pureed, and frozen. To be tossed into hummus and yogurt as we need the flavor/vegetable boosts.
  • Speaking of putting things in the freezer, time to make another batch of sunchoke burgers and stock our freezer.
  • But some of the Jerusalem Artichokes (from the box? from the garden?) should end up in a relish. (Linking to one, but let’s check the church/community cookbooks shelf too.) And of course, save some for pizza. And maybe, if we have enough, fry ’em and smash ’em and put ’em on a salad.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 23

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The return of greens. Chard and lettuce and mix. Don’t worry, we still have plenty of roots.

Dear John,

In the time between when I started this draft and, ahem, starting the next draft we had some produce experimentation. We dug up some sunchokes from our pots–surprisingly easy to clean off the the soil. I guess the potting mix is better aerated than our yard. The pizza was delicious and I am eagerly anticipating the burgers.

We also split our dahlia tubers. Sorted between viable and edible. Washed and peeled a few of the latter. Sauteed in butter with salt and pepper. They felt more like radishes than potatoes. Decent chip though. Not a food I’d seek out (bred for looks as it were), but might as well with the ones that are otherwise destined for the compost pile. I’m scheming what pickling we might attempt.

Today’s Box

  • Asian Greens Mix
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Gold Beets x2
  • Purple Daikon Radishes x2
  • Purple Viking Potatoes
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Red Chard

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Parsley
  • Half a parsnip
  • Half a cabbage
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Sweet Potatoes
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Black Futsu squash (from the farmers market)
  • Shallots, onions

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • The greens look so perfect for salads. We should make a dressing and keep it simple and on the side. Chop a turnip. Add some fruit. Maybe add some roasted beet wedges. Toasted pumpkin seeds. Oh look, it’s a meal size salad now.
  • I’m cheating cause you already made it, but twice baked potatoes. (We should have used the turnip greens for that instead of the frozen spinach. But whatevs. It was yummy cozy.) Prep them all and freeze what we’re not eating for that meal.
  • The radishes are calling for a fried rice situation. At least that’s how I’m feeling at the moment.
  • But some of them can go in okonomiyaki. With that half cabbage from the last box.
  • Swiss chard and sweet potato gratin? (Unless we do the sweet potatoes discussed last week.)
  • Purple potatoes for gnocci!

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 9

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I feel like we missed an opportunity here. If only it’d been red onions and red cabbage (aka the purple kinds). Maybe even the standard beets. Purple basil! Ah. The purple CSA box will just have to reside in my dreams.

Dear John,

The oven died and took too long to fix. I kept delaying posting until we got an appliance repair person here. Hindsight, not the most helpful way to plan.

But it is fixed and we have the next box now. So I will hit publish on this one. Thank you to the repair person and to the neighbors who passed along the phone number to text.

Today’s Box

  • All Purple Carrots
  • Chioggia Beets x2
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Purple Sweet Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Parsley
  • Green Cabbage

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Half a parsnip
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Black Futsu squash (from the farmers market)
  • Shallots

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • Sweet potatoes topped with celery and shallot and cheese. You know what, we have grocery store celery. We could totally make this again. It’s good. And so simple. Reminder that we could use the 8 minute sweet potato trick if we want to do this before we get the oven fixed.
  • Chioggia Beets are the pretty striped ones. They begged to be mandolined into paper thin slices for salads. Probably pair with some citrus and some of the cheese that we need for topping the sweet potatoes. Toasted hazelnuts, warm from the oven. Top with some parsley if you’re feeling fancy farm-to-table restaurant style.
  • That said, when we grow tired of raw storage beets (because, that is what these are, right?), maybe we try a beet tartare. (Totally inspired by me doing cntrl+f for beet on the menu at an old favorite farm-to-table restaurant. Their description is “avocado / radish / capers / egg.”)
  • I do tend to use the cabbage for salads. Crispy and crunchy and feeling fresh.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, January 12

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Roots time. (With more leaves than I expected.)

Happy New Year John!

Last weekend we took another round of Covid tests to reassure ourselves that the cold we’d had all week was not that particular virus. And then we revived my traditional cookie party. We kept it small (peoples wise) and long (time wise). Windows cracked to increase ventilation. But, ah, it filled my heart. Thumbprints. Biscotti. Sugar cookies that spread everywhere. Rugelach with blueberry jam from last year’s fruit share. So many crumbs and so many nubbly nibbles all week long.

I think that’s going to be emblematic of my goal for us this year. Still being extra attentive to sickness and caution. Trying to find ways to socialize little bit by little bit more. We’ve made lots of progress outside, and I want to continue that. We can mask when we go to known crowds (ahem, or the grocery store). But maybe we don’t need to aim for indoor dining quite yet. Hearing the stories of long covid continues to justify our current way of life.

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Carnival Squash
  • Cilantro
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Parsnips
  • Red Cabbage
  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Green Kale

Things in the fridge

  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Baby-nut squash

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • Cilantro! And squash! We can make the mole verde that got skipped this fall because seeds are too much fat for that diet. Hooray! (Belated realization that could’ve made the cranberry salsa. But happier for the mole verde.) Serve with squash. Then sweet potato. Sides of rice, beans, and tortillas.
  • I have sausage in the fridge from the hoppin’ john. Potato because we’re in the season where it’s good to have potato on hand. Let’s make kale potato soup.
  • Roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed greens (our turnips have greens!), and eggs for breakfast.
  • Sunchoke pizza is too similar to the dahlia bulb pizza we had earlier this week (with the bulbs that got sacrificed to the shovel when we dug up the plants for the winter). Burger time it is.
  • Cabbage + turnip + apple + peanut ginger dressing = lunchting salad
  • That leaves parsnip. I’m defaulting to maple parsnip soup.

Love you,

Sarah

PS I published the drafts of the last two posts rather than let them linger. Let’s be honest, whatever meals were made and we’re moving on the new year, new foods. And I don’t remember what all got eaten in between.

Boxing Day, December 20

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Was not expecting to get lettuce this time of year. Guess the greenhouse is going!

Dear John,

What a year. Today marks the anniversary of moving into our house. There are still boxes left to unpack (there are always boxes left to unpack), but it really is feeling like home. Stockings are hung from the stairs. Mary, Joseph, and the donkey are passing the shepherd and sheep on their journey to the stable. And I have brand new teas to choose from once the kettle reaches its boil.

We’ll travel for Christmas–visiting my family and yours. No reason not to make some soup and make sure the fridge is ready with a dinner to warm when we return.

Today’s Box

  • Granny Smith Apples
  • Pink Lady Apples
  • All Purple Carrots
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Purple Viking Potatoes

Things in the fridge and counter

  • Pear
  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Radishes, red and purple
  • Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
  • Sweet potato
  • 898 squash

Open Preserves

Home meals

  • These are not starchy potatoes. So while soup sounds great during the coming cold,I
  • Kimchi soup! Use daikon to make stock. Use the kimchi in the fridge. Doesn’t use that many CSA veggies, but does feel yum.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, December 15

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Purple in between the orange-red-browns of late fall.

Today’s Box

  • Blueberry Jam
  • Braeburn Apples
  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • 898 Squash
  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Daikon Radishes

Things in the fridge and counter

  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Green Kale Hearts
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Red radishes
  • Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
  • Onions

Open Preserves

Meal Plans

  • Vegetarian Cassoulet. (That’s different than what we made on Sunday night. But uses the same beans!)
  • Oknomiyaki. And, now that my digestive track is cooperative, we can use the pickled fennel.
  • We didn’t make the Thai carrot sweet potato soup last week, so we will this week.
  • We’ve had winters dominated by sweet potatoes and winters rolling in radishes. We got both this week and I’m so curious what the coming season will bring. (I bet the farm already has a good guess based on what they have in storage.)

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, December 6

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The kale reminded me of the greenery in the produce aisle at the grocery store. Only that served as filler not to be eaten. How times have changed.

Dear John,

It’s a oven-baking evening. I turned it on for dinner inspired by the book I’m reading. A character was making a tahini-yogurt dressing to go on roasted butternut squash and red onion and I realized we hadn’t had the roasted squash and onion from Jerusalem yet this season. And we had 2/3 of the last squash hanging out in the refrigerator. The oven stayed hot to roast chickpeas (I cooked a pound of beans yesterday just for this). And while the oven was on we might as well toast up the squash seeds. And let’s take advantage of a hot oven to cook up your next batch of granola.

The kitchen is warm. You’re up to your elbows in dishes. There are lots of nibbles. My heart is happy.

Today’s Box

  • Cranberries
  • Fuji Apples
  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Green Kale Hearts
  • Napa Cabbage
  • Orange Carrots (Really? They look purple on the outside to me.)

Things in the fridge and counter

  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Leek greens
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Red radishes
  • Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
  • Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
  • Potatoes
  • Onions, maybe one still from the CSA. Mostly there are usually onions

Open Preserves

Meal Plans

  • Fried rice with leek greens and Napa cabbage
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts (not a meal. But let’s be honest about what I’m going to do with these.)
  • Kale salad with pomegranate and blue cheese and apple slices
  • Kale salad with roasted cranberries and cheddar and that last bit of roasted squash
  • Carrot lentil soup? Or carrot sweet potato curry soup? We do still have sweet potato in the freezer…
  • Dragon noodles with carrot and cabbage

Let’s talk cranberries

On Saturday, I made cranberry carrot steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. (Added maple syrup and apple cider for sweetness. Totally forgot spices beyond a dash of salt. It was delicious. Still working my way through the leftovers.) At lunch, we ate leftover squash stuffed with various things, including cranberries. For dinner, arugula salad with roasted beets and cranberries and pear-mustard dressing. Dessert, apple-cranberry crisp.

On the center of the table we have a half gallon jar filled with last week’s cabbage, the missing third of the squash that was tonight’s dinner, and more cranberries. I’m so curious how this sauerkraut will turn out. I see bubbles. Right now! They’re floating up as I type! Fermentation is weird and cool and I feel like a newbie in my fascination. (Do not think too hard about what we will do with this half gallon of cran-kin kraut. I have already decided that we should actually cook meat for one meal to pair with it. We may need to source “rye bread” for you for sandwiches. Erm….something something potatoes.)

My mom’s offered to freeze some (in anticipation of her cranberry relish next year?), but I’d rather use them now. An internet friend made cranberry salsa (they use less sugar than this recipe, maybe more cilantro). There’s this cheesecake that is all the more tempting because we did not have the cheesecakes of summer this year. And maybe we need some refrigerator pickles for the fanciest cheese plates in the coming year.

The less than perfect cranberries end up in the freezer stock bag with the apple cores. We already have a cranberry-apple chutney and cranberry-apple syrup (shhh…..the jelly didn’t set, next time do the plate test!) that can top pancakes and be mixed into drinks. Maybe we’ll manage a proper cranberry jam.

So while the fridge currently feels overtaken, this is the reminder to myself (and, I suppose to you) that we really are using a lot of cranberries right now. I have bought frozen cranberries explicitly for the purpose of smoothies before, so the fact that we already have some in our freezer is a good move. There’s only two weeks of fruit share left and then I’ll be missing all the cranberries quickly.

Love you,

Sarah

PS I know you can’t eat it, and it used dried cranberries instead of fresh, but I’m putting the cranberry-chocolate-walnut brickle on the cookie party list.

Boxing Day, November 29

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Omitted, an additional pint of cranberries.

Dear John,

Last week went remarkably according to plan. Black Futsu was stuffed with artisan (gluten free) bread cubes, Gruyère, Emmenthal, four strips of bacon, thyme, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, cream. It really was, oh so good. A couple of days later Kabocha with wild rice, mushrooms, cranberries, carrots, celery, shallots, raisins, rosemary, oregano, thyme. Still delicious, if not quite as decadent feeling.

Cabbage was shredded with carrots, apple ginger dressing, and the seeds for the squash that was on the table. Later more was shredded, doused with garlic-lemon-anchovy dressing, topped with toasted hazelnuts and sourdough croutons (for those who could partake).

Those who would miss turkey, missed the turkey. Those who are mostly vegetarian, surely didn’t. Except, it would be nice to have the carcass to make broth for all the soups of the season. Ah well, that’s what the veggie stock bag is for.

Today’s Box

  • Cranberries
  • Crispin Apples
  • Fuji Apples
  • Arugula
  • January King Cabbage
  • Leeks
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Red Radishes

Things in the fridge and counter

  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Celery
  • 1/2 a Beet
  • Carrots of the rainbow
  • Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
  • Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
  • Carnival Squash
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Potatoes (only the gold)
  • Onions

Open Preserves

Making the most of the greenery

  • Leek and Potato soup! More with Less has a recipe as does Good Food Cook Book. Combine those for fun.
  • We have radishes. With greens! Carrots. With greens! Arugula! And, of course, cabbage. Let’s have fun with the greens that won’t last before settling into the months of cabbage and storage greens. One more batch of carrot top pesto. Salads with arugula and pear and blue cheese. Or arugula with roasted beets and goat cheese. Breakfast of roasted potatoes, fried eggs, and sauteed radish greens.
  • I’m proud we finished the last cabbage before this one arrived. (Barely.) We did cabbage and butter pasta this weekend. May be time for okonomiyaki. Or the Polish Potato Casserole of my childhood.
  • We have some left over stuffings that’ll go in the squash. Make the Thanskgiving cooking last.
  • But, let’s work on the cranberries. I think we have ~15 cups in the refrigerator right now. (To be far, about 10 came today.) We might have to candy some or string them with popcorn. Until then, more sauce? Newtons? Make cranberry curd and freeze it? Cranapple pie?

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, November 22

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Twice as many cranberries as last week. We’re totally making cranberry curd soon.

Happy Thanksgiving John,

We took our Covid tests this morning, in anticipation of out of state visitors arriving this afternoon. Not quite as many as we planned for. Guess that means more leftovers.

We’re skipping the turkey in favor of a pumpkin, erm, squash stuffed with delciousness. Cranberry sauce. Cranberry relish. Cranberry relish variation two. Maybe just one pie tomorrow and another on Friday or Saturday?

Today’s Box

  • Cranberries
  • Goldrush Apples
  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Celery
  • Onions
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes

Things in the fridge and counter

  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Cranberries
  • Fennel
  • Celery
  • Cabbage
  • Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
  • Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
  • Sweet Dumpling Squash
  • Carnival Squash
  • Potatoes (purple and gold)
  • Onions

From the Farmer’s Market

  • Wild rice
  • Mushrooms
  • Brussel sprouts
  • Kabocha Squash
  • Black Futsu
  • Shallots

Open Preserves

Thanksgiving Dinner (that still needs cooking)!

And beyond!

  • I can eat fat now! Which includes coconut. We can make a pumpkin curry. Use red curry paste! Toss in tofu? Or mushrooms? Or cabbage? Peanuts? Cashews? The mystery peppers we gleaned from the compost pile???
  • The onions are huge. I’m tempted to make french onion soup. Need to remember what the vegetarian version that I liked was. Mushroom broth?
  • Avgolemono soup sounds good and meets the various dietary preferences we’re hosting this week. Might be worth buying greens to be able to make it. (So weird to be planning to buy produce!)
  • Something potatoes. Roasted potatoes as side dish? Potato salad? Mashed potatoes for the Thanksgiving table?
  • Need to use the fennel. Maybe roasted with apples? And beet. *seareches* Oh! Roasted with potatoes! That’ll do. Perhaps even do for tomorrow.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, November 1

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Orange and purple are on theme for Halloween.

Dear John,

We made it through surgery. And, as I write the letter part of this five days after pickup, support visits from family. I think I won’t go back to the dishes everyone made. A decision completely separate from my lack of remembering what those dishes were…..

Then garden’s coming to the end of it’s time. We planted greens (Kale! Swiss chard! Mustard greens!) and they’ve sprouted. We’ll see whether they make it through the cold ahead. Ditto the radishes and turnips that are growing bit by bit. When we went to the plot this weekend, I had you pick most of the tomatoes off the vines. There might be a bit before they frost comes. Maybe. Or we can make more chutney and ferment. And enjoy the green from the end of the season.

The dahlias, however, are a delight. We didn’t prune as much as we should’ve this season. And they ran wild. Enough to have a bouquet on the table and on the counter and to give to a friend and hand out blooms to strangers just because.

Today’s Box

  • Cranberries
  • Fuji Apples
  • Yellow Bartlett Pears 
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Gold Potatoes
  • Radicchio
  • Red Beets
  • Red Butterhead Lettuce

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Ginger
  • Cranberries
  • Green bell peppers
  • Carrot and a bunch of carrot greens
  • Honeynut squash
  • Sweet Dumpling Squash
  • Potatoes

Coming in from the Garden

  • Basil
  • Tomatillos, last of the season
  • Roma tomatoes, green and red
  • Peppers?
  • The beans dried on the vine
  • Dahlias and marigolds and cosmos
  • Rosemary

Open Preserves

Meals to eat with company when we have our own food restrictions

  • Those beet greens are gorgeous, but take up a ton of space. We should use them tonight! Coconut rice?
  • Speaking of greens, we still have carrot tops from last week. And new ones. Make both the pesto and the salsa verde from Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds.
  • Getting radicchio and beets and and cranberries reminds me of this salad, which we first made with rhubarb and later made with frozen cranberries and can totally make with cranberries this go around.
  • We used the leek bottoms, but still have many leek tops. Scraps, Wilts, Weeds recommends cutting them into skinny strips, about three inches long and stir-frying them. Let’s try that! Along with tofu?
  • Have some radishes and turnips from our garden plot. They have greens, but it’s just a few roots, so fewer leaves. Cook up some lentils an for a salad with some of the greens stirred in at the end?
  • Honeynut peeled into strips and topping a pizza crust with lemons and goat cheese, a la Melissa Clark.
  • Let’s go ahead and get the sour cream and onion to make Mama Stamberg’s cranberry relish. It can wait in the freezer until Thanksgiving.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 17

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We had enough sweet potato from the last box. We gave our fellow share splitters the sweet potatoes from this week.

Hi John,

Friday afternoon I was curled up in your office, just starting the next book for bookclub, when you answered a phone call from my dad. Everything’s fine. But they were on the road home from visiting my sister and realized that the weather for the weekend wasn’t conducive for travel. With three hours notice, we managed to prepare for our for guests since we moved–slightly organize the moving chaos, wash the towels, and make dinner.

We’ve done minimal hosting these past two years. Occasional picnics with friends. Two visits from my sister, once where we had my cousin come over for dinner the day after he moved to town. Sometimes taking a dish over to a friends’ house. I think that’s it.

So it was reassuring to realize that we could still cook for more people (than just us). We had turnip fried rice, butternut and bean soup (using the volunbeans!), shaved cabbage salad with a lemon-garlic dressing, baked oatmeal, and wood ear mushroom congee. Successful hosting! Without intentionally stocking up for the visit! Or running to the grocery store! (To be fair, we have been able to keep a stocked fridge and pantry. And, while I’m trying to stockpile fewer dry goods than I was at this point of 2020, we still try to keep food on hand so that we could quarantine for two weeks.)

In This Week’s Box

  • Broccoli
  • Cilantro
  • Flat Leaf Spinach
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Topped Turnips
  • White Scallions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cup of cooked volunbeans
  • Cranberries
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Celery
  • Greens: Green Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Breakfast radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Onions
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now (and maybe later)

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 17

planorcanLeave a comment
We took mushrooms last week and left beets and turnips this week. Sharing!

Hi John,

We have not made the shepherd’s pie, yet. So it feels like a lot of last week’s veggies are still hanging around. But! I did use the spaghetti squash (from October?). The seeds inside had almost universally started sprouting and the whole thing tasted bitter. Maybe it shouldn’t be stored for months and months at room temperature? (And we should probably prioritize that butternut squash too. Pizza with goat cheese?)

We also, finally, made the sunchoke veggie burgers and used up the Jerusalem Artichokes. I know. Those have been sitting in the back of the fridge since before I started keeping track of what’s still in the fridge. So of course this week’s box replenishes our supply.

I’m excited about it though. Despite what one might think from them being our lingering food, I’ve found I like sunchokes. Those veggie burgers are amazing! (They take a while to make. But the serving size on that post is way off. I made a half recipe and we got 6 normal size patties and 1 small one. And they freeze well! Once a batch is made it’s easy to make into a meal.) I like putting thin slices on a pizza. I liked Bryant Terry’s sunchoke cream for when we’re cooking a creamy vegan dish (though would use real cream if I wasn’t trying to serve a vegan meal). I like artichoke relish when we have sausage in the summer. And smashed sunchokes with siracha mayo.

All to say, there are plenty of ways we can use the new ‘chokes. I think one of them might need to be looking for eyes on the tubers we got and putting them in a five-gallon bucket. I don’t want to curse anyone, including ourselves, with a plant they can’t get rid of. And the tubers have a reputation of proliferating. So contain. And then see what happens.

In This Week’s Box

  • Collards
  • Garnet Sweet Potatoes
  • Green Cabbage
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Purple Carrots
  • Red Onions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Winter radishes
  • Turnips
  • Squash: Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple

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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Dishes to dine on (that aren’t mentioned above)

  • We’ll cook up the collards. How’s the peanut and greens stew sound? It uses sweet potato too!
  • While I was looking for that recipe, I saw a coconut carrot curry soup. I think I’m intrigued. I haven’t tended to try these before because I didn’t like cooked carrots when I was a kid. But we’ve got carrots accumulating, so now is the time. And this recipe also uses a sweet potato! (Which means we will either use two of our sweet potatoes OR we will weigh a potato and use half of it in each recipe.)
  • Cabbage + carrots + onion does sound like we might make okonomiyaki again. Check Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds for recipe guidance.
  • And please, let’s make that shepherd’s pie. We have all the ingredients! Just need to decide to do it on a cooler day instead of one where we’re feeling the warmth of spring.

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 3

planorcanLeave a comment
Not pictures, sweet potatoes we left for the box sharers.

Hi John,

The boxes are fewer, though it still feels like they surround me in most rooms. The kitchen is inching towards usability, and in fact gets cooked in most days. At least the counters mostly make sense. We haven’t figured out a good place for dishes to go between being washed and dried, but I could clear a space to pose for this week’s produce picture.

That said, my summary of the past few weeks is that for someone who wants to be less consumption focused, I sure am spending a lot of time shopping. Both you and the friends who have heard this comment remind me that there’s good reason for that. We’re at a confluence of life transitions. Getting furniture now that fits the house we expect to be in for years makes sense. For instance, we’re currently on the lookout for the right kitchen island/cart. The cabinets don’t actually have a place that fits most pots and pans. Or the baking sheets. It’s a bit of a problem. While a kitchen remodel is probably in the long-term plans for the house (along with figuring out better insulation in that space), it’s not the top priority. So, we get to figure out what we can add that will make the existing facilities more functional. A 44 inch kitchen cart sounds promising.

In This Week’s Box

  • Cilantro
  • Kossak Kohlrabi
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Radishes
  • Purple Top Turnips

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: last of the season
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Spaghetti, Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • 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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

What to eat

  • We’ve already discussed that next time you are making soup, consider making one and a half recipes so you’d use all the parsnips instead of leaving a single, half pound, parsnip in the fridge. That said, I’m thinking some sort of shepherd’s pie situation is in order. Probably want to buy some mushrooms for it. Consider having the topping include kohlrabi as well as potatoes.
  • Oh! Buy enough mushrooms to use some more in the Freekeh, Mushrooms, Turnips, and Almonds recipe from Six Seasons. We’ll substitute another grain, of course. Perhaps sorghum? Or maybe change it to French lentils.
  • Chard and Cilantro means we get to make this soup again! Bonus for using some of the dried volunbeans.
  • Confession: I haven’t touched the beets. I think it might be time to roast, puree, and freeze. (To be added to hummus or yogurt or the beet pistachio soup from Midnight Chicken at some later date.) Maybe save one or two to shred for a salad with carrots and walnuts and some citrus. This might actually be sounding good. Use up the rest of the cabbage to go with it or nah?

Sarah

So many boxes

planorcanLeave a comment
Missing an apple that I ate on the walk home and cranberries that are still waiting to be eaten.
Cranberries off screen.
Too tired. You took the photo instead. Thank you!

Hi John,

It’s been a busy month, and the next few weeks are forecast to be even more chaotic. Holidays, and conferences, and packing, and travel, and cleaning, and testing, and vaccines, and exhaustion, and ickiness, and packing, and laundry, and painting, and chores. And…well…we’re taking this week off of the delivery, but I’m still not sure we’ll catch up on the vegetable consumption.

Rather than see what was in the boxes, let’s just review what we have available to work with over the next week.

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Many apples, many types
  • Asian Pears, Bosc Pears
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Cabbage, Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Celery
  • Peppers: Bell
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Carrots
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Spaghetti, Butternut
  • Potatoes: 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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Probably still more uninventoried

See what I mean? I think it’s more than we’re actually going to eat. (Especially if my hunch is right and we end up with take-out for a meal or three.) The lettuce is only enough for one or two more side salads. And we have a plan for the peppers. Honestly, half the trick is excavating the fruit from the bottom of the drawer instead of the most recently added apples on top. The good news is most of these are the hardy fall vegetables that will keep lasting in the fridge. (Though really, we should use the sunchokes some day. Make the burgers whenever!)

Tabs I have open so we remember what we ate

Quick things to prepare when we sneak off work

  • Squash lentil salad looks good. Though we’re close to out of greens for it.
  • The cranberry curd tart is so pretty. I’m not sure it’s for us right now, but it is what I want to use the cranberries for. Maybe we should toss the cranberries in the freezer until we’re ready for them.
  • Fried rice with lots of peppers and some turnips and carrots
  • Have a few more squash ribbons to put on a pizza. Out of ricotta though.
  • Really, the big question is how we should use the cabbage. (Translation: what form of cabbage sounds most likely to be eaten?) Probably the braised cabbage noodle favorite. But maybe we do Singapore noodles to mix it up? (And to not necessitate a trip to buy more glass noodles.)
  • I’d love to make sweet potato gnocci. But this is not the week with the energy or the time for that mission. Perhaps after the move? If not, the potatoes will keep until the new year. Probably.

Let’s do this!

Sarah