leeks

Boxing Day, September 23

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Dear John,

We made it to the garden! It has not (yet) died. We need to do some more service hours, attend a workday. But I am feeling reasonably confident that we won’t get kicked out/will be allowed to return next year. Which is the main goal. Truly, the longer we care for the garden plot, the more grateful I am that we do not rely on our own luck and skill to provide our food.

But we do rely on our own skill to prepare most of our food. Shall we dive in?

Today’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Kiwiberries
  • Green Beans
  • Green Romaine Lettuce (Swapped one head for Golden Beets)
  • Leeks
  • Red Tomatoes

Community Produce

  • Week off

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Muscadines
  • Green tomato, heirloom tomato
  • Wax beans
  • Peppers
  • Fennel stems
  • Greens: Lettuce, Bok Choy, Kale
  • Onions
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Kiwiberries
  • Fingerling potatoes, potatoes

In the Garden

  • Collards
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • The season’s last ground cherries
  • Tomatillos enough for one batch of salsa
  • Parsley
  • Eggplant. Some shiny. Some the yellow of overripe.
  • Assorted peppers (including jalapenos? rescued from the compost pile)
  • So Many Dahlias
  • A bit of rosemary to go with the potatoes
  • A bit of Thai basil from the communal plot to go in a curry

Open Preserves

  • Fridge still organized!
  • Fridge still not inventoried!
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Pickled peach
  • Fermenting curdito again

Pantry Beans

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

Cook something. Somehow. Somewhen. Again.

  • Review last week’s post. Half of those plans have not been attempted.
  • I needed fridge space for the beets and beans. Chopped up almost all of our remaining peppers and cooked up a batch of peperonata. Let’s serve it with grits and a fried egg. (And freeze some too.)
  • Pumpkin and maple season at Trader Joe’s! I grabbed our favorite gluten free pumpkin ravoli. Cooked it up for dinner with a blue cheese bechamel and kale. Reminiscent of this recipe with next to no actual overlap.
  • Green curry with eggplant and peppers. And tofu? And tofu!
  • Do I want wax/green beans in the above curry? Maybe not. Maybe go for our standard green bean and peanut stirfry? Maybe try fermenting? Miso butter and poached egg might be quicker option.
  • I made a pear-mustard-vinaigrette earlier when I realized there was a pear getting bruised by your bananas in the fruit bowl. It was mushy, but blended up just fine. Let’s put it on salad with some slices of fresh pear. Maybe lentils. Maybe chèvre. Maybe some roasted beets. Maybe some roasted nuts.
  • We have a sweet potato, already cooked, ready to mash. I’m tempted to do the sweet potato + kale + quinoa fritters. But those aren’t good for instant eating upon walking in the door. Sweet potato crème brûlée is tempting and I do not have the time for it in this season. Sweet potato hummus or enchiladas maybe is more reasonable.
  • Potato leek soup. Right?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, September 26

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Dear John,

Between catching Covid and stomach bugs and broader health stuff….it has not been a month for cooking. Naps, yes. Kitchen, ugh, no.

We’ve made some meals that used our produce–tomatoes in blackened shrimp pasta, salads with tomatoes and carrots and peppers, pears and brie. Peppers are in need of dehydrating, because they have not been cooked quickly enough.

Today’s Box

  • Bosc Pears
  • Smokehouse Apples
  • Leeks
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Red Kale
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Stripetti Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Watermelon
  • Plums
  • Asian pears
  • Lemongrass
  • Celery
  • Greens: Cabbage, chard, lettuce
  • Squash: Acorn, white acorn, Robins Koginut

In the Garden

  • Habaneros, jalapenos, fish peppers, other peppers, many peppers
  • Rainbow chard
  • Dried beans
  • Edamame
  • Beets
  • Parsley if we want
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlias and cosmos and gomphrena for the table

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • 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 tomatoes and tomatillos. We have clover seeds ready to go (you’re understandably wary of rye), but haven’t gotten the cover crop sown yet. Hopefully later this week we’ll be well enough to make it over to the garden and get them in the ground.

Meals that sound yummy

  • We have a backup of squash. Last week brought lemongrass and I found two squash–lemongrass soups. This roasted squash lasasgna has been sounding so good and I bet we could totally put half in the freezer (which is looking rather lower on pre-made meals at the moment). I think we treat the stripetti like spaghetti squash and make more baked squash bowls.
  • This week’s box isn’t coming with potatoes, but a potato leek soup sounds pretty good. Maybe I’ll pick up potatoes at the grocery store.
  • Lettuce has been going in side salads. Honestly, that still sounds good. Yummy peppers and the last of the tomatoes to join.
  • One of the meals from the freezer that hit the right spot for me was the chard quiche. If there’s a day with energy to make a crust and a filling, then making a quiche either with chard from the garden or kale sounds delicious. And freezing slices if we manage to make two.

Love,

Sarah

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, October 11

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I love the veins of purple in the dark green kale, and the streaks of red as the ginger changes from light yellow to green.

Dear John,

Your mom and aunt are arriving later today. They’ve got the truck loaded with a dining room set, carefully restored after the flood. The set was purchased by your great-aunt at an estate sale in the ’60’s. Tomorrow the movers will come help unload. And then, the re-settling process will begin. I’m hopeful that with this delivery we’ll be better at getting the house into more permanent feel. Less of the boxes in the corners look.

For today, I’m about to start prepping the squash to be risotto. Figure that’s a meal that we can have on the stove whenever they make it in. And getting the squash prepped for use this week seems like a good strategy!

Today’s Box

  • Butternut Squash
  • Ginger
  • Leeks
  • Red Lacinato Kale
  • Jonagold Apples
  • Yellow Bartlett Pears

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Plums
  • Pears: Bartlett and Asian
  • Apples
  • Garden tomato
  • Beet + beet greens
  • Napa cabbage
  • Ginger
  • Cranberries
  • Spaghetti squash
  • Sweet potato

Coming in from the Garden

  • Basil
  • Tomatillos, maybe
  • Roma tomatoes
  • Peppers?
  • Dahlias and marigolds and cosmos
  • Rosemary

Open Preserves

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

Love you,

Sarah