It looks like the bunnies left the nest. A neighbor gardener caught some pictures at the end of last week. They looked so cute! And they didn’t even damage our radishes, at least as far as I can tell.
(The photo was less blurry when I saw it on his phone, silly texting downsampling so as to not use all the data.)
Schemes and dreams for nourishment now and later
Two years ago, back when we first joined the garden, I picked plums from the ground and pickled them. Last weekend, we went to help thin the plums. Most went to the compost, but I brought some home. So maybe we playwith that again.
Radish and garlic chive butter on ever so slightly toasted bread. Top with fancy salt.
I saw a mulberry tree dropping fruit on my way to pick up bread. I want to make the mulbarb jam. But realistically, that’s a lower priority canning job these days. Another rhubarb custard pie? Or a rhubarb rosemary crisp? Ice cream with whichever it is!
I picked up two extra bags of sunchokes. So all the sunchoke things need to actually happen.
Last weekend, I went to make shakshuka only to discover we didn’t have canned tomatoes. Greenshakshuka with the kale and radish and turnip greens?
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.
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.
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.
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.
The cold arrived last week. We’re searching for sweaters and sweatshirts. Pulling out the pants and quilts. We made two different lentil squash soups last week. Autumn is arriving and we’re almost prepared!
If I had looked at the predicted contents, I would not have made aloo mater yesterday. I should’ve made Priya’s aloo gobi today. Instead, we’ll try this one and be sad about missing the roasted goodness. (And oil. I’m still sad about missing oil.)
We made a garden trip on Friday. It’s amazing how well our plot is doing, considering how much less attion we’ve been able to give it this summer. Would the beans be doing better if they got regular waterings? Probably. Ditto the tomatillos? Perhaps, but we’ve still made at least four cups of salsa verde. The tomatoes? Almost for sure, but there’s still enough coming in that we’ll make a pasta sauce sometime this week. When I tried pulling up garlic, it wasn’t yet ready for harvest. Now the remaining plants are blooming. Ah, well. It’s a hobby plot not a sustenance plot. The flowers are pretty and make the pollinators happy.
We started our first rows for fall radishes and turnips and lettuce. Planted the last of the stir-fry greens seed pack–the one whose previous planting gave us kale all season long. I forgot to pack cilantro. We need to see if we can pick up heirloom collards at our local store or if we should order. Seasons are changing and still full of the promise.
Today’s Box
Bartlett Pears
Italian plums
Magness Pears
Delicata Squash
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Rainbow Chard
Red Little Gem Romaine Lettuce
Things I think are in the fridge
Peach
Cantaloupe
Pears
Nectarines (farmers market)
Blackberries (farmers market)
Roma tomatoes
Cranberries
Celery
Spaghetti squash
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Green tomatoes from when I pruned some errant tomato stems
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
It’s been month with you doing the bulk of kitchen duty and me being too otherwise occupied to menu plan in advance. And, spoilers, I’m guessing that’ll hold for the next month too.
We’ll hang out in the air conditioning–letting you take quick trips to the garden and I’ll do a stroll around the neighborhood in the breaks we manage. Now is the time to let friends come visit us (instead of trying to get to them). To spend time together relaxing (as best we can). And to eat whatever you make (or order)!
Predicted for the Next Box
Celery
Slicing Cucumbers
Sweet Fresh Onions
Yellow Patty Pan Squash
Red Seedless Watermelon
Yellow Peaches
Things I think are in the fridge
Blueberries (farmer’s market)
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Fennel
Cranberries
Greens: Stirfry mix, Napa Cabbage, Lettuce
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Edamame
Dahlias
Basil
Tomatillas (maybe ripening soon?)
Tomatoes should start to come in this month
Peppers? What are the peppers doing?
Garlic? How’s it looking? Will I make it to the garden again anytime soon to see for myself?
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that you can maybe make in the coming days (slash weeks)
Salad with blueberries and cucumbers. Lettuce and shredded beets and blue cheese and walnuts. Watermelon, feta, and basil. Cantaloupe, fresh mozz, and basil. The celery salads from Six Seasons.
Fennel and Kale Pasta from the greens cookbook I checked out of the library. Turn the leftovers into a frittata/spaghetti pancake by adding egg, cheese, and raisins.
Spring rolls to eat salad in another form.
Agua fresca with watermelon or cantaloupe
Smoothies with all the fruits. (Just don’t dehydrate them and try to rehydrate….)
From the box: Broccoli and Bok Choy. Lettuce and asparagus.
Dear John,
The past month has brought lots of heartburn and plenty of fatigue. Meal planning has been sparse at best, partly because it’s hard to know what I’m going to be up to eating.
I think we went three weeks between garden visits at one point? The radishes came! The spinach bolted! The cilantro is off to seed! The mixed stirfry greens have filled many grocery bags with their leaves already! The peas didn’t take off, but the nasturtium are looking pretty leafy. The dahlia that we neglected to dig up last fall has already started blooming.
We bought starts for peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos and ground cherries and herbs. They’re in the ground in the garden and in pots at the house. The sunchokes are in giant pots and earlier today I thought I saw the barest beginnings of a sprout. (The potato that had sprouted went mouldy before we got it in a pot. It is in the compost instead.)
At the house, the lead service line is finally replaced. Without having done any soil testing of our yard, I don’t want to plant edibles there. Flowers sound lovely. A couple more dahlia bulbs. Seed bomb from a friend’s CSA. Extra zinnias and nasturtium. Why not? We can see what wins out in the rocky, bricky, soil + weeds underneath the mulch.
In The Most Recent Box
Asparagus
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Head Lettuce
Still in the Fridge
Strawberries (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Greens: Kale
Alliums: Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes, White Scallions, Red Scallions
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Rainbow radishes
Turnips
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Radishes
Stirfry greens
Nasturtium leaves (as we thin the plants)
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Dill pickle juice
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that use the greens when heartburn makes things tricky
Still trying to eat salads. This week was greens + potatoes + hard boiled eggs + radishes or turnips + parm + mustard vinaigrette. Also arugula or other greens + strawberries + turnips + chevre + almonds + rosemary infusing olive oil. (It’s a new batch and the rosemary flavor isn’t strong yet.)
Omelettes. Scrambled eggs with greens. Breakfast tacos with greens. We haven’t made a quiche yet, so I think that’s coming soon.
Summer rolls (aka salad you can eat with your hands) with peanut butter dipping sauce
Coconut turmeric rice (if coconut milk is available. *sighs at supply chains and decades old planting decisions and climate change and sighs*) with added beans and greens.
Saag aloo, nearly omitting the peppers. Womp womp. But it meant I could sleep at night.
Do not make pizza. Even if it’s kale stem pesto instead of tomato sauce and has plenty of cheese. It took a couple of days to recover an appetite after that single meal.
Spring is green indeed. All the leaves blended together, so went artsy for the photo.
Hi John,
It’s a new CSA season! We’re at a new site, picking up on Tuesdays (after a pandemics worth of Thursday pickups). We’re back to getting a small box every week instead of splitting every other week.
Meanwhile, we’re getting back to the garden plot. Despite our rapid abandonment of the plot once we were under contract, some plants survived the winter. We have some spinach that’s finally mature enough to start picking. The cilantro that I started from seed, survived the transplanting and the season, and is thriving. The carrot seeds that never took off last fall, are actually growing this spring. The garlic that we planted at the end of fall, looks to be coming up. The dahlia returned, despite not harvesting the tuber for safer preservation over the winter. And of course the rosemary and oregano are thriving.
We’ve planted short rows of radishes. Spattering of a mix of stir-fryable greens. A bean tent with a variety of peas. Dill, though I’m not sure if what’s coming up is volunteers or from our seeds. A half border of nasturtium. Planning on buying starts for the basil and tomatoes and tomatillos and peppers and maybe a cucumber or three. Hoping the ground cherries have self-sown, as promised/threatened. We’ll see what the season truly brings.
In This Week’s Box
Green Garlic
Green Kale
Red Butterhead Lettuce
Red Chard
Still in the Fridge
Strawberries (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Mushrooms
Greens: Lettuce, Cabbage, Microgreens
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Winter Radishes
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Spinach
Radish sprouts as we thin them
Radishes
Cilantro (as we want)
Weedy wild onions (if we trust our nose)
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Dill pickle juice
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Riffing off this, let’s try risotto with sunchokes and the mushrooms
We did not make okonmiyaki last week, after all (though did make multiple shaved cabbage salads). Offer visitors a choice between that and cabbage with glass noodles?
So many greens! (All the more so because we gave up this week’s sweet potatoes. We got dandelion greens and lettuce last week.)
Dear John,
Happy Easter! We walked to the cemetery this morning for Sunrise Service. As we snuck out of our house, a neighbor was across the street scattering eggs for a hunt. (Kid is two, you don’t really hide them yet.) The sign at a church we passed illuminated a “Happy New Year!” message, and while I know it hasn’t changed in months, spring really does feel like a resetting of the calendar. We found our place in the gathering crowd. The trees had confettied the graves with pink petals–a celebration of life in the midst of death. The promise that life continues, beyond all our fears.
In This Week’s Box
Cilantro
Green Cabbage
Green Kale
Green Romain Lettuce
Mixed Winter Radishes
Red Scallions
Rainbow Chard
Still in the Fridge
Asparagus (farmer’s market)
Strawberries (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Celery
Greens: Dandelion, radish, kale
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
Turnips
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Dill pickle juice
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
I bought asparagus and strawberries at the farmers market and will probably be buying more strawberries. We’ve made the asparagus lemon pasta from Simply in Season, which needs to be done at least annually. Maybe easiest to roast the rest? Maybe use on flatbread/pizza? Maybe a quiche?
We used up the last cabbage in okonmiyaki. And, while it feels weird to do the same thing immediately, it was a successful enough meal series that I’m absolutely okay with a repeat.
Beans and greens. Let’s do the dandelion + miso + beans from Cool Beans. And maybe also a version of the Hoppin’ John Pilaf.
I tempted to try a preserved daikon radish recipe. I didn’t buy any on my latest run to Hmart, but I did get goji berries and the recipe uses them both with congee.
Debating the favorite chard and cilantro soup. It’s known and good and I have plenty of stale bread at the moment. May be convinced to switch to a lentil version though.
We got some potatoes from the store. Twice bake’em, stuffed with kale and scallions and cheese?
Last week we got purple daikon radishes from our CSA share splitters. This week we left them the green cabbage.
Hi John,
This week the house’s internal network is being rewired, we’re getting quotes for replacing thelead service line, and we’ve reached out to a couple of companies for advice about whether to get quotes for solar panels before or after we replace the roof. Home ownership is fun?
[Edited to add that the one of the plumbers who we gave a quote for the service line advertised discounts on additional services done at the same time. And our home inspector did say that we should replace the water heater soon. So, we have also been researching the merits of electric tank vs electric tankless vs heat pump aka hybrid water heaters. All the contractors are pro-gas tankless, but anti-electric tankless. The hybrid is more expensive up-front, but our calculations show that the energy cost savings should be substantial. And the warranty is four years longer.]
In This Week’s Box
Cremini Mushrooms
Garnet Sweet Potatoes
Green Garlic
Mixed Specialty Lettuce
Red Radishes
Red Russian Kale
Rutabaga (not turnip like you think)
Still in the Fridge
Cranberries
Celery
Greens: Green Cabbage
Carrots
Parsnip
Black radishes, Purple Daikon 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
I’m late posting this week, which has the benefit of knowing what we actually ate. (If not the help of figuring out what we could eat.)
Salad greens + radish + avocado + grapes + toasted walnuts + goat cheese + either balsamic dressing or simply rosemary olive oil = a happy salad (It would’ve been great if there was still broccoli for it, but that has already been finished in twice baked potatoes.)
Spaghetti with mushroom marinara use the other half. (And honestly would’ve been better with more mushrooms, but we were out. Need to go to the Asian market and stock up on dried mushrooms too.)
Less success
Rutabaga rosti. I’d seen a video that talked up potato rosti the week before. So when I looked for ideas with rutabaga and saw a post about rosti it sounded like it’d fill a craving I hadn’t known I’d had. But cooking in the cast iron skillet and otherwise trying to follow the video, well, it was a less successful dish. I kept burning the bottom layer and it never really stuck all together. Next time, let’s consider going closer to latkes. They can still get topped with sour cream and the green garlic.
Yet to come
More sweet potato! (This time at least we only got a single three pounder.) I’ve been going through our frozen gnocci stockpiles, so maybe more there? More roasted on tacos and salads? Thai curry with radish greens?
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?
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.)
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.
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).
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.
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.
Welcome to fall. The watermelon have disappeared and the squash have arrived.
So John,
On Monday evening, I told a friend there was a 30% chance we’d end up buying a house by the end of the year. After a tour on Tuesday, I had our odds up to 50%–pretty likely actually. At least until we talked to our agent again today and decided not to write up an offer after all. Even in this market, 18% annual interest is a lot. Especially when it was just bought two years ago.
I’m thankful for working with an expert who tells us not to buy a place that’s overpriced. Or another place that will be awful to try to sell. Or that has more deferred maintenance than the price suggests.
I’m thankful that we have the flexibility to stay. Even if I never expected the housing search to take a year. Or if it did it was because we were losing bids. Not that we weren’t putting in offers. Nevermind winning bids and then failing inspections.
For now, I’m putting our chances of 2021 homebuying at 29%. The listings posted today weren’t inspiring. That’s okay. We’ll keep looking.
In This Week’s Box
Honeycrisp Apples
Kiwiberries
Arugula
Butternut Squash
Cilantro
Fennel
Mixed Yummy Peppers
Purple Fingerling Potatoes
Sweet Onions
Habanada Peppers
Garden Potential
Starfish pepper
Paprika
Jalapenos
Lombok peppers if we want them
Few tomatillos
Volunbeans (let ’em dry!)
Last of the Roma tomatoes?
Vorlon tomato
Dahlias
Still in the Fridge
Cucumber
Figs
Greens: Butterhead Lettuce
Peppers: Banana
Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Acorn
Sweet Potatoes
Fingerling Potatoes
Herbs: None
Celery
Sunchokes
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Quince jelly
Dill pickle
Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled red onion
Radish kimchi
Sunchoke relish
Quince jelly
Kicky cranapple chutney
Peach jam
Apple butter
Quince jelly
Veggie stock
Probably still more uninventoried
Starting points
I’d forgotten the cucumber. We should use the cucumber! It’s the last cucumber from the garden. Classic cucumber, onion, and yogurt side?
It’s CSA delivery day. It wasn’t too bad when I walked to pick things up, but the walk home was getting hot and humid. And then I hopped on the bike and went back for the bread and eggs that wouldn’t fit in my first bags. Still prefer that to your errand experience in this afternoon’s rainstorm. Even if we both arrived home dripping wet.
In This Week’s Box
Blueberries
Yellow Peaches
White Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Head Lettuce
Lacinato Kale
Slicing Cucumbers
Sugar Snap Peas
Vidalia Onions
White Scallions
Still in the Fridge
Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Green Onions
Greens: Escarole, Spinach, Lettuce
Radish, Red and French Breakfast
Baby Hakurei Turnips
Kohlrabi
Parsnips
Sunchokes
Brainstorming Some Meals
Peas on bread with the garlic chive cream cheese I made last week!
Clearly we need to make more salad. Maybe a cucumber, onion, and yogurt salad? Maybe maybe lettuce with cucumber, blueberries, and poppyseed dressing?
Betsy texted a recipe for lettuce soup that she made. We might be at the point where we need to try that. Or the stir-fried lettuce we made last year. Or lettuce wraps, though I’m not sure what I want to put in them. The spring rolls from a few weeks ago
We have blueberries and peaches. Do we go ahead and make the pie now? It feels early for it and I might rather get more mulberries for another cobbler first….
We really should prioritize using up the escarole–I was hoping to repeat the salad we made last year with escarole, roasted beets and rhubarb, goat cheese, toasted hazelnuts, and mustard dressing. But it’s been three weeks and we haven’t gotten beets. Maybe try with turnips, even though they’re not as sweet as beets.
I think I’m going to try to eat the peas early too. It feels like a meal I want on bread more than toast. And using some of the broccoli for dinner tonight because it is bulky and sometimes you don’t want to give things all the fridge space.
Other than that, I don’t see any obvious priorities. Eat and enjoy!
Planning Inside The Box 