peaches

Boxing Day, September 16

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Dear John,

I’m talking good game about meal prepping on weekends, about eating leftovers, about using the instant pot for rice pilafs, the slow cooker for soups, about scrambling eggs. But I still don’t know how to have dinner on the table ten minutes after walking in the door on a routine basis. And I think that’s what life needs right now. It’s a yet another shift to how we approach meals to adapt to our shifting needs.

I feel like I used to have a small arsenal of meals that I could quickly deploy. I remember stocking up on the Taste of Thai noodle boxes, basically a side shuffle away from ramen. Which, honestly, maybe something to consider if there’s a version that fits the other diet constraints. I’m afraid it’s meal prepping sauce or flavoring packets or full jars ourselves the weekend before. (And now I miss the fancy ramen restaurant across the street from where I lived once upon a time.)

Please share if you have specific inspiration for gluten free, allergen adaptable, vegetable forward meals that are super fast, make leftovers all week, or cook while we’re out of the house.

Today’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Baby Green Bok Choy
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Yellow Wax Beans

Community Produce

  • Green bell peppers
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Apples
  • Oranges

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Muscadines
  • Green tomato
  • Peppers
  • Fennel stems
  • Greens: Lettuce, Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Onions
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Watermelon
  • Fingerling potatoes

In the Garden

  • Who knows! We’re overdue for a visit
  • Probably collards, dahlias
  • If we’re lucky cherry tomatoes, ground cherries, tomatillos

Open Preserves

  • Fridge still organized!
  • Fridge still not inventoried!
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Curdito–just a little left

Pantry Beans

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

Cook something. Somehow. Somewhen. Again.

  • First, buy carrots. Second, make more curdito!
  • These tomatoes look gorgeous and should be put to yummy use. The Six Seasons tomatoes and chickpea and za’atar and yogurt dish? We haven’t make it yet this year. This weekend!’
  • I do think Taco Tuesdays. Taco Thursdays. Taco Wednesdays, Mondays, Fridays, might be our new life. Cause we can have rice and beans ready to go. We can roast a veggie (still have beets and butternut squash in the fridge and a cilantro sauce to top). Those can be microwaved while the tortillas warm on griddle. Or maybe we skip the tortillas and go the burrito bowl route.
  • Pasta is also quick. More than ten minutes from door to table because we have to turn the water on to boil. I’m eyeing the fennel stems as a pesto-yogurt sauce that could be made in advance.
  • Use the kale or collards or even the bok choy to make these tofu bowls. (Is bowls our new lifestyle?)
  • Wax beans and hopefully cherry tomatoes in a red curry. I think that’d make yummy leftovers.
  • Bok choy noodle soup. In the slow cooker?
  • The recipe card suggested a southwest sweet potato salad. Maybe try that. Maybe just chop the sweet potato, roast, and have on hand for salads or tacos or bowls of other varieties.
  • Stuffed bell peppers in the slow cooker? This seems very doable. And could let our beans and rice feel different for a day.
  • You know what. Microwave baked potatoes don’t take that long. And are a yummy non-rice canvas for toppings. Maybe we experiment. Or stick with chopping, roasting, serve as hash.

Love,

Sarah

PS We learned yesterday that we are eligible for a community food distribution program. I asked if our participation makes the program stronger or stretches resources for others. And now we have a bonus box of produce coming in. I am glad I had already started thinking about food to make before the influx of produce to avoid being overwhelmed. We should think about what donations we make with the money we aren’t spending on food. Local food bank? World Central Kitchen? Other Food for Gaza efforts?

Boxing Day, September 9

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Dear John,

I pressed publish on last week’s post. Then peeked at the predicted contents and went right on meal planning.

Today’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Mini Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Butternut Squash
  • Green Beans
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Russian Banana Fingerling Potatoes

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Muscadines
  • Peppers
  • Beets
  • Fennel stems
  • Cabbage: Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Onions
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Cantaloupe

In the Garden

  • Handful of basil
  • Parsley that turns out to have swallowtails growing on it
  • Pint of cherry tomatoes and ground cherries
  • Another pepper
  • Few tomatillos
  • Green tomatoes
  • Sunflowers! Dahlias!

Open Preserves

  • I organized the fridge.
  • But have not inventoried
  • So off the top of my head
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Curdito

Pantry Beans

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

Cook something. Somehow. Somewhen. Again.

  • Green beans and potatoes means I want to make the Smitten Recipe. Do we have the time for it in the middle of the week? What if we use pesto from the freezer?
  • Butternut squash! I wish we had the cilantro from last week to make mole verde. Do I remember some in the freezer? Or are the leftovers? Any case, I’m thinking roasting and taco-ing.
  • On second thought, yes roast. And save some of it to go on salads! With the lettuce! And pears! Toss in some nuts! Chevre! Dried cherries or cranberries. Salad season returns!
  • Ha! More cabbage. Swap this if there’s something interesting in the box. Otherwise, let’s see how those fridge salad approach is working for us.

Love,

Sarah

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, July 1

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Beebalm blooming in our yard. Because I just needed the vegetables put away.

Dear John,

The cabinet is fixed! The kitchen is still in chaos!

I have been coughing far too much since I last wrote (and sleeping far too little).

The weather is hot. The pool is a delight.

I finally made it to the garden and watered. Hours later a thunderstorm actually arrived. I’m sure it did a better job watering the plants than I did. If I’d trusted it was coming, maybe I would have spent the time staking the tomatoes or deadheading the dahlia. On the other hand, I needed the water splashes and bet the plants still benefit from the extra hydration.

The past week had minimal cooking, as expected. Hopefully, we keep getting things back towards order and health. And maybe don’t get too overwhelmed by the produce coming in?

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Celery
  • Collards Swapped for Lettuce
  • Garlic Scapes
  • Red Beets
  • Sweet Fresh Onions
  • Green Zucchini

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Cucumbers
  • Fennel
  • Green Garlic
  • Greens: Lettuce, Napa Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Radishes

In the Garden

  • Three radish
  • Peas dried on the vine. Ready to be planted in the fall?
  • Garlic from a neighbor
  • Handful of blackberries that made me cough
  • Flowers if I had stopped to pick them. Dahlias and calendula both. And carrot.
  • Basil if we need it but I didn’t pick more than a few flowers that got pinched

Open Preserves

  • Still to be done.

Pantry Beans

  • Jumbo Peruvian Lima Bean
  • Mayocoba Bean
  • Split Red Lentil
  • Good Mother Stallard
  • Rio Zape
  • And more tucked on other shelves…

Don’t get too overwhelmed! Just get fed.

  • We made the taco filling with last week’s squash (on the one night when it was cool enough to brave turning on the oven). And the tuna melt with some of the zucchini was dinner tonight. I think the zucchini spaghetti might be next?
  • When I saw we were getting celery, I mentally set aside some of the cucumber for the celery, cucumber, apricot salad. Our cookbook notes remind me we had it for the Fourth years ago. I think we might have it this Friday. Not sure if that’s our contribution to a lunch after the parade or a party later in the day. Maybe let’s plan on another slaw for whichever celebration doesn’t get this one.
  • And continuing the Six Seasons theme, I’m eyeing the beet slaw on pistachio butter. We should probably put pistachios on the grocery list.
  • I’m tending toward beet and radish greens in the coconut turmeric rice as a meal that will make leftovers. Requires cooking, but not too much time laboring over the heat.
  • Should probably pesto the garlic scapes. Just to make sure we use them!

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 9

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Dear John,

I’m trying to spend down our fridge stash. And freezer stash. And pantry stash. It goes against so much of my instinct! I don’t know why I’m like this, but I know it’s not just food. I mean, I think the pom poms in my craft tackle box are the ones originally in it when my parents gave it to me. When I was eight years old. I was saving them for….the perfect craft? Inspiration? Just admiring them? For thirty years? I don’t really know, but endeavor to use the craft stash too.

On top of that saving tendency, add in that my first out-of-college home was a half hour drive to the nearest grocery store, an hour to the better grocery, and I stocked up on foods (like more variety of yoplait yogurt flavors) when I was in a “city” with a Walmart 100+ miles away or visiting an actual city a day’s drive away. I didn’t want to run out of a favorite ingredient! Or lemon yogurt.

Then, just after a year of living with you, there was the shutdown where we tried to minimize the frequency of our shopping trips. And since then we’ve had two and half years or so of trying to stock food when we have energy in anticipation of exhaustion or sickness or life reducing our capacity for cooking another day.

Layer on the ever increasing interest in not wasting food. Plus a hobby of preserving that started when I learned to make jam in high school.

Mix it together and you have a kitchen very full of ingredients. Some prepared (the zucchini we roasted last week). Some, like the pom poms, serving as inspiration (the squash powder that I totally want to try incorporating into a pie crust). Some, also like the pom poms, taking up space they maybe shouldn’t any longer (the watermelon rind ferments that are in the back of the fridge and no longer taste quite right).

So I’m cooking with pickles. Baking cookies from dough frozen last summer. Tossing frozen cubes of cucumber guts into a smoothie. Flavoring popcorn or roasted chickpeas with the curry powder mixes that we bought to support a local spice shop. At some point, I fantasize in the near future, we should do a fridge audit and clear out the jars with just a little bit more vinaigrette that are cluttering the shelves. Nevermind the other mysteries.

Today’s Box

  • Mini Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Gold Grape Tomatoes
  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Green Zucchini

Things in the fridge

  • Apricot
  • Cauliflower
  • Greens: Lettuce, Cabbage, Kale
  • Roots: Carrots, Fingerling Sweet Potatoes
  • Alliums: Garlic scapes, Green garlic, Onions

In the Garden

  • Collards
  • Green tomatoes from pruned vines
  • Herbs: Dill, Basil (as pinched), Zatar, Rosemary, Oregano, Mint
  • Plums and grapes from the communal sections
  • Calendula and Cosmos

Open Preserves

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

Summertime sustenance

  • Zucchini, tomatoes, and corn. High summer is here. (I mean, from the heat we’ve been having, it’s done been here. Now the produce tastes like it.)
  • I’m thinking of the Half Baked Harvest corn and blueberry salad. But this week doesn’t have blueberries. Let’s do a corn and tomato salad from Six Seasons instead. I think he has one recipe in the corn section and another in the tomato section. (Or, um, not. I wrote this before seeing the box and there’s aren’t that many tomatoes.)
  • Pivot to corn on the cob and a succotash salad.
  • Peach jalapeno cornbread with coconut shrimp from Pulp.
  • Is it cool enough to roast the zucchini one night? I kinda think not. In which case, we should make pasta instead.
  • Time to make another pot of beans to go with greens. So many greens.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 8

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Dear John,

Our next home project is on the horizon. (Pun intended.) As I finish brainstorming meals, you’re reaching out to different contractors to see about getting quotes for solar panel installation. As a child of the 90s who read and re-read 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save the Earth, as an adult who now attends climate action protests, hopefully as an elderly adult far in the future, it feels really exciting to be able to make this visible step toward taking care of the planet.

It’s weird to enter the pricing process with a clear favorite, but part of me hopes that the bid through our community’s Solar Switch group is the clear winner. I really like the idea of group purchasing! I like feeling like part of a bigger effort, even if I’m not meeting with the other neighbors buying this year. It’s the type of action that gives me hope. And as I keep being reminded, the way through this is hope-fueled work.

Today’s Box

  • Orange Seedless Watermelon
  • Plums
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Banana Peppers
  • Collards
  • Green Bell Peppers
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Red Grape Tomatoes

Things in the fridge

  • Cinnamon Basil
  • Plums
  • Donut Peaches
  • Nectarines
  • Peppers: Green bell, banana
  • Bottom halves of Centercut Squash
  • Celery
  • Cucumber and lemon cucumber
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, kale
  • Red Potatoes
  • Green plums
  • Green tomatoes (starting to pink)

In the Garden

  • Early peppers. Another couple Cochiti and fallen Habanero.
  • Tomatillos
  • Tomatoes are here!
  • A few ground cherries
  • Rainbow chard
  • Dill seed
  • Parsley
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and gomphrena for the table
  • Communal figs

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

Tomatoes are here!

Team Tomato

  • If this keeps up, we’re going to need to make some tomato sauce/paste to can/freeze. But for this, the first week of tomato bounty, we are savoring them. The classic tomato sandwiches. The spiced tomato salads. Panzella made with cornbread so you can enjoy too. In tacos. With eggs. On sunchoke burgers pulled from the freezer.
  • Speaking of the freezer….tomato ice cream? This feels like the time in high school when we were thing to figure out how to use up a bunch of cushaw. Turns out pumpkin ice cream is really a thing. Why not tomato?
  • The cherry tomatoes are tempting to go ahead and pickle. Copy the copycats of a restaurant dish that I still dream of?
  • Two weeks worth of bell peppers getting stuffed. (Adding extra tomatoes and chickpeas to the Greek filling mix from Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room.)
  • Banana peppers finally getting pickled. If there are extra, stuff them with cheese?
  • The cinnamon basil-lime cookies were good. Make more and freeze the dough.
  • I think there’s a good chance we’ll pick some zucchini from our neighbor’s plot while they’re out of town this week. If we do, I want to use the eggplant for ratatouille. If we don’t, the eggplant tomato cheddar stacks from Simply in Season.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 1

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Dear John,

It’s counterintuitive that after having all the guests over the past week we have more lingering produce than usual. But between buying extra veggies for lunch nibbles and pre-preparing dinners, there wasn’t as much focus on using up the CSA and garden food. Some chard stems and green tomatoes made a chutney that was offered on the potato bar. Cooked chard leaves were offered with the pasta sauce. Tomatillos were chopped with lime juice and a pepper to top tacos. That was about it for three days?

Now I’m having the post-visit energy collapse. It feels entirely possible that we’ll order takeout an extra day this week. Possibly pull out a freezer meal without freezing a new one. All to say, watch out. Next week may get to overwhelming amounts of produce needing to be used if we’re not intentional.

Today’s Box

  • Donut Peaches
  • Nectarines
  • Centercut Squash
  • Green Beans
  • Green Bell Peppers
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Sweet Onions
  • Cinnamon Basil

Things in the fridge

  • Plums
  • Watermelon
  • Sweet corn
  • Banana peppers
  • Celery
  • Cucumber and lemon cucumber
  • Red Spring Onions
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage
  • Turnips?
  • Red Potatoes
  • Green plums
  • Green tomatoes (starting to pink)

In the Garden

  • The first cucumber!
  • Early peppers. Think Cochiti but maybe Fish.
  • A couple tomatillos
  • More tomatoes. Both ours and from the neighbors.
  • A few ground cherries
  • Rainbow chard (but gave half to the neighbors)
  • All the Genovese basil
  • Flowering dill if inspired
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and gomphrena if we want another bouquet
  • Communal blackberries and figs

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

Sad news this week. Our basil looks not great. I’m not sure if the browning is due to stress from heat and lack of hydration or a fungus.

I fear the fungus.

One plant was totally dead. I pulled it and another two that were browning. One last batch of pesto for us. And not planting basil in the same section next year out of an abundance of caution.

Team Empty The Fridge

  • Chop tomatillos + tomatos + pepper + salt + lime for the tacos that were dinner.
  • The potato green bean pesto salad
  • Cinnamon basil and lime cookies.
  • Need to pickle the banana peppers. (Just as we finished off last year’s batch.)
  • These bell peppers look good for making stuffed bell peppers. I’ve had this tab open for long enough that I forgot it existed. Calls for lamb, so we might not go that direction though!
  • I want panzanella and the spot that I picked up lunch from today didn’t have any. So expect to make that one of these days while you’re at the office.
  • I want pizza. Can we pizza? It’s hot, but not as hot as it’s been. (These are the weeks I miss apartment complexes gas grills.) Squash and red sauce and cheese and garlic. Corn and tomatoes and pesto and feta.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 18

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The board looked a lot skimpier when it was just the peaches and blackberries. Thankfully, the missing vegetable share found its way back to us.

Dear John,

Let’s talk cabbage salad. Because when I said that you should take cabbage salads to work it wasn’t with the intention that you eat the same salad every day. It was the thought that shredding cabbage and a few other veggies is a fairly easy prep you can do at the beginning of the week. Mix up a few dressings, think through a few bonus toppings, and then you can choose your own adventure. For instance:

The Six Seasons Caesar with hazelnuts and croutons.

The Budget Bytes crunch with craisins and peanut dressing (yes, I realize I am mixing and matching two different cabbage salads from her)

The Pulp lentils with peaches and a dried herbs vinaigrette.

Hummus dressing with chickpea croutons

Not yet tried, but eyeing the Mediterranean Dish’s mustard dressing.

Also eyeing Leanne Brown’s Banh Mi Salad. We could prep tofu in advance, I think.

We have tried (and liked!) Smitten Kitchen’s cabbage and lime with peanuts. She also has cabbage and apple and walnuts (maybe more fall than summer) and a date + feta version.

Today’s Box

  • Blackberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Green Beans
  • Green Kale
  • Slicing Cucumbers
  • Yellow Straightneck Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Herbs: Hyssop?, basil
  • Celery
  • Peaches
  • Bit of blueberries
  • Red Spring Onions
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, Beet
  • Carrots, turnips, beets
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • The first ground cherries
  • Rainbow chard given away by the bagful
  • Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
  • Flowering dill if inspired for pickles
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and gomphrena bouquet
  • Purple plums and green apples and black berries from the shared spaces
  • Green tomatoes from the compost pile

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

The tomatoes may need to be re-staked. They’re nearly falling over. I’m hesitant to damage roots and yet more wary of toppled over plants. (And very excited for them to come in.)

The volunbeans have shot straight up. One plant has reached all the way to the top of its pole and is coming down the cucumber scaffolding.

The peppers are looking promising. I’m hopeful that the set-up this year gets them better light and better yield.

The dahlia, planted late, is up and pinched. It will probably be a while before it starts to bloom. But it gets better light and is in better soil than the ones at our house, so it might catch up quick.

Eating now (aka clear counter space for Six Seasons)

  • Celery cucumber salad from Six Seasons (alternate adaptation here).
  • We will be eating the corn tomorrow Either as raw corn salad (alternate) or as creamed corn.
  • I really want to try the peach cornbread with coconut shrimp from Pulp.
  • We’ve been having success with the zucchini tuna melts. I think my body wants more meat. Can definitely try it with the squash instead.
  • Green beans with celery. (alternate) Does the herb patch at the garden include tarragon?
  • Probably kale instead of cabbage in a salad from above? Unless we go for the original kale salad.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 11

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At the beginning of the box life there are more “wait, what is this?” moments. Learning all the different greens that are given, for instance. A decade of on-and-off, but mostly on CSA–half of which we’ve also be gardening in one community or another–three of them with this particular set of farms, that feeling is pretty rare. But I saw blue hyssop on the predicted contents list this week and the only thing I could think of is “Purge me with hyssop and I shall be white as snow.”

I know the Bible is a compilation of many different types of texts, but I generally think of Psalms as the poetry/music collection. Not a cookbook.

Masterclass mastered the SEO. So…..I dunno. Use as one of our herbs of the week? Toss in a salad with the cabbage? Blend with yogurt or hummus for a dressing? Sneak into the morning smoothie?

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Watermelon
  • Blue Hyssop (unless it’s mint. Or sweet basil. But it doesn’t look like either of those.)
  • Celery
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Malabar Spinach
  • Red Cabbage

Things in the fridge

  • Cherries
  • Peach
  • Red Spring Onions
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collard, Beet
  • Carrots, turnips, beets
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Rainbow chard
  • Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
  • Dill flowers
  • Calendula flowers still getting dried by the trayful
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos bouquet

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

We hadn’t touched last week’s chard when we went by the garden this weekend. So bare minimum thinning for this week’s harvest.

In lieu of garden flowers, a picture of the new color of cosmo that popped open at home. Hello pink petals! Hello yellow center!

Meals to make to celebrate summer

  • This is the spinach that I much prefer cooked. Maybe we mix with some rice or quinoa and stuff a zucchini or two? Or involtini.
  • Celery and fennel salad.
  • ‘Tis the season for blueberry peach pie.
  • A few beet reds snuck into a smoothie and I think I liked it? Expect a repeat. After I finish my cucumber innards muesli (made with the seeds scooped out of cucumbers before making a salad last week).
  • We haven’t used those collards for too long. How about a salad?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 4

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Dear John,

The fireworks are echoing down the street. I’m wiped from watching parade in the summer heat. You’re in the kitchen making everything neat.

Today’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • White Peaches
  • Fennel
  • Red Beets
  • Red Spring Onions
  • Slicing Cucumbers
  • Yellow Patty Pan Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Cherries
  • Watermelon
  • Peaches
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collard
  • Carrots
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Green beans from neighbors
  • Rainbow chard
  • Turnips + greens
  • Radish + greens
  • Beets + reds, beet + greens
  • Sad looking ending the pea season
  • All the lettuce (17 slugs, 1 earwig)
  • Basil leaves getting pinched with flowers
  • Dill flowers
  • Garlic chives weeding forever
  • Calendula flowers getting dried by the trayful
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos bouquet

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

We pulled the peas, and planted beans to take over the tent. Two volunbeans, four from the soup pack. Harvested the last of the spring planted radish and turnips. I’m debating if we plant something else short there, or wait for the cucumber and strawberry to spread as they grow.

The beans we planted (two weeks ago?), have all popped up. The chard keeps getting thinned, so even though it’s growing, I feel like we might not be totally overwhelmed. Nevermind how loaded the bike was before we left.

I checked the internet’s horticulture wisdom and realized we needed to prune all of our tomatoes – it’s an indeterminate year.

Meals to make to celebrate summer

  • Internet browsing brought me to a newsletter with a series from Pandemic Part I. There’s this salad that looks great for cleaning out bits and ends. I made it last week and it was a hit. Not sure it’s calling me again so soon, but wanting to save.
  • It’s been so long since we made smashed cucumber salad. I miss it. We are making it this week. (I spied the first baby cucumber fruiting today. Maybe we’ll have some of our own to harvest.)
  • And the patty pan squash means it’s time for my annual making of the roasted squash and herbed chickpeas from chocolate & zucchini.
  • Green beans and tofu?
  • We just tossed fennel pesto that had gone moldy. So we can make some again. But learn from our mistakes and FREEZE it. Also, toss fennel on a salad of lettuces + peaches + toasted pecans.
  • How to use this week’s beet greens? (The beets will keep. Fine dice and roasted. Sliced on pizza. I’m not worried about them.) And what about the supply of chard? Last week brought a quiche with a mix of parm, cheddar, and gouda. Another quiche, but this time with chevre sounds potential. Honestly, it’s been a bit since we had pizza. That sounds kinda good. So does having it with pasta in a tomato sauce.
  • Last thought, if we have extra cucumbers, maybe this salad but with fennel.

Love,

Sarah

PS The wedge salad was as good as I dreamed and makes me want to get iceberg lettuce again. The toppings we used–roasted beets, toasted nuts, green onions, parsley, blue cheese dressing–feel so similar to my autumnal salads. But those are served with kale and that makes all the difference.

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, August 23

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More peaches! More melons! More kale!

Hey John,

Low-fat diet continues. I’ve been microwaving popcorn without oil (and learning, ah, that’s what diet popcorn tastes like), roasting chickpeas with abandon (and spicing them with abandon too), baking tofu (because we realized the store brand wasn’t gluten free, so it’s on me to eat), and eating no-fat yogurt (like I’m a smiling lady in an advertisement). We haven’t ended up back at the doctor this week, which I’m counting as a win. Even though there were a couple of times when maybe we should’ve gone? Managing new health conditions is a challenge!

Today’s Box

  • Little Sweetie Cantaloupe
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Watermelon
  • Green Kale
  • Ping Tung Long Eggplant
  • Red Tomatoes
  • Spaghetti Squash

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Fennel fronds
  • Canary Melon
  • Peach
  • Nectarines (farmers market)
  • Blackberries (farmers market)
  • Roma tomatoes
  • Tomatillos
  • Cranberries
  • Edamame
  • Yummy peppers
  • Celery
  • Sweet corn
  • Centercut squash
  • Greens: Kale
  • New Potatoes
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Coming in from the Garden

  • Basil
  • Kale
  • Tomatillos
  • Roma tomatoes
  • 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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Low fat ideas to eat the veggies

  • Fruit salad with honey yogurt dressing (~1 generous tablespoon of honey for each half cup of fat free yogurt)
  • Rice-stuffed tomatoes (reducing oil in the cooking)! Is it risotto in another form? Yes. But I NEED other forms of my rice porridge right now. Do you know how much congee I ate last week?
  • Kale from the CSA, huh. Hahahahaha. So much kale this season! How about the braised beans and greens Dad made. Or maybe go the pasta route.
  • I expect we’ll keep making tacos with roasted veggies or scrambled eggs. There’s brown rice in the fridge. Beans already cooked. Let’s roast the tomatillos to make some salsa and the meal will be ready for quick prep whenever we need it.
  • I don’t especially want to try spaghetti squash with kale and beans and marinara and no cheese. It should keep for a couple of months. Let’s see when the surgery is scheduled and maybe save until then.
  • I love eggplant! With oil.
    *cue the sad trombones*
    I may decide to roast the eggplant and mix with yogurt and spices. Or may say this is perfect time to make more preserved eggplant from Six Seasons to ration throughout the rest of the year.
  • A final note, not for using up produce: Last week, my loaf from the Neighborhood Bread Lady’s monthly subscription was an apricot sourdough with fennel and coriander and maybe some other spices. When my friend picked up our loaf, NBL said to “think of it like a cheeseboard.” It was amazing. I have found a recipe for apricot fennel bread that I may need to make. Even though it won’t be sourdough and I’ll use dried apricots instead of fresh.

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 16

planorcanLeave a comment
Big peaches. Smaller squash.

Hi John,

I had a surprise hospital stay since the last post. You were able to successfully pause the CSA for a week. And the family that came into town to help care for us in the recovery also helped us catch up on produce. I’m doing better, though you’re still going to be on cooking intensive. Plus, there’s new dietary restrictions to follow. If anyone has suggestions for very low fat desserts (beyond fruit or straight up spooning sugar into my mouth), let me know.

Today’s Box

  • Athena Cantaloupe
  • Canary Melon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Centercut Squash
  • Collards
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • New Red Potatoes

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Fennel fronds
  • Watermelon
  • Cranberries
  • Edamame
  • Shisito peppers
  • Celery
  • Greens: Kale
  • Sweet potato
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Coming in from the Garden

  • Basil
  • Kale
  • Tomatillos
  • Roma tomatoes
  • 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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Low fat ideas to eat the veggies

  • Collards and tofu. Probably with brown rice instead of the quinoa. Maybe with kale instead of the collards.
  • Speaking of collards and kale. Normally we save the stems for pesto. I can’t eat that! So pickled stems? Or dehydrate to powder them? Maybe I’ll like the kale in green smoothies better that way. Can’t hurt to try.
  • Similarly, no basil pesto for me. And since our freezer is full, I guess we’re dehydrating basil for winter use? So wrong, but so right.
  • There’s a recipe in the Indian cookbook for baby potatoes and tomatoes. We don’t have enough tomatoes at home right now, but I bet we will after the next garden visit. Cut most of the ghee though. Sad face.
  • Sweet potato, black bean, and corn hash from the Moosewood that I picked up from the Little Free Library.
  • Though Simply in Season’s stoplight salad could also use the corn and not much oil.
  • The squash wants to be grilled or roasted. (Or sauteed in a pan, but there’s that dang oil popping in.) Perhaps we stick to it as a side? Or in a bowl with some grains and a lime-basil-yogurt dressing? Topping for congee or risotto?
  • Save the melon guts and juice for my muesli fix. Honestly, I’m so glad that I tried Lindsay-Jean Hard’s recipe before I got sick. Oats + chia seeds + no fat yogurt + honey + spices prepped the night or two before, topped with fresh fruit when I’m ready to eat have been a great midnight snack/breakfast. Skipping the nuts and most of the seeds for now. Omitting dried fruit because there’s so much good fresh fruit.
  • Pie has too much fat in the crust. And crisps have the fat in the topping. But I think a fruit cobbler might work. Especially if we use the no-fat milk. So peach cobbler?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 2

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Golden reds and oranges and yellows in the peaches and tomatoes

Hi John,

Saturday we walked to the garden, a feat unto itself. We pulled up some weeds and nibbled on berries from the common area. And we harvested. Edamame! Kale! Tomatillos! Roma tomatoes! And, some beautiful beefsteak tomatoes. That night, I snuck into the kitchen and cut the tomato into thick slices. Sprinkled with salt. Set on plate with knife and fork in hand. One of the moments of sheer, summer perfection.

Today’s box makes it clear that we are IN tomato season. And honestly, a few more meals like that Saturday night snack sounds just right.

Actually in Today’s Box

  • Yellow Peaches
  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Malabar Spinach
  • Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
  • Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes

Things I think are in the fridge

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

Coming in from the Garden

  • Edamame
  • Basil
  • Kale
  • Tomatillos
  • Aunt Ruby’s German Green (Beefsteak) tomatoes
  • Roma tomatoes
  • Occasional ground cherries
  • Shishito peppers
  • Jimmy Nardello pepper
  • 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
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Snacks for now and meals to share

  • Lacto-ferment the green cherry tomatoes that we rescued from a pruned stem (no need to have them ripen on the counter forever and ever)
  • Blueberry-peach pie!
  • The corn, basil, blueberry salad from Half-Baked Harvest
  • Israeli-Spiced Tomatoes and chickpeas from Six Seasons
  • Cucumbers and papalo from Six Seasons
  • BLTs. Grilled Cheese with tomato slices.
  • More of the rosemary-spiced nuts
  • Watermelon-basil agua fresca
  • A meal of appetizers/sides. Edamame. Blister the shishito peppers. Maybe this tomato salad (note the ginger substitution). Or maybe the tomatoes and eggs. Side of rice.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 26

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

Hi John,

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

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

Supposedly in Today’s Box

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

Things I think are in the fridge

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

Coming in from the Garden

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

Open Preserves

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

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

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

Love,

Sarah