zucchini

Boxing Day, September 30 & October 7

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Dear John,

I’m posting the plans for the past two weeks, and then going to figure out what to make for dinner tonight by planning for the coming week. Whirlwind time indeed!

Currently here

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Kiwiberries
  • Banana Peppers
  • Broccoli Rabe
  • Green Acorn Squash
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • White Cauliflower

Expecting soon

  • Asian Pears
  • Empire Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Fennel
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Zucchini
  • Habanada Peppers

Community Produce

  • Sweet potatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Zucchini
  • Onion
  • Pears
  • Oranges

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Muscadines
  • Heirloom tomato, red tomato
  • Cucumber
  • Peppers
  • Fennel stems
  • Greens: Lettuce, Bok Choy
  • Leeks
  • Onions
  • Beets
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Kiwiberries

Expected at the Garden

  • Collards
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Tomatillos enough for one batch of salsa
  • Parsley that should be left for the swallowtails
  • Eggplant
  • Radish
  • Assorted non-spicy peppers
  • Hoping for Bundles of Dahlias

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.

  • I bought pomegranate from the grocery store so we can make the roasted cauliflower and pomegranate dish from Ottolenghini.
  • Okay, but also, I’m cooking the calypso beans and there’s a recipe in the Q1 Rancho Gordo Newsletter for Calypso Beans and Caulifower. Hmmm… maybe freeze some beans? Maybe buy some frozen cauliflower?
  • We still need to make the leek soup. Maybe try this one with the calypso beans?
  • Remember the brussel sprouts roasted with grapes that the one friend of a friend introduced us to back when we lived in the apartment? I’m thinking of that, but finishing off the muscadines and using the broccoli rabe.
  • Sweet potato with celery salad!
  • Pickle the banana peppers! Use them the next time we have cauliflower.
  • I’m getting better about making a quick salad for dinner. If the dressing is premade and toppings prepped, washing the lettuce when we’re home is the biggest step. Let’s keep that going.
  • Feel like I’d love to use the zucchini and potatoes together. Smitten’s focaccia is tempting! And poison for you. (BUT THE TEMPTATION.) No? This isn’t time with your travel? Fine. Can we buy the fancy cheeses and make this project of a meal? (Or maybe I make the focaccia for my lunches.)
  • Not sure how we want to use the habanadas this go round.

Love,

Sarah

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, 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, August 29

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Today’s Box


  • Fruit
     *Black Muscadine Grapes – NC
     *Little Sweetie Cantaloupe
     *Yellow Seedless Watermelon


  •  *Bicolor Sweet Corn
     *Green Beans
  •  *Mixed Yummy Peppers
     *Spaghetti Squash
     *Yellow Straightneck Squash

Things in the fridge

  • Watermelon
  • Plums
  • Peaches
  • Celery
  • Greens: Cabbage, chard
  • Green plums (might want to check on them)

In the Garden

  • Habaneros, jalapenos, fish peppers, other peppers, many peppers
  • Tomatillos
  • Tomatoes
  • Ground cherries
  • Rainbow chard
  • Dill seed
  • Parsley if we want
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and gomphrena for the table
  • Communal figs if we want

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 are having pepper success this year! Maybe we bought more plants? (I’d have to go back to the garden journal to check.) But more importantly we have them in an area where they aren’t being overshadowed by the taller plants.

Maybe we can add eggplant to that section in the future?

Cooking things down, before we leave town

  • So, with lots of hot peppers, comes lots of hot sauce? I have a pint jar with ~cup of peppers fermenting on the table. I made a serious eats hot sauce. And we still have a five cup container of peppers in the fridge.
  • It’s a lot of green beans. I’m copying from last week. Maybe the usual way with tofu. Maybe a variation. Oh! Maybe in a curry. It’s been a while since we’ve done a curry and now I want that. Add some peppers and some squash?
  • I was wondering how to do the corn and then looked at smitten kitchen and now I know. (Though corn enchiladas sound good too.)
  • I grabbed an extra spaghetti squash. You know how I like the baked spaghetti squash bowls. Bet we could do one with chard?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 15

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Today’s Box

  • Italian plums
  • Yellow Seedless Watermelon
  • Athena Cantaloupe
  • Cubanelle Peppers
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Red Cabbage
  • Sungold Cherry Tomatoes
  • Yellow Wax Beans

Things in the fridge

  • Watermelon
  • Plums
  • Peaches
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Bell pepper
  • Celery
  • One lemon cucumber
  • Fennel bulb
  • Greens: Cabbage, kale, collards, chard
  • Green plums (might want to check on them)
  • Green tomatoes (starting to pink)

In the Garden

  • Neighbor’s zucchini
  • Habaneros, jalapenos, and a few more peppers
  • Tomatillos
  • Tomatoes
  • Ground cherries
  • Rainbow chard (didn’t harvest on Saturday, but it’s there)
  • Dill seed
  • Parsley
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and gomphrena for the table
  • Communal figs if we want

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

Saturday we had a garden workday–focusing our efforts on the communal areas instead of our plot. We did a quick harvest before we left. (I didn’t pick a bouquet, nevermind deadheading for the flowers.) When we got home from the garden, we weighed the produce we picked from our plot. Not quite ten pounds! The water from the tomatoes and tomatillos adds up. Good thing some of our cooking shrinks it way down.

Cooking things down, before we leave town

  • I made two types of salsa this weekend. Please note that when they are pulled from the freezer, they would both benefit from some cilantro.
  • I also made this ratatouille over the weekend. We got more eggplant today and I intend to make more ratatouille tomorrow. That should make a dent in our tomatoes and peppers and zucchini as well. Last time I added one habanero that was threatening with some bad spots. The oil was surprisingly spicy. Do it again!
  • We’re just about to finish off the last cabbage in lunchtime salads. Hurrah! Let’s do it again with this one.
  • These are the plums to dry for prunes. Because we have plenty of other fruit and enough other veggies that I’m not buying cauliflower to try out the recipe I want to test from Pulp.
  • Beans and tofu. Maybe the usual way. Maybe a variation.

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, June 20

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Dear John,

Summer means interns. And this year, interns in residence (vs remote). So for the first time since March 2020, we have five days a week working separately. I was so stressed out when work-from -home began. Too much together time! This side I was anxious about the time time apart. What can I say? Change is scary.

Spoiler: It’s been fine. We need to make sure you take salads to the office so we don’t get too much of a backlog of produce. Buying your favorite of carrots and celery is just too much with the CSA and garden plot producing.

Today’s Box

  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • Mini Watermelon Seedless
  • Broccoli
  • Green Zucchini
  • Red Romaine Lettuce
  • Sugar Snap Peas

Things in the fridge

  • Blueberries
  • Breakfast radishes
  • Fennel + stems still waiting to get pickled
  • Lettuce
  • Greens: Cabbage, Chard, Collards, Kale, Lettuce
  • Zucchini
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Rainbow chard
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Peas for the sampling–snap, snow, and shelling
  • Lettuce, when we’re ready
  • Basil leaves getting pinched
  • Calendula flowers getting dried
  • Beets if we want them
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Calendula and cosmos and oregano flowering for a wild bunch of a bouquet

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

As I type this part, on Wednesday, the window is open to the porch and the cool breeze that accompanies rain is teasing round my shoulders. We need the rain. The plants were doing better than I expected when I last got by to water them with the hose. But spigot is not the same as a good, daylong sprinkle.

Meals to consider and pickles to prep

  • Between the CSA and the garden, I think we’ve tipped the line to a chard bounty this year. We’re pickling some stems. I asked some friends for their favorites to add some variety and got suggestions for green shakshuka and quesadillas on the stove to maximize crispiness. I saw a recommendation for a chard salad a la the kale salad that Joshua McFaddan popularized. There’s also chard hummus, but I wasn’t especially impressed with the white bean and beet green dip last week, so maybe we save that for later in the year.
  • This week’s zucchini looks young and tender. Perfect for eating in a salad where it’s mandolined, salted, and dressed. Use the basil flowers that I pinched at the garden.
  • And we could combine the chard and the zukes if there’s time for a more involved cooking project.
  • A mix-up meant that we didn’t get our cherries last week. So we got a special delivery of two weeks worth of cherries this week. We could devour them by the handful, no problem. But I’m excited for the excuse to try the snap peas and pickled cherries salad.
  • While we’re mixing the pickling brine, go ahead and make a batch of radishes. They’ll be great on tacos later.
  • Maybe time for the oven roasted broccoli with lemon and feta? Though, tossing it all in a blender again is still a quick and easy way to consume a lot, fast.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, June 6

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Dear John,

Happy Birthday! It was around this time two years ago that we got our garden box built and filled with the starts we got from the neighborhood seedling shop. Which makes me feel better about not yet having gotten a cucumber start yet this year (hopefully we’ll find one soon!). Or bought poles for this year’s bean tent. Nevermind, plant the beans around the tent. We do however have peas coming up around their tent. So, y’know, there’s plenty going on.

Today’s Box

  • Cherries
  • Mini Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Strawberries
  • Broccoli
  • Green Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Zucchini
  • Green Chard

Things in the fridge

  • Breakfast radishes
  • Fennel (I think just the tops)
  • Some bitter greens from the neighbors
  • Red Lettuce
  • Collards
  • Scallions, Green Garlic, Garlic Scape. Honestly not sure what all is in the green alliums bag
  • Green plums

In the Garden

  • Lettuce, so pretty, so many slugs
  • Radishes + their greens
  • Turnips + their greens
  • Baby rainbow chard
  • Calendula flowers gracing our table
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano

Open Preserves

Garden glimpse

The peas flowered! And they formed pods! We might get to eat some! Maybe!! Not many mind you. But any is still exciting.

Meals to consider

  • Chard + chevre omelettes
  • Chard spaghetti a la Six Seasons. And with the goal of having enough leftovers to make the frittata.
  • Fennel salad dressing to go on salads of lettuce and turnips. Perhaps with some diced watermelon tossed on top.
  • I see the zucchini and the Six Seasons tuna melt is gonna happen. So many other good things to do, but that one is calling.
  • Meanwhile, I’m not immediately yearning for one broccoli recipe or another. It’s the time of year when I’ve often done the velvety broccoli and feta pasta. So maybe that that’s the way.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, August 30

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The changing seasons–when there are pears and watermelon.

Hi John,

It’s getting easier to come up with recipes for this extra low-fat regimen. I miss cheese and the ease of drizzling oil into the pan. I would’ve fried an egg instead of soft-boiling it. And I do miss the pies and ice cream and brownies. Also hummus.

But we’ve figured out risottos. And made pizza from scratch with me weighing out the cheese so I actually do go as lightly as I should. (It still beat the calzone.) Actually measuring the oil at the beginning of a recipe, and using a fraction of what the recipe calls for, has brought back the pasta dishes and fried rice. It seems worth documenting that my salad dressings have been replaced with no-fat yogurt. Yogurt with salt and lime. Yogurt with turmeric, paprika, and cumin. It’s not the same as a version with fat, but it’s working.

Today’s Box

  • Italian plums
  • Mini Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Red Bartlett Pears
  • Baby Green Bok Choy
  • Banana Peppers
  • Green Beans
  • Green Zucchini

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Peach
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Nectarines (farmers market)
  • Blackberries (farmers market)
  • Roma tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Cranberries
  • Celery
  • Sweet corn
  • Greens: Kale
  • Spaghetti squash
  • 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

  • Banana peppers are already pickling. One batch in reused brine. One batch loosely following this.
  • Plums will become prunes.
  • I really want to pair the pears with nuts and cheese. Maybe wine. And while we could try poaching them, even that wants a dollop of whipped cream.
    Instead, let’s get the ice cream maker out of storage. Invite friends for a porch hang where we make pear sorbet. Molly Moon has a recipe. You decide if we go electric or hand crank.
  • Green beans and tofu turmeric-pepper stirfry! Make extra rice to become…
  • … bok choy fried rice.
  • Zucchini corn tacos with refried beans and rice.

Love you,

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

Boxing Day, June [JULY] 19

planorcanLeave a comment
Missing: green peppers and cabbage that were forgotten in the backpack. (Which is one step better than the bread forgotten at the pick-up site. Memory is not our strong suit these days.)

Hi John,

The predicted contents for today’s CSA included corn, so I was all excited for the annual eating of Half Baked Harvest’s Grilled Corn and Basil Salad (with Blueberries). Then today’s email arrived and instead of corn we’re getting green bell peppers. Womp womp.

Maybe we’ll have stuffed bell peppers soon? (Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room has a couple of recipes as do many other of the books on the shelf I’m sure.) And maybe we’ll buy corn at the market this week.

Supposedly in Today’s Box

  • Peaches
  • Blueberries
  • Celery
  • Green Bell Peppers
  • Green Kale
  • Green Savoy Cabbage
  • Malabar Spinach

Things I think are in the fridge

  • Blueberries (farmer’s market)
  • Peaches
  • Fennel
  • Cucumber
  • Cranberries
  • Lemon squash
  • Gold zucchini
  • Neighbor’s garden zucchini
  • Greens: Napa Cabbage, Kale
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
  • Sweet potato
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Growing in the Garden

  • Edamame
  • Basil
  • Kale
  • Tomatillas (surely ripening soon?)
  • Tomatoes should start to come in this month
  • Occasional ground cherries
  • Peppers? Soon?
  • Garlic? Perhaps
  • Dahlias and marigolds and nasturtium
  • Rosemary forever

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 you can maybe make in the coming days (slash weeks)

  • Noodles with veggies! Peanut noodles + edamame and radish. Noodles with zukes.
  • We’ve somehow managed to stock up on eggs. Crustless quiche to the rescue! But maybe a veggie shakshuka is in order soon. Or maybe we should boil eggs for the snacking.
  • I’m intrigued by the popcorn on a salad idea. More purposes for that corn we’ll buy…
  • Continue with the beans and greens. (But maybe freeze some of the beans we cooked last night.) Also consider bean salad (compare to bean salad recipe in Simply in Season).
  • Cabbage summer slaws
  • A care package came with some maple-rosemary-almonds. Now I want more candied nuts.

Love,

Sarah

Boxes from June into July

planorcanLeave a comment

Dear John,

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
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

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.
  • Zucchini tuna melts from Six Seasons. Zucchini butter spaghetti. Zucchini tacos. Squash and beans.
  • Saag Feta. Aloo Saag. Beans and greens.
  • 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….)

So much love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, July 8

planorcanLeave a comment
Lots of green veggies, with hints of yellows and golds. And then there’s the blueberries.

Hi John,

This weekend we took our picnic to the local fireworks display. We found a spot on the grass, spread out a blanket, unloaded our bikes, and took off our masks. In a crowd. It felt normal and weird and like the kind of thing that shouldn’t be noteworthy but it absolutely is. I felt mostly safe? Mostly because we were outside. And because blankets make easy boundaries and everyone was still giving each other a bit more space than we would have two years ago.

It was a better viewing experience than two years ago, when we tried watching from the apartment’s roof. And better than last year when we watched the show as reflected in the windows of the grocery store across the street while eating sausage with Jerusalem Artichoke Relish by our window.

I confess to mixed feelings about fireworks. They’re pretty and can be fun to watch. They’re loud and keep me up and we don’t even have pets or small children or PTSD to have extra reasons to hate them. The environmentalist side of me will be glad when they’re gone and not adding to fire risk or traumatizing birds. And there’s still the awesomeness of sitting with your group, part of a larger crowd, all looking up together and saying, “Wow.”

In This Week’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Celery
  • Dill
  • Fennel
  • Green Savoy Cabbage
  • Green Zucchini
  • Pickling Cucumbers
  • White Spring Onions
  • Yellow Wax Beans

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Red onions
  • Basil! Thai or lime or purple or Italian
  • Some apricots and blackberries from the communal area (I even snuck some into the photo.)

Still in the Fridge

  • Cherries
  • Herbs: Fennel, Dill
  • Greens: Dandelion, Cabbage, Lacinato Kale
  • Radish: Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnip
  • Onions: white and red
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Beets
  • Sunchokes

Considering the options

  • Pickling cucumbers + dill = Probably time to try making pickles. There’s just three cucumbers, so I pulled out Joy of Cooking and went with a recipe from there. They’ll be curing in the fridge, ready to eat in a week’s time.
  • Dandelion greens and white beans from Cool Beans. They’ve been here for two weeks. They need to get used. If we don’t feel like eating the dish, I bet it’d be a good one for dehydrating for a future backpacking trip.
  • I expect we’ll do more of the Six Seasons celery salads. They’re quick and don’t require heat and right now both of those are winning propositions.
  • Peanut, tofu, and wax beans! That’s my first thought. But then I’m also remembering the Smitten Kitchen salad with green beans and fennel and red onions. And wouldn’t you know that I tossed the last of the garden plot’s inherited onions in the brine yesterday. We’ll get more green beans for the tofu dish in a week or two. I spied some on our volunbeans earlier today.
  • Zucchini pasta? The zucchini pie/pizza/quiche thing from Simply in Season?
  • Do we want to make more of the sunchoke burgers? Or use them on pizza with the zucchini?
Flower and baby pepper!

I’m not sure what I’m feeling with the cabbage and kale right now. They feel mostly too heavy for the salads I want right now (though it hasn’t stopped their appearing with chickpeas and parm for a meal or two over the past week). I don’t really want the soups that I associate with them. Maybe spring rolls? Maybe in a stir-fry? Maybe I should think more about grain bowls? I bet that beet yogurt would be pretty on a bowl.

~s

Boxing Day, July 1

planorcanLeave a comment
Pink celery doing the classic lie in front of the group pose

Hi John,

So…I’m still learning this platform. And was not feeling the best. And some weeks, apparently, I use the draft version to reference for meal planning all week instead of actually pressing publish. Here it is, belatedly. Who knows what edits came in when.

In This Week’s Box

  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • Tart Cherries
  • 7082 Cucumber
  • English Peas
  • Fresh Red Onions
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Pink Celery
  • Red Chard
  • Red Cylindra Beets

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Basil! Thai or lime
  • Oregano
  • Rosemary
  • Maybe a plum or three from the community tree

Still in the Fridge

  • Yellow Peaches
  • Cherries
  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Dill, Cilantro
  • Greens: Swiss Chard, Beet Greens, Lettuce, Dandelion, Cabbage
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Onions
  • Beets
  • Parsnip
  • Sunchokes

Meals to Maybe Make

  • Patty pan squash with chickpeas is still on the menu
  • Peas on toast!
  • Pea risotto if the heat breaks?
  • Also if the heat breaks, zucchini tacos?
  • We could still roast beets to make beet yogurt. And we can keep shredding them to go on salads.
  • I was looking in Six Seasons for the celery salads that I like, but then saw this one for cucumber and celery and apricots. We are totally making that ASAP.
  • Cherry pie! We have tart cherries and I want to see how they work in the amazing cherry pie of goodness.
  • Greens jam! [Edit to add, I ended up dehydrating instead of cooking all the way to jam so we’ll have them for our backpacking trip)

~s

Boxing Day, June 17

planorcanLeave a comment

Hi John,

So trying to pack for a camping trip and buying a house and meal planning all at once was not a success. We did not forget anything necessary for the camping trip! We got the offer in on the house! We got a contract on the house. We got earnest money deposited for the house. We did the home inspection. We walked on our contract for the house. Meals happened.

In This Last Week’s Box

  • Cherry plums
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Broccoli
  • Red Beets with Greens
  • Green Zucchini
  • English Peas
  • Fava Beans
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Kale
  • Sweet Basil

Still in the Fridge

  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Green Onions
  • Greens: Spinach, Lettuce
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Kohlrabi
  • Parsnips
  • Sunchokes

What We Ate

  • Cherry pie using four types of foraged sweet cherries and a combination of multiple recipes
  • Campfire pocket stew with carrot and parsnip and potato and cherry tomatoes. Yours was fine. Mine got burnt.
  • Quinoa salad with turnip and raw zucchini and carrot and creamy ginger dressing
  • Pizza with pesto and mozz and lemon slices and broccoli and zucchini and feta
  • Tuna melt zucchini bake from Six Seasons
  • Peas Pasta Carbonara from Six Seasons. The gluten free pasta didn’t result in a sauce so much as a broth, but still good.

I’ll try to be back tomorrow with actual plans in advance.

~s