Produce Catch-Up

The CSA produce is still coming, fast and furious, and we've enjoyed (nearly) all of it. I'm so glad that I decided to photograph each week's selections, not only because I think all that fresh produce is beautiful (because I do), but also because I think it will be useful during the (soon up-coming!) L-O-N-G winter. I can browse the photos, remembering the tastes of the summer past... the tastes of the summer to come!

So it may not make for super-exciting blog fodder, but I like the record I'll have in the future.

Onward!

Week 8:

Basil, purple basil, zukes, broccoli, fennel, sweet corn, cukes

kohlrabi, green beans, purple beans, and garlic

Most (well, ok ALL) of that basil was quickly and feverishly made into basil pesto on the eve of our trip to South Dakota. The zucchini went into zucchini bread, the broccoli made it's way into the freezer with the pesto, the corn and cukes were immediately consumed, as was the beans (albeit not as enthusiastically).

The fennel went into a recipe that Erin so kindly left on this post and it was DELISH. Unfortunately, some of it also found a home in the compost (i.e. it didn't get used up before our vacation.)

Week 9 was gifted to Beautiful Neighbor (b/c of aforementioned trip.)

Week 10:

Okra, beans, cukes, cabbage, purple and regular (um?) kohlrabi, purslane (a "weed"), basil

onions, tomatoes

Mmmmm! Tomatoes!

Week 11:

Okra, some kind of herb (??), kohlrabi, corn, 2 kinds of squash, pepper, cuke, cauliflower, green pepper,

tomatoes and ground cherries (centerish)

Have you tried ground cherries? I'm sort of embarrassed to admit that I had NEVER, and I liked them. They are sort of like a really sweet tomato, with a bit of pineapple zing.

Week 12:

Cauliflower, cabbage, celery, potatoes, summer squash, carrots (even PINK carrots!), dill, sage

tomatoes, turnips, and cukes (center)

First of all, pay NO MIND to the zukes behind the curtain. They are just hanging out, waiting to be composted... or um, made into some chocolaty-cakey treat. Second: Celery. Have you had it fresh out of the garden? It has FLAVOR. Amazing. And delicious.

Week 13:

Swiss chard, hot peppers, green peppers, winter squash, summer squash, lots and lots of tomatoes, and 2 small purple onions.

(Don't the colors keep getting more and more vibrant as the weeks go on?)

Look, I know the squash are not to blame, but I have to admit to a certain bitterness towards anything bearing the name "winter" in its name. The summer squash? It has been happily baked and sauteed and consumed with glee. But the winter squash remains, staring at me, from its post on the kitchen table.

Also, do you see that bit-o-green near the top of the picture? That looks like Brussels sprouts?

Well, it IS Brussels sprouts, though not from the CSA. Did YOU know that Brussels sprouts grew like this? That they were nearly as big as a (almost) 3 year old child? I sure didn't!

They came from a friend in town, known in our household as the Vegetable Santa, as he comes quite often bearing more veggies.

Carrots, potatoes, green peppers, corn, onions the size of human skulls, corn on the cob, garlic.... He has a big garden, and he works for a place that does research on growing food, AND he's part of the same CSA that we are part of. So he has MUCHO vegetables, and shares with us regularly.

Sometimes he doesn't even knock, instead leaving a fresh pile of newly harvested goodness for us to discover.

How wonderful to be buried in so much PRODUCE!

I remind myself of this as I put another pot on the stove for the purpose of blanching and freezing yet another batch of something.

Or when I feel weary about getting out the flour, sugar, chocolate chips for yet another loaf of squash-laden fast bread.

Or as I stand before the open refrigerator, triaging the contents in order to prepare the "most likely to become compost before tomorrow unless I use it tonight" for supper.

Because this winter? I am going to long to head to my window sill for a fresh and flavorful tomato to bury in salt.

In conclusion, I have NO IDEA how Ma Ingalls used only garden produce, year round, in her cooking, without the use of the internets! No! Idea! Is it even possible to make meals without at least occasionally looking up a recipe online? No, I don't think it is. (Yet another reason to be glad I am not a pioneer. Or even, a mother in the 1980's, for that matter.)

What produce have you been enjoying this summer? RECIPES WELCOME.

P.S. One interesting thing being in a CSA has taught me: I don't know how to spell most vegetable words FOR SHIT. Example: Did you know the Brussels sprouts had an "s" at the end of brussel? As in, it's NOT Brussel sprouts? And that, according to Teh Almighty Blogger, the "b" has to be capitalized?