Sunday, September 16, 2007

I tired!

The summer squash has been sliced, frozen, and bagged. Ditto the green beans. The peppers have been flame-roasted, skinned, chopped, frozen and bagged. Leftover veggies and the carcass of a leftover roasted chicken have been simmered down to broth; chilled, skimmed, portioned, and frozen. The enormous bunch of basil became even more pesto (with walnuts because where are my pine nuts? Where? They are the most expensive ingredient that I buy and they are missing. It's like losing a bottle of olive oil-- the really good stuff.) which in turn became pasta salad for dinner which used up the cherry tomatoes. And a cup of pesto for the freezer, of course. And it's all neatly dated and labeled.

The pumpkin became pumpkin bread. The apples became apple pie. The overripe peaches are hiding in both the bread and the pie, disguising themselves as extra pumpkin and apple. They are the Scarlet Pimpernel of fruit, really. The bounty from the CSA and the farmer's market is stacked neatly in my freezer, and cooling on my table. Only two more weeks of CSA deliveries and I'm running out of freezer space.

Wondering yet how I spent my weekend? If my fridge goes out and ruins all of that food and two solid weekends of labor, I will throw a temper tantrum the likes of which have never been seen in these parts.

Being a member of a CSA farm has been really interesting, and fun. But I think we'll probably not do it next year. It was just too many veggies every week for two people-- produce was always going bad before I had a chance to deal with it-- and then it's Friday again, time to pick up this week's box. And while the variety was awesome, there's always going to be stuff we don't like, like eggplant, okra, and beets. Or maybe I just don't know how to cook them right or something. There's such an excellent farmers' market here that just going there every week would suit our needs better and essentially serve the same purpose: getting (amazingly good) local, organic produce and supporting local farmers. But we can just buy what we need for each week and not worry about how we're going to use two heads of cabbage before the next week.

4 comments:

AuntSally said...

Hey, now...beets are GOOD. Clean 3-4 beets, cut off ends and tops, drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 45 min., (or until soft in center) at 375. Cool, skin and cube or chop to bite size pieces. In bowl, mix beets, orange slices and some orange zest,shredded ginger and sliced scallions. Drizzle again with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (to taste) Salt and pepper and serve at room temperature. Can be made ahead and refrigerated. Try it. You'll never give beets a bad name again.

Signed, "Aunt Sally for the Beet Appreciation Society." Remember, There are No Bad Beets!

Mara said...

Thank you, I will try that. As I suggested, maybe I just don't know what to do with them!

Although eggplant I think I sincerely dislike.

Bex said...

I really should do the csa thing, especially now that we have a bigger place. We like almost everything. MORE VEGGIES!!

Mara said...

It would make sense for you two, since veggies is a bigger percentage of your diet than they are of ours. If you go to LocalHarvest.org, you can find what CSA's are around you!