This weekend was the annual farm visit to Stoneledge Farm, the source of our CSA. The program was similar to last year and again we were told to pick whatever we wanted from some of the patches as we were walking through the fields. We came home with winter squashes, poblanos, a couple habaneros, a couple jalapenos, some sweet peppers, green onions, a small handful of cherry tomatoes, and 17 tomatoes. I already had 11 tomatoes on the counter, from my garden and the share this week. This afternoon I picked 9 more tomatoes. This is a lot of tomatoes, in case you didn’t notice.

I woke up on the early side this morning and started planning my attack. Today I made:
Sweet Squash Puree soup

recipe from Everyday Food, Great Food Fast. Called for Butternut squash but I subbed a different sweet squash. Good. Will make again.

Tomatillo Squash soup

recipe from Moosewood Favorites. This caught my eye last night because I had a bunch of tomatillos to use up. Very good. Will make again if the stars align all the ingredients in my kitchen.

Tomato Red Pepper soup

I made this one up. Cut up a bunch of sweet red peppers and a few tomatoes. Put in 4Qt Le Creuset and simmered for awhile. When soft, pureed with food mill. Put everything back in the pot and cooked down a bit. Very good. Will make again.

two batches of slow cooker tomato puree
Indian Spiced Eggplant

Made this up last year. Very good.

a caramelized green onion eggy tart
Chilies Rellenos Casserole

From the Whole Foods Market cookbook. I follow the recipe, except for the part about stuffing the poblanos, battering them and frying them before putting them in the casserole. What a pain. I spread a little of the corn mixture in the bottom of the pan, then layer poblano pieces and cheese in two layers, then top with the rest of the corn mixture and bake. Much easier.

The freezer wasn’t empty by any stretch of the imagination before, but now it’s definitely full. We had some of the green onion tart for dinner, along with a nice green salad. I’ll take some of the casserole for lunch tomorrow & then I’ll freeze the rest. I’m tired, hence the skimpiness of the descriptions. Perhaps some pictures tomorrow.

This weekend we have our annual Farm Day visit to Stoneledge Farm, the source of all our fabulous, organic CSA veg. Part of Farm Day is a potluck lunch and I spent some time thinking about what I should bring. Hoping to avoid going to the store, I opted to try out a recipe for Pear Custard Tart that I’ve had my eye on, as I have plenty of all the ingredients, including pears. The recipe is a huge winner.

There’s more gone now. It was really good last night, warm from the oven. I put it in the refrigerator overnight and I sampled a bit of it this morning – it’s even better. The vanilla totally filled out.

The recipe is from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.
Jeremie typed the recipe up last night, but I need to double check it before I post it, as we have a discrepancy in the amount of flour used.

I see a lot of salad in our future and I think I’ll have to make some tomato puree for the freezer in order to get through all of these, plus the tomatoes I picked last night. That being said, this week’s share isn’t too crazy and I think we’ll be able to finish it and whatever we have left from previous weeks. This week I went for a bit of an artsy shot, rather than a show-all-veg-to-the-max shot.

Red Sails Lettuce-1 head
Grand Rapids Lettuce-1 head
Slicing Tomatoes-4 pounds
Sweet Peppers-4
Genovese Basil-1 bunch
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Scallions-1 bunch
Tomatillos-1 pound
Eggplant-2

Sheldon Pears
Gala Apples
Blackberries

The blackberries were a last minute change (we were expecting nectarines) and they’re absolutely delicious. Some are tart, some are sweet. I love surprises.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard-1 bunch
Red Sails Lettuce-1 head
Buttercrunch Lettuce-1 head
New White Potatoes-2 pounds
Scallions-1 bunch
Edamame-1 bunch
Slicing Tomatoes-6 pounds
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes-1 basket
Lipstick Sweet Peppers-4
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley-1 bunch
Jalapeno Peppers-hot-take them if you like (I took 4)

Bartlett Pears
Honey Crisp Apples
Long John Plums

What did I do with everything? Let’s see… I made a few salads with the red sails lettuce and I still have the head of buttercrunch to finish. A wee bit of a problem since we’re getting two more heads today. I still haven’t used the scallions or potatoes, but they’ll keep so I’m not worried. The edamame we just ate, after steaming it in the microwave. Tomatoes: some were eaten sliced plain, some sliced with fresh mozzarella, good bread, and basil, some went in to salads, a couple were chopped and added to a second batch of eggplant gnocchi, I made a fresh tomato soup with several, and I have a couple left. I forgot to mention that on top of the 6 pounds of tomatoes from the CSA, I easily had another 6+ pounds from my garden. It’s tomato time. Cherry tomatoes we popped like candy, pretty much the same with the lipstick peppers. They’re so sweet and delicious. The apples were incredible and we ate all of them by the end of the weekend. I still have a handful of pears and plums left that I’ll need to do something with. Forgive me for this completely uncreative entry.