I was unable to take a picture for week 6 and we were out of town for week 7. Here’s week 8 for you.

Orient Express Eggplant-2
Peppers-3
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage-1
Walla Walla Onions-2
String Beans-1 pound
Genovese Basil-1bunch
Slicing Tomatoes-1
Summer Squash-2 pounds
Boothby Blonde cucumbers-2
Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes-1 basket

Shiro Plums
Peaches
Apricots

I’ve had big plans for these eggplant (eggplant roll-ups) but I haven’t gotten around to making the recipe yet. I’ve also dreamed up an eggplant parm-ish pasta and if I end up making it, I will definitely post about it. We’re getting more eggplant this week so it’s definitely possible.
I made gazpacho yesterday with one of the onions, a pepper, the tomato, and cukes from my garden. The boothby blonde cucumbers were gone the first night. They’re a perfect snack size. I also made a fantastic basil vinaigrette with the bunch of basil, plus some more from my garden. Here’s the recipe:
BASIL VINAIGRETTE
1 garlic scape
1/4 medium onion
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 lb basil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup orange juice
salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in order in blender and process. Makes approximately 1 pint.

Last night I made a feta and tomato salad with the sungold cherry tomatoes, some grape tomatoes and basil from my garden, parsley from the farmer’s market (I never got around to starting parsley from seed this year). We also ate the whole pound of green beans, lightly steamed. They were very good on their own and I really liked them with a bit of the vinaigrette from the tomato salad.

Summer Squash- 3 pounds
Cucumbers-long green-1
Boothby Blonde Cucumbers-2
Summer Spinach-1 bunch
Scallions-1 bunch
Oregano-1 bunch
Red Leaf Lettuce-1 head
Buttercrunch Lettuce-1 head
Orient Express Eggplant-3

Apricots
Blueberries
Currants

Garlic Scapes-8
Bright Lights Swiss Chard-1 bunch (really 2! see below)
Genovese Basil-1 large bunch
Grand Rapids Lettuce-1 head
New Red Fire Lettuce-1 head
Napa Cabbage-1 head
Summer Squash – 4
(English Thyme-1 bunch)

Yesterday was my first Swap Box win of the season! There was one bunch of the Bright Lights Swiss Chard in there so I swapped it for my bunch of English Thyme, since I have thyme in my garden and I love the Swiss chard.

The Grand Rapids lettuce head was small this week and we polished that off last night along with the rest of last week’s romaine. Now we have only one head of lettuce in the fridge and I feel quite relieved. I also made angel hair pasta with olive oil, fresh basil, parsley, and summer savory. It was quite delicious. As for the rest of the veggies, there will need to be a big batch of asian coleslaw in our future. I think I’ll make roasted summer squash for dinner Friday night and then either some salad or sauteed greens, along with chicken soup and roast chicken. So many possibilities!

…Just in time for week 4. Yeah, I have some catching up to do. It’s been busy at my house this past week and I just haven’t had time to do much more than get the photos off of my camera. And then try to eat vegetables as fast as we can. Lettuce, I love you but it’s getting to be a little much.

Scallions-1 bunch
Ty Fon Mustard Greens-1 bunch
Romaine Lettuce-1 head
Red Tide Lettuce-1 head
Grand Rapids Lettuce-1 head
Perpetual Spinach-1 bunch
Baby Red Ace Beets and Greens-1 bunch
Genovese Basil-1 bunch
Red Vein Sorrel-1 bunch

I did ok this week. We were still recovering from having leftover veggies from the week before, a hazard of going out of town during CSA time. There’s a little lettuce left, the sorrel, the mustard greens, some of the scallions, and some of the basil. I haven’t yet used the beets, they’re very small, but I did use the beet greens and the perpetual spinach for “Spanokopita Greens” on Friday night, which I served alongside gnocchi with garlic scape pesto. The lettuce has gone in to many different salads. Tonight I’m planning to make pasta with all the herbs I have in the fridge and maybe the sorrel. I should steam up the beets tonight too.

Bok Choi-2 heads
Chinese Cabbage-1 head
Bright Lights Swiss Chard-1 bunch
Grand Rapids Lettuce-1 head
Red Sails Lettuce-1 head
Red Tide Lettuce-1 head
Mizuna-1 bunch
Garlic Scapes-8
Summer Savory-1 bunch

Things are still pretty green this week. I asked the Magic 8 Ball and the outlook is good for salads. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the summer savory. It smells fantastic so I’ll have to hunt up something good. There’s definitely more garlic scape pesto in my future. Mmm.

Bok Choi-2 heads
Chinese Cabbage-1 head
Red Sail Lettuce-1 head
Buttercrunch Lettuce-1 head
Rhubarb-1 bunch
Green Mizuna-1 bunch
Red Vein Mizuna-1 bunch
Garlic Scapes-4
Sage with flowers-1 bunch

So far we’ve eaten most of the Red Sail lettuce and I used up the rhubarb making jam! I was going to make garlic scape pesto on Wednesday night but I had so many other projects going (putting vegetables away, making jam, making rhubarb sauce, dying my hair purple…) that I didn’t feel like doing it by the time Jeremie was home for dinner. There will definitely be some garlic scape pesto this weekend, either Saturday night or Sunday.

I’ve been craving rhubarb jam but whenever I see it in a shop it tends to be $20 a jar. I found one stand at the farmers market that sold some strawberry rhubarb jam but they used corn syrup in their recipe, so, no. I made mine with a nice jam sugar from Belgium.

Somehow I neglected to take a picture of the finished jam, before or after jarring. Sad. It’s pretty!

It’s hard to believe that the season is almost over. This season I knew better what to expect and how to plan things out and manage the sheer quantity of fruit and vegetables coming in each week, and it feels like it went much quicker than last year. Maybe some of that is tied to the fact that it’s just getting cold now and I can’t quite believe that Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. I didn’t take a picture of the share last night because we had a Fancy Party to get to and I only had enough time to stash the greens in the fridge before I needed to get dolled up. Here’s the list:

Red Beets-2 pounds
Rutabaga-1
Potatoes-2 pounds
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Shallots-2
Red Russian Kale-1 bunch
Purple Top Turnips-2 pounds
Sage-1 bunch
Collards- 1 bunch
Carrots-1 pound
Fruit Share – Jonagold, Cameo and Mutsu Apples

I’m working from home so I did a bit of cooking over my lunch time. I made pressure cooker poached pears, which I put in the freezer, and then applesauce in the pressure cooker. The house smells delicious.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been on the go a lot lately. I got back from San Francisco last Wednesday in plenty of time to pick up the share, but I was way too exhausted to do anything other than take pictures and put the vegetables away. Plus, it was Halloween and I needed to hand out candy far more than I needed to cook. Thursday evening I made a delicious pumpkin soup out of the pie pumpkins I’ve had sitting around for a few weeks. It’s definitely a make again soup. For Friday night dinner I made my spinach vegetable kugel but used collards and kale instead of spinach, which worked out quite well. Tonight I’m planning to make a big “everything” vegetable soup to try and use up whatever is left in the fridge before the new stuff comes tomorrow. We still have a lot of fruit too, so I might need to make another batch of pressure cooker pears (they come out like poached pears but it’s super quick to do) and maybe some applesauce too. If only I actually had room in the freezer.

Week 20

Potatoes-2 pounds
Onions-4
Beets-2 pounds
Delicata-2
Turnips with Greens-1
Collards-1 bunch
Parsley-1 bunch
Black Radish-1
Romanesco-1

Mutsu-green apple, multi purpose
Bosc Pears-rusty brown pear, multi purpose
Empire Apples-small, red really crispy-good eating
Jona Gold Apples-large, red and gold tinge-good cooking

Week 21

Garlic-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Carrots-2 pounds
Green Winter Cabbage-1 head
Red Ace Beets-2 pounds
Carnival Winter Squash-1
Mint-1 bunch
Celariac-2 bulbs
Graffiti Cauliflower-1

APPLES: Jona Gold, Fuji, Golden Delicious; Bosc Pears

I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Three trips in the past four or five weeks and I’m going away again on Sunday. The weekend before last, I got almost caught up veg-wise. Last week I left for Michigan on Thursday, the day after picking up the share, and as a result the fridge is still pretty full of veggies and the fruit basket is overflowing with apples and pears. I’m thinking about making a pie or perhaps some pear jam but that requires me to actually be home and to feel good, which I don’t right now. I feel pretty darn crummy. I haven’t been sleeping very much, I have a terrible headache, and I just feel generally run down. I need to pull it all together before my next trip. Woof.

Here’s last week’s share:

Acorn Winter Squash-2
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Siberian Kale-1 bunch
Garlic-2 heads
Red Cabbage-1 head
Orange Carrots-2 pounds
Celariac-1 head
Sage-1 bunch
Broccoli-2 bunches

Bosc Pears, Golden Delicious Apples, Cortland Apples, Empire Apples

I’ve eaten some of the carrots, but that’s about all so far. I need to get back in the kitchen.

Delicata Winter Squash-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Black Radish-1 (sometimes called Spanish Radish)
Blue Potatoes-2 pounds
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Onions-4
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley-1 bunch
Broccoli-2

honey crisp, golden crisp, cortland and anjou pears