Weekly Local Booty - 7/20-7/27/08

We got a lot of produce this week, some of it from our garden, but much came from the rich soils of good 'ol Illinois. Brett's dad paid us a very nice visit this week, and in the process, unloaded a truly intimidating amount of squash on us.

We got a decent amount from our gardens this week, but I'm ashamed to say I was pretty lazy with the camera. Brett was good and took a picture of what he picked this week:

Pictured is a large zucchini and three Roma tomatoes. Not pictured are: a yellow straightneck squash, 1 banana pepper, 4 serranos, and 2 small green bell peppers. There are about 3 more Roma tomatoes that are probably going to be ready to pick today.

With all the produce around and our weekly CSA, we didn't end up having to get too much at the farmer's market.

This week's CSA:

We got: 2 small apples, new potatoes (we got a bonus yellow potato), green beans, a cucumber, a yellow squash, sweet corn, a green bell pepper, an onion, and a tomato. I don't know what kind of tomatoes Dan grows, but these are meaty, delicious tomatoes, I keep forgetting to ask him.

Our farmer's market booty:

We've got 2 gorgeous ears of sweet corn, 2 bulbs of Music garlic (we've since had some, this is some of the best garlic I've ever had, bold, yet smooth, I can't wait to make refried beans with them!), 2 small yellow, white, and red onions.

This week's food preservation activities included:

• freezing 4 green bell peppers
• freezing 7 yellow summer squash (in coins)
• freezing 5 zucchini (some in coins, some shredded)

To freeze the bell peppers, I simple washed and dried them, cut off the stem, removed the seeds, stems and ribs, and sliced them. I then put them in a ziplock bag and Brett used a straw to suck the air out of it. The peppers should keep about 8 months like this.

For the summer squash, we followed these directions, for the zucchini, we followed these directions. We were in the kitchen for quite some time yesterday, this was a lot of squash! Brett was awesome and helped me out with the whole process which not only made it take less time, but also made it more enjoyable.

And finally, I would like to give a big thanks to Leng, over at A Fat Cat Who Created A Vegetarian for passing on the Brillante Weblog Award to me, I really appreciate that Leng. It's really nice to know that people enjoy the blog.

I think there is some sort of "rule" about passing the award on to 7 people, but that's not how I roll, rules are made to be broken, so we're doing this my way. Besides, these are really just pats on the back anyway. Muahahahahaha!

I am passing this award on to all the quitters in the Quit Now Challenge and also including Chile. These folks may or may not even have blogs, but they are brave, wonderful people who are willing to sacrifice and do their part to make this world a better place - they know as Brett and I do, that every little bit matters. So I may be going beyond the spirit of the Brillante Weblog award, but to all you quitters with blogs: Chile, Alice, Bee, Bobbi, Chessa, Cookiemouse, Brett, Leng (again), and Vegan CowGirl - I pass these awards on to you guys! Anyone who joins beyond this point, consider yourselves recipients as well.

To Claire and Courtney, since you don't have blogs, here is my rudimentary People Who Rock Award. :-)

'Til next time!