Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Weekly Local Booty 8/3-8/9/08

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Weekly Local Booty 8/3-8/9/08

Attack of the garden booty! It was quite a productive week in our garden's - it's getting to be the "bounty" time of year, and Brett and I are reveling in it. Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes! It's amazing how many tomatoes we've gotten from our garden, and yet we are still happily getting some in our CSA and buying more from the market on top of that. I don't know if there is a better snack than a plate full of B's Famous Summer Pickles and a few tomatoes sliced up with salt. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Check out this week's garden booty:















Tomatoes, 2 banana peppers, and a ripe cayenne to add to the ristra.















3 petite bell peppers, a green bell pepper, and a ripe Super Chile.















Brett took this one, he was feeling artistic. We've got: tomatoes, a Super Chile, 2 petite bells, and a yellow straightneck squash.















3 jalapenos, 2 of which were ripening. Yum!















2 ripe serranos, 1 ripe Super Chile, and a green bell pepper.

Onto this week's CSA:















Starting from the left this week: potatoes (I believe it was Catherine who reminded me about hashbrowns, that's the plan for these spuds), a yellow summer squash, 3 ears of corn, a green bell pepper, another glorious muskmelon (these are the best melons ever, I'm telling you, I have a strong fondness for Dan and his willingness to share his delish fruit even though we didn't get a fruit share), a little cucumber, 3 beets, 2 tomatoes, 3 small onions, mint.

And the farmer's market booty. This ran us $35. Not pictured here are 2 granola bars like we got last week. We ate them before I could take a picture.















Let's switch things up a little and start from the right: an Uprise Bakery French baguette, lots of little onions (just yellow and white this week), a bulb of German Extra Hardy garlic, a bulb of Chrysalis Purple garlic, lots of shiitake mushrooms, a gypsy pepper, a bell pepper, local eggs, basil, local homemade penne pasta, 2 large red and 2 large yellow tomatoes.

I got some birthday money in the mail, and though we are participating in the "Buy Nothing Challenge", I didn't think it fair that my and Brett's family should have to participate too so we made an exception and bought a.....















Boiling water bath canner! Wahoo! We'll get some pint sized Mason jars, and next weekend I'll be trying my luck at making pickles and pickled jalapeno and banana peppers. I'm pretty stoked. And I don't feel guilty about getting it. It will help us put up some of our abundance for winter, and there is nothing bad about eating locally in winter. But, with the challenge in mind, there will be no more purchases. In my defense, I didn't buy these, Brett's mom Linda, my Mom, and my Nanny Beth did. Thank you guys so much!

Not much in the way of food preservation activities this week. Trying to take it easy so I can enjoy my birthday tomorrow in true Jen fashion: doing nothing and being lazy. :-)

I will be boiling, mashing, and freezing the beets, as well as boiling and removing the corn from the cob, it will be eaten this week though.

FYI: The Garden Update for this week will be posted on Monday. The next piece in Brett's "What is Food" series will be posted on Tuesday.

'Til next time.

9 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Oooh, produce!! :0D

The boiling water bath canner is great!!

hmd said...

Congrats on the boiling water bath canner! You've got lots of fun afternoons in your future!

Catherine Weber said...

Did I remind you of hashbrowns? Great! Potatoes, in most forms, are SOOOOO tasty!

Make sure you use some refined canola or safflower oil -- something that can handle screaming heat, so you get your h-browns super-crisp! Enjoy!

P.S. I'm jealous of your tomatoes!

T said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You have the same birthday is my little brother, so when I'm eating vegan cake tonight I will raise a slice to you! Hope its a great one.

Anonymous said...

All of those tomatoes! I am so jealous--everything looks amazing!

I hope you have a very happy birthday and that you enjoy your day!

Courtney

J said...

Veggie Girl - :-)

Thanks, Brett wouldn't allow me to buy Mason jars this weekend as he didn't want me working with the canner on my birthday - he wanted me to actually relax. I am thankful he did, but am now happy that I am free to can whenever I want!

Heather - Thanks, I know, I know, I brought my Ball Blue Book of Preserving to work with me today!

Catherine - I think it was you, but I seriously have just a vague recollection. At this point let's just let you take the credit. :-)

Thanks for the tip on the canola/safflower oil. I have been using coconut oil but am also looking for another alternative. Do you think the safflower oil would be good for use in stir-fries?

Hehehe, we are BIG tomato fans around here.

T- Thank you so much! How neat! Aw, thanks, and hey, if I can be your excuse to eat an additional slice, go for it! ;-)

Courtney - I know, we are swimming in 'em. Well, we are already working our way through them at a pace that indicates that we will be getting more at Wednesday's farmer's market. I think we have "tomato addiction issues", we are definitely going to dedicate more space to tomatoes next year when we start our garden. We're going to have two plots, I think one will be pretty much tomatoes, tomatillos, and well, more tomatoes!

Thank you, I had a good day, got an avocado tree - what can be better than that?!

Bianca said...

Cool! Canning and preserving is awesome. I depend on my grandma's canned pickled green tomatoes all year long! And her cucumber pickles are the best in the whole world. I'm thinking about shadowing her in the kitchen this year to learn how.

Anonymous said...

You got an avocado tree?! How cool is that?! That is awesome! My grandparents (who live in Fla) have an avocado tree, and it grows the BIGGEST avocados I have ever seen. I hope yours will do the same!

Courtney

J said...

Bianca - Isn't it! I gotta tell you, I never thought I would utter the words "canning and preserving is super cool", but alas here I am. Pickled green tomatoes?! Yum! You are lucky to have a canning Granny so near by! You should shadow her, learn the "tricks of the trade" and share 'em with the rest of us that are learning via books. :-)

Courtney - Yep, I know! You can see a picture of it in the Garden Update Brett just posted. My dad was telling me about the avocado trees in the yards in Florida when he was younger, I was quite jealous having lived my whole life in Missouri (though as cruel fate may have it, I was actually born in Ventura, California).

We are hoping our tree does alright as well. We may have to tend to it a lot more than one would have to an outdoor tree in a warmer clime, but we are willing to get a grow light, to insulate it, mist it to keep the humidity up, all those things to nurture it to produce.