Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Weekly Local Booty - Garden Grub, CSA, and Farmer's Market - July 25, 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Weekly Local Booty - Garden Grub, CSA, and Farmer's Market - July 25, 2009

Well, my cold decided to stick around for most of the week, which means I didn't cook very much. I made a couple of rounds of fried zucchini, we ate lots of tomatoes and salt, but aside from that, Brett was doing "husband duty" and keeping me loaded down with soup, orange juice, and plenty of tissues.

With that said, happily, I am feeling much better. We still had quite a bit left from the farmer's market last weekend, so we didn't need to pick up much today. I've got plans this week for some things we have been craving for awhile.

Selina has been torturing me via email with her tales of her wonderful-sounding roasted squash, onion, and hummus sandwiches on sourdough rolls. This got me to thinking hummus, which also got me to thinking falafel, which in turn got me to thinking about Greek salads. So needless to say, I am going to make a batch of Classic Hummus, falafel, tzatziki, and keep plenty of cut tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled peppers, and kalamata olives around. I also have the fixin's to make her roasted veggie and hummus sandwiches. We've also been craving our Super Easy Tasty Taco Salad, so I am going to make up a batch of Traditional Refried Beans and season up some cooked green lentils with fresh garlic, onions, chiles (sweet and hot), cilantro, cumin, salt, and pepper and we are going to have taco salad with some local Country Goodies hot salsa. While I'm not planning on working on any cookbook tester recipes this week, we are going to be eating some damn tasty grub, starting with a bruschetta I am making as sooon as I am done with this post. Stay tuned, I'll take pictures and take a cue from Heather from Simple-Green-Frugal and her Market to Table posts (so drool worthy, I am telling you), and do a little "what we've eaten this week" kind of post - that is if I don't go all lazy on y'all. :-)

Anywho, our cayenne plant is working overtime! Check it out:


Another 13 gorgeous cayenne peppers.

When we were at the community garden last week, a fellow gardener was there as well. She tends to at least half a dozen plots and as a result has far more produce than she and her husband can handle, so she gives away the excess to her fellow gardeners, check out what she gave us:


First off, how cool is it that she shared? As soon as our gardens start to produce, if she is ever there with us again, we'll try to share as well. Though I'm not sure there is much we are growing that she isn't. Starting from the bottom right: a ripe banana pepper, 3 gypsy peppers, onions, baby garlic, a tomato, and a cucumber.

And here is our week 11, DanJo Farms quarter CSA veggie share:


We seriously get hooked up, I am so pleased with our CSA, the variety, the quality, and the farmer's themselves. I have heard horror stories of CSA's filled with limp and rotting vegetables, no shares at all, but we've been nothing but happy with DanJo Farm. I just wish we could afford a fruit share as well. Sigh. Someday maybe...

Starting from the bottom right: 3 tomatoes, boiler onions, a cucumber, 2 sweet peppers, a cantaloupe (!!!!!), a head of cabbage, a zucchini, and a summer squash.

Here is this week's farmer's market haul. Most of this, obviously, was for Brett. As I mentioned earlier, we still have a lot of stuff from market last week, and with our CSA share, we didn't need much from the general farmer's market area. This haul ran us $37.


Starting from the bottom right: a pound of Susie's Grass Fed Meats gyro meat (on a plastic bag so it doen't drip anything icky on our chair), a pound of Sho-Me-Farms ground beef (on the plastic bag for the same reason), Goatsbeard Farm feta, 2 bulbs of garlic from Chert Hollow Farm - one German Extra Hardy and the other Bogatyr, Country Goodies hot and regular salsa, and a bag of Uprise Bakery ciabattini.

Well, I've got some cooking to do and then there is much laziness to be had, the weekend is still young.

J' Song of the Day:
"Long Line of Cars" - Cake

Have a great weekend everyone!

'Til next time!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

did you start your ristra yet???!!!

hey so like do you want to be my personal chef?

Anonymous said...

I am glad you are feeling better--glad to hear that Brett is a good nurse :-)

Your CSA share looks amazing--yum!

Courtney

Anonymous said...

Brett is a good caregiver :-) Hope you are better soon, being sick is frustrating!
YEY for that nice person to share her community garden growings with you - that makes me think of "community" more than anything else. Falafel, yum. One of my fav meals. I'll have to try it with black beans, as we can't get chickpeas/garbanzos here. Both your CSA and farmers' market shares look delicious, so many possibilities. You're right on the variability of CSA farms, it makes sense to do some investigation. I loved what my farmer was selling at farmers markets, so gave it a try for the winter, had a great experience, and signed on for the full year! We don't have fruit CSAs here though, wish it were possible.

Karen said...

YumYum Bruchetta! I think I will come visit again soon. Glad your cold is better and you are feeling much better. I know Brett takes good care of you. Looks like your plants are doing double duty on producing. Hugs, Nan

Chile said...

Yummy looking produce. And, as always, your peppers look lovely. No peppers yet from my CSA, but I'm waiting anxiously for them.

J said...

Selina - Um, well, you see, hmm, uh, okay, no I haven't yet, but I am going to start it today, I can't keep putting it off. Thanks for the kick in the pants. :-)

If you've got room for me, Brett, Gabby, Nermal, and all my books then we might be able to work out some sort of deal...

Courtney - Me too. He is a wonderful nurse!

It seems to get better with each week, I love DanJo Farms.

Living in a Local Zone - Yes he is, I am lucky to have him.

Yes, I was a little surprised as most people just aren't that nice, I only hope we can return the favor.

I love falafel too, I just rarely get around to making it, which is silly, it is easy!

I am hoping that perhaps next year we can afford the fruit share, our farmer grows all sorts of berries, melons, and tree fruits, I'd love to get a bag of that each week for sure.

Nanny - I love bruschetta, and it is so easy.

Haha, I wish I had better accommodations for guests!

Chile - Thank you. I can never seem to get enough peppers. We froze tons last year and they barely lasted the winter and only because I went easy on them. That reminds me that I should start buying extra each week and freezing them whole...

Chile said...

LOL, Jennifer, I ran out of my frozen green chiles months ago. We'll be getting them sometime from the CSA and I'll have to make arrangements with the farmer to buy an extra 20 or 40 pounds of them roasted. Which reminds me, I really need to clean out the freezer to make space for them....or get my honey to buy my a chest freezer for Christmas. :)

pharmacy said...

Falafel and hummus! is my favorite food ever without any doubt!