Category Archives: Food & Wine

Over the last week, the frost has killed any remaining tomatoes, zucchini, or cucumbers, so we are truly at the end of the harvest season. This week’s share included red potatoes, butternut squash, beets, radishes, peppers, parsnips, garlic, sweet potatoes, celeriac, broccoli, broccoli rabe, lettuce, and PYO cilantro, dill, and flowers. I’m tempted to call celeriac the “new eggplant” because I keep getting it and don’t know what to do with it. A couple weeks ago, I was going to make a puree with it, but I never quite got around to it. So now I have three enormous celeriacs in my fridge. I hate wasting food, but I think I’m going to have to throw one out into the woods. I’ve just been really tired lately and lacking a whole lot of motivation to search for new recipes for esoteric vegetables, and I don’t know if I want to go through the hassle of freezing the celery root. I still have to finish processing apples and pumpkins (and I’m sure I’ll freeze some of that broccoli — wow!). I am losing steam (as well as freezer space) when it comes to food preservation.

We’re down to the final weeks for our CSA. This week’s share included potatoes, delicata squash, radishes, green beans (and a couple “red noodle” purple yard-long beans) spinach, garlic, onions, peppers, lettuce, celeriac, two tiny eggplant, and a head of broccoli. I’ll bring my parents a squash (as well as some onions and maybe some spinach) this weekend. I’ve already blanched and frozen the broccoli. I still have the celeriac from last week (or was it the week before?), so if I don’t get around to using them next week, I’ll freeze those as well and use for soup down the road.

Our last regular pickup is on the 28, and there is a “bonus” pickup on November 22nd. I imagine that is extra root vegetables, but I’m not sure. In this week’s newsletter we learned that the farm needs to increase prices next year. That didn’t really surprise me, but the extra $100 would make the weekly shares cost-prohibitive for us. I don’t really want to split a share (2.5 radishes? 1/2 a garlic bulb? LOL…). But lucky for us, there will be a new option for next year: a bi-weekly share for $325-ish. We were thrilled to read that because I think it will work out great for us. As you’ve seen, the shares are quite big and almost always lasted us more than a week. I froze a lot and gave some produce to family members, too. It will also cost us less than we paid this year for the weekly distribution, so that is great too. I really like eating local food and supporting local farmers, and organic is certainly nice too so I’d hate to have to give it up. Hopefully they’ll have sign-up information soon.

Want to know a sure sign of autumn? I bet you’re thinking about that cute little pumpkin right? Well, kind of. But I was thinking more along the lines of my skin going crazy. Seriously, every time the season turns from summer to fall and winter to spring my skin harkens back to my teenage youth, breaking out uncontrollably. I’d be searching for acne cures if I didn’t know it was so short-lived. Hopefully it will all balance out soon.

But on to more exciting fall happenings, like yesterday’s farm share. Yes! We got another pie pumpkin. It is almost too cute to eat, but eat it we will, especially since I still have last week’s. I borrowed a Shaker cookbook from the library and it has an interesting recipe for baked pumpkin. I think I might try that. I also got a head of lettuce, carrots, fennel, zucchini (last of the season… sniff!), radishes, a delicata squash (so yummy), Japanese eggplant, garlic, broccoli, cabbage (which I chose over beans), turnips (which I chose over beets), peppers, tomatoes, onions, and PYO flowers and herbs. I just took a bit of basil and a bit of cilantro.

All in all, this will be a really easy share to use up. While I was hoping there’d be butternut squash for the choosing this week (I know they picked some!), I’m still happy with the delicata. That variety is so delicious and buttery! I had no idea how much I loved squash until I met this guy. The funniest part is, I remember one night when I was a kid (maybe I was nine or ten?), and I had this blob of mashed squash on my plate and I thought it was just the grossest thing ever. Mom didn’t usually give us veggies that we hated, but I think I was being especially nasty that day 😉 At any rate, I do love squash now. I still have the daikon radish from last week. Maybe I’ll slice it up along with radishes, the last zucchini, broccoli, and some carrot sticks this weekend and serve it with a yogurt dip to nibble on one afternoon. I think I’ll be playing it mostly by ear.

It was a little sad to wear my wool sweater to the farm yesterday, see the leaves falling from the trees, and to see the crops turning and realize that harvest season is winding down. I learned so much about storage and preservation this summer, though. And I also tried quite a few veggies I was unfamiliar with, but discovered that I love (kohlrabi, for example). But it’s not over quite yet, so I’ll enjoy the next couple weeks.

Tuesday’s share was a fun one! I was really excited about the pumpkin and the daikon radish. I’ve never had one before, so I’m looking forward to cooking with it. Lots of good, healthy stuff that we’ve all been enjoying. I can’t imagine taking an appetite supressant like Phentermine when my fridge is full of food and my head swimming with ideas! Also in this week’s share: one head of lettuce (not pictured because we ate some of it with dinner that night and it just got put back in the fridge), turnips, beets, braising greens, tomatoes (a few nice heirlooms this week, last week was was mostly romas), peppers, fennel, celeriac, yellow squash, a huge head of broccoli, onions, radishes, and the usual PYO stuff. I still have a bunch of herbs from last week, so I just picked some flowers. They didn’t last more than a day though. Clearly, oh so clearly, summer is over.

Last night I made homemade French Fries with the Adirondack Blue potatoes we got last week. They are more purple than blue, but the boys got such a huge kick out of them! I even got out my old Fry Daddy to make the fries, somehow managing to NOT scald myself with oil. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I’ve deep-fried anything, so I was a little nervous. But I might slice the rest of the potatoes thin, and slice the beets the same way and make some chips. Not today, but maybe this weekend. The bad thing about the deep fryer is that I have to do it outside, because the smell just lingers and I can’t stand it.

I think our CSA goes until November — I haven’t heard an official final date, but I am already wondering how we’ll get through the winter. We have been spoiled by taking part in this. That’s for sure.