Looking back at the summer's foods

I don't have many readers, but somehow I still feel awfully bad about not posting for a few months. Yes, I can make the excuses.... "Life got away from me", "It's a busy time of year" or whatever, but really I just have to move past the need to give reason and get back to food.

It's been a really fabulous year of food exploration for my husband and I.
The local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program we were a part of
has recently ended, and we can truly look back at the season with both
satisfaction and accomplishment. Satisfaction in both the amount and
quality of the foods we received, as well as for the people we had a chance
to meet through the program. Accomplishment because of the fact that we
managed to eat, or freeze nearly all the food we picked up this year.

A few years back we joined a similar veggie-basket program for the very
first time. A little ambitious and maybe over excited, we soon found
ourselves to be a little in over our heads. We just weren't prepared for
all the work that would be involved with all the vegetable matter which
soon descended upon our household. The first few weeks it was cute.
Packaging things away into the fridge, and mostly forgetting about them.
Eventually, the veggie overload began to take it's toll and pound upon
pound of vegetables began to rot. By the end of that summer, we'd started
to get the hang of it, and had even began to freeze a few things, but the
amount of food we wasted was astounding. We also acquired two very
important things as a result of this experiment: (1) a composter for all
the veggie waste we produced since we're not in a green box program and (2)
that Tupperware fridge smarts will literally save you hundreds of dollars
worth of produce. If you take no other tip from me, take the Tupperware
one, it's completely worth it.

So, with Tupperware and composter in hand, we head into this year's CSA
program ready for the challenge. Aside from the waste produced in preparing
the vegetables, we wasted next to nothing over the course of the summer,
and what did go to waste is making beautiful, rich compost for my garden
for next year.

Speaking of gardens, I'll call my veggie/herb garden a success, even if it
didn't yield a high crop. We live in a small townhouse and I am limited to
the space I have for gardening, as well as the sunlight available. But I'm
learning quickly and my garden is getting better and better every year.
This year's local growing season, however, left quite a bit to be desired.
Lots of rain, and little sun. I've also had an ongoing disagreement with
the squirrels and chipmunks in our area. They think they should be able to
dig into whatever they please, and even better would be to nibble on the
roots of my tiny little fledgling plants. I just don't agree with their
logic and have been looking for any solution to stop them. Best idea ever -
Blood Meal. Thanks for a friend for that one. Not only did it keep the
critters out, it helped my plants grow and grow and grow and grow....
So I had a lush and full garden this year. I did the entirety of my herbs
and veggies in pots (and a recycling bin) in my back yard. Crowded together
on the side of the yard that gets the most sunlight. Tomato vines completely 
covered my fence, and it was beautiful to look at. The herbs had a high yield
this year, and I did manage to get some vegetables. A little broccoli, few
eggplants and zucchini, handfuls of tomatoes, parsley roots, and cucumbers.

All tasted amazing. Completely satisfying.

We didn't hit the farmer's market as much as I might like, but there wasn't a
lot of need based on the vegetables we were receiving. 

A great summer. Tasted some new things, and ate tons of fresh local foods.
Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, when squash and leeks are abundant.

I've made a handful of squash soups so far this fall, with various squash, and all
have been simple and easy. Basic concept - organic/high quality broth, cooked
squash, onions and other savoury foods to your taste, add spices then blend.
Add greens or other things to it at the end and eat. Let it warm your belly and
make you feel good. Or throw together a potato leek soup. Similar concept, but
switch the ingredients. You get the idea.   I never used to be a soup person, but
something about the cool air of autumn allows me to enjoy a steaming bowl of fresh
homemade soup.

Mmm... now I'm craving some soup.

I love my Magic Bullet!

Have you seen the Magic Bullet?

I am normally not a product snob, but I love my Magic Bullet. A friend bought me one for my birthday this year, and I've used it non-stop for the past few weeks.

Not only does it do great fruit smoothies, but it came with a juicer attachment that I am in *love* with.

I said it. I love the juicer attachment.

It's provided me with a new way to use some of the vegetables from our weekly local CSA program. Today's veggie juice was carrots, a beet, and a cucumber. Yum! I've even found swiss chard to be a yummy juice. And I've always heard having one green drink a week is good for you.

Back to the Magic Bullet. When I make fruit smoothies, I serve them right in the cups I blend them in, so it's easy to make a couple up for my husband and I in the morning.

Tonight I made up a quick apple sauce with a raw apple (skins on), lemon juice and cinnamon. Put a lid on it, and left it for my lunch tomorrow.

Love it.

Veggie and lentil stew

I had an afternoon to putter, and a fridge full of veggies from our CSA. It's a cool day, so my first thought was stew!

I used a little beef bouillon, chopped carrots, turnip, kohlrabi, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, and garlic with tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, lentils and (fresh off the cob) corn. Salt and pepper to taste.

Nom! Should be a warming treat when it's done simmering.

A simple afternoon save-the-spinach soup recipe

I opened the fridge today to find out that it got turned up and was very cold. That meant frozen spinach, that I knew would simply liquefy when thawed out. Quick.... a soup to save the spinach!

I didn't have any butter, so a roux was out. Damn. I started with a half milk, half water base. I added garlic, spinach and a ramp (spring leek) pesto made in the spring. Then some fresh basil leaves, a quick cook and a puree with my hand-held blender.

I used some flour (whole wheat) and water and cooked the soup down to thicken it. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Eat.

The veggies are growing, the veggies are growing!

I've been working on growing a small vegetable & herb garden in our tiny backyard this year. I'm growing five kinds of heritage tomatoes, two kinds of eggplants, zucchinis, two types of peppers, parsley root, broccoli, etc.

It's been such a soggy year here this summer. Almost nothing has actually ripened and what started as an amazing growing season is turning into a late harvest. I've taken one zucchini out of my garden so far, although plenty of herbs.

We've had a bout of hot weather, finally. Suddenly it looks like everything wants to grow again. I have tomatoes on at least three plants, and am hoping the sun and heat will get them to start to ripen. I finally have a cayenne pepper growing, and plenty of flowers on both pepper plants. And an eggplant is growing! I'm very much looking forward to harvesting some more food from my garden soon.

The zucchinis are struggling, although still growing like mad. I have a mildew problem that I am attempting to beat with a chamomile infusion. One of the zucchini plants is also displaying blossom rot, so we've recent ground up some egg shells and added to the soil. *fingers crossed*

In better news, my small ground cherry seedling has bloomed into a strong plant with a lot of fruit on it. It gets plenty of sun, so I am sure we'll get a decent yield from it. And, I have cucumbers growing! One is quite large now and I am sure we'll be eating it this week.

Still, with all the work that's been involved with the garden this year, it's been completely fulfilling. The one zucchini we ate tasted amazing. Something about the taste of something you've worked hard and grown yourself. Also, the view out our patio doors is fantastic, all lush and green and symbolic of all the work I've done out there. Working in the garden is hard, but I always feel refreshed and accomplished.

It's been great slowly turning my thumb from black to green.

Whole Carrot Soup

We've gotten a few big bunches of colourful carrots in our CSA recently - orange, white and red - with their bright greens attached.

Did you know you can eat carrot greens? I didn't.

I decided I wanted to find a dish where I could use both the root and greens in one dish, and opted for a made-on-a-whim soup...

Whole-Carrot Soup

I used three bunches of carrots in total, and approximately two bunches worth of greens.

For the soup base I used an organic vegetable broth and added all of the orange carrots (diced) along with some caramelized onions and sautéed garlic. I made an herb bundle out of thyme and rosemary from my garden (tied with a carrot green stalk!) and seasoned with salt and pepper. When it had cooked well, I took out the herb bundle and used a hand blender to puree the soup. I would have liked a bit more carrots in the base to thicken it, but I needed the liquid content to cover all the food I was about to add!

After this I added some freshly chopped garlic, along with chopped red and white carrots (the red ones are anything from a red to a purple, and have an orange center). I removed the thicker stalks from the carrot greens, chopped it up and threw it in. Seasoned to taste, cooked it until it looked done. Serve and eat.

What I would change next time - I would probably roast both the carrots and the garlic to add an extra richness and deeper taste to it, but it was a fabulous soup!

Crunchy Kale for the win

Sitting back, thinking about a crunchy snack...

Kale.

Yep, you might not think of this curly, leafy grean as a crunchy snack. Trust me, you'd be missing out on a stellar incarnation of this summer vegetable.

I took a big bunch of Kale and washed it all, de-stemmed them, then ripped it up into bite-size pieces then stored it for later use. When we need a crunch snack, I pull out a few handfuls, throw them into a bowl and toss with a little oil (of choice, I used a local peanut oil), and season with salt.

You can choose to season it either before or after you've baked it. I choose before, and used a salt mill, so I have a subtle slightly salty taste (I'm not much of a salt eater). For a more powerful salty flavour, salt after with your favourite salt.

Spread the kale out on a cookie sheet (don't overlap) and bake at 325*F for 7 minutes. Flip the kale over, then cook for another 5 minutes or so. Should be crunchy, but be careful not to overcook.

I'd have take a picture for you all, but I literally just ate them all ;)

Lemon-Cilantro salad dressing

Since we've joined the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - we get weekly veggie baskets) we've had a lot of vegetables to get through. That means, lots of salad!

About a year or so ago we stopped buying salad dressings entirely, and started making our own. Vinegrettes are fairly straight forward, and as a kid we usually made our own. But we get tired of the same old vinegrette, so I tend to play around with ingredients. Some are hit, some are miss.

Tonight, a hit.

Lemon-Cilantro salad dressing
1/3 cup of your oil of choice
1 large lemon
generous handful of freshly cut cilantro
1 teaspoon minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

I minced the garlic a few days ahead of time. I minced a lot of garlic one night, used what I needed to, and stored the rest in a local peanut oil, in the fridge. Homemade minced garlic has a great flavour and was an excellent boost to the dressing.

As for oils, I used a local peanut, with a not-so-local olive oil. And yes, the lemon wasn't local either. My mother had brought a couple by recently when we had dinner and drinks. This was literally a salad dressing made out of things in the fridge and fresh herbs from the garden.

I finely chopped the cilantro and had a huge pile of it. Trying to find an easy way to handle the lemon, first I peeled it, then through it into my handy Tupperware "Quick chef", then strained out the seeds and (most of) the pulp.

Local eating early in the growing season

Really, it's been quite the series of food-adventures this spring and summer. It's exciting to watch the seasons change, and the foods change with it. In late spring we started to see diversity in local veggies appear. My husband and I were going to St Jacobs Farmers Market almost weekly, to get the freshest of what the season had to offer. Three of our favourites were asparagus, fiddleheads and morels.

We literally crawled out of bed to get to the market on a Saturday morning by 7am, in order to procure the morels. We have a source (*taps inner arm*) who grows local mushrooms and goes out and picks edible wild local mushrooms and sells them at the market. The one of the first early mornings we ran out there, he'd made a mistake and didn't have my reserved order, and we left without our first taste of the wild seasonal delight. He called us back, long enough to give us a heads up on the first fiddleheads of the year, from one of the local old order Mennonite vendors, Henry. Henry not only sells fiddleheads at that time of year, but maple syrup. In fact, he has light, amber and dark maple syrups for sale. My husband and I highly recommend the dark maple syrup, it is truly an amazing treat.

It started raining when we were off to visit Henry. By the time we were walking away from there (large bag of fiddleheads and container of maple syrup under arm) it started to pour and we sought shelter in one of the market buildings. Eventually the rain stopped but the market was absolutely flooded. We ended up rolling up our pants and, in our sandalled feet, walked through the frigid water up to our knees (note: farmers market - think hay, manure, etc) to finish our shopping.

The funny thing was, it ended up being a phenomenal adventure in the end. Neither of us really minded the rain, much. Wading through the water was funny, and we dried out quickly after. It was a great moment of connection with Mother Nature herself to be out, foraging for food, literally in the elements.

Later that morning, a friend called. She'd secured morels at the same market, having gone late in the day, he had a reserved bag whose owner never showed up. So in the end, our treasures arrived anyways!

Mmmmm.... if you've never had morels, you can probably find the dried versions of them in your local grocery store. But there is something spectacular about the taste of fresh morels that is hard to describe. They aren't cheap, but they are an amazing tasty treat that shows up in Southern Ontario for a few weeks of the year.

One thing about them, those fine little ridges with deep grooves... they hold the sandy soil that they grow in.


What we used, on a tip from a friend, was a salt water soak. I used warm water (in hopes of slightly opening up any pores) with a sea salt and soaked them for an hour or two, stirring them up to loosen the sand now and then.

In terms of cooking them, our favourite method was to sauté them with butter and garlic. They are holy-crap-good.


The food adventures this year have, as always, helped to reinforce our connection to our food, and I appreciate every moment of it. Every adventure has had a unique, happy ending.

Market fun and a Strawberry-Gooseberry Jam

Today we went to the St Jacobs Farmer's Market, the first time I've been to one of their Thursday markets. We wandered in and lunch time and it was crazy busy, I was absolutely taken aback by how *many* people there were. We prayed to the Goddess of Parking, and did a little careful watching for people getting into their car (or minivan in this case) and found an excellent spot close to the vendors.

We did as we usually do, and made a bee-line for our favourite mushroom vendor. We picked up some portabellos (mostly for the BBQ) and crimini. Did I mention we're in a CSA this year (community supported agriculture program) and we're getting veggie baskets weekly? And yet we still need more ;)

Eventually we made our way over to where most of the old-order Mennonites vend and found gooseberries for sale. Being the brave local-food-adventurer that I am, I bought the bigger of the two sizes of baskets. I've been pretty much buying any local foods as they come in season this year, then coming home and doing some research about them, tasting them, and making a recipe out of them.

One of the things I learned about gooseberries is that they are high in pectin. So, I made:

Strawberry-Gooseberry Jam

2 cups Strawberries
2 cups gooseberries (roughly chopped)
1.5 cups of sugar (or to taste, I like a tart flavour)

In a pot, cook fruit on medium until very soft (maybe 10 minutes?)
Note: You can use either fresh or frozen berries. Gooseberries freeze best whole.

As usual with my recipes this is approximate cooking measurements, I did it by taste.

Fabulous, small batch of jam. Yum yum yum.

Incidentally, we got some of the last garlic scapes and asperagus of the season.