CSA Box This Week

Thursday was a big produce day for us. We picked up our CSA share, and on the way home stopped by a few farm stands to get a few more in season goodies - like sweet corn and early apples! Our garden is going strong too, so we had many peppers, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes from our yard. It is a lot for one day, but I find it easier to prep it all in one sweep - cleaning, cutting, blanching, bagging, freezing, canning...so good!


Our CSA box this week:
tomatoes, peppers, garlic, fennel, romanesco, broccoli, basil, and beans!



In our box this week last year.

Cherry Season.

We have cherries! We were only able to get one 10 pound bucket for now, but that was enough to get started! They are tart cherries - nice and tangy and super juicy. I froze several bags for fall, made 4 pint jars and 4 quart jars of cherry pie filling to use for baking, and am making cherry dessert topping as well as some yummy cherry syrup for drinks (to add to fresh lemonade, plain soda, or mixed drinks). Yum.


::cherry pie filling::

ingredients:
4 cups fresh cherries with their juice - pitted
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (or sweetener such as honey or agave)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
2 Tbsp corn starch or arrowroot powder

directions:
Put everything but the corn starch into a pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Extract some hot juice into a cup, add the cornstarch/arrowroot powder, and stir until smooth. Stir back into the pot. Remove from heat. Remove the cinnamon stick. Can immediately, or let cool and put into containers for the fridge or freezer.



::cherry crisp::

ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cherry pie filling
3/4 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 tsp cinnamon
freshly ground nutmeg

directions:
Using a square baking pan - spread your pie filling across the bottom of the buttered pan. In a bowl, put the dry ingredients - cut in your butter using a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture is crumbly. Spread over the top of the pie filling. Bake at 350º for about 40 minutes - should be golden and bubbly. Let cool and eat.

Super good with homemade vanilla ice cream!


ingredient tip::
If you don't like genetically modified corn in your baking ingredients, here is a 100% certified organic and completely GMO-free cornstarch. We have found it at our local coop but you can also get it online!

Why use arrowroot powder?

"This starch thickener has several advantages over cornstarch. It has a more neutral flavor, so it's a good thickener for delicately flavored sauces. It also works at a lower temperature, and tolerates acidic ingredients and prolonged cooking better. Sauces thickened with arrowroot can be frozen and thawed with impunity."

CSA Box This Week

My iPhoto has been acting up all week and I am just now back up and running. Sadly, I lost many photos from the last few weeks that were corrupted when restoring from backup so I no longer have some of our latest kitchen project photos. I do have many images from my camera this week, though, and have some great new recipes to post soon.

Here is what was in our CSA box last week:
cauliflower, garlic, tomatoes, 3 types of peppers, basil, kohlrabi, onion, and swiss chard.

In our box this week last year.

Home made ricotta.

Today we made ricotta, using fresh local milk. It was pretty easy to make, and the flavor is so rich compared to store-bought!


We finished the ricotta with celtic sea salt and fresh thyme from the garden. We tried some on crostini which was so creamy and rich - yum. Tomorrow I plan to make something for dinner using it...perhaps stuffed zucchini or italian peppers from the garden!

We found the recipe in the latest issue of Saveur Magazine - click here for the recipe...


ingredient tip::
The recipe called for animal rennet, but we used organic vegan rennet (just because that is what we had on hand) which worked great!

coconut milk ice cream with drunken cherry sauce

I have been wanting to try making ice cream using coconut milk. When I found myself with a bag of fresh sweet cherries I knew what I had to make - coconut milk ice cream, with some sort of cherry sauce to go over the top. This turned out great. SO good. For wee ones you can make a sauce without the rum, or save this for the adult topping and just sprinkle toasted coconut over for kids. My boys helped make the ice cream - it was super quick and simple!

::coconut milk ice cream::

ingredients::
2 cans organic coconut milk (not light)
1/2 c. heavy cream *optional
1/2 c. agave or sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c. toasted coconut

To toast coconut. Start with 1/2 cup of UNsweetened shredded dried coconut. Heat a small skillet and add the coconut. Stirring constantly, leave on heat for a minute or so until coconut starts turning a light golden brown. Remove from heat, and dump coconut into a bowl (don't leave it in the hot pan or it could burn). Use 1/4 cup of the toasted coconut IN the ice cream, save the rest to sprinkle on top when serving.


directions::
We use an ice cream maker... In a bowl stir together liquid ingredients. By adding the sugar/agave slowly, it will incorporate without just sinking to the bottom. Add the pinch of salt, stir, and finally add the coconut. Place into your ice cream maker according to the instructions for your model.

::drunken cherry sauce::

ingredients::
1 1/4 c. rum
2 c. pitted sweet cherries
1 Tbsp. honey or agave

directions::
Place ingredients in a small pot and heat to boiling. Turn down heat until just bubbling, and let simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes. This will cook off most of the alcohol, infusing the cherries with a nice flavor in a thick liquid. Once reduced to about half, remove from heat and let cool. Spoon over the coconut milk ice cream to serve. Store in the fridge.

CSA Box This Week

CSA Box this week: tomatoes, basil, beets, squash, swiss chard, kale, new garlic, and (fuzzy) cauliflower.



Click here to see what was in our box this week last year.

From the garden.

In addition to our weekly CSA share, we have been getting more and more from our tiny garden. We are fermenting sauerkraut, just made lacto-fermented cucumbers as well as traditional vinegar based pickles, and are drying excess herbs as we go.

For the past week I have not been able to get out much but to water due to a back problem, but the garden keeps growing whether you are ready or not! So today I stretched my back for a bit first, dressed heavy for bugs, and headed out!

I picked bugs, pulled weeds, watered, and picked as I went. I picked: beans, swiss chard, parsley, beets, carrots, dill, cucumbers, a few small tomatoes, and a lot of herbs. Looking at everything I can see that the cucumbers, tomatoes, beans and peppers are almost ready to explode, and the pumpkins and butternut squash are out of control - growing all the way down to the alley! I planted some onions, spinach and radishes in the spots I pulled beets so we can have some more veggies this fall. I think I am going to make some beet greens soup!