Jaime's Summer CSA Delivery #2 - June 13, 2013

This week's bounty included more swiss chard, snap peas, cucumbers, radishes, and cucumbers. Also, a head of fennel (which I braised with shallots and cardamom, following the recipe in From Asparagus to Zucchini - delicious!), a head of napa cabbage, raspberries, and the first appearance of summer squash.

It has been fruit central around here. We have been picking mulberries from the neighborhood trees and were happy to get our first little harvest of tart cherries from our new tree. We also managed to make it out to Hollin Farms for the first and only day of pick-your-own cherries for the season. And we harvested the peaches from our tree today. We filled this basket four times!

The mulberries and cherries have been frozen for now. When things settle down, I'll make some jam. I have canned 15 pints of peaches and still have a full basket left of underripe peaches that need to soften up.

Strawberries - June 1, 2013

I was just looking over last year's posts and realize that it isn't just my imagination and impatience that thinks the spring/summer fruits are taking forever to come into season this year. Last year we were picking strawberries in mid-May and already had peaches canned by June 1!

2013 is off to a later start, but the fruit that we are getting is tastier than I remember. We got up early this morning and drove out to Hollin Farms in Delaplane, VA. It is just a bit more than an hour drive from our house, but such a beautiful drive that we don't mind taking multiple trips out there, beginning with strawberries today! We each got a flat and decided just to pick until we were sick of picking or until the boxes were full, whichever came first. That ended up being just a bit over 20 lbs.

Then a spent the rest of the day sorting, cleaning, washing, jamming, and freezing! I put up (love that quaint phrase) nine pints of honey-sweetened jam and seven quarts of whole berries in the freezer. There are another three quarts or so that were less than ripe sitting on the counter, and another quart that I held back just for us to enjoy.

Tonight we had a few of them as grain-free, lactose-free, and refined sugar-free strawberry shortcakes.

The cake is an almond flour, honey sweetened cupcake and the cream is whipped coconut milk. I haven't quite perfected the technique yet, but it was delicious.

"Here we go round the mulberry bush..." - May 29, 2013

The urban foraging season has begun! With the first 90+ degree day, the mulberry trees in our neighborhood just started ripening and dropping fruit today. I picked these this morning on my walk with Lily and then went back out this evening and picked about a quart from the easily reached branches.

Last year I made some preserves and experimented with a few baked goods. I also froze a few bags when I ran out of ideas and they ended up being delicious in smoothies during the winter when local and organic fruit was scarce, so I plan on doing more of that this year.

I also picked up some rhubarb at the market last weekend am thinking some kind of rhubarb-mulberry crisp might be good... Stay tuned!

Weekend Morsels - June 23-24, 2012

Cheese "Pudding"


Peppered Salami

























 Maple-Bacon Beer - an homage to Voodoo Doughnuts

 
New Blue Chairs!


Cherries!!


It was a gorgeous weekend here in Minneapolis, and Nick and I were quite productive.  We participated in a beer tasting evening with some friends on Friday, where we enjoyed some lovely cheeses and charcuterie.  The highlight, however, was Rogue's Bacon Maple Ale.  As big fans of the Bacon Maple Bar at Voodoo Doughnut, and of Rogue Ales, we loved this brew.  It has an incredible aroma of maple and the taste is delightfully smoky.  Despite being inspired by a doughnut, this beer is not sweet, but it is strong.  We shared the bottle between four and that was all we needed.  It was good to switch to something lighter and more citrusy after this, and Hinterland's Saison fit the bill nicely. I think the Maple Bacon beer would be perfect on a crisp fall evening.

Unexpectedly, our new blue Adirondack chairs arrived this weekend.  They are designed by Loll Designs in Duluth, MN, manufactured in Duluth out of 100% recycled plastic, and can withstand all of the outdoor elements that Minnesota can throw at them.  Best of all, each has a built in bottle opener under the right arm and they are my favorite shade of blue.  I love them!

We also got to picking our first round of cherries from our Meteor Cherry tree in the front yard.  All told, we harvested about a quart, but there are more out on the tree that need a bit more time to ripen.  I'm hoping for a bumper crop and trying to decide what to use them for this year.  We will definitely do a pie, and with those remaining, perhaps another round of maraschino cherries for our beloved Old Fashioneds.  We have also been discussing the possibility of a cherry stout home brew.  We will have to wait and see how many we have to work with once the harvest is complete.

Strawberry Shortcake - June 21, 2012

Fighting heat, high humidity, imminent thunderstorms, and voracious mosquitoes at my favorite U-pick farm, I picked our year's strawberry supply earlier this week.  Due to our somewhat odd spring here in Minnesota, the season was early and short.  Most of the berries were small and many were verging on over ripeness.  Despite this, I managed to haul home a solid five or so pounds of berries.  Most of these are hanging out in the freezer already, but I kept a few out so Nick and I could indulge in some seasonal berry desserts.



I made a batch of shortcakes from the recipe in my Foster's Market Cookbook.  They turned out well, with the exception of being a little flat.  It's probably time to get some new baking powder and soda for the pantry.  I've read that for best results, these should be replaced every six months or so.  That seems like such a waste, as I barely use any in that time frame.  Have any of you experimented with keeping them in the freezer?  Does that extend the shelf life at all?  I may need to do a bit of research on that topic.

Anyway, back to the shortcakes.  Filled with freshly whipped cream and topped with just-picked strawberries, this dessert is hard to beat.  We've enjoyed it the last two nights now.  The rest of the berries will likely get made into some jam, with some reserved for use in smoothies throughout the year.

Foraged Plums - June 20, 2012

Just as peach season wrapped up, we turned the Hartman house to plum central. A few weeks ago Richie discovered that some of the pretty flowering trees in front of some office buildings not far from our house were not just the typical ornamental cherries or ubiquitous Bradford pears but are actually fruit-bearing plum trees. He kept an eye on them and then when they turned ripe and started dropping onto the sidewalk in mass quantities late last week, we decided it was time to pounce. Early Saturday morning we threw a ladder, a basket, and a few canvas grocery bags into the car and came home with an astonishing 26+ pounds of fruit!

I then proceeded to spend the rest of Saturday working furiously to preserve as many as I could since they were ripening and splitting open in front of my eyes and I was about to leave on a three-day business trip Sunday morning.

Remembering the "Italian prunes" my mother used to can each summer for us to eat all winter, I put up 13 pints of whole plums in syrup. I also made two kinds of jam - one just plain fruit and the other plums with spices. 

Then this morning I made a small batch of this plum chutney that just happened to be posted on The Kitchn by the author of Food in Jars at the very moment I was looking for something else to do with the remainder of my plums! This was my first experience with chutney outside of the stuff you get at an Indian restaurant so I didn't know what to expect. I slathered some on a portion of the leftover smoked pork shoulder we did last week and stuck it between two slices of hearty bread and discovered it turned some ordinary leftovers into an amazing sandwich! I'm a chutney convert now!

We still have a few pounds of the least ripe ones left in the refrigerator and the remainder of a plum crisp I improvised Saturday night to eat, but the rest have been jammed and/or canned and added to my growing pantry stash! 

Peach Season - May 31, 2012

It is peach season at our house! When Richie came back from Home Depot some years ago with some fruit trees, I thought it would be an interesting experiment but never imagined they'd actually be productive. Hundreds of peaches, dozens of pears, and a few apples later and I can't imagine not having this amazing bounty each summer.

The peach tree took a direct hit during Hurricane Irene last year and nearly toppled over, but thankfully it survived. We staked it up and did some serious pruning and it has had a relatively productive year. Not quite as impressive as last year, but still more than we know what to do with!

I've been enjoying peaches with my yogurt (homemade of course!)... Shown here drizzled with honey and garnished with a few mint leaves from the herb garden.

We've had peach cobbler... Served with some of my homemade ice vanilla ice cream. Dinner Clubbers may recall that I have been in the past adamantly opposed to "a la mode." Well, let's just say that change is possible. I have definitely changed my tune on that preference, especially when the ice cream is this good.

And we've preserved some peaches for the winter months. Shown here are the four pints I put up so far (alas, one didn't seal so I'll be turning it into peach-mulberry cobbler tonight).

I also made a batch of peach jam with some of our earliest windfalls, but I should have probably crushed the fruit a bit more as it ended up separating from the jelly part. Live and learn!

Strawberry Jam - May 15, 2012

I did it! My first ever jam-making and canning experience! These little jars are so pretty and so much more work than I expected went into making them that I can't even imagine eating them, although I'm sure I will change my mind when the dark days of winter roll around.

Cooking, cooking, cooking... What does "gelling point" mean, anyway??

My mother was a home food preserver, even in the 1980s and 1990s when it was not very fashionable. I think she was either ahead of or behind her time, not sure which! In addition to canning the tomatoes and freezing other veggies from our garden, she would buy crates of peaches, pears, and plums from the supermarket each summer and can them for us to eat throughout the year. I recall having a vague awareness of what she was doing, but never got interested in learning more. When I was very young I thought it was just something moms did, but then I got older and thought it was old fashioned and weird. No way was I going to go through all that work! I'd just buy canned stuff at the store, like everyone else in the normal world!

Which is exactly what I did, until my adult-onset food allergies threw me for a loop. Virtually all commercially produced canned tomatoes are a problem for me due to the citric acid (derived from corn) they add. Jams and jellies - even the "natural" ones without high fructose corn syrup - are still dangerous because there is no way of knowing what is in the pectin or what the fruit might have been treated with. So here I am... following in my mother's footsteps after all!

And to my great surprise, it is a lot of fun! And as I learn more about the commercial food supply, the more I am grateful that I had something push me in this direction.

Strawberry Picking (and a new puppy!) - May 13, 2012

It's strawberry season here in Virginia! We drove down to south central Virginia on Saturday and on the way home, stopped at Gallmeyer Farms outside Richmond for our first ever experience of "u-pick" strawberries. I've had plenty of strawberry picking experience, of course, since picking in the garden was a task my sister and I were often given. But this was very different. For one, I actually WANTED to do it! Disgusted by the quality of supermarket berries and newly inspired to eat more locally grown foods, Richie and I have decided to make the most of the fruit growing season here. Next up will be blueberries and then apples in the fall. I'd love to find some cherries too, but that is proving a little more difficult.

The other major difference was that I was free to pick what I liked. I could pass over berries to my heart's content and no one would scold me later for leaving some to rot on the vine or picking some that were not completely ripe yet. So freeing!

Altogether, we picked a little more than 10 pounds of berries. Not bad for about 30 minutes worth of effort! We had strawberry shortcake right away (yum) and then I sorted the rest. A big bowl of not-so-ripe ones are hanging out in the fridge waiting for me to get some canning jars and then turn them into jam (on my agenda for this week) and I froze another four bags to be enjoyed throughout the year.

The primary reason for our drive was to check out a new litter of chocolate lab puppies! It has been over a year now since we said goodbye to your beloved yellow lab Kili and have finally decided that the time is right for another dog. The puppies were adorable and we got to meet the breeder and see both of the parents (the father is an international champion... whatever that means!), who were healthy and very good natured. They were just born on May 2 so still have some more time to spend with their mother before our little one can come home on June 22. More pictures will follow then, but here is a teaser for now!