Back to the Past

One other thing to mention--there are recipes on the blog from last summer for zucchini and other squash, and there are also some interesting posts about kinds of eggplants and peppers. Go back to the past--click on the 2010 link at the bottom of the list on the right--to look back at recipes and other information that CSA members shared last season.

July 2010 posts included a recipe for basic pesto and a nice cucumber salad; there's also information about using cloth bags to store produce to keep it fresh (and avoid plastic, too). And there is a microwave zucchini casserole recipe that could come in very handy--it's quick and easy.

In August 2010, Angie provided some information about peppers and Suellyn posted a list of the types of heirloom (and other) eggplants. There's also a scary fake commercial video that Beth put on the blog, about genetically modified plants, that will make you very glad you have access to nice heirloom vegetables at the CSA!

Then there's a September 2010 blog entry that has some interesting statistics about what the CSA raised, what members wished we had raised, what kinds of information we'd like to have about dealing with the produce, and what we liked most (and least) about working at the CSA, all compiled by some Xavier students who surveyed the members.

So, go back to the past and see what interesting things were on the blog last year, while you're here.

A Lotta Squash

Sometimes this summer it has seemed a little overwhelming--what, more basil! Ackk, four cucumbers? Wait, sixteen pears--or nine squash, as was the case for a full share last Saturday. There also seems to be a somewhat endless stream of eggplant coming in these days.

When you have a lot of any one produce, you want to think of different things to do with it, and if possible, ways to preserve some of it for future eating. With the nine squash that arrived at our house last Saturday, I made more zucchini bread (it freezes very well), and I made a nice squash and bacon and cheese and eggs fry-up to put over spaghetti and sliced tomatoes, a favorite around here. But there were still a lot of squash left. Angie had mentioned seeing a recipe for pickled baby pittypat squash, so I thought I'd check out pickling squash in general, and I found that it's a common thing to do.

I adapted a recipe I found and made a big batch (two quart jars), and it's pretty tasty stuff. As Dave proved by making delicious dill refrigerator pickles last week, you don't have to follow recipes to the letter; he changed the herbs and spices for bread and butter pickles to make a dill pickle instead. So, for the following recipe, the "pickling spices" it calls for are up to you--decide if you want sweeter, or more dill, or something completely different.

Pickled Squash

8-10 cups sliced summer squash, zucchini, pittypat squash, or a mixture (you can peel it or not, your choice)
2 cups sliced onions
kosher salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spices (such as mustard seeds, cardoman, cinnamon, bay leaf, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (dried from last year or store bought)

In a large pot or bowl, layer the sliced squash and onions, sprinkling each layer with kosher salt. Let stand for 1 hour, then drain well. Then, in a large pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, pickling spices, and red pepper and bring to a boil. Add the squash and onions, and bring to a boil again. Divide the vegetables into sterilized canning jars and pour enough of the brine into each jar to come to 1/2" from the top of the jar. Wipe the jar rims clean, put on the lids and rings, and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal. If any jars don't seal properly, the pickled squash will still keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Up to our Elbows in Basil, Last Part! Maybe!

If you were at the potluck on Thursday, you enjoyed a great array of offerings that used basil; there was basil sangria, several Italian dishes with basil, and a couple of salad-y things that had plenty of basil, too, because let's face it, we all have plenty of basil. I brought Lemon Lime Basil Shortbread Cookies, my first attempt at putting basil in a dessert (I'm still working on the Lime Basil Sorbet).

If you missed the potluck dinner, not only did you miss the delicious Basil Smorgasbord, but you also missed a great quiz game, a hilarious round of charades, a quilt raffle (won by Sophia Yarden), and a hit-and-run accident that damaged a car and a truck and had one of the young miscreants running right through the middle of our dinner. Never a dull moment.

We may not be able to recreate the excitement of the potluck, but I can give you the recipe for the Basil Shortbread Cookies . . .

LEMON LIME BASIL SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar plus more for pressing cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°. Place flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter, basil, both zests, and salt in a food processor. Pulse until mixture forms a coarse meal (not long), and then slowly add lemon and lime juice until large, moist clumps form. Roll the dough into 1" balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on a large baking sheet. Lightly dust the bottom of a flat glass with powdered sugar and press cookies into 2" rounds, dusting cup bottom with powdered sugar as needed to prevent sticking. Bake until edges are brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool.

Announcements! August Potluck and More

Thursday, August 25, is the next potluck, with dinner at 6:00 pm and the Great CSA Quiz Show at 7:00 pm. I must admit I don’t know what to expect—apparently it’s part Jeopardy, part Wheel of Fortune, part I don’t know what. And you’ll be happy to know I didn’t have anything to do with making up the quiz questions.

Speaking of which, we have two winners of the Enright CSA Blog Quiz: Amy Hotchkiss Kerby somehow managed to get all the answers correct and got the answers back to me within hours of the newsletter being sent out. Second-place award goes to Jim Schenk, who definitely had the most creative answers! With luck, I’ll have prizes for them at the potluck; without so much luck, by next packout. Thanks to everyone who at least sent an e-mail saying they do read and appreciate the blog.

Also, at the potluck on Thursday, it’s your last chance to buy a raffle ticket for the CSA quilt raffle; we’ll pull the winner’s name after dinner sometime. Raffle tickets are only $1 each and they benefit a great cause—the Enright CSA Urban Farm. Plus, it’s a spiffy quilt if I do say so myself.

Up to Our Elbows in Basil, Part 2: Put the Basil in the Wine, Drink It All Up

Basil Sangria
(from Nancy Sullivan)

Basil. We all think we can't get enough, until we think there is just
too much. Want a completely out-of-the-box recipe for all the great
basil we have been getting? Try white wine sangria. Nancy made up a batch of this last Saturday and reports that it was very well received!

Peach White Wine Sangria

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves plus 8 to 10 sprigs
1/4 cup sugar (start with less, add more to taste)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cans peach nectar (23 fluid ounces total) or a 32 oz. bottle of apricot
nectar
1 (750-ml) bottle chilled white wine
1 large peach (peeled if desired), diced; more if you want it fruitier!

Coarsely chop basil leaves and put in small saucepan with sugar,
lemon juice, and apricot or peach nectar and bring just to a simmer,
stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand 5
minutes, then pour through a medium-mesh sieve into a heatproof
pitcher, discarding basil leaves. Stir in wine, add cut up peach(es).
Chill, covered, at least 1 hour and up to 24. Serve over ice. Top off
with a little soda water if desired. Garnish with basil sprigs.

Up to Our Elbows in Basil, Part 1

This summer's challenge for many in the Enright CSA has been finding creative ways to use the surfeit of basil we've gotten in our shares . . . as many people have said, there's just so much pesto you can eat. Which is kind of funny; pesto is sort of a "gourmet" item, and I remember seeing a one-man show about a guy talking about taking up shoplifting--he only stole high-priced items like--pesto. But reminds me of a story about my grandfather, who once went pheasant hunting and was particularly successful. After awhile, pheasant a la king can get old, too.

Anyway, I've come up with a few things that use basil, but one thing to remember is that EVERYTHING (almost) can use a little basil--pasta or pizza sauce, of course; caprese salad, with tomatoes and fresh mozarella and plenty of basil; roasted chicken or fish or vegetables with plenty of fresh basil; the list goes on. Someone mentioned some delicious lemon basil cookies they had. That's going on my list to try!

I made some Spicy Basil Yogurt Cucumber Dip for a party last week, then added some oil and vinegar to make the leftovers into a salad dressing that is great on lettuce and tomato salads. Below are the general directions, but if you don't have chutney, you can leave it out, and if you don't like curry, try something else--coriander, perhaps, or a little dry mustard, or just more ground pepper.

Spicy Basil Yogurt Cumcumber Dip

1 cucumber, peeled and shredded
2 tsps vegetable oil
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
3 Tbsps chutney
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper

Place cucumber in a sieve over a bowl for about 20 minutes to drain the liquid; press down on the solids to get out as much liquid as possible. Then heat the oil in a skillet over a medium-high heat and cook the curry powder until it just begins to bubble, about 45 seconds. Let it cool slightly, then in a bowl, mix together the cucumber, yogurt, chutney, ginger, basil, and curry powder. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pita chips or vegetables. To make salad dressing, whisk oil and vinegar (a little more oil than vinegar) together in a bowl, then add the cumcumber basil yogurt dip and whisk all together to make it the consistency of dressing.

Enright Booth and Quilt Raffle at the Cultural Heritage Fest

The Enright CSA will have a booth at the Price Hill Cultural Heritage Fest on Saturday, August 20, at and around St. Lawrence Corner. We're looking for some folks to man the booth (and earn work hours!) so if you can help for a couple of hours, contact Leeann at urbanfarmproject@enrightcsa.org.

If you are at the Fest, please stop by--and encourage friends to stop by, too, because we'd like to let people know what we're doing with our co-op urban agriculture project right here in Price Hill. Our Communications Team has done a great job getting a display put together (thanks Beth, for the sanding and assembling, and Angie for the cool pennants) and we have flyers and brochures to hand out, too. So if you know of anyone who's been interested in the CSA, please send them along to learn more.

And if you already are a member, stop by to take a chance or two on our quilt raffle, a small fund-raiser that will go on through the Cultural Heritage Fest and the August potluck. It is a 45" x 54" farm-themed quilt (shown below), with colorful tomatoes, eggplant, corn, carrots, and cucumber pickles with a ladybug border. It makes a nice reading/lap quilt for the cold off-season, to remind you that growing season will be along soon, or it has a sleeve to allow it to be hung as a wall hanging.


Raffle tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5, and you don't have to be present to win--the raffle tickets have a place for your name and phone number, so we can contact the winner. The winning ticket will be drawn at the CSA potluck on Thursday, August 25.

Pear Butter, Slow but Easy

There was a time when making jams, preserves, or fruit butters was a long, hot process. It still takes awhile, but it's not so hot, or hands-on, now that you can make these tasty spreads using a microwave, crockpot, or even a bread maker. (My bread maker has a "jam" setting, but I must admit I haven't tried it . . . yet.)

But with those nice pears we got recently, and the possibility of more to come from the Schenks' tree, I thought I'd post an easy pear butter recipe. This one comes in part from the cookbook that came with my old crockpot, but special thanks to Angie Utley for telling me that not only didn't I have to peel the pears, it actually thickens better with the peels!

You have to cook the fruit first; Angie does this right in the crockpot, though I've done it on the stove in the past, and now think the microwave method is just spiffy.

Pear Butter

Pears, cored and diced
Sugar--about 1/2 cup per cup of diced pears
Cinnamon--about 1 teaspoon per 3 cups of diced pears
Nutmeg--about 1/4 teaspoon per 3 cups of diced pears

After you've cored and diced the pears, you need to cook them until they soften. You can do it in the crockpot, or on the stove, but it will take a few hours in the crockpot and upwards of an hour on the stove, over low heat. Or you can put them all in a glass bowl and microwave them (I had about 12 cups of diced pears, and microwaved the fruit for 7 minutes, stirred, cooked for 7 more minutes, stirred, and then cooked for a final 6 minutes).

When the fruit is soft, put it in the crockpot with the sugar (for 12 cups of pears, I made "low-sugar" pear butter with just 5 cups of sugar). Add the spices (I used 4 teaspoons of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg), mix well, and cook on high for 10 to 12 hours. Leave the lid off the crockpot for the last three hours or so, and stir (and mash) the fruit occasionally during those last three hours.

You should have a nice thick brown "butter," similar to apple butter. Put it in sterilized jars and either refrigerate it if you'll eat it soon, or use canning lids and process in a hot water bath for ten minutes to keep jars of it for the winter.

Update: Angie Utley posted a link to her favorite fruit butter recipe on the Enright CSA Facebook page and I wanted to share it here, too: Fruit Butters/Food in Jars. It uses less sugar, and I think I will use less sugar next time, too.

Turkish Delight: Braised Eggplant

A few weeks ago, the New York Times Dining section had an article about braising vegetables using a Turkish cooking method that defies all the current rules about fresh vegetables: not only are they cooked for a long time, but then they are served at room temperature. The three recipes provided, for braised green beans, leeks, and eggplant, all sounded intriguing, and since I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to prepare eggplant, I kept the recipes.

Last week, I got a lovely purple and white striped eggplant from the share table, and I decided it was time to try the Turkish art of braising. It took awhile; in fact, I started preparations around 2:00 pm and we ate at 6:00 pm. However, most of that time the meal was just sitting, or in one case, cooking over low heat, so it didn’t require tending more than about half an hour. And the results were amazing. I like eggplant, but this is the best-tasting eggplant I believe I've ever had.

Braised Eggplant with Pine Nuts

1 large or 2 small eggplant
1 tsp salt
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 Tbsps pine nuts
1 tomato, peeled and chopped
¼ cup raisins
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
black pepper
2 Tbsps herbs: dill, parsley, tarragon, oregano
Thick yogurt and lemon wedges for serving

Trim the ends off the eggplant and peel alternating strips of skin. Cut eggplant into 1-inch cubes and place in a colander over a bowl. Toss with salt and let stand 30 minutes to 3 hours. Then rinse the eggplant well and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible, without breaking up the cubes.

In a large skillet, heat half the olive oil over medium high heat; add the eggplant when the oil is hot but not smoking. Move the cubes around until they are somewhat brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from pan with tongs, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. Set eggplant aside and add remaining oil to the pan, with the onions and pine nuts. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are transparent and pine nuts start to look brown, about 7-8 minutes.

Then add the eggplant back to the pan, along with the tomato, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, cumin, and pepper. Mix well and turn the heat down low, then cover and cook about 30 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring once or twice, for 5 to 10 more minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat and let sit uncovered until it is at room temperature, about 30 more minutes. Stir in the herbs and serve with yogurt and lemon slices.

It’s All in the Latitude

Have you noticed it’s been hot lately? That’s a good thing—if you love tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and eggplant. They like it hot so I’m trying to be grateful that the weather is helping lots of tomatoes and eggplant ripen, making hot peppers hotter, sweet peppers a little bigger, and zucchini—well, zucchini just grows and grows.

I’ve pondered previously on these blog about Cincinnati tomatoes, or let’s say Ohio River Valley tomatoes to be more inclusive. Why are the so good? It can’t be the soil itself, because our soil is mostly clay and not all that great (though here at the Enright CSA, our gardens are of course enhanced by all the great work done by the Soil and Bed Preparation Teams!).

Tomatoes and eggplant and squash and peppers are all crops that do well in the Mediterranean region (those vegetables and fruits—yeah, tomatoes are fruit—turn up in Italian and Greek cooking a lot). What do we have in common with the Mediterranean? Well, what we have in common with the countries around the Mediterranean Sea is latitude.

It’s a little hard to believe in February when we are up to our earpans in snow, but look at a map—the latitude of Athens, Greece, is about 37 degrees above the Equator. The latitude of Rome, Italy, is 41 degrees north of the Equator. And what is the latitude of Cincinnati, Ohio? We’re right between those two cities, at 39 degrees north.

What we have that they don’t have is humidity. My daughter, who’s living just north of Rome this summer, reports that it’s “dry heat” over there. I’d like to think the humidity hereabouts is a positive when it comes to growing Mediterranean crops, though—we get the same amount of heat and sunshine as the Mediterranean region, being at the same latitude, but the crops we grow also get just a little extra moisture with all of our nice humidity, right?

Okay, maybe that’s stretching it. But the next time you’re thinking of something to do with all that great basil (a popular Mediterranean herb, too), tomatoes, peppers, and other semi-tropical produce, just thank the old Mercator map that we’re at just the right latitude to enjoy all these delicious foods as locally grown crops. Ciao!

Feeding the Blues

The Cincy Blues Fest was this past weekend, August 5 and 6 (those are the Blues in the Schools Under 21 Jammers playing in the picture), and the Fest has a reputation throughout the Blues music world of providing some of the best food for the musicians who play there of any fest around.

Since I'm one of the Fest coordinators, I get to eat in the hospitality tent, too (gotta keep our strength up), so I can attest to the truth of that reputation. I had some wonderful slow-cooked greens both nights, and a spinach salad with peaches and strawberries that couldn't be beat. There was also some of the best bread pudding I've ever had on Saturday night.

A friend of mine was in charge of hospitality this year, so I pitched in with a few selections made from Enright CSA produce, including a big cucumber salad and three loaves of zucchini bread, all of which were well-received as locally grown, locally made fare. Here's the recipe for my zucchini bread, which I'm not too modest to say is the best in town.

Zucchini Bread
(makes 2 loaves)

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3 tsps. vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 tsps. cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini (one medium or two small)
1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and vegetable oil. Then add the zucchini and the flour mixture alternately to the mixture in the large bowl. Add nuts if you'd like, then pour the batter in two greased loaf pans and bake in 350-degree oven for 50-55 minutes.

Late for Lammas!

I missed Lammas this year. Well, I didn’t miss it, but I meant to post something about it on August 1 or 2, and now I’m a bit late. So this shall be a remembrance of Lammas, which is also known as Lughnasa, or in our modern world “the August bank holiday” in nations that were once part of the British empire, like Australia and Canada.

But what Lammas was and could be again is a First Fruits Festival—a celebration of the time when the harvest really gets rolling. Lughnasa is its Irish name, which comes from the Celtic sun god, Lugh. Lammas is actually the Christian name of the festival, from “Loaf-Mass,” because loaves of bread were baked from the first grain gleaned from the fields around this time.

In its pagan incarnation, it was a jolly Irish wake for Lugh, because the sun begins to get scarce again after the summer solstice. If you remember the old Traffic song “John Barleycorn Must Die,” there’s something of the same theme in it: the first of the grain is milled and baked into a loaf (or fermented and distilled into a cheering beverage). John Barleycorn dies so the people who depend on the grain can live through the winter.

So, it’s a holiday with some sad connotations, a time when we begin to say farewell to the warm growing season. But it’s not the end (that’s Samhain, or Hallowe’en, as we call it now) and there's still plenty of warmth and harvest left to come. In fact, it’s the perfect time to think about how to preserve all the goodness of summer fruits and vegetables for winter.

Let’s call it Lammas Week, time to start (if you haven't yet) pickling, canning, preserving, fermenting, blanching, freezing, and otherwise keeping John Barleycorn and his cousins, Tim Tomato and Gina Green Bean and Polly Pepper, all alive in our memories as well as in our freezers and pantries for many, many months to come.

Sandpoint Daily Bee Zucchini Pancakes

This recipe is courtesy of CSA member Travis Geurin, by way of the pages of a small town newspaper in Idaho around 1988. I haven’t had a chance to make these yet, but with the cool(er) weather behind the storm this morning, this might be the day.

Travis reports that he uses the rule of thumb of 2 cups of grated zucchini is equal to one medium zucchini, to figure how much you need for the recipe. He also says he usually doubles the recipe and use tablespoons instead of teaspoons when measuring the fresh herbs, because you can never have too many fresh herbs!

Makes 8 to 10 4" pancakes

2 medium zucchinis
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp fresh chives
1 tsp fresh parsley
Dash of onion or garlic salt to taste

Grate the zucchini and let stand in a colander to drain, and/or squeeze out excess liquid--there’s more than you’d think. In a large bowl, sprinkle flour, baking powder, cheese, and herbs over shredded zucchini and mix well. Add beaten eggs, mix. (For a little thicker pancake, if the batter is runny, add a little flour.) Fry in butter on medium heat about 4 minutes per side, or until brown. Serve warm with butter and large slabs of fresh garden tomatoes and cottage cheese, sour cream, or yogurt. Now, that’s good local summer eating!