A Hallowe’en Treat: Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

When I scooped out the innards from the Enright CSA pumpkin I was making into a jack o’lantern, I separated the seeds (which was easier than I expected) and put them in a colander. I got about a half-cup of seeds out of a medium-sized pumpkin (pictured), so that’s what I used as the basis for my cobbled-together recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds. They taste great, I could hardly stop eating them and wished there had been more seeds in that little pumpkin. Happy Hallowe’en!

Sweet and Spicy Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
Scant tablespoon melted butter
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt or regular table salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Dash ground white pepper

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Rinse the pumpkin seeds well, then lay on a paper towel to dry. (Don’t leave them on the towel until they are completely dry or they will stick to it.) Line a cookie sheet with foil, grease the foil, and distribute the pumpkin seeds over the tray in a single layer. Roast the pumpkin seeds until they are completely dry, about 40-45 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the sugar and spices in a small bowl, and melt the butter. Take the pumpkin seeds out of the oven and transfer them to a good-sized bowl. Raise the oven temperature to 350 degrees, then drizzle the butter over the seeds, sprinkle with the spice mixture, and toss until all the seeds are well covered.

Distribute the seeds on the foil-covered cookie sheet again and toast until golden-brown, about 18-22 minutes. Cool and eat (in between the chocolate meant for trick-or-treaters, of course).

The Future Forest Garden Orchard

From Suellyn:

An update the progress of our forest garden orchard is in order. We are coming to the end of the grant period that allowed us to add fruit and nut trees to our CSA gardens. In December, I will send the final report to Alliance for Community Trees and hopefully collect the second half of the grant money.

Left to do: Plant the apple and peach trees that are on order and are scheduled to be delivered in early November. They are bare root trees and will be dug at the nursery when they have gone dormant. If summer lasts much longer in Tennessee, they may not come till later.

In September Michael and Kate Waddell and I, with super help from Elder High School students, cleared the refuse from the area at the Outback where the Red Haven peach trees will go. I may schedule the digging party before they come in so we’re ready to go when the fruit trees arrive. We will be putting protective cones around them for the first year.

Last weekend we harvested perennial root plants (Jerusalem artichoke and burdock root) from the beds by the fence behind the greenhouse to make space for the apple trees. Five or six dwarf and semi-dwarf apple trees of disease-resistant varieties will be planted there. Again, Michael Waddell and I had the assistance of five enthusiastic Elder students doing service work.

Already growing:> The elderberry trees and currant shrubs the team planted at the Outback last spring are thriving, though the hazelnut shrubs are struggling a bit in their plot near the greenhouse. Two of the three plum trees near the greenhouse entrance are doing well. One was a little scruffy looking upon arrival, but it is hanging in there.

Since Charles is moving on, we will need to get ourselves up to speed on care and pruning of these trees, and we may have lost a couple of our orchard team. If any other CSA members would like to join us in this endeavor, learning about and caring for these new trees please reply to suellyn7@yahoo.com. I will include you in further activities this fall and again in the spring.

End of Season Vegetable Quiche

These warm Indian summer days we've had this week may have lulled us all into thinking winter isn't right around the corner, but . . . um . . . winter is right around the corner. It's the end of the growing season, and our last regular Saturday pickup is this Saturday, October 27. (Though we should have one special distribution around Thanksgiving; something to be thankful for!)

I hope you've frozen and canned lots of produce to enjoy over the long and possibly cold winter, but since we still have a few fresh vegetables, I took a look at what I had today and decided to make a vegetable quiche. (Actually, I was thinking stir fry, but Mike said, "How about a quiche?") Turned out to be a great idea, quick to put together (though it takes awhile to bake), and we decided we got Vegetable Credits that cancelled out the Cheese and Eggs Demerits.

End of Season Vegetable Quiche

Assorted vegetables, such as
--bunch of kale, washed, dried well, and chopped
--bunch of leeks, washed and sliced
--a tomato or two, diced
--a purple pepper, diced
1 Tablespoon butter
2 cups shredded cheese (mozarella, Swiss, or something more exotic)
1/4 cup Bisquick or Jiffy Baking Mix
3 eggs
about 1 1/4 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash the leeks well and slice the white parts and some of the green; saute in about a tablespoon of butter until they soften, 4 or 5 minutes on medium heat.

Distribute the leeks around the quiche pan, then add the chopped kale. Sprinkle the diced tomatoes and peppers over the kale, then arrange the shredded cheese over all.

Put the Bisquick in the bottom of a 2-cup container, add the eggs, and add milk to fill to 2 cups. Stir well; the Bisquick likes to stay in a dry lump at the bottom. Add salt and pepper to taste and pour carefully over the vegetables.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until it begins to brown on top. Take out of oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes, then slice into wedges and serve.

End of the Season, End of the Tomatoes

When the tomatoes first started to ripen back in July, along with the huzzahs and cheers of CSA members, we had several odes to those delicious fruits, and it seems only fitting that, as we see the last of them, there should be some sort of Tomato Elegy.

The gold leaves tell the tale of parting heat,
Those scarlet orbs now vanished from the vines.
Our farmers homeward turn their weary feet,
And leave the world to e’er less sunshine.

Okay, that’s probably enough (apologies to Thomas Gray). But it is nearly the end of the Enright CSA season, so muse we must on the coming winter as well as on the bounty of great food we had all summer long.

I was thinking about it the other day, and I decided my favorite part of growing season at the CSA is not having to decide what to eat. That is, I still decide what to prepare from day to day, but from week to week, our eating habits now follow the sun, with root vegetables and greens in the spring, on to those lovely tomatoes as well as peppers, corn, eggplant, and okra in the heat of July, and then winding down again to turnips and greens and squash in the fall. Plus of course those weekly cucumbers. Who knew they were a three-season vegetable.

But on the whole it’s an elegant progression, and I like dining as the seasons intend. Tonight we had the end of the potatoes, roasted with a little olive oil and salt, and they tasted like fall. We also ate three of those tomatoes pictured above, so now there are only two left. It’s kind of amazing, and a tribute to our farmers, that we still have ripe, delicious tomatoes midway through October, so these last few are particularly tasty.

To take liberties with yet another poet, où sont les tomates d'antan? The tomates, alas, are pretty much gone for this season, so I will just enjoy what the cool weather brings. And I’ll miss all this great food when the season ends.

Going Green, Not Just in the Garden

A while back—I think just over a year ago—Cincinnati residents all got great huge green rolling bins for recycling, and the city’s recycling program changed from weekly pickup to every other week. I was not a happy camper about the changes to the program, mostly because the marketing seemed to suggest that it was good to fill that giant bin with recycling; you could even get prizes, it seemed, for how much you stuffed in that bin.

I’m all for recycling, but the whole point is to make less waste, either to be recycled or shipped off to a landfill. Those big 96-L containers and a kind of “contest” mentality about how much you recycled just didn’t make sense to me. Well, eventually I was able to trade in my gigantic bin for a much smaller and more manageable 35-L green container. It fits just about two old recycling bins full of stuff, and since the recycling truck comes around every other week now, the size works fine for me.

Then, in talking to some folks from Price Hill Will, I discovered that they don’t actually weigh what you’ve recycled each week to figure out the “reward points” you win. If your bin is out and it has stuff in it, it records that you’ve recycled, and that’s all. So, I calmed down a bit about them encouraging you to buy more stuff just to recycle the containers.

But then I went to the Recyclebank website to check into how the points and rewards system works. Another bummer; it seemed like all they offered was discount coupons on . . . yes, you guessed it . . . buying MORE stuff. This just seemed so counterproductive to me, I kind of forgot about the whole thing, though I definitely kept recycling, putting out my small bin every two weeks with newspapers and some bottles and cans, and flattened cardboard food boxes.

Then, the other day, someone was telling me about how great the Recyclebank rewards program was, and though I disagreed, I decided to take another look at it. Well, what do you know, they finally had a recycling reward that didn’t involve buying more stuff—and in fact, encouraged another green action, taking public transportation.

I seem to have quite a lot of points, and I traded in a thousand of my points for six free Metro bus rides, which I will definitely use. They are supposed to be mailing me some kind of vouchers—I’m waiting to see exactly how easy they are to use. It will be another bummer if they aren’t something I can use directly on the bus for a free ride, but I’m hoping they’ll be simple to use.

Six rides on Metro would cost $10.50; I probably have accumulated enough recycling points to get at least three more batches of six rides. That’s $42 in free transportation downtown to see a show, visit the library or Contemporary Art Museum, or eat at Arnold’s and listen to some good music. Now, that’s a reward program I like!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow—Chili with Peppers Galore

Last night, we were driving up the highway to the Queen City Balladeers’ Leo Coffeehouse when the heavens opened and we were hit with a deluge. Water up to our wheel wells, slamming the windshield, making visibility almost nil. It was quite an experience. Then, just before the Norwood Lateral, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and there was a lovely rainbow.

Which seemed particularly fitting, since we’d just had Rainbow Chili for dinner before heading out into the storm. So I took a photo of the rainbow—through the rain-spattered windshield—to go with the chili recipe.

I have to give my sister Amy credit; she told me she’d made some chili using lots of the peppers from the CSA. That seemed like a good use of peppers, so I got out a lot of them—red, orange, yellow, green, white, and purple—and diced them up. I think I probably used about ten of them, including a couple of jalapenos. I decided to make white chili—using chicken and Great Northern beans—so you could really see the rainbow colors of the peppers, but you could use a meat of your choice or even make it strictly vegetarian.

This tasted great with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of grated cheddar cheese on top; it’s definitely a Texas kind of chili, not Cincinnati chili (though I did put some cinnamon in, because I did grow up on Cincinnati chili, so I couldn’t help myself). I let this cook all day in the crockpot so I could take advantage of the warm weather before the rains came, and the kitchen smelled wonderful when I got back. But if you are home, you could make it all in a pot on the stove, too, in less time.

Rainbow Chili
About 10 assorted bell and hot peppers in a variety of colors, seeded and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced thin
4 to 6 tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 can Great Northern beans
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sauted in a little olive oil
Chopped fresh parsley, sour cream, and grated cheddar cheese for garnishes

First saute the chicken thighs in a little olive oil (let them cook while you are dicing everything). Set them aside to cool, then put the diced garlic in a little olive oil in a pan. If you want to cook this on the stovetop, use a soup pot to sauté the garlic; otherwise, you can use a skillet and then transfer the vegetables to a crockpot.

Let the garlic cook for a couple of minutes, until it is fragrant. Then add the diced onions and cook until they become soft, 3 or 4 minutes. Add all the peppers and the celery and tomatoes, then add the spices and salt. Cook everything for about 5 minutes, then transfer to crockpot or turn the heat way down and let everything cook for awhile (about 3 hours on high in the crockpot; 45 minutes to an hour would probably be enough if you cook it on the stovetop).

When things have simmered nicely, add the chicken and beans, heat through, and serve with the garnishes. Makes about 4 good-sized servings. It tastes great the next day, too.

We’ve Got Lots of Hot Peppers, So Make Your Own Tabasco

It’s not at all hard to make hot pepper sauce. There are an infinite number of recipes around, but this one is simple and effective. One thing, you need to make it now to have it ready for hot wings or other spicy foods in the new year—aging the pepper sauce is necessary to “mellow” the fire.

It keeps well, too. I made a batch of this last year and I’m still using it (a little goes a long way). So, if there are still a couple of baskets of chile and jalapeno peppers for the taking at pickup this Saturday, consider taking a bagful to make your own Tabasco sauce. We can call it, hmm, “Price Hell Sauce” . . .

Basic Hot Pepper Sauce
1 ½ cups distilled white vinegar
1 lb cayenne or jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
2 tsps. salt

Put the vinegar, salt, and chopped peppers in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for at least 5 minutes or up to 15 minutes. Let cool, process in a food processor, and store in a glass bottle with an airtight lid. Put the bottle in a dark cabinet and let age at least 3 months. Strain when ready to use.

Slow-Cook Butternut Squash Soup

There has been some discussion at the greenhouse and elsewhere about how hard it is to peel and cut the butternut squash. Here’s a recipe that doesn’t require peeling until after you’ve roasted the squash and it comes off a lot easier. You do still have to cut it in half; use a sharp knife, that’s my only suggestion. Oh, and someone at the greenhouse suggested it is a little easier to cut in half longways if you cut off the stem end first.

With the squash and apples and the spices this recipe uses, it’s a great soup for these chilly fall days we’ve been having lately. And the best part is you can start it and then forget about it until dinner time, making it a nice choice some weekend day when it is nicer to be outside, visiting a pumpkin farm or raking leaves, during the afternoon. I made it yesterday, and it was as delicious as I remembered from last season. Since it was cooking in the crockpot, it also allowed me to pay more attention to the baseball than anyone who knows me would expect . . .

Butternut Squash Soup
1 butternut squash
2 Tbsps. olive oil
2 small medium onions
4 cups broth, vegetable or chicken
2 small apples, peeled, cored, and cubed
1 ½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. cloves
¼ tsp. coriander
¼ tsp. cinnamon

Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and pulp. Brush olive oil on the inside and roast it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until you can easily peel the skin away from the flesh.
Plug in your crockpot and turn it to high. Add the broth, the onion, and the apple. Stir in the spices. Cover to let heat. When the squash is finished roasting, let it cool until you can handle it, then peel it, cut it into chunks, and add it to the crockpot.

Turn heat down to low, cover, and cook for 6 to 8 hours. When it is ready, blend in small batches with a blender or food processor. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed before serving.

Getting Inventive with Kale--Add Carrots and Raisins!

I saw a recipe for something similar to this, but I didn’t have all the ingredients, and I didn’t even like some of the ingredients, so I adapted it to make it my way. It was delicious and is very autumnal looking, with the green leaves, orange carrots, and golden raisins. A fine fall dish.


Kale with Carrot Ribbons
2 large carrots
1 bunch kale, with tough stems removed
4 Tbsps. vegetable oil
1 small onion, sliced
1/3 cup golden raisins
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 tsps. finely grated fresh ginger, OR 1 tsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the carrots and then use the peeler to cut the carrots into long thin strips. Wash the kale and cut away the stems, then slice leaves crosswise to make strips.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat, add the onions, and cook until softened, 3 or 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the raisins, garlic, ginger, and about ½ tsp salt. Cook, continuing to stir, for 1 minute.

Add the carrots, kale, and about a 1/3 cup of water. Stir or turn with a spatula as the vegetables cook, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Rings of Squash, Pretty & Tasty

We’ve got those nice delicata winter squash in the share this week, so I went looking for something interesting to do with them (though baking them works well, I wanted to try something different). This is a quick and easy recipe that’s also delicious and quite picturesque. It’s adapted from a recipe in an issue of Rachael Ray’s Every Day magazine, and yes, I believe she says you can make it in 30 minutes. I can’t, but perhaps you can.

Fried Delicata Squash Rings
1 delicata squash
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsps. olive oil
Fresh thyme (or any herb that you have around)
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Toss the breadcrumbs in a bowl with the herbs, the olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. Put the breadcrumb mixture in a large skillet over medium heat and cook until breadcrumbs brown, about 4 or 5 minutes. Take the breadcrumbs out of the skillet and set them aside.

Cut the stem top off the squash and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Use a sharp knife to cut the squash into slices (about 3/8” thick is good). Heat the ¼ cup of olive oil in that same big skillet, and add the squash rings in batches. Cook till brown on one side (5 or 6 minutes), then turn and cook until fork-tender (about 3 more minutes). Drain on paper towels, arrange on a platter, and garnish with the browned breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Very easy, very pretty, and quite tasty, too.

End of Season Field Trip!

Want to go see where our functional art bicycle cart came from? On Monday, October 8,
meet at Greenhouse to carpool at 6:30 pm. We will join a small group from Home Meadow Song Farm at 7:00 pm at the Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati to tour the Green Acres exhibit. Entry to CAC is free on Monday evenings.

There’s lots to see in addition to our art bike cart. There is information about the offsite artist gardens created in association with this exhibit, including the Pawpaw circle over at the Red Bank/Erie Ave. triangle and a potato patch in the Sculpture garden in Hamilton. Soil from one of our Enright CSA gardens is part of another “piece” in the exhibit.

For many of us, gardening is a creative pursuit. Come let’s see what some garden artists have made of it. Please respond to suellyn7@yahoo.com if you plan to come so we'll know when everyone is gathered to leave for the CAC.

Sweet Corn and Bean Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Here’s a tasty salad recipe from Enright CSA member Tina Michel—a little too late for our sweet corn harvest, but we’ve got salad greens coming this week, so if you have some frozen corn, you’ll be all set. I decided to use the scanned recipe she sent as the illustration, because you can always tell a well-loved recipe by how beat-up and stained it is (or at least you could when people actually had paper recipes). But I’m not sure you can read it from the photo, so here’s the recipe in readable (and copyable) form.

Corn & Bean Salad
4 ears sweet corn, fresh or frozen (thawed if frozen)
2 medium red bell peppers
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsps. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsps. Dijon mustard
½ cup olive oil
1 16-oz. bag dried white beans, prepared according to package, or 2 16-oz. cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch scallions (green onions), trimmed and cut into thin slices
2 cups fresh mixed bitter greens such as arugula or curly endive (optional)

Place corn and bell peppers on foil–lined cookie sheet and sprinkle corn with vegetable oil. Roast corn and peppers in oven for 30-35 minutes, turning occasionally, until corn is light brown on all sides and pepper skins are blistered and charred. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Place peppers in a plastic bag and twist tie top; set aside to cool for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, use a sharp knife to cut the kernels from the corn cobs. Discard cobs. Remove the peppers from the plastic bag and use a blunt knife to scrape away as much of the burnt skin as possible; rinse under cold water and cut peppers into thin slices.

In small bowl, use a wire whisk or fork to combine the lemon juice, vinegar, and mustard. Set aside. In a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil and add the corn kernels and drained beans. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until heated through. Add vinegar mixture, roasted red peppers, sliced green onions, and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Toss gently but thoroughly to mix.

Serve bean salad warm, on bed of mixed greens, if desired. Makes 8 servings.