This week is highlighted with the appearance of a HUGE nappa cabbage.  Perfect, I'll be making kimchi!  I plan to tweak the recipe I used last time so as to make it spicy, but not SUPER spicy like it was last time.

We pitted and froze the sour cherries, and the apricots and blueberries were eaten within the first day.

The swiss chard was combined with the beet greens from last week.  It was chopped, and sauted with bacon, onion, salt and pepper and made a great light dinner along with a crusty loaf a bread.

The we got 2 small zucchini and put them together with a couple more we had laying around and made a batch of Ur Oma's Zucchini Soup! 

The green beans were used in a 3 bean salad and the head of leaf lettuce was made into side salads during the week.

So, this was a lost week.  Well, maybe not entirely lost, but entirely not planned.  I DID end up making Vegan broccoli and cheese bake, which I will share my recipe for because it came out wonderfully. 

Here's the photo from Week #3 CSA share:

Our second CSA box arrived with a heavy dose of fruit, which was much appreciated! 



What you see here is 1 quart of cherries, 1 quart of strawberries, 1 pint of raspberries, 2 pints of peas, and 1 quart of blackcaps (the blackcaps were from our garden).  This side of the box disappeared within 2 days, and without any prepwork needed!   uuhh... sorry there's no recipe ideas other than set the boxes out on the table and let the family have at it.

Now, since I'm on the topic, lets talk briefly about blackcaps.  I have a huge patch in the backyard that grows wild.  The berries are smaller than blackberries and have no pit, much like raspberries.  They make amaaaazing wine, and jam, if they don't disappear immediately upon being picked.

These little berries ripen every year on the 4th of July and keep producing LIKE CRAZY until the end of the month.  For the next couple of weeks, I'm expecting to pick about a quart PER DAY.   I freeze a good number of them and they work just fine for cooking and fermentation projects. 

She took a break from bike riding to help (EAT) pick blackcaps

There was actually 2 of these containers full today that I picked, and probably at least 1 more out there on the bush.  It'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Now that we've discussed fruit, how about the rest of the bin?

We  got 1 head of red romaine lettuce, 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 1 small bunch of kale, 2 crowns of broccoli, and 2 small zucchini.  The heads of lettuce and the kale quickly became  a raw green salad for a family get-together on Sunday night (with some leftover for lunches during the week... I just keep it sealed up in the fridge, ready to go).  The zucchini was sliced and grilled up with some of the leftover garlic scapes and some asparagus I got from the store.

That leaves the broccoli.  I'm going to be making a broccoli/cauliflower (non-dairy) cheese bake later this week which I will share the recipe and photos for in my next blog post.

** One note from this week:  I wasn't all that impressed with the volume or variety of veggies in our CSA share this week and I actually ended up buying stuff in the produce section at the grocery store to supplement!  We also ended up going to a local orchard and picking up an extra quart of cherries and a pint of raspberries...aaaand a half dozen friedcakes for the girls and hubby.

I knew when I posted about making Zucchini Salsa there would be a "what could that possibly be used for" reaction.  Well, just thought I'd share some of the things we've enjoyed the salsa with/in.  It's got a lovely smokey, tangy, mildly spicy flavor and a GORGEOUS texture that you don't get from stuff that's been on the shelf in the grocery store for who-knows-how-long.

I have been gladly substituting my homemade salsa in any recipe that I'd usually purchase store-bought for and it hasn't let me down yet!



Perhaps the biggest hit so far was to use it to dip these super-easy kid-pleasing quesadillas.  It's just store-bought flour tortillas, smashed black beans, pepper and onion, and Daiya cheddar cheese. 


Next we tried putting it in a recipe for blackeyed pea salad.  It rounded it out SO nicely and gave it a delicious depth (and some added veggies).

I admit it, the last couple of weeks I've been pretty rudderless.  No inspiration or creative energy what-so-ever... and I was crabby about it too.  Then, Hubby made this beautiful Crostata dish he saw on a friend's blog... and I was finally inspired to go out there and get some gorgeous ingredients for MORE stuff!


The last few days I've been busy in the kitchen chopping and preserving and simmering.  And I've also been making a bunch of artwork to go along with the book I'm writing (Mostly stories and recipes from here, and it'll be available in a few months both through Amazon and on my main page).

So, here's to a sudden burst of activity, and a YUMMY new recipe!




Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the flour and salt and thyme. Then, add the margarine and mix until it is the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Add cold water until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, then remove and form into a ball and wrap in foil. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion, zucchini and summer squash,  and sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side, then set aside.

Working on a well-floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle about 15 inches in diameter. Then  place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

The humungous zucchini that they were giving away at our butcher shop last weekend was just screaming for my attention.  So, I brought one home.  We made salsa, zucchini bread, and breaded/fried zucchini "steaks".

Big as a baby...

Day 2
 Start a waterbath (Bring water to a rolling boil) in a large pot to process your salsa once it is in the Mason Jars.


Remove the bowl from the refrigerator.  Rinse and drain the veggies.  Put the veggies in a large pot and add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

While the salsa is simmering, prepare 2 quart canning jars with caps and rings by washing them with hot soapy water. Fill the jars with the salsa when it is done cooking.

Cap the jars and put them in the waterbath.  Boil for 15 minutes.  Remove jars and let them cool on the counter.  They should seal themselves fairly quickly after being removed from the boiling water.

Enjoy!   Or keeps for up to 1 year on the shelf.

We had a family get-together at our place last weekend and I decided I wanted to include eggplant in the menu.  Everything else on the menu required space on the grill, so I decided to go ahead and roast the veggies in the oven.  These were great served hot from the oven, and equally great served cold the next day on dinner salads. 

I had quite a few zucchini left over from my last market haul and decided to try out (and slightly tweek, as always) a favorite family recipe for sweet zucchini pickles that came with the guarantee  "makes hamburgers taste better" boldly emblazoned on the recipe card. 

I have to say, my version adds a little extra character and depth that I LOVE and it'll be a great addition to any green salad, tuna salad, potato salad... anything that needs a little extra tang and depth.

Starting at around the 4th of July, our wild black raspberries were ripening.  The bushes have been yielding a bit more than a quart every-other-day and we've been gorging on them, and filling the freezer with the rest.  I plan on making wine, and jam as I have in the past, and they're also fantastic with
(soy)icecream or used instead/alongside strawberries over shortcake. 


I'll include the wine and jam recipes as I get around to them.

Another garden staple around here has been zucchini!  If you've ever grown this vegetable, or know anyone who does, you know that once they start producing, LOOK OUT because they'll take over your entire kitchen!  There's never a shortage around here despite the fact that I haven't actually grown any for the last few years.  I got a bagful at the farmer's market for .75 each and have been playing happily ever since.

So far I have made zucchini soup, zucchini bread, sliced zucchini on the grill, zucchini in kabobs, and sausage/zucchini pizza on the grill.  The recipes for soup and bread are designed specifically to use up zucchini.  Like, those HUGE ones you can't figure out what else to do with!

                                                   Seasalt to taste