Day 1: Shredded pork, Coleslaw, Zucchini muffins
Day 2: Tomato basil soup, Grilled cheese
Day 3: Homemade pizza with banana peppers, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Corn pudding with jalapeno, Melon cubes, Shiso tea
Day 5: Spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce, Fruit salad
Day 6: Caprese sandwiches, Apple beet slaw
Day 7: Hot dogs (hold the bun) with homemade sauerkraut, Green bean and potato salad, Dark velvet beet cookies
Notes: Even though the temps have been so hot, we all know that fall is just around the corner and I just love fall festivities! While things might look a little different this year, trips to the apple orchard or pumpkin farm may just be the perfect social distancing activity. This weekend my family is planning our first trip to the local apple orchard for cider donuts and brats and to pick up some early apples. The early ones tend to be more tart and are perfect for pies or the apple beet slaw that I linked above. Mmmmm!
Food preservation: Since this is a blog about local and seasonal eating, I want to continue to show you how I am planning for the winter so that we can eat local all year round. August and September are the prime harvest months which means that this is also my busy cooking month. While I enjoy stuffing my face with fresh food, I also spend a lot of time in the kitchen packing away food like a squirrel. Our CSA farm sells extra boxes of corn and tomatoes and I’ve picked up one of each (40 ears of corn and 20 pounds of tomatoes!) Tomato soup and pasta sauce are on the docket to make big batches. Any leftover tomatoes will be diced and put into bags to freeze. I’m getting the whole family involved in shucking the corn, then I’ll cut it from the cob and store in quart sized bags. The corn is great to throw in chili and use as a side dish for holiday meals. Baked goods are another great way to use up your surplus veggies and make sure you always have a snack or treat available. Extras of both the zucchini muffins and beet cookies in my plan above will be packed into the freezer this week. How are you storing food for the winter?
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- 20 pounds of tomatoes for soup and sauce!
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- 40 ears of corn to shuck!
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- Silicone bags
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- Reuse quart sized zipper bags over and over to freeze cut up veggies
CSA Breakdown: For those of you also using Crossroads Community Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. See the first CSA post from this season for details on how I structure the plans.
- Tomatoes (1.0 Unit) – 2 for cucumber and tomato salad, the rest will be added to the 20 pound box I also got to make large batches of pasta sauce and tomato soup. If you don’t have extra tomatoes you will have to pick between the soup and sauce to follow the plan.
- 3 Beets (1.0 count) – 1 large one in apple beet slaw (since it so big!), 2 smaller for a double batch of dark velvet beet cookies
- 2 Onion, Bottle OR Small Red (1.0 count) – 1/2 for cucumber tomato salad, 1/2 for green bean and potato salad, the other will be added to more onions to make tomato soup and pasta sauce
- 1 Banana Pepper (1.0 count) – sliced and put on pizza
- 1 Pepper, Jalapeno (1.0 count) – corn pudding
- 1 Zucchini, Green OR Gold (1.0 count) – zucchini muffins
- 1 Cabbage, Green (1.0 head) – 1/2 for coleslaw, 1/2 for homemade sauerkraut
- 1 Watermelon OR Muskmelon (1.0 count) – Peeled, seeded, and cubed to serve with corn pudding
- 1 Shiso (1.0 bunch) – tea
- 1 Beans, Green (1.0 bag) – potato salad
- 1 Cucumber (1.0 count) – cucumber and tomato salad
- 1 Garlic (1.0 count) – tomato soup, pasta sauce, green bean/potato salad
- 6 A1 Corn, Sweet (1.0 count) – corn pudding
