Community Supported Agriculture in Northern Virginia with Graceland Farm: Volume 4: Issue 12

« 03 Aug 2007 »

What dreadful hot weather we have!
It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

Jane Austen

Food Notes:

The Farmers’ choice items: we are just beginning to harvest red okra, pole beans and melons. By next week we will have plenty. I will try to track the shares so that everyone gets melons next week if you don’t receive them this week.

I have tried to include all the fixins for fresh salsa but couldn’t quite get the cilantro to grow in this heat. So, I have included a recipe sans cilantro. Salsa recipes are very flexible and you should feel free to experiment

We have been planting for the Fall season: planting many greens, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. The Pumpkins that survived the hail are becoming quite large and soon we will have Butternut and acorn squash.

Red Late Summer Salsa

• 1 lb ripe tomatoes, small dice
• 2 peppers small dice (can grill them first, amount depends on how hot you want the salsa)
• 1 medium onion, small dice
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• juice from lime or small lemon
• salt

Mix and eat.

Make adaptions as your kitchen availability suggests: leave out the cilantro, try Italian parsley, not traditional but the green is nice if you don’t have cilantro. Any kind of lemon or lime can work, or you can even leave that out. Only use fresh citrus fruits, no bottled lemon juice. Salt to taste. Some like black pepper in their salsa too. You can also add chopped mango, or peach, or avocado, or corn….. the variations are endless.

Hopefully you’ve found uses for the sweet banana peppers, this might be something new for you to try.

Stuffed Pepper Sandwiches

(Works with jalapenos, but much better with the milder sweet peppers we are growing this year)

Slice the tops of the peppers and remove seeds. Stuff them with any cheese you like (especially cheddar). Roast these stuffed peppers under the broiler until the peppers look a little scorched and soft. Put these stuffed, just-roasted peppers in a baguette and eat like a sandwich or can be eaten as a side dish.

Here’s a recipe from a 35 year old cook book called America’s Best Vegetable Recipes from the editors of The Farm Journal:

“Try cooking cherry tomatoes. Saute them in a skillet in butter for only 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of sugar to make them shine. A bright and tasty addition to a dinner plate.”

works well with any of the smaller tomato varieties – use them as a side or on meat as a relish

This is the Farmers’ Almanac view of August 2007.

1st-3rd. A tropical cyclone threat for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts.

Thunderstorms, then fair weather. 4th-7th. Turning unsettled, wet through Mid-Atlantic, Northeast. 8th-11th. Becoming fair and windy. 12th-15th. Hurricane threat for Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts. Hit-or-miss locally strong thunderstorms. 16th-19th. Remnants of a tropical weather system channels locally heavy rain toward Virginias. Fair and pleasant for most other areas. 20th-23rd. Wet, then fair skies return. 24th-27th. Fair skies. 28th-31st. Thunderstorms, some heavy, then fair weather.

Sounds like a lot of water, if it happens.

Gringa Sopa

“Sopa” is what we know as ‘spanish rice’ here in the US. The traditional Mexican sopa is barely pink, usually made with just a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, rice, oil, and “knorr swisa”, or powdered chicken bouillon. I like to make my own version of sopa, with more tomatoes and no bouillon. Here’s my recipe:

• 2 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered and then pureed in the blender. (I’ve been known to leave the seeds and skins on….)
• 3 Tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 medium/large cipolline or other onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups raw rice
• 2 3/4 cups boiling water

Cook the onion in the oil in a large dutch oven with a lid that fits well until it’s soft but not too brown. Add garlic and rice, cook another couple of minutes. Add tomatoes and salt, stir well, then add the water and cover and cook, covered, over low heat for 20 or so minutes.