You did it! It's week two of the Fall Share. This is a twelve week share (I always say what week it is in the email header so you can keep track).
We are still harvesting amazing amounts of fresh produce this week. Our broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and peppers are amazing. Carrots, beets and sweet turnips are nice and plump from all the rain. Greens are lush and leafy. I'd say last week and this week might be my favorite weeks to eat locally of the year.
I made some good food last week that I thought I might share. I'm not a recipe person. I have a 4 year old and I work really long days, but I love cooking, so usually I'm making something off the top of my head that I can serve "deconstructed" to my kid. I was a picky, picky eater until is was 18, so I empathize with pickiness in kids a lot. As a grown up, I made a conscious decision to get over being picky, plus I think my taste buds dulled over time.
On Saturday we had pizza outside with a group that I'm part of "The National Young Farmers Coalition, EMass Chapter". Everyone had to bring toppings. I was trying really hard not to double task spending time with Harvey and getting stuff done (which is how it goes 95% of the time). So I chopped up about a pound of red peppers and a very large leek, tossed them with oil and roasted them at 400 for about 15-20 minutes (I can't remember exactly how long, the leeks were very cooked, so maybe even 25 minutes).
I saved a raw pepper for Harvey to eat with cheese pizza.
There were so many toppings that night there were leftovers, so I made fried egg sandwiches for breakfast on Saturday. I cracked an egg over a little mixture of peppers and leeks so they would hold together in the sandwich, I added some arugula and slices of tomato and . . . had a deluxe breakfast sandwich! Harvey got a slice of tomato, a fried egg cut up and a piece of toast. Someday he will want the real deal.
I roasted cauliflower last night (which we ate with arugula-tomato salad and hot dogs). I actually grabbed the head that I used off the top of the compost - it was a little ugly, I can understand why someone put it there, but as those of you who have been with us a while know, cauliflower is a rare treat for us. They are so, so hard to grow organically, I'm sure the only reason they did well this year is because they were an afterthought. I had left them out of the crop plan entirely due to utter crop failure too many years in a row . . .
Anyway, as you can tell, roasting is a go to for me, especially in fall. I think roasting brings out the flavors in veggies and is a great way to get things going for a meal while you do other stuff.
At the Young Farmer night I spoke with my friend Brian, who manages Mill City Grows in Lowell about a meat share that he signed up for this year. He spoke about what a learning curve it was, to prepare meats that he had never prepared before (this guy is an excellent cook, too). He said that it was hard at first, because failing to cook something great with something as special as local meat feels pretty bad - but it's how we learn, by failing. I think we can all draw some inspiration from Brian, and remember that just because every meal we make isn't the best meal we've ever had, doesn't mean we aren't eating good food and doing the right thing by supporting local farms. It takes trying, failing and trying again to get good at anything.
Luckily, most of our vegetables speak for themselves - so the less you do, sometimes the better!
