August 24th, 2006 - One Local Summer Weeks 6-8?
I did not post my meals two weeks ago due to the sprained ankle taking me out of work and thus away from the computer I most often use. Then we were on vacation. But, I have been eating locally!
Week 6: garden veggies, particularly my cherry tomatoes, are coming in. I had a lovely meal of tomatoes and cheese.
Week 7: I brought garden veggies to the lake house but forgot to eat them! But I did have some once we got home, plus a Black Krum (I think) tomato. I was unable to buy anything local while we were there. Had I been feeling better, I would have–we passed a driveway with a sign for produce. I would have gone back out on my own….they even had berries which I would have loved to have!
Week 8: Meals have included fresh cucumbers (heirloom True Lemons which I don’t actually like), cherry tomatoes, Dragon Tongue beans (cream with purple stripes), Thumbelina carrots, ivory pepper, and zucchini. I tried to pull a dragon carrot (purple), but the ground was too dry and the tops just broke off. Need to go back out tonight (it rained off and on yesterday and through the night) and try again. Or get out my garden fork.
My peppers are starting to turn colors and I think I’ll be able to pick some red ones tonight. Turns out one of my unknonwn squashes is actually a Yugoslavian finger fruit woohoo!!! They look so cool that I was disappointed when I thought I only had zukes and pumpkins. I’ve picked two but haven’t eaten either yet. One was too big so will be grated and dried for zuke bread. One pumpkin grew and is already orange. Since almost all of of the squash plants have powdery mildew, I suspect this will be my entire take for the year.
Oh, and my corn! Some of it is over NINE feet tall. I can’t recall corn in our garden back in SD ever being that large. Oh my goodness! I need to harvest on Friday and freeze it on Saturday. I just wish my foot didn’t hurt so that this was all easier. I would prefer to do a batch or two each night, but I’m so tired after work that I just veg in front of the TV once Maggie goes to bed. Maybe I’ll feel better tonight and will at least get some beans frozen.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:36 am EDT
[…] Liz emailed me wondering what exactly my local meals had been lately, since I just posted a list of vegetables. Well, I probably eat a little strangely–my meals actually were just the veggies. I adore fresh raw veggies! I simply ate them either with some cheese (pesto Gouda, local of course, which was just fantastic!) or some salad dressing (not local, but I was inspired yesterday with some recipes in The Tightwad Gazette and plan to make some this week or next with my dried veggies from last summer). The taste of raw veggies straight from the garden (or the next day, or the day after) is so fantastic that if you haven’t ever tried them you are really missing something. I think my husband, who hates raw tomatoes, hates them because as a kid (and an adult) he was never offered anything other than a tomato from the store which pales greatly in comparison. I can’t eat them that way anymore! (I never ate many–I tried them occasionally during grad school and didn’t understand why they weren’t very good. Now I understand!) […]