Week 9 -- August 14th

This week, our share consisted of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, watermelon, beans, basil, heirloom tomato and strawberries.

The cucumbers and heirloom tomato were transformed into pickles and fresh salsa respectively, once again. The strawberries were gobbled up speedy-quick, as Junie B. Jones would say (Ah, I remember the days when the boys would devour those books... seems like so long ago now. But I digress.)

I used the basil to make pesto again, but with a different recipe. This one uses a little less olive oil, a little more walnuts, and a little less garlic (I omitted the optional butter), but it's pretty much the same. Somehow this one struck me better than the last one I used.

The watermelon was one of the items that all shareholders got this week. I was surprised when I cut it open and discovered seeds! It had been a long time since I last had a watermelon with seeds -- it's funny the things one forgets.

Week 6 -- July 24th

Week 6 we were away on vacation, so my dear friend Dawn agreed to take our share and here is what she got! Garlic, Swiss chard, scallions, fennel, cucumbers, yellow onions, cherry tomatoes and basil -- yum!

Week 4 -- July 10th

Week 4's share included lettuce, beets, fennel, pea tendrils, green beans, napa cabbage, basil, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The cherry tomatoes were my first of the season and they were super sweet!

This was my first experience using fennel, although I have eaten it before. I sliced up the fennel bulb and used it in an improvised pasta dish with sausage and white wine, and added a little bit of chopped fennel fronds for garnish. I thought it was okay used that way but that it lacked something. The rest of the family aren't big fans of anise/licorice flavors so no one was super enthused about the dish.

Farmer Adam suggested that I find a way to use the fronds since they were so lush and plentiful. I ended up freezing them and the tough stalks to use in an Italian-style chicken soup (I'm thinking with cannellini beans) when the weather turns cooler.

I used the basil to make pesto with a recipe I've used many times in the past. I used walnuts instead of pine nuts because I always have walnuts on hand and find that pine nuts are a little too pricey for my liking. I remembered the recipe quite fondly but this time found it kind of unbalanced flavor-wise.