Our CSA Has Begun!

Today was the first day that my CSA offered produce for pickup. I am a shareholder with Promised Land (the Oles). Whitney was a shareholder last year, and has re-upped for this year as well. This is my first experience with a CSA and I am very excited.

So, now I have two pounds of asparagus, a bunch of green onions, a lot of rhubarb, and a cob of real popcorn. Looks like I will be making pie and risotto this weekend. I'll save the popcorn for football season.

Also, I just want to say thanks to everyone for your patience while posting has been light here at Locavore. All of us have been just swamped with work and finishing school and other essential things that had to take priority. We all just got together to talk about features we want to focus on for the future and I think I can safely say that we have a renewed focus and are ready to get back in the blogging groove.

Start Your Chili Right with Growing Green

I recently received an e-mail from the delightful Zoe Hollomon of the Massachusetts Avenue Project announcing a fun event at the Amherst Street Wegmans this Sunday. Please see Zoe's message below, and turn out to show your support if you can!

"Greetings from Growing Green! Growing Green Youth will be at Wegman's on Amherst St this Sunday October 12th from 11am-2pm to promote their Amazing Chili Starter for the fall and winter months. So if you haven't stocked up on your comfort foods for the cold months please come by this Sunday to Wegman's on Amherst, ; we'll have samples of our Amazing Vegetarian Chili with roasted sweet potatoes- if you havent tasted it yet its Yummy!. We'll be in the Natures Market Section in the rear of the store near the deli. If you love our Amazing Chili or prefer something else please look at our alternate recipe ideas and get experimental for your taste buds! Growing Green really appreciates your support of a youth run, eco-friendly, local food business. "

Tiny Tomato

My husband found this perfectly ripe tiny tomato in our backyard garden. Most of what we got this season (which was not as much as we were hoping for) were the size of baseballs. This is my hand in the picture, and I wear a Women's small for gloves, just to give you an idea of the size.

Anyway, nature is cool. Mostly because it is always full of surprises.

Peachy

With my last cooking experiment going so well (see my post about the caramelized tomatoes), I decided to cook up a special dessert using some local peaches. It was delicious, and very easy. The peaches were incredibly flavorful and fragrant, particularly compared with the usual well-traveled supermarket variety. Here is my recipe for baked peaches (serves 2, but can easily be altered for however many servings you need):

Ingredients
2 ripe, firm peaches
4 teaspoons maple syrup
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (thicker and creamier than usual yogurt--Fage brand is available in the natural foods section at Wegmans)
Pecans to taste (optional)
Cut the peaches in half.

1. Remove the peach stones.


2. Drizzle one teaspoon of maple syrup over each peach half.


3. Bake at 350 degrees until peaches are warm and slightly soft, about 10 minutes.


4. When peaches are done baking, top each half with a dollop of Greek yogurt.


5. Sprinkle with pecans.


6. Enjoy!

Does anyone else have any recipes for light, summer desserts using local fruits that they would like to share?

Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan

Ahh, tomato time. Ripe, red, fresh tomates are dropping from vines all over Western New York, ready to be eaten fresh with a bit of salt, sliced on sandwiches, chopped up into salsa, or cooked into sauce.

As I have mentioned before, I am not a frequent cook. I think the last meal I cooked was possibly Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe Christmas. Anyway, it's been awhile. This is mostly because I married a fantastic and enthusiastic cook, but partly because I tend to work long hours and don't always have the energy to make an effort to pull something together when I get home.

Well, last week I picked up half a dozen slightly underripe, local tomatoes and decided to try a new dish from scratch. The recipe I chose was Baked Pasta with Caramelized Tomatoes from Susan Herrmann Loomis's French Farmhouse Cookbook. It is a great cookbook if you like simple, homey foods and interesting anecdotes and background on each dish and the regions they come from. I should point out that nowhere in the recipe is the pasta actually baked in the oven--this is all made on the cooktop. This makes it great for a summer night when you don't want to heat the house by turning on the oven. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

6 good sized, slightly underripe tomatoes, cored.

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled, halved and green germ removed

1 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley leaves

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

10 ounces dried pasta, such as fettucine

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally.

2. Place the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When it is hot but not smoking (when small ripples move over its surface), add the tomatoes, cut side up. Cook, shifting tehm slightly in the pan to avoid scorching, until this skin is slightly bubbled on the bottom and has a golden spot on it, about 4 minutes. Turn the tomatoes and continue cooking until the cut side is golden, about 6 minutes. Shake the pan two or three times to move the tomatoes around so they don't burn.

3. While the tomatoes are cooking, finely mince the garlic and parsely together.

4. Turn the tomatoes again, so the cut side is up. Working around teh tomatoes, scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the garlic and parsley, and season them genrously with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium and cover the skillet. Cook the tomatoes until they are tender through and the garlic is tender, about 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent the tomatoes from sticking. The juice from the tomatoes will turn a deep caramel color but shouldn't burn.

5. While the tomatoes finish cooking, fill a large pot 2/3 full with salted water and bring it to a boil. Add the pasta, stir, and cook until it is al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pot, pour half the reserved cooking liquid over it, and toss so the pasta is thoroughly moistened.


6. Arrange the tomatoes around the edges of a large warmed platter. Deglaze the skillet with the remaining pasta cooking liquid, scraping up any browned bits, and pour that over the pasta as well. Toss so the liquid is well blended with the pasta. Transfer the pasta to the center of the serving platter, so it is surrounded with the tomatoes. Serve immediately, with the Parmesan cheese alongside.

Serves 4-6.



From start to finish, dinner took me just about an hour. I served the tomatoes along with a roasted pork tenderloin with the Wegman's balsamic vinegar marinade. A delicious and fairly simple fresh feast.

Beets: what to do with them

This one goes out to Ann, whom I hear is having some trouble with her CSA beets.

"baby beets" originally uploaded by Splat Worldwide

Here's what I do for a quick, delicious fix: a root bake! Combine your peeled and diced beets with any of the following: carrots, potatoes, parsnip, or turnips. Cut up some chunks of onion and add them to the root veggies in a bowl. Add a little bit of olive oil, some salt and pepper to taste, and for fun, some rosemary.

Brush a cookie tray with a little oil and add the veggies. Bake at 375/400 until tender. If you're feeling adventurous, some whole garlic cloves would be great.

Fresh and Local at Wegmans

Wegmans offers produce from local farms throughout the summer, which I think is a great way to make it easier for more people to buy foods grown in our area. I do not have a farmers' market in my neighborhood, so it is nice to have local options when I can't make a special trip to Elmwood or the weekday market downtown. They also offer other local foods, like Pellicano's tomato sauce, in their Nature's Marketplace section.

So, what local produce was Wegmans offering this week?

Yellow Squash (delicious marinated in italian dressing and grilled)

Zucchini (not my favorite, but it did look quite good)

Cabbage (many varieties--the Savoy looked particularly tasty)

Lettuce (Green Leaf, Red Leaf, and Romaine)

Potted Basil (from a local green house)

Not bad selection for a mass market. I look forward to seeing more local produce at Wegmans this summer, especially local fruit.