Processing Produce

We are bringing in pounds and pounds of produce everyday now. I'm in love with eating all of it and storing some of it for later. George makes pickles and pickles okra nearly daily. He calculated that we've already eaten and shared up to 20 gallons and have about 40 more sitting on ready.

We hull the pink eye purple hull peas, eat some for lunch with cornbread and tomato slices and put the rest in the freezer in serving size portions.

The basil mostly becomes pesto. William loves it. I freeze some in ice trays and then store in sealed zip lock containers. The rest -- we spread on bread, eat by the spoonful or chipful or pretzelful. I've also made a tomato basil mint soup with carrots and onions. It wasn't perfectly delicious but it tasted quite nutritious.  The simplest way to serve the basil is to chop it up and sprinkle it over tomatoes along with shredded motzerella cheese and a drizzling of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We are canning tomatoes but they come in spurts making that process difficult. I've made a good bit of salsa this year. It is the perfect lunch food.

I've taken dill from the garden and chopped it fine into plain yogurt. Then I chop up a cucumber and an onion and stir it into the mix with a little vinegar and salt and pepper. Cool and delicious.

I've also made a good bit of humus this summer. We are not growing chic peas, so I buy cans of beans, throw the beans in the processor with two cloves of garlic, two sprigs or rosemary leaves, the juice of one lemon and a third cup of olive oil and two tablespoons water. Delicious on everything.

We take the squash and saute it or curry it. Butternut squash is great a bunch of different ways, but we've roasted it and curried it. I'll post that recipe later.

We recently discovered that chantrelle mushrooms grow everywhere around here. They are deliciously edible mushrooms and make a lovely bruschetta. My dear friend Matt made some.  I tried to do my own and it turned out quite nicely. Easy. I'll post that recipe later as well. It is ideal if you have fresh parsley for the bruschetta and a good bottle of dry white wine.

We simply eat the green beans like green beans. I've not made any cold salads with them. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear about them!

We've done a lot of blueberry picking this year. We freeze most of them, but I've made two batches of jam. It is my first time experimenting with it. It worked and it is delicious.