summer’s bounty

One of the highlights of my week is going to the farm to pick up our vegetables.

We’re part of a CSA in the Black Dirt Region of New York state, which means we get to drive through winding roads of rural beauty to visit this farm every week from June thru November. I feel myself coming to life every time we drive up and see the sun shimmering on the rows and rows of green.

I’m discovering new things every week. Did you know carrots come in so many colors?

I made pesto tonight with our basil. Mmmm.

I take pictures of all the labels so I can identify what we have when we get home.

One week we got amaranth leaves. They’re gorgeous and purple, but quite bitter. I found an Indian recipe for them with chick peas.

I served it on naan with chicken tikka masala. I was the only one who ate it, of course. My family isn’t quite as enthused about our exotic veggies as I am. I ate the whole darn pan myself. I wasn’t going to let that nutrition go to waste!

I also made an orange, lime, and vanilla spritzer. We have a fantastic drinks recipe book called Cool Waters. It’s chock full of really fun ideas. The only problem is that there’s zero sugar in any recipes, which means the kids soundly reject most of my concoctions. Oh well. Sophie liked her chicken and rice, at least.

My go-to cookbook for all these fun veggies is Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop. He describes each veg, how to store it, how to prepare it, and then includes several pages of recipes featuring said veggie. Recently I’ve made his leek and potato soup, fennel in cider, curried carrot soup, and – most surprisingly fantastic – beet and goat cheese salad.

But by far the biggest hit of the summer so far was a good old roast lamb with rosemary, potatoes, carrots, onions, and asparagus. Melt in the mouth!!

We finished it off with rice pudding and fresh cherries. It was a Jamie Oliver recipe, and I have to admit something. I have 3 or 4 of his cookbooks, and I’ve finally realized that only one or two of his recipes has ever turned out well. His food always looks amazing. Maybe if he could come over and teach me personally, it might work out better??     Anyway, I kept wishing I was eating ice cream rather than bland rice pudding. There’s always next time – the long, hot summer’s not over yet!