Hello to our Fellow Springdellians! As we have rounded the corner into autumn, there are a multitude of lovely squash varieties coming our way! Our Fellow Springdellian and Farm Intern Alina is working hard to bring us all some more ideas for the different squashes we’ll encounter. For those of you new to the CSA, the amount of squash may seem overwhelming at first, but remember that some of these varieties can last into the winter if properly stored, so take your time and enjoy!
Here we are at our “Honorable Mentions” for the week, where we share about some of the more random things going on in our kitchens.
Here’s what’s been cooking in Sarah’s kitchen this week:
Take a look at the beautiful table we enjoyed this week thanks to the Springdell flower share. A dish of floating flowers with dried corn, on a fall colored runner, we have really enjoyed it!
I seemed to have a bunch of watermelons left on my counter so into the blender they went and through a strainer. A beautiful watermelon juice for us to enjoy. I put the juice in my infuser this time with some lemon mint and Rosemary. I will remove it in the morning and the juice can be enjoyed as is or it can be used as the liquid in a morning smoothie.
We enjoyed a nice kale Cesar salad with crumbled bacon and some corn I had frozen from this summers corn bounty.
Last, I made a quick side dish of diced potatoes and sliced green peppers. I added a bit of salt and chili powder, it was a nice side to chicken on the grill.
Here is some of what’s been cooking in Jess’s kitchen this week:
Here’s an action shot of some béchamel sauce going on to a vegetarian moussaka mashup that I tried for tonight’s dinner. If all tastes as good as it looks, I’ll do a full post on this soon!
While we are pouring things on things, here is a kale scramble from lunchtime. The egg whites that didn’t go into my béchamel sauce ended up whipped and mixed into my wilted kale and onion for a fresh and healthy lunch.
Much of my week has been slow cooking more applesauce and processing it in the canner in between the day-to-day goings on.
This is my slow cooker before I start it up. The sweetness of the apples is perfect as-is, the only thing I add is a few cinnamon sticks and slow cook for 4 hours (my cooker doesn’t really have a low or high, but the temperature of my cooker is 180 degrees.) Before processing, I remove the cinnamon sticks add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per quart of applesauce. 20 minutes in the canner and we have a healthy snack that keeps my boys happy through the winter.
I’ve posted about apple peel chips already, but just a reminder that a quick trip through the oven with some cinnamon makes a healthy snack!
How about these grapes?!??!? I’ve been plucking away at these delicious grapes all week. The vines they come from have been in Farmer Jamie’s family for generations. The taste transports me to my childhood, plucking similar grapes from the rogue vine on the edge of my grandparent’s property. My husband says “these taste like Italy”. It’s so cool when a food can send you back in time.
I was not feeling well today. Not sure what happened, but I got a monster of a headache and had to lay down during nap time with my three year-old. Luckily, my five year-old was tuckered out from his Kindergarten class and was ok playing quietly while I napped with the littler one. I woke up to quite the special surprise!
My five year-old spent his quiet time playing with Legos, and made me a “Get Wel” card, spelling out the letters with his Lego bricks. What a sweetheart!
Not only did he make me the card, but he gathered some Springdell produce into a bowl and asked me to help him make it into a soup so that I could feel better. We sautéed the green pumpkin (from our Community Garden plot), apple, kale, and a couple of grapes from his bowl. He tasted it and after smelling some different herbs, decided to add cinnamon to the sauté. Next we ran it through the blender but it was clear it needed some thinning out. He decided to add apple cider and heavy cream. Not bad!
We hope you are having as much fun in the kitchen as we are! Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas as always, we love to hear from you. See y’all tomorrow for our “Tell” of the Springdell Show and Tell, and thanks for tuning in!