thoughtful consumption

Fruity, fruity, fruit, fruit!

The last three years haven’t been the best fruit years in Georgia. So this is my first real fruit season with Farmers’ Fresh, and I’m having lots of fun!

blueberries, peaches, plums, and blackberries

With the plums, I’m planning plum upside-down cake with half the recommended sugar. Last time it was too sweet.

The berries are already frozen. I like to eat frozen fruit because

1) it’s hot out there, and

2) I reeaallly don’t like the texture of fresh fruit.

Freezing gets me most of the flavor and none of the gag.

I’ve frozen berries many times, but today I also chopped and froze a plum and a peach in order to learn what they really taste like, i.e., not in pie or cobbler. Then one evening I’ll have a fruit morsel tasting with blueberries, blackberries, tart cherries, plums, and peaches.

Vegetables can be fun, too.

These are Romano green beans. They’re not as pretty as the rounder beans, but their flavor is terrific. They come in a range of sizes.

As usual, I’ll separate the beans into bigger and smaller halves. I’ll go ahead and cook the bigger half Southern-style (simmered for 30 minutes or so). Then I’ll blanch and sauté the smaller ones in olive oil and garlic for other meals.

eggs and lettuce

This lettuce is a treat – very sweet with a nice, delicate texture. However, I know from experience that this variety of lettuce only lasts a few days, so eat up. We ate half of ours last night and will have the rest for lunch tomorrow. The sweet flavor goes well with sliced Asian turnips from last week.

baby zucchini, fingerling potatoes, and oyster mushrooms

I’m excited about these baby zucchini, but haven’t decided what to do with them yet. Probably brown slices and then slow cook them with tomatoes and serve over pasta. Local potatoes grown in healthy soil are delicious and good for you. I plan on slicing and roasting these guys and making them the focus of a meal. And we sauteed the mushrooms last night (more below).

I also got a head of garlic this week. I love CSA garlic because it’s flavorful and because the size of the cloves makes normal recipes taste much yummier

Add one clove of garlic...

Beverages

coffee, lemon balm, orange mint, and lavender

The herbs are a wonderful treat – lavender, lemon balm, and orange mint. Fran suggests using them for iced tea, but I like my herbal tea hot. I made a wonderful pot yesterday afternoon with this mix. It would also make an excellent simple syrup to add to just about anything.

I’ve never been a big fan of fragrances and didn’t think I liked the smell of lavender. But fresh lavender smells completely different from what I’m used to. It’s sweet and makes me think of chocolate. It doesn’t really smell like chocolate as much as it smells near chocolate. I think the lavender smell receptor lives next door to the chocolate smell receptor in the brain, so the emotional reaction is similar.

many wonderful pots of afternoon tea in my future

Last night’s supper

Last night I sautéed mushrooms, onion, garlic, and fennel in butter. I chopped all of the mushrooms and divided them into thicker stems and more delicate ends.

That way I could start cooking the stems a few minutes before the thinner pieces. When the mushrooms were done, I mixed in some rice grits and served it with fresh lettuce and sliced carrots and Asian turnips.