kitchen adventures
CSA week 14 2020: The abundance continues, oh yes it does. We’re getting a larger distribution each week, which isn’t surprising, as the farm is producing at peak now. Our box contained more zucchini (and larger ones at that!), and even more beans. We can’t eat the whole box in
This small-batch peach-oolong jam with subtle notes of a good oolong tea is excellent with toast or scones. I wanted to capture the taste of with a thicker texture. This one’s a winner! I use sugar to draw juice from the peaches, add tea, cook the resulting mixture, and then puree it all with an immersion
CSA week 13 2020: You can tell it’s summer because of the sudden abundance. My basket was overflowing this week, and among the goodies are the very first tomatoes from the farm. It was a long cool wet spring, which delayed tomato season by about a month. I hope we’re about
CSA week 12 2020: bring on the beans! We have green beans, yellow beans, and purple beans (those will turn green when cooked). Summer’s here, and so are the summer veggies. Fantastic! We might even have enough beans to make a pint or two of pickled dilly beans. If you’ve
CSA week 11 2020: heavy on the vine crops like squash and cucumbers. This is great news, since I want to do some pickling. Starting next week, we’re moving to Friday distributions, by the way. Making pickles is easy! In the simplest variation I know, I pack sliced cucumbers and
After a week’s hiatus for 2nd planting (did you know farmers are like hobbits? There’s 1st planting, yes, but what about 2nd planting?) CSA week 10 2020 starts summer distributions: crops that love warm or hot weather, often in great abundance. If you’re curious about the different day, Dancing Meadows
Cherries DO have enough pectin to set a jam, if you’re willing to chop the fruit finely. This smooth cherry jam starts with unpitted cherries to make the process even easier. Start by putting the cherries in a heavy pot, and crush them with a potato masher. Use a tall
CSA week 9 2020 from Dancing Meadows Homestead brings us strawberries! Tiny sweet flavorful strawberries – they won’t last long, because we’ll eat them right away. We have the last of the peas today, too. The weather forecast calls for a week or more of really hot weather – and peas hate
There’s only one time of year to make this strawberry chocolate tart. You’ll need fresh berries at their peak ripeness, which to my mind means only fruit grown locally. Berries this luscious don’t travel well. I manage to make one of these tarts about once a year, usually at the
This white bean and garlic scape dip is a summer delight, combining a smooth texture with an irresistible garlic punch. It’s perfect with crispy vegetables, or as a dip with chips and pita bread. On hot summer evenings, I don’t feel much like cooking. Tonight I pulled out garlic scapes
CSA week 8 2020 from Dancing Meadows Homestead brings more garlic scapes, hooray! I can’t get enough of them. They’re delicious in so many preparations – and how can anyone fail to smile at the twisty curly things? Of course our distribution is still green. This is, after all, still quite
CSA week 7 2020 is both the 7th week of CSA produce for me and the 1st week of the full CSA season. I participated in the 6-week “pre-season” from Dancing Meadows Homestead because I was so eager for fresh green veggies. And I haven’t been disappointed, not at all! This
I’m Maurita Plouff, and I write about cooking and preserving the local harvest in Southeast Michigan. Any recipe you find here is something I have cooked myself, and enjoyed, and think you might like too. I invite you to try the recipes, and leave comments.