CSA Dinner

Every year John, Lissa, Grant and Christy invite all of the CSA members to come over for dinner.  The dinner is an excellent way for the CSA to see the where and how their produce is grown as well as a chance to taste some unique ways to prepare the veggies they get.  Lissa is an incredible entertainer and she always puts on such nice events.
The farm was decorated in all the beautiful colors of fall; pumpkins, gourds and squash perfectly placed on bales of straw.
We have been talking about the menu for the last couple of weeks.  We wanted to make sure that our CSA had an opportunity to try some things they may have not had before....

Decorated tables

The menu:
Bacon, Jalapeno and Cheddar Dip: This was a great way to showcase the Jalapenos.  Do not fear the heat of a jalapeno, the pepper can add great flavor with out making the dish hard to eat. The bacon and cheddar make it a perfect partnership.
Golden Tomato Soup:  Using yellow tomatoes gave the soup a sweeter flavor, but satisfied like the classic red.  It was a little cool out so this was a great way to start the dinner.  Lissa added a swirl of home made basil oil.
Christy's Foccacia Bread: As far as bread goes...it doesn't really get any better. I have had the privilege to eat quite a bit of this bread this summer; it is perfectly seasoned and airy, seriously perfect.
Ratatouille: Christy used Julia Child's recipe and it was a great way to showcase lots of vegetables; she used eggplant, zucchini, onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and parsley were all from the garden.  Ratatouille can be made using any of your favorite vegetables so try it at home.
Antipasto:  An assortment of pickled vegetables including beans, peppers, carrots, radishes and cucumbers.  There were both spicy and sweet pickles, can't wait to start pickling things this fall.
Cucumber, Tomato, Pepper, and Bulgur Salad:  Bulgur is a great grain to try if you have not; it is very nutritious and will add a whole grain to your diet.
Patty Pan Squash:  If you have ever read my blog you know how much squash we had this year.  It seemed only right to make it the main course of the CSA dinner.  Lissa hollowed the patty pans and stuffed them with green and yellow summer squash, purple onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, and cheese then topped with a tikka masala sauce.
Apple Pudding and Zucchini Cake:  Dessert, some would argue the most important part of the meal.  Dinner never really seems over until you have something sweet.  Lissa made a chocolate zucchini cake that was moist and chocolatey.  The apple pudding, kind of like apple crisp, was Lissa's mother recipe and tasted great.

Golden Tomato Soup

Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

Antipasto Plate

The weather was a little cooler that evening but it was warm in the tent with all that great food.

An early frost...

We spent the better part of yesterday covering crops and planning for the worst.  We covered as many of the beans as we could, hauled all the potted plants under the gazebo, moved the herb pots into the the hoop house, put the sprinkler on the squash through the night.  Unfortunately the beans, squash, and the cucumbers did not make it.  It is nice to know I wont be picking beans anymore this summer but it is really sad to have to start ripping out the plants.  It only reminds me that the season is almost over. This will have some effect on our CSA but because we grow so much in the hoop houses we will still have food to supply our customers.  With a spring that just wouldn't get going and then July that was too hot and humid to handle, and an early frost this has been a very difficult growing season. 

Dead squash plants

Dead bean plants

Dead cucumber plants

On the bright side...I planted a few more rows of lettuce, some cabbage, chard and kale, as well as some radishes for fall.  These are all cold weather crops and should do well even as the days get colder.  I planted last Tuesday and they are already up...how exciting is that. 

Radishes

Plants have predators too...

This little woodchuck is wreaking havoc on the pepper garden. I walked out of my house and I caught the little guy in the act.  I can't believe how  calm he was, he let me take tons of pictures until I finally ran straight at him and chased him out of the garden.  We have set a live trap and baited it with some leaves from a pepper plant (his favorite); hopefully we can catch him and relocate the little guy.
The woodchuck eats all the leaves off of the pepper plants which stops photosynthesis, thus killing the plant.  I have done some research to find ways to discourage the woodchuck from coming around. One website suggested sprinkling human urine around (don't worry, we are not peeing on the vegetables); for obvious reasons, this is not really an option for us.  Another website suggested using a cayenne pepper and water mixture, but this was disproved by another website.  The last website I looked at said "use the business end of a shovel";  from what I have gathered, woodchucks are a true pest. 

He has been at this for a few weeks now and has done some pretty substantial damage...

I did learn that woodchucks are the same thing as groundhogs, they are also known as whistle-pigs and land beavers.

Squash Experiment

Christy and I finally got around to experimenting with squash.  We came up with some pretty great ways to use your excess.  This all started about a month ago when the squash started coming on.  we planted 115 hills of squash, each plant can have 4-6 squash on at a time and they will continue to produce until the first freeze; needless to say, we were going to have quite a few extra squash. I was trying to come up with   would make a really good dip/spread.  It does. 
We started by cutting the squash into chunks and putting it in a food processor.  This was a particularly large yellow squash so we took the skin off first.  

Processed yellow squash

 Then we squeezed most of the moisture out of it.

 Now, on to the green squash.  This was a much smaller squash and the skin was still really tender so we decided to leave the skin on.

We saved the juice from the squash and were surprised at how sweet it was.  We thought this would be excellent in a soup or stew...then we realized if we add a little tonic or soda water and some vodka/rum/gin and throw some orange slices on the rim it would make a hell of a summer cocktail.  It may not sound very appetizing, squash juice and vodka; but if you gave it a name like squash-a-colada...

 

 We tried a few different spice combinations, but all of the tests got salt.  The yellow squash had a distinct pumpkin flavor and the green was more earthy and raw tasting.  We played with the consistency by adding some olive oil or greek yogurt.

Christy and I will also be further expiermenting with cooked squash.  We are going to try frying, grilling and roasting it and then making it into a dip/salsa...stay tuned
After the squash experiment was cleaned up, Grant and I worked on making more of that famous hot sauce.  We are all getting dangerously low and it is time for a refill.  The process is a little different this time around because instead of using dried peppers we used fresh. 

That is going to make a lot of hot sauce...

We cut all the tops off and threw them in the food processor, added the right ratio of salt and will let it ferment until next week when we add the vinegar.  experiment