The summer harvest is speeding up, and every week brings more variety. We’v moved past most radishes, lettuce and early greens to the arrival of more heat-friendly greens, onions, carrots, and now the summer staples of eggplant, cucumbers, squash, berries, lots of fresh herbs (BASIL!) and even a nice amount of peppers, stone fruit and tomatoes are showing up at the farmers market and CSA baskets. All this produce is hard to keep up with some time, between washing, prepping, storing, cooking. But the effort is definitely worth it: healthy, delicious meals beat take out almost every time save an occasional a sushi craving. And leftovers certainly taste fresher than what we find in Chinese food containers the next day.
Most of the ingredients, including meat, fish, cheese, cream, and most of the tomatoes and squashes so far come from the Farmers Market or Mountain View Farms CSA. Farmers almost always have the upper hand at getting vine-ripened items to first ripeness, though most of the greens and herbs below are from the garden.
Here’s a photo record of some of the meals I made so far this summer. Recipes for several will follow in individual posts.
Cavateli with Collard Greens, Heritage Lamb Sausage and Sheep’s milk cheese, Salad of Fresh Garden Arugula and Colorful Radish Medley
Bow-Tie Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto and Scallions
Sarson Ka Saag (Braised Mustard Greens in Curry)
Buckwheat Soba Noodles with Bok Choy, Carrots, Cucumbers and Scallions, Topped with Poached Farm-Fresh Egg
Oven-Roasted Tomato, Farmstead Cheese and Basil Custard Pie with Almond Shortbread Crust
Long-Island Sound Mussels and Clams in Tomato, Parsley and White Wine Sauce over Linguini
Roasted Zucchini and Yellow Squash with Fresh Mint
Fresh Berry Tart with Rose-Scented Custard in an Almond Shortbread Crust
