Farm share, week 8

[magid]

A short older woman, who I think was not born in the US (based on her English) and possibly Muslim (based on her head covering), showed up just after I did at the distribution site. The coordinator has to deal with folks who see people picking up their veggies and thinking either that it's a farmers market, or it's one of the free pantry food events. Usually the site coordinator explains that this is a farm share pickup, and they meander off, sometimes with information about how to join partway through the season. But this woman really didn't seem to understand, even after he pointed her at the free fridge right next to the distribution, if she wanted food now. She kept on trying to buy veggies. In the end, I gave her some of the bounty, and my friend LindaK who also picks up at this location added something she didn't want either, so at least she wasn't going away with no food. What I didn't think to say until I was halfway home was asalaam aleikum. Ah, well.

• two medium heads of green cabbage
  
• two pounds of the purple outside, orange inside carrots
  
• two pounds of incredibly tiny beets (think: radish-sized)
  
• two large-ish summer squash (I got the yellow and light green two-toned type)
  
• ten Ailsa Craig fresh onions
  
• six big heads of (cured) garlic
  
• six large green bell peppers
  
• six medium-small eggplants (a choice of Italian or Asian types; I chose Italian because I don't seem to have the knack of cooking the Asian ones as well as I'd like (one of which was a vibrant purple, the rest the usual almost-black)
  
• four large cucumbers (two given to the woman, partly because I don't care for cucumbers that large; the other two swapped for three more eggplant)
  
• two pounds of basil (one given to the woman, since a pound of basil is really quite enough, especially considering I didn't get to all of last week's basil in time)
  
• two large bunches of green curly kale
  
• TWENTY big red tomatoes (!!!!)

First thoughts: Clearly, this is a week for roasted ratatouille, roasting a lot of eggplant, squash, pepper, tomato, garlic, and onion together, then cooking on the stovetop with a bunch of basil, and possibly more tomato if necessary. Tomato-basil pizza, and/or Caprese salad. Carrots baked with a lemon-tahini dressing (also possibly some beets). Kale massaged to be small enough to fit in the fridge (possibly also dressed with lemon and tahini, plus sunflower seeds). Carrot pickles. Beet pickles. Garlic pickles. Roasted cabbage (with potato if I make it to the supermarket), or a batch of cole slaw with some of the carrots. Tomato sandwiches (channeling my inner Harriet).

Comments

[minoanmiss]

That was unsurprisingly and delightfully good of you to share your food.

Tomatoes!

[magid]

I wasn't all that nice - I only gave things that I didn't particularly want (I think she really would have liked some eggplant, but that I didn't want to share), and this was a very big pickup (I had to stop multiple times on the walk home to rest my arms) so there was more than usual available.