Harvest Stuffed Peppers

This recipe is a bit different then your traditional stuffed pepper.  It is one of those recipes that ends up catching all the random veggies in the kitchen that need using. It’s great with mushrooms, garlic, eggplant, celery, zucchini, extra peppers, even a tomato added at the end. It would also be great topped with grated cheese.

Harvest Stuffed Peppers

2 bell peppers that can stand on their ends
2 medium sized potatoes
1/2 white or yellow onion
1 or 2 peeled carrots
1 small or medium sized squash
1/2 to 3/4 cup protein of choice: left over diced ham is in the picture, but eggplant, eggs, ground beef or sausage works great too.
Fresh torn basil – to taste
Salt & pepper
2 TBS olive oil

Cut the tops off of the peppers, remove seeds and ribs and set peppers aside. Chop all other ingredients into a 1/4-inch dice. In a 12-inch skillet with a lid heat olive oil; add potatoes, onions and carrots. Season well with salt and pepper. Put on lid and let cook over medium, stirring to keep from sticking to bottom of the pan, until onions are soft and the potatoes and carrots are on their way to being cooked through.
Add squash (sometimes I add the pepper tops too). Let cook uncovered until potatoes are almost tender, stirring as needed to keep from sticking.
Add cooked meat (or raw eggplant), and basil. Mix well, taste and adjust for seasoning. Scoop mixture (which I call hash) into the peppers. Place peppers in a rimmed pan and bake at 375 until heated through and potatoes are done. They could also be finished on the grill instead of the oven.

This recipe makes enough hash to stuff four peppers (serve four people), but I only stuff two for Rick and I. The remaining hash gets divided into two portions – one for Henry, and one for Rick’s lunch the next day.  If you want to make it for four, just add two more bell peppers!

8/26/09 Newsletter

Hello Members,
New crops this week are our regular green basil, tomatoes, oblong watermelon, yellow beans, golden beets and green flesh honeydew. In addition to this, you are also getting Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet white onions, summer squash, lemon cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, green peppers, Ivory peppers, carrots and muskmelon.

Jerry and I were discussing the plight of our tomato patch. You know the story that tomatoes appear to grow (or ripen) overnight. We have always known that the temperatures need to be between 65 and 95 degrees for tomatoes to grow, mature and ripen. Nothing has proven this more to us than this summer. Our average nighttime temperatures have been in the high 50's. Our summer highs have been in the 80's. As some of you have observed with your own gardens, the tomato plants are just sitting there waiting patiently for warmer temperatures. They really do grow overnight! When our daytime temperatures are in the high 90's or low 100's, they protect themselves by pushing all their water into the tomatoes. This is why you see splits on tomatoes. At night, when temperatures drop, the plants pull the water from the fruit into the plant for nourishment & growth, allowing the tomato to ripen. When the temperatures at night are less than 65 degrees, the tomato plants go into a type of hibernation, waiting for warmer temperatures. We are not seeing enough warm days of bright sunshine to make up for the low nighttime temperatures. And the repeated weeks of cool & cloudy or rainy days do not help the situation! We hope to give everyone at least one tomato each. But with today being cloudy and supposedly we are to get rain on Monday and Tuesday, we will see what we have by the end of the week.

I have to laugh when I say this, but we are picking our early tomatoes. Our main season tomatoes are starting to show signs of ripening, but this particular plant comes on earlier than our main season planting. I do not know if there will be any tomatoes for picking by the box, but, I have a feeling that we may have a whole field on at the same time, (if it ever matures)! So let's go ahead and get a list going of those of you who would like to come out and pick tomatoes by the box. When you call in, leave your name and phone number along with how many boxes you are interested in getting. We will either call you and get you scheduled to pick because there is only a few ready. Or we will let you know through the newsletter to call and make an appointment because the whole field is on!

The oblong watermelon you are getting this week is an heirloom called Charleston Gray. This a type of watermelon most of us grew up with when we were kids. Do you remember when Grandma or Mom would come home with a long watermelon instead of the round ones we get today? Hope it is a good one. It is hard to find the seed for oblong watermelon and we would like to add this as one of our staples!

We grow several different kinds of honeydew. This week you are getting a gourmet green fleshed honeydew that should thrill your taste buds! As most of you already know, Jerry has a passion for growing melon, especially watermelon! We hope you will enjoy all the different types, because it sure is fun to grow them!

Have great week!

Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle

Creamed Zuchini Over Pasta

Saute ¼ cup olive oil
Add 5 cups zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
½ cup fresh parsley
3-4 cloves of garlic smashed
1/2 cup fresh basil
1 cup dry white wine
Cook until zucchini is soft. Transfer to a blender and blend with:
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Serve over pasta of your choice.

Working Member submitted

Melon Freeze

Cut up and freeze muskmelon.
Add frozen melon and 1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate to a blender.
Appearance will be of a soft sorbet.
Drink immediately, tastes better while semi-frozen.

Wendy Oldenbrook

Jacquie's Summer Pasta

1 Bell pepper, any color or 2 banana peppers, chopped 1 or 2 tomatoes, chopped
2 Summer squash, any kind 2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion (I prefer white but any will do) your favorite pasta
1 or 2 cloves garlic, smashed then chopped (I use elbow macaroni or bowtie)

Bring salted water to a boil and add your favorite pasta and cook according to the directions on the box. Saute onion and bell peppers for 2 minutes in oil. Add squash, garlic & tomato. Cook until squash is soft & tomato has broken down. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.
Options:
Can add basil, dill or hot peppers to give it a different taste or some kick!

Eggplant!

How incredible is this week's share!??! So pretty with those pale green banana peppers, vivid watermelons, and gorgeous eggplant!

Last year when we got eggplant in our share, we weren't quite sure what to do with it. The only way I'd ever seen it prepared was in eggplant Parmesan. I needed options people!

So I started researching a few recipes. One of the best I've found was called 'Whole-Wheat Pasta with Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes' from the Great Food Fast cookbook by Everyday Food. I've made it quite a few times and come up with this variation. It's my husband's favorite way to eat purple food!

1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
2 cups cherry tomatoes, or a few Roma tomatoes roughly chopped
2 small or 1 large zucchini, sliced into bite-sized pieces
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 lb whole-wheat penne pasta
2-3 TBS capers (to taste)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 450. In a medium 9x13 pan, combine the eggplant, onion, tomatoes, zucchini, and oil; Season with salt and pepper, to taste; toss well to coat. Roast about 30 minutes, tossing mixture halfway through.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to the package instructions - do not over cook. Reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water; drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
3. Add the roasted eggplant mixture, capers, and Parmesan. Toss to coat, add the reserved pasta water, if desired to make a sauce. Serve immediately, sprinkled with more cheese.

Serves 4-6. Total time: 45 minutes.

What about you? How do you enjoy your eggplant?

7/12/09 Newsletter

Dear Members,

This week you will be getting new red potatoes, sweet white onions, garlic, red beets, broccoli, cucumber, Q-ball squash, zucchini, yellow squash and green beans. Yea! The beans are on! Now it really does feel like summer! If you are looking for a new way to serve your squash, try this: Q-ball squash is a very mild zucchini. It will take on the taste of any marinade you love or grill it with olive oil, salt and pepper. It is mostly known for stuffing. Take off the top, scoop out the seed cavity and fill with your favorite stuffing. Try a bread stuffing, sausage stuffing or a rice stuffing. (You can do this with regular zucchini, (cut lengthwise) too.) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cut in half and serve.

Our white Sweet Spanish onions are great for eating raw and for cooking. The Walla Walla are so sweet, they lose their entire flavor when cooked. But the white onions have a wonderful taste and will caramelize marvelously! I add them to my beans with (frozen) red peppers. It is a beautiful dish to serve to guests too!

After seeing the crazy weather we were having this spring, Jerry decided to plant carrots into the two cold frames on the farm. You will not get carrots from the fields until late summer…it was just too cold and wet for them to grow very fast. This is why you will only get a few carrots now and then.

We really look forward to the first picking of each and every crop. At our household, we only eat in season. New potatoes just can’t be beat in the spring. And by the time we get green beans, cucumbers and sweet corn; we are desperate for them! The same goes for the carrots and tomatoes in late summer, melons in the early fall and winter squash by late fall! These are just a few of our favorites we look forward too. What are some of your favorites you can hardly wait to get in distribution?

Several of you know my children. Alaina has had eye surgery when she was a child. Due to recent complications, she had a procedure at the beginning of June and will have another Tuesday the 14th. If you belong to a prayer chain, would you add Alaina? If you believe in spirit guides, would you send them our way? We need your prayers and positive thoughts in our direction! I will be unavailable this week to answer any questions you may have. Jessica, my office assistant, will be here on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. She will do her best to help you until I can spend more time in the office. Thank you for being so understanding!

Jacquie, Jerry, Alaina and Kyle Monroe

Mock Apple Pie French Apple Crumb Topping

4 to 4 ½ cups zucchini slices
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp tapioca/flour
½ cup butter
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cornstarch
nuts (optional)

Peel & remove seeds from squash, cut into slices. Blend together until butter is the size of peas. Mix with rest of ingredients. Place into pie crust. Place over pie filling. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or 350 degrees for 55 minutes.