Farm Blog: August 12 or 15

Cyril sampling the honey from the extractor

Small boxes: 1 pint edamame, 1 pint juliet roma tomatoes, 1 pound bell peppers, 2 pounds beets, 1 garlic, 1/2 pound cipollini onions, aji dulce peppers.
Regular boxes: 1 pint edamame, 2 pints juliet romas, 1 pound bell peppers, 2 pounds beets, 2 garlic, 1/2 pound cipollini and 1/2 pound sweet onion, 1 pineapple-bi color tomato, 1 canteloupe, aji dulce peppers.

Storage: edamame, beeets, onions in refrigerator. Garlic, peppers, tomatoes on counter. Canteloupe, eat within 2 days.

Pineapple bicolor tomatoes, because of their size, split even before fully ripe. They are still good to eat! You may want to keep it in your fridge if you're not going to eat it right away so the fruit flies don't find it.

The kids and Aunt Renee and I had a monumental experience Monday of extracting honey made by bees living here on our farm. It was really cool to be part of the process and never would have happened without the great mentoring of Dave Cowart. We got 2 gallons. Maybe we'll be able to keep them healthy thru the winter and harvest enough honey to put in the csa next year!

Aji dulce peppers look like habaneros but are different. They have very little to no heat and a very fruity flavor.

Edamame needs to be washed before cooking. To cook, get 3 cups of water boiling and pour the washed edamame into boiling water and let cook 5 to 10 minutes. Strain and salt to taste. To eat, break open the pod with your teeth and eat the beans inside. Discard the pods.

Try oven roasting your beets. If you got big beets, cut them in quarters. Smaller beets can be roasted whole. I toss them in a little oil, salt, and pepper and roast in 450 degree oven until tender (20 to 30 minutes). We like to put 1 T of horseradish in 1/2 cup sour cream and dip the roasted beets in that.

Following is a favorite recipe here at the farm. A women named Gabriel who worked with us here in 2009 got this recipe from her Mom.

Tomato upside down Cornbread
Heat oven to 400
Slice and have ready: 1 large tomato or several romas in 1/4 inch thick rounds
In a cast iron skillet on low:
heat 3 T olive oil and saute 1 1/2 tsp oregano, 2 cloves garlic sliced thinly, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper
While above ingredients slowly saute, Mix:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose or whole wheat flour (I've also made it with 2 cups cornmeal and no flour)
1 T honey
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 to 2 aji dulce peppers or 1 bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 onion, diced
1/2 tsp oregano
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup olive oil or 1 stick of butter, melted

over the ingredients in the hot skillet place the tomato slices and then pour the batter over
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Check at 25 minutes to see if the center is cracking slightly(remove from oven) or still wet(let bake a few minutes more).
Use a knife to loosen the bread from edges of the skillet and turn upside down on a plate or cutting board.

we eat this warm from the oven, cooled off, or reheated in the skillet for breakfast the next day.