I left my (one) zucchini plant alone for two weeks, and this is what I got:

Zukes

My experience with large zucchini is that they tend to the bitter, but I plan to either grill these (lightly coated in olive oil) or shred and freeze them for zucchini bread.

Here is my mushroom patch. It is in the rubbermaid bin to keep spores from dirtying the carpet. The mister bottle is to the right. The plastic beyond the mister bottle is a humidity tent, and the skewers in the patch help hold the tent up. You can see a new mushroom at the right of the far end of the patch.

Here is one shiitake mushroom that I clipped from the patch.

The kit came with a number of recipes, but so far I've just been sauteeing the mushrooms in a bit of oil or butter. It's delicious.

I have read that the stems get too tough for cooking, so I boil the stems for soup stock. I then freeze the stock for future use.

Here’s my shitake cooking recipe so far.

Ingredients

• fresh shiitake mushrooms
• oil or butter

Directions

• Wash the mushrooms
• Cut off their stalks, save for boiling in water to make soup stock
• Slice caps in half, then cut into sections
• Heat oil or butter in pan on medium-low
• Add mushrooms
• Sautee until done.  The color will change and they will cook down.
• Serve hot

Mmmmmmm…..

I did learn that tomatoes will ripen in your house just as easily as on the vine. The taste is not quite as good, but still far superior to store bought tomatoes.

I ended up with about 6 boxes of tomatoes and have been enjoying them since.

They even were escaping from the plastic bag:

The first thing I did was stop by some cherry trees I’d noticed earlier in the week on a bike ride. I’d talked to the residents and they’d said I could grab as many cherries as I wanted. These were not as sweet or as big as cherries you’d get from the store, but still very edible.

After that, I got a cherry pitter and some scissors. I took the scissors to my garden and cut most of my normal basil (I have some cinnamon basil with which I’m still trying to figure out something to do). I made pesto:

• basil (stems are fine as long as you can chew them)
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• pine nuts

Stick it all in the food processor, chop it up and pesto you have! I forgot to put in some garlic, but it was still pretty good. You can see I only got about a 1/2 pint, but now it is in the freezer for some winter day when I want to spread it on toast.

After that, I made breakfast from some things I’d gotten from the CSA. This is stir fried zuchinni and onions, with some chard remnants tossed in at the end.

For lunch, I made pizza-dillas.

• tomato sauce
• shredded cheese
• dried salami
• tortillas

Place all ingredients on tortilla, heat in toaster oven until cheese is melted. Mmmmm.

I also tried a recipe from the CSA handout–baked kale:

• kale
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees wash the kale. Remove the stems. Mix enough olive oil with kale in bowl to coat kale lightly.  Spread kale on a ungreased baking dish. Make sure that the kale is only one level thick–I burned my kale because I put too much in it (some pieces were not crispy, so I left it in too long). Stick it in the oven, checking every 3-5 minutes for crispiness. At the end, it tastes a bit like a healthy potato chip. My SO suggested mixing the kale with bacon, which would of course make it taste better.

And finally, I pitted all the cherries. Originally, I was planning to dry them, but laziness got the better of me and I stuck them in jars in the freezer, to be enjoyed in a pie or on ice cream in the future.

What a day!

Ingredients

• 2-3 T flour
• 1 lb eggplant
• 3 egg whites
• 3 T milk
• 6 pieces of dry bread
• butter
• 1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
• 1 1/2 c (6 oz) mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Add flour to zip lock bag.
3. Slice eggplant in 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices.
4. Put slices in plastic bag with flour and shake to cover.
5. Mix the egg whites and milk in a bowl with a fork.
6. Break bread into small pieces.
7. Dip flour covered eggplant into egg mixture and then into bread crumbs.
8. Place slices on a cooking sheet covered with aluminum and slightly buttered.
9. Bake 13 minutes or until eggplant is tender.
10. Reduce oven temperature to 350.
11. Butter a 13×9x2 baking dish.
12. Place about half the eggplant on the bottom of the dish.
13. Cover with about half the spaghetti sauce (it doesn’t have to be perfectly distributed, as it will run) and half the mozarella cheese.
14. Place the rest of the eggplant on the dish.
15. Cover with the remainder of the sauce and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with as much parmesan as you like.
16. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes for a crispy top.

Serves 2 with leftovers, 4 with side dishes.

I went through Canon City a few weeks ago and picked up some DiNardo’s juice. This is a little shop off Highway 50 in Canon City and it’s worth stopping by ((719) 275-2727 is their number if you want more info). I was camping down there last October and a friend wanted to get some raw apple cider that he could ferment. The store is great–run by two old men and full of odds and ends. Your focus should definitely be the juice, though. They sell unpasteurized apple cider (in season), as well as pasteurized apple cider and other juices. I thought cherry delight was my favorite until I tried the strawberry juice. It’s so sweet I usually cut it in half with water. None of the juice is ‘organic’ but all the ingredients would be recognized by your great-great-grandmother.

A side benefit of buying the juice is you can use the jugs as containers for bulk foods. Whole Foods and Wild Oats will both weigh the jug and subtract that from the weight of your bulk food–it’s called tare; I’m not sure about other stores. I ended up making a funnel from an old milk carton to assist putting lentils, rice, etc, into the jars. How much popcorn do I need?

Well worth a taste if you ever are in Indiana. Alternatively, the candy makers have an online presence.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 lemon
• 1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans
• olive oil
• salt

Directions:

1. Remove garlic skin.
2. Add garlic, splash or three of olive oil and beans to food processor.
3. Squeeze lemon juice out of lemon and add to processor.
4. Puree.
5. Add more oil if needed, scraping off food processor sides to make sure all the beans and garlic are pureed.
6. Add salt to taste.

Serve with warmed slice pita bread or quartered carrots.