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Pesto for the Apocalypse
Aug. 20th, 2010 09:35 amI haven’t talked much this year about our CSA. Last year was the first time we tried Driftless Organics and I was an instant convert. In fact, I loved it so much that instead of the half share we bought last year, this year we went with full.
And then the rains came. According to the weekly newsletter, it’s been as wet in south central Wisconsin as it has been here.
Thus, we haven’t gotten a lot of produce to write home about, honestly. We’ve gotten some pretty good sweet corn, a few awe inspiring tomatoes (especially considering I never used to eat tomatoes at all, much less sliced raw), kale, collard greens, a sad little eggplant that I cherished as I ate, and a lot of the same: broccoli, carrots, zucchini and cucumbers. I’ve been finding new and unusual ways to use the stuff we see a ton of, but, well, by this time last year we’d tried a whole bunch of veggies I'd never even heard of and I was never bored by anything. Now I think I’ll puke if I see another cucumber (and I LOVE cucumbers.)
But the one thing that we’ve been really enjoying is that for some reason, our farmers are having a bumper crop of basil. Basil has showed up as a “bonus item” (washed, but unbagged and separate from the box but there for the taking at the pick-up point) at least three times so far. Shawn found a recipe for freezer pesto and has been making up batch after batch to store in the freezer. I teased her last night that if the apocalypse comes, we’re set on pesto. We may die from lack of clean water or proper sewage, but damn, we’ll have some fine pesto to eat!
If it stays cool, I’ll have to bake up some of my famous French bread. Some years ago (erm, maybe more like a decade or more,) I perfected a recipe I found in, of all places, the Taste section of the Star Tribune. I even bought the curved, elongated baking pans for the bread, so that it doesn’t flatten out. It’s become one of those things that I can mostly count on when planning a meal. (I say mostly because you know bread, sometimes cool/humid weather affects it differently.)
Anyway, our house STILL smells of fresh cut basil and garlic. It’s lovely.
The other thing we got this year that I took full advantage of was the tomatillos. I followed the directions sent along with the CSA newsletter and made a really lovely salsa verde. I roasted the tomatillos along with jalapenos and garlic and an onion in the oven at high temps. The result was a salsa with a lot of heat and the hint of a smoky-flavor. If I do say so myself, it’s really, really good.
Now I just have to figure out what to do with all the greens they keep sending!
And then the rains came. According to the weekly newsletter, it’s been as wet in south central Wisconsin as it has been here.
Thus, we haven’t gotten a lot of produce to write home about, honestly. We’ve gotten some pretty good sweet corn, a few awe inspiring tomatoes (especially considering I never used to eat tomatoes at all, much less sliced raw), kale, collard greens, a sad little eggplant that I cherished as I ate, and a lot of the same: broccoli, carrots, zucchini and cucumbers. I’ve been finding new and unusual ways to use the stuff we see a ton of, but, well, by this time last year we’d tried a whole bunch of veggies I'd never even heard of and I was never bored by anything. Now I think I’ll puke if I see another cucumber (and I LOVE cucumbers.)
But the one thing that we’ve been really enjoying is that for some reason, our farmers are having a bumper crop of basil. Basil has showed up as a “bonus item” (washed, but unbagged and separate from the box but there for the taking at the pick-up point) at least three times so far. Shawn found a recipe for freezer pesto and has been making up batch after batch to store in the freezer. I teased her last night that if the apocalypse comes, we’re set on pesto. We may die from lack of clean water or proper sewage, but damn, we’ll have some fine pesto to eat!
If it stays cool, I’ll have to bake up some of my famous French bread. Some years ago (erm, maybe more like a decade or more,) I perfected a recipe I found in, of all places, the Taste section of the Star Tribune. I even bought the curved, elongated baking pans for the bread, so that it doesn’t flatten out. It’s become one of those things that I can mostly count on when planning a meal. (I say mostly because you know bread, sometimes cool/humid weather affects it differently.)
Anyway, our house STILL smells of fresh cut basil and garlic. It’s lovely.
The other thing we got this year that I took full advantage of was the tomatillos. I followed the directions sent along with the CSA newsletter and made a really lovely salsa verde. I roasted the tomatillos along with jalapenos and garlic and an onion in the oven at high temps. The result was a salsa with a lot of heat and the hint of a smoky-flavor. If I do say so myself, it’s really, really good.
Now I just have to figure out what to do with all the greens they keep sending!