Pasta and Picnics – Farm Share Week 11

We had a great time with pasta and picnics this week, allowing the food received in our Fresh Fork Market farm share to dictate our food intake, plus some friends’ and family’s as well! I’m a week behind in blog posts because I haven’t quite figured out how to devote myself entirely to family adventure for a week and still pop in here to give you some updates. I’ll get it accomplished eventually, as it’s one of my goals, but for now I’ll beg forgiveness and move on to the good stuff!

Our son and his girlfriend came in from out of state for the week so we celebrated by gathering family at picnics, barbecues, the zoo, a train ride to a historical site, book shopping, boating and eating, eating, eating. More posts are coming to give you recipes of some of the dishes we pulled together from the farm share, as well as some travel posts to tell you about some of the great places you can visit in the Akron, Ohio, area, so I hope you enjoy our week-long adventure, too.

This week our small Vegetarian farm share included (above photo)…

Corn – 4 ears
Peppers – 5 Hot Hungarian, 2 Green
Tomatillos – 1 lb.
Tomatoes – 1.5 lbs. – 3 large plus 1 pint of grape
Lettuce – 1 head curly green leaf
Peaches – 1/4 peck
Plums – 2 lbs.
Pasta – fresh fettuccine – 1 pound
Charloe Cheese – 6 oz piece

My half of the Vegetarian small share this week (above photo) and what’s left since Thursday, August 13…

Corn – 2 ears – this was used in a cold Salsa Bean Salad, a recipe I’ll share soon.
Peppers – 3 Hot Hungarian, 1 Green – we used these in the Salsa Bean Salad and in Grilled Peppers and Onions for grilled sausages
Tomatillos – 1/2 lb. – most of these were used in the Salsa Bean Salad, a recipe I’ll share soon.
Tomatoes – 2 large and 1/3 pint of grape – these were used up in the Salsa Bean Salad, veggie salad, sandwiches and with the pasta
Lettuce – 1/2 head curly green leaf – just a little bit left
Peaches – 3 – eaten!
Plums – 1 lb. – we ate about half of these during our travels between 4 of us this week.
Pasta – fresh fettuccine – 1/2 pound – this was amazing from Ohio City Pasta. One half a pound went far enough for 2 meals for 2 people. We will definitely buy more of this – much easier and faster to cook than dry pasta and the taste is much better, too. I’ll share the recipe soon that we used several different ways with 2 different pastas because it’s easily adaptable.
Charloe Cheese – 3 oz piece – oops — haven’t tried this yet!

Added from Fresh Fork Market…

Eggs – 1 dozen – I think we have 4 eggs left out of 2 dozen. Lots of veggie scrambles and french toast for ourselves and our guests.
Butter – 2 lbs – this will last for a few months. We cut off chunks as we need it.
Peaches – 1/4 peck or so – we have just a few of these left. All four of us enjoyed these on our adventures this week. Peaches traveled along with us everywhere and provided a great snack. I’ve come to realize that fresh peaches are one of my favorites!

Added from the Highland Square farm market (above photo)…

Summer Squash — yellow oval fruit – never got to these. Must make something this week with them.
Cilantro – I need to dry or freeze some of this because I won’t use it all but we enjoyed it in the cold Salsa Bean Salad, a recipe I’ll share soon.
Green Beans – 3 quarts – we have 1/2 to 1 quart left. I had originally planned on freezing some beans for winter, but I made a big pot of green beans and ham and onions for our barbecue at our youngest son’s new house that went well with Salmon Burgers and DiRusso’s Turkey Sausages.

RESULTS – This week I really appreciated having a wide variety of food available for our guests without really having to think about it. We went out to dinner a few nights so most of what we used was for the two picnics, breakfast, lunch and then snacks to take along with us. We still have a lot leftover so later this week I’ll be sorting through, along with the additions from week 12 farm share we picked up yesterday and I will give you an update on losses and successes.

One of the things that takes the most getting used to is the fact that there aren’t preservatives or waxes on our produce, so you have to know what to eat first so there aren’t losses. It’s a balance that I’m used to because of harvesting from my own garden, but I have to relearn this every year as the locally fresh vegetables are available. This week we successfully left the plums and peaches out on the counter for a couple days to ripen a bit further, but then quickly refrigerated them so they wouldn’t mold. We had refrigerated the plums and then realized they’d benefit from some further ripening so taking them out, then putting them back in worked great. Thanks for the suggestion, Jasmine! I didn’t want to ruin the whole lot of them by taking them all out, so we experimented with one first to lesson the risk. Also, I have to remember if we have a tomato that has a blemish, to eat that one first over the perfect ones. I lost one tomato because I wasn’t quick enough and it started to mold. We do NOT refrigerate tomatoes — it ruins the taste so the only time they land in the fridge is if they’re going to rot if we don’t refrigerate them or if we have leftovers when we slice one.

I hope you’re eating fresh and learning from our journey!

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