Pears and Cider – Ohio Farm Share Week 16

Pears and Cider appeared in our NE Ohio Farm Share in Week 16, along with a variety of large fruit and vegetables. I had thought our farm share would be much less this week so I went by myself to pick it up. Wow — that bag was heavy! I ended up dividing it into two bags to get it into the house, along with a 1/2 bushel box of San Marzano Tomatoes. So surprising!

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

Lettuce, leaf – 1 head
Cider – 2 Quarts
Spaghetti Squash – 1
Watermelon – 1
Peppers – Cherry Bomb – 8
Eggplant – 2
Zucchini – 2
Beets – Golden – 2
Pears – 6
Tomatoes – San Marzano – 8
tomatoes – cherry – 1 pint

My half of the Vegetarian small share this week (above photo) and what’s left since Thursday, September 17…

Lettuce, leaf – 1/2 head – This spoiled really fast so I ended up throwing it away. I pulled off the outside leaves for my half of the share, washed it and then promptly forgot to spin it dry or pat it dry before bagging it and putting it in the refrigerator. My mom’s half is doing great so I now know I can’t do that and expect it to last.
Cider – 1 Quart — we haven’t tasted this yet because we’ve been running most of the weekend.
Spaghetti Squash – 1/2 — I want to bake this and try it with the roasted tomatoes.
Watermelon – 1/2 – I used 1/4 of this in a fruit salad for a picnic.
Peppers – Cherry Bomb – 4 — these are way too hot for me so I handed them off to our son to try with a warning of combustion.
Eggplant – 1 – I have a bunch of eggplant recipes I want to try when I get done roasting tomatoes.
Zucchini – 1 – not used yet but a lovely chicken vegetable soup is brewing in my head.
Beets – Golden – 1 – these are really pretty and might actually get me to eat beets! Shhhhh, Mel.
Pears – 3 – 1 used in the fruit salad for the picnic this past weekend. So sweet and delicious.
Tomatoes – Plum – 4 – these were added to my 1/4 bushel of San Marzano for roasting this week
Tomatoes – cherry – 1 pint – Mr. Carnivore will eat these daily for lunch without question. He loves to make a relish tray pile of olives, pickles and tomatoes to go with his sandwich for lunch.

Results…

I used a couple of the apples and the leftover plums with the above watermelon and pears in a fruit salad for a picnic. I bought some strawberries and grapes at our local fresh market to go along with the Ohio produced fruit, but they weren’t near as good as buying fresh-picked. But, when you mix it all together in one bowl, you really don’t notice that the strawberries weren’t as ripe as fresh picked June bearing. I like fruit salad better than the fruits as individuals because the flavors meld and make it super sweet.

I went to our local farmers’ market but didn’t see anything that I couldn’t live without so I left empty handed. That’s a first! I found some yellow wax beans and some green beans at our fresh market for a really good price so I snagged those to freeze some more for winter.

I roasted tomatoes this week and will be roasting some more. The new ceramic pans I bought work beautifully for easy clean up. They scratch super easy so mom suggested I store them in pillowcases to keep them from getting damaged. Great idea, actually. I’m working on a post just about the roasting tomato experiments I’ve done with lots of photos so that’s coming as soon as my project is done. This week we laid the tomatoes out on parchment paper on cookie sheets on the kitchen table because there was no room in the refrigerator and several seemed like they could do with some extra time ripening. Other than a couple of the tomatoes getting a bit wrinkly, I haven’t noticed a big difference with leaving them out so far. I’ll know more when I taste them.

I drug out my dehydrator that was packed away, fully intent on using it for my own garden harvest and discovered that the last time I used it the juice had dribbled into the area where there are wires. I’m not sure how to clean that without getting the wires wet, so that dehydrator may get retired. It’s probably at least 18 years old so I don’t feel bad about replacing it, especially since the newer models have some features I’m really interested in. I have to figure that out this week so I can get our garden harvest preserved as it comes in.

The great fridge clean-out had to occur and I lost a few things that we just didn’t get to in time. I also found some items that were lost in the mayhem of a fully packed fridge that I forgot we had. I feel much more in control of our refrigerator space and ready to start making soups and casseroles very soon. This is the time of year when we get good prices on squash varieties and root vegetables so I’ll be on the lookout for fresh this week to add to my soup storage bin, which is what the veggie drawer in the refrigerator becomes at this time of year.

I hate to see the summer come to an end but I am ready for some crock-pot meals and soups that can celebrate the lazy cook inside of me that comes out to play when the cooler temperatures slow my energy.

I’m super excited about trying some more roasting with my new pans, so maybe the eggplant will be the next adventure after the spaghetti squash.

What about you — what has your fork been up to?

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