farmersmarket365

It’s Friday evening and I am getting ready for market tomorrow.  I do have some things left that will hold up until next week but do need onions, summer squash, tomatoes, maybe some potatoes, peppers, cucumber, eggs, bread, corn of course, and whatever else looks good.  Oh and peaches for eating.

After my last two postings you might have gotten the impression that I came away from the market with a few nice bags of food for the week, and some cucumbers for the pickles, and yes I did.  But being that it is August it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t also come home with a cornucopia of extras for the freezer. So at the end of market I made sure to visit my farmer friends and got some good deals on tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and peppers.  Now keep in mind that I also purchased at full price some of these items earlier- that makes giving me a deal a little easier.  What you might not realize is that summer veggies are picked the day before the market so that what you get is at its peak of ripeness.  Most of what you get in the grocery store (with the exception of really local food they might carry) is picked well before it is ripe to minimize damage and loss of product while in transit.  Last Saturday it rained early and then threatened to return remained strong,  this keeps the faint of heart at home thus reducing the number of people who normally visit the market.  Now unless the farmer has another market in a day or two after picking he or she has to unload what they have.  My advice is to think twice about staying home in bad weather-show up at the end of the market and you will be rewarded.

I arrived home with bags full of good stuff and had lots of work to do.  I can usually wait a day before processing but do need to be sure my veggies are in a good place.  I could leave the cucumbers and eggplant in their bags, the peaches though needed to be put in a single layer on the counter.  I have some inexpensive netted coverings that I put over the peaches to keep the fruit flies at bay.  The tomatoes were next; I placed them on trays and put them on the bench in the mud room.  When I have too many, I’ll set up a table in the garage and leave them there. The peppers, I did up right away as they were easy.  You already know what I did with the cucumbers, so here is the “rest of the story”.

Peppers:  The green and yellow sweet peppers were beautiful this week.  When picking them from the market they will be different sizes and rarely will they be as big and perfect as they are in the store.  To process them this week I focused on the cut and freeze method.  This gives me peppers to use later on in soups, stir fry, frittata and pizzas.  They don’t retain their crispness when thawed but that isn’t important to me.  Some people blanch them before freezing but I find that I end up with a layer of ice on the peppers in the freezer- not something I like, but if that is what you want to do go for it.  I cut out the seeds and ribs from the peppers and then chopped them into smallish pieces.  To freeze them I first put them on sheet pans, single layer, and when they freeze they are transferred to a freezer bag.  Later on when I am making a soup or egg dish I can scoop out what I need.   At this point I don’t mind putting the different colors in the same bag but generally I will keep sweet and hot pepper separated.  Stay tuned for further posts on roasting, red pepper relish and what I do with hot peppers.

Corn:  I did get my usual dozen ears and blanched 4 for the freezer.  I also used the ears to make some stock as I am thinking soup in the next week.

Peaches:  I have to say I am becoming a white peach convert.  They really have been much more to my liking this year.  So I came home with a bag of each, white and yellow, with intentions of eating them all.  However, on Monday the kitchen was filled with the wonderful smell of peaches.  As nice as this is it also means they are ready NOW.   I could see the fruit flies ready to descend and munch on the wonderful sugars in the fuzzy fruit and I had to act quickly much to their disappointment.  I separated them into two groups, the really ripe and the ripe.  The ripe ones I cut up and placed in the fridge for toppings on cereal and for desert.  A bowl of peaches with a bit of almond milk after dinner is a wonderful way to end a meal.  The really ripe peaches, some of which already had rotten spots on them, I cut up for freezing.  I also took about 2 cups of the fruit and mashed it for the next time I make peach ice cream.  I could also use it in a smoothie.

Eggplant:  There are so many different types of eggplants  but I am a traditionalist and like what most of us think of as an egg plant.  This is a funny vegetable to freeze because it is hard to do so without cooking it in some way.  You will see that I use it in a lot of roasted vegetable dishes, eggplant campanada, etc.  I used these to make a stash of baked, breaded eggplant.  After baking these get wrapped and frozen for use later on in any type of egg plant parmesan or casserole.  Now I am not opposed to pan frying them in a skillet, but I had so many that that would have taken much longer and the baking produces almost the same effect.

• Cut  ¼ inch slices of eggplant; I keep the skin on but that is a personal preference.
• Place the slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet. I also place my cooling racks on the sheet to help with the water removal.
• Salt the egg plant, leave out for about 30 min. *
• After a period of time, use a paper towel to dab off the water.
• Fix up three dredging plates: flour, egg, bread crumbs.  Be sure after the flour and then eggs that you shake off the excess.  As for the crumbs, I use my own and don’t worry about seasoning because I will do that when I use them.
• Place the slices on a baking sheet that has been smeared with olive oil and garlic. When I start this process I will usually infuse the minced garlic in the oil while waiting for the eggplant to be ready.  Drizzle a bit more olive oil over the eggplant so it doesn’t dry out. *
• The oven is set at 375F and I cook them until brown, about 20 min.  Half way through the process I’ll turn them.
• Let cool and then wrap in waxed or parchment paper and place in a freezer bag.

Tomato: With so many other foods to work on I kept my tomato processing simple.  These were firm tomatoes and I knew I had some time, but always watch tomatoes as when one begins to go bad the other decide to follow.  I chose to freeze these as chopped tomatoes and did not remove the skin.  I actually don’t mind the skins so unless I have the time I just chop. I also chose to roast half of them.

Chopping tomatoes:

• I use a melon baller to remove the stem end of the tomato.
• Cut the tomatoes in half and before chopping I take out some of the water and the seeds by squeezing the tomato into a bowl.  You should be left with lots of flesh.  I do want to use the juice later; also this process doesn’t have to be perfect.
• Chop the tomatoes into the size pieces you want and place in freezer bags.  I don’t over fill the bags because I want them to lay flat in the freezer.

Roasting tomatoes:

• Prepare the tomatoes as directed above but once chopped I put them on a sheet pan.
• Drizzle a bit of blueberry balsamic vinegar and olive oil and add some fresh oregano.
• Place in a 375 F oven for about 30 min.  Stir them around every so often.
• Let cool and place in freezer bags.

One of the things about tomatoes is that I make use of just about everything.  With the tomatoes in the freezer, I can now tend to the juice.  I pour all the juice and seeds I collected into a colander nested in a collecting bowl.  Using the back of a wooden spoon I squeeze as much liquid as I can, or want to, through to the bowl.  If I get really picky I’ll then strain that through a smaller sieve.  I freeze some of this as stock for soups but I also freeze some in muffin pans.  Once frozen, I will remove the “tomato cubes” and place in freezer bags to be used when I only need about a cup of stock like for cooking rice or quinoa.

The seeds and left over pulp became worm food in the compost.  I have processed the seeds to grow for next year, but not this time.  It is a bit involved and if you are interested, here is a site that explains the process.  http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html  The only thing I would say about these instructions is that when fermenting they do smell and you will get fruit flies.  I put mine in the garage.

Whew, that’s about it for this week, now back to the market for another adventure.

Notes

• There are some who think that salting is unnecessary and I actually only do it when I bread the eggplant.  What I have read is that larger eggplants have the brown seeds that can be bitter and that smaller eggplants don’t have this feature.  In this case I don’t want the eggplant to be soggy so I salt.  You can make your own decision.
• Baking eggplant means that you reduce some of the fat you get by pan frying them.  You can reduce it even more if you coat the pan and then the top of the eggplant with cooking spray.

Take Home info

• Use the weather to your advantage
• It is easier to get a deal on bulk items if you also pay full price for other things.
• Freezing does take time but you can spread it out if you give the produce a happy place to be.
• Be mindful of when you have run out of time, don’t let the fruit flies get the upper wing.