The last several weeks have been full of fun activities and lots of visitors. When I went to the farm yesterday to pick up my share, I allowed myself to sit in an old worn adirondack chair in the backyard and just soak in the sunshine and the scenery. As cars flew by on the road just in front of the farmstand, a field sparrow landed right next to my feet and I was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace and gratitude for this space. In a world that feels hectic, this farm is a piece of home for us here, and I’m forever grateful.

It’s typically around the end of July that I find myself in the kitchen nonstop, full of joy in my heart and flour on my butt. We had family visiting last week, so we ate out more than usual and I have a good chunk of last week’s share still hanging out in my fridge. We have a new fridge coming on Thursday, so my challenge for this week is to clear as much out as possible before then. This morning I’ve already tackled Blueberry Sourdough Muffins, Charred Corn Crepes, and Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

You’ll notice I didn’t include any preserving notes this week. I’ll include a big section on preserving next week, to help you store all that squash and cucumber that I know is beginning to roll in. For now, I hope you’ll spend the week enjoying the food on your counters. I know I am!

Summer Week 5: What’s in Season

carrots (with greens), zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan squash, kale, lettuce, pickling cucumbers, salad cucumbers, cauliflower, corn, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, beets

Meal Ideas for the Week

Breakfasts

I’m going to try out these Lemon squash muffins this week. I think they’d be a great quick breakfast or a snack to go.

I used some blueberries and some throwaway sourdough starter to make these Blueberry Sourdough Muffins this morning. I love the addition of cornmeal and these will be great to pop into kiddo lunchboxes.

We also made these Charred Corn Crepes this morning and I have to say they are my new favorite crepe recipe. I may have them every Saturday between now and the end of corn season. I filled one with zucchini butter and leftover charred corn from last night’s tacos. David put eggs and cheese in his. The girls had nutella in theirs. You really can’t go wrong with anything in a crepe.

Lunches

We ate out entirely too much last week so the lettuce in my fridge is multiplying. It’s basically going to be nothing but salad for lunch this week. And considering we got 26 cucumbers in yesterday’s pickup, there won’t be a meal without a cucumber on the side this week. Maybe I’ll make some tiny cucumber sandwiches and throw a tea party!

I do want to make this Corn Bacon Hash for Sunday brunch after church tomorrow while we still have a few ears of fresh corn in the fridge.

Dinners

I made very few of the meals I had planned for last week, which made my meal planning super easy for this week. Tonight we’re having this Grilled Chicken Salad with Tarragon. I made the dressing and pesto weeks ago when I had fresh tarragon and parsley and threw it in the freezer. I’m so excited to finally eat it tonight.

Tomorrow we have vegetarian friends coming over, so I’m going to make Buffalo Cauliflower and Carrot Fries. The likelihood of the kids eating that is very small, so I’m going to make these zucchini fritters too.

Our week is busy with kid activities, so I’m trying to plan fast and easy meals. This Spaghetti with Zucchini Butter looks fantastic, and super easy to throw together quickly. I’ll spend some time tomorrow making pasta with my carrot greens.

Sheet pan meals have become one of my favorite things, so I think I’ll try this Sheet Pan Chicken with Cauliflower and Carrots.

Pattypan squash is perfect for stuffing. These Chicken Enchilada Squash look so good. And since I haven’t made this Herb-Squash Pasta Bake yet, I’ll put it on the plan for later in the week.

Snacks & Treats

I made a double batch of this Zucchini Chocolate Cake. One to eat now, and one to put in the freezer for winter. It is a favorite, and I don’t think I can ever have too much of it.

I want to try this Carrot Hummus this week and see if my kids will eat it the way they eat store-bought hummus. I have tried hummus recipes before but so far, they only like what we buy at the store.

This radish dip is one of my favorite snacks of all time. I half the amount of garlic and add some basil. We have some friends coming this afternoon and will put it out with a veggie plate and some crackers.

Happy summer eating my friends!

Summer has arrived in New England and the heat is here to stay for a while. I must have finally adapted to New England weather because the daily temperatures we’ve been seeing in the 90s feel oppressively hot. By the end of next week, we’ll have already reached our average number of 90-days for the summer—and summer has only gotten started. I’m giving thanks for the little backyard pool we splurged on earlier in the year, and a house with air conditioning to keep us cool. And I know colder temperatures always come before I’m ready for them, so I’m grateful for the summer crops that are here to keep us company for a while.

I donned my Grandma’s apron this week and dug the canner out of the basement. We’ve reached that time of year when there are not many days that go by without needing to can something or blanch and freeze. It is so much work, but it is one of my favorite parts of summer. I canned Strawberry Syrup, Pickled Golden Beets, and Rhubarb Chutney. I made pasta from beet greens and pesto from kale stems and called it “Compost Dinner.” I made Cheesy Kale Scones. I blanched peas, beet greens, broccoli and garlic scapes. On the horizon for this week is a small batch of Strawberry Jam.

It must be CSA season!

Summer Week 2

3 quarts strawberries
3 heads lettuce
1 bunch rainbow swiss chard
1 bunch Golden Sugar Beets (with their greens)
1 bunch Red Sugar Beets (with their greens)
1 bunch curly kale
2 bags snow peas
2 bags sugar snap peas
4 broccoli crowns
1 bunch garlic scapes (plus a few more sad unloved ones from the swap table)
3 yellow squash (from the swap table)
2 zucchini (from the swap table)

From the Farmstand

1 small yellow onion
2 sweet onions
2 Spanish onions
4 misfit broccoli crowns
1 bunch of misfit celery
2 small zucchini
1 head of lettuce (I know what you’re thinking … “because 3 isn’t enough?”)
2 tomatoes

Recipes to Try

Strawberries

This was an abysmal year for strawberries in New England. Between last year’s drought and this year’s heat, strawberry crops really struggled. We are thankful for the 12 quarts of strawberries we’ve gotten over the last three weeks, and have put them to good use. Here are my favorite ways to use strawberries, if you are lucky enough to find a flat or two.

Lettuce

I have been saving this recipe for the week that Bibb lettuce and broccoli appeared at the same time. David has declared it to be his favorite salad, and that, my friends, is high praise. Maybe he will turn into a salad lover after all.

Last night we had friends over for a Taco salad Buffet. I turned my counter into a salad bar and put out lettuce, shredded taco chicken, black beans, roasted beets, sautéed squash with garlic scapes, salsa, guacamole, cotija cheese, Monterrey Jack cheese, pickled jalapeños, tortilla chips, and street taco shells. It was so fun, and the salads turned out amazing.

Last week I made a bacon egg and cheese salad for breakfast. It was better than a bacon egg and cheese sandwich, and I love a good breakfast sandwich. One day I’ll create a recipe, but it’s basically as easy as it sounds. Start with a bed of lettuce, topped with cooked bacon, some shredded cheddar cheese, and a fried egg (cooked however you like). I used a bit of honey mustard dressing. David used his runny egg yolk as dressing.

Swiss Chard

The first Chard of the year always means Green Treats on the menu! These are so good and they are so filling you don’t need much else for dinner. Except for a small salad of course, because there’s too much lettuce to not have a salad every day.

Beets

I think I’ve told you before that I hate beets. I’ve tried so many ways to like them, but have never been able to get past the dirt taste they leave in my mouth. But y’all. I made these Easy Roasted Beets last night for my Taco buffet, and they were incredible. They tasted like candy. I don’t know if it’s how I cooked them or where they’re grown—Farmer Jamie seriously had the best produce I’ve ever tasted—but I am now a beet lover. Or at least a Farmer Jamie’s beet lover.

I may get really brave and try something like this Raw Beet Salad this week. Or this one, with lettuce instead of arugula.

My favorite way to use beets is to juice them. We found a juicer at a thrift store a couple of years ago and it has been an excellent addition to our kitchen. I haven’t learned how to use it, so I pile all the things I don’t want to eat in a bowl and make David juice it for me. My favorite is beet, kale greens, apple, and ginger. It’s a true breakfast of champions!

And here’s your weekly reminder to not compost the greens! Blanch them in boiling water for 3 minutes, put them immediately in ice water for 3 minutes, then squeeze out as much water as possible before freezing. You’ll be so grateful for their presence come Winter.

Curly Kale

Curly kale is my favorite type of kale. I love to make a Massaged Kale Salad. It feels heartier than a lettuce salad and holds up really well for picnics.

If you’ve been reading my Monthly Newsletter for a while, you know how much I love Smitten Kitchen’s Flipped Crispy Egg Taco with Singed Greens. This is my favorite breakfast of all time and I’m thrilled to have curly kale in the house once again. (Shameless plug - June’s newsletter will go out early next week, so take a minute to signup so you don’t miss it!)

These Cheesy Kale Scones are another fun breakfast. It is a huge recipe and makes very big scones as written. I made much smaller scones this time around, making 4 small balls of dough and cutting them each into 8 triangles. We ate 6 of them, I brought 4 to a friend, and the rest went into the freezer. I think scones taste best freshly baked, so I freeze them before baking. I put them on a parchment-lined sheet pan and freeze them overnight, then I put them in a ziplock freezer baggie and return them to the freezer. It’s super easy to grab a few and bake when I’m ready for them.

Dare I say Kale is my favorite breakfast food?

Snow peas/Sugar Snap Peas

Fresh peas get eaten incredibly fast in my house. They are my kids’ favorite snack in early summer. I often don’t get to cook them or save any for winter, so I immediately blanched an entire bag of snow peas when I brought them home. They are a wonderful addition to Stir-Fry or Mongolian Beef, and I wanted a few hiding away for winter meals.

I want to make these Sesame Snow Peas this week. Maybe I’ll make Beef & Broccoli to go with them.

Garlic scapes

Garlic scapes are such a fun sign of summer. The garlic scape is the stem and flower bud of the hardneck garlic plant. Farmers harvest them not only because they are great to eat, but also because it helps the garlic bulb grow bigger. When the scape isn’t harvested, the plant sends all its energy into creating the flower and seeds and the bulb doesn’t grow as much. Garlic is one of those incredible plants that feeds us twice—once with the scape and twice with the bulb itself. This list of how to use them is pretty helpful. I love to grill them with romaine lettuce and top it with grilled shrimp or fish. This week I blanched half of ours for just 30 seconds and froze them to use instead of green beans in pot pie later in the year. Garlic scape compound butter is another fun way to save them for later.

Broccoli

I adore broccoli season and can never get enough broccoli. I’m always sad when I hear people say they don’t like it. It’s the first vegetable we run out of in our freezer stash each year, so I always blanch and freeze as much as I can. These Broccoli Fritters are a huge hit in our house and can be made with fresh or frozen broccoli. Just thaw and drain the frozen broccoli first.

This Charred Broccoli Salad is one of my favorite ways to use fresh broccoli. I like to eat it warm, but I think it would save well for a cold lunch too.

And when I have provolone cheese hiding in my fridge and an old loaf of bread needing to be used, I make these Broccoli Melts.

Yellow Squash/Zucchini

These were not in my regular Super Share this week, but there were some less than perfect ones in the Swap Box, so I grabbed them. I sauteed the Yellow squash at super high heat with some barely blanched garlic scapes and an onion leftover from cooking beans earlier in the week. I sprinkled some salt and pepper and Arizona Dreaming on top and it was an incredible addition to the Taco Buffet.

Squash and Zucchini make a very big appearance in Summer, so there’s lots of time to share my favorite recipes with you. I’ve been craving these Zucchini Taco Boats, so that’s how I’ll use zucchini this week. I use ground beef because we get it in our Meat Share.

Now—who’s ready to eat after reading all that?! What will you make this week?