One Local Summer: Week Eight

We've been impatiently waiting for our tomatoes to ripen. Since we don't have a lot of space to dedicate to vegetable gardening, we have to be very selective about what we grow. This year we decided to specialize; we planted only tomatoes. And this week we were finally able to enjoy our first harvest. The beauty of a fresh-from-the-vine tomato is that it requires so little fuss. Perfect for us as our newborn requires much fuss.

Our CSA provided the basil, garlic and onions. The pasta was locally made. And the tomatoes are all ours. It simply doesn't get any better than fresh sauce.

One Local Summer: Week Seven

This is actually our meal from week six. The explanation for my delayed post and lack of week-seven meal will follow. First let me start with the food. We were pleased to see that we were able to "localize" one of our favorite pork recipes. The chops (courtesy of Simply Grazin' Farm again) are rubbed with (non-local) fennel seeds, salt and pepper. Grilled. Then served with a vinaigrette made from pureed green onions, honey, sage, lemon juice and olive oil. Aside from the lemon juice and olive oil, all the other ingredients were Jersey fresh. Patty pan squash and red potatoes from our CSA rounded out the meal.

This was a meal that turned out to be the calm before the storm. Just a few hours after enjoying it, I proceeded to go into labor (one week early!). Our baby daughter was born the next evening. Our new life hasn't much room for blogging let alone full-on local meals. However, we're still enjoying as much fresh-from the farm produce as we can, when we can find the time to stop and eat!



Get a taste of what others are cooking up locally. . .

Gone Fishing

Metaphorically speaking.
With our first tomato harvest in, I'm happily plotting a week's worth of meals from tomato sandwiches to fresh-from-the-vine sauce spiked with basil to whatever else we dream up.
Hard to believe we went from saving seeds from last year's harvest to planting seeds in the greenhouse to transplanting seedlings to the garden to this.