Baba Ganouj

Oil for baking sheet
Eggplant—medium
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup sesame tahini
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper and cayenne to taste
olive oil and parsley for the top
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil the baking sheet.  Halve the eggplant lengthwise and place cut side down on the sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes till very tender. Another alternative is to grill the eggplant for more of a smoky flavor.  Allow to cool then scoop out the pulp and discard the skin.  Process or blend the pulp with the garlic, lemon juice, tahini, salt and pepper.  Puree till smooth or leave it a little chunky.  Transfer to a serving dish, cover tightly, and chill.  To serve, drizzle a little olive oil over the top and sprinkle with minced parsley.   Serve with crackers or cut vegetables.

As the Summer Season comes to an end, we’re looking forward to the Fall season.  It’s not just the change in weather (can we please have some cooler temperatures soon?) but a change in the harvest as well.  You might think that Fall means less variety in the shares, but there’s still plenty to go around. In the next few weeks we’ll be harvesting more tomatoes, okra, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, garlic, beans and corn. As the weather gets even cooler, winter squash and greens will make more of an appearance.

We offer shares in the Fall season as part of our CSA program, and there’s still time to sign up for the season starting on August 10th.  Just head over here to sign up!

If you’ve been a part of our Summer Season, we’d love to hear what your favorite recipes have been.  I made an Eggplant Parmesan the other night that was just amazing. What are you cooking up with your Cane Creek goodies?

I have been  interested in good food and healthy living all my life. I grew up in a family where most of my Aunts were foodies, we just didn’t call them foodies, cause it was the 1970′s and the term hadn’t been invented yet.

One of my very first jobs was for a company called ‘Deep Roots Trading Company’. It was a health food store that produced alphalfa sprouts and mung beans in the garage behind the store for distribution through out the Northeast. It was 1979 and I thought I was really living the ‘Mother Earth News’ lifestyle.

And very close to where I grew up was a farm called ‘Walnut Acres’. Back in the day, it was a local farm that was talking  organic, long before anyone coined the phrase “Green Movement”. Today it is nationally known as an innovator in producing organic foods. I could go on, but my love for farm markets and fresh sliced summer tomatoes is decades old.

So, volunteering at Cane Creek Farm is a natural progression for me. However, you would think that with all this exposure to good food and creative examples on what to do with it, something would have stuck. No such luck… my repertoire of recipes involves a knife and some salt, maybe pepper, but mostly salt. Slice and munch, thats as far as I have gotten in developing my own foodie talents.

So, once I have my share of good food from Cane Creeks weekly distributions. I am alittle perplexed as to what to do next. After all… what does one do with Swiss Chard besides simmer it into submission?? This is where ears become very helpful during the harvests. The group of volunteers that come out to the farm each week is super helpful in sharing their ideas, recipes and experiences. I am learning in leeps and bounds all kinds of things that are helping me create, grow and define my own recipe repertoire.

During one such exchange, a fellow volunteer shared the awesome recipe collection that can be found on Cane Creeks CSA listing on the ‘Local Harvest’ website. If you have not discovered it yet, you must go see the humongous collection of recipes on this site. Just use the link below, all of the produce, meats and products that Cane Creek carries is summarized seasonally for easy reference on this listing. And beside each item is a pencil and recipe card, simple click on the icon and you will be linked to a listing of recipes just for that vegetable!!! Beets for example, have 126 recipes listed!!!

Does it sound like I am having fun?? I really am. One of my most favorite things is a fresh sliced tomatoe, salt and pepper, fresh basil leaves and a little onion on a multi-grain flat bread covered in Mayo, but I now know at least where to find other options when the mood arises!

http://www.localharvest.org/cane-creek-farm-M7815

1 pound of cucumbers, quartered lengthwise
1 cup of white vinegar
1/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of coarse salt
1 tablespoon of fresh dill weed
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

Place cucumbers in your jar or refrigerator container. In a medium saucepan, combine vinegar, 2 cups of water, salt and garlic. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. Add the dill weed.

Pour over the cucumbers in your containers. Use a heavy object on top to keep the cucumbers under the liquid and let cool  for at least 2 hours. Refrigerate. The pickles will keep at least 2 weeks.

Photo credit: kusine

I shouldn’t have been impressed by a carrot. I mean, vegetables are probably one of the more mundane things in life, almost as common as dirt. But there I was, having my socks blown off by a root vegetable (and frankly, by the common dirt I was pulling it from as well.) I couldn’t believe how pretty it was, and how it seemed like a small miracle that this edible thing was sitting right there, underground, waiting for me to find it.

My name is Juliana, and I’m working once or twice a week at the farm in exchange for a CSA share this season. I have no previous gardening experience, aside from some herbs and my innate skill at cultivating weeds in my yard. I came to the farm as someone disillusioned by big agriculture, and out of touch with the real process of growing good food. Because every carrot I had ever gathered myself had been in a plastic bag at the grocery store, I was actually standing there with a fellow volunteer, talking about how amazing it was that these things just come out of the ground.

It sounds silly when I look at it typed out, but I bet I’m not the only one who has felt that way. I’d venture a guess that other members of the Grocery Store Generation (kids whose main experience with food was at a store, not a garden or farm) have had similar feelings of awe and wonder when they truly realize where food comes from.

We care for the soil. We plant seeds. We tend to shoots and tender buds. We watch, and adjust, and harvest, and our gentleness and perseverance is paid off with nourishment. It really is an everyday miracle and a gift to witness. I guess it’s not so silly to be impressed by a vegetable after all.

Were you a member of the Grocery Store Generation? When did it change for you?  I’d love to talk about it in the comments!