pick your own

This summer, for the first time I picked fruit from trees (excepting apples, which I have done twice). This may seem a strange first experience to have at the age of 30, but keep in mind that I grew up in Florida, where citrus trees provide the only truly fresh fruit.

A friend of mine mentioned something about picking strawberries one day. A passing thought, of little significance to him, as he'd grown up knowing that ripening strawberries are an unambiguous signal of summer's onset. The only things that signaled summer in Florida were somewhat hotter temperatures, more humidity, thunder storms every afternoon, and the end of school. Fall and spring had nothing to do with leaves or flowers on the trees. When I moved to the northeast from Florida, the coming and going of seasons smacked me in the face, yet more than 10 years later am I finally appreciating one of the most wonderful aspects of the seasons - the tremendous series of fresh fruits available from early summer through late fall.

So, at my friend's suggestion, I found some farms nearby (30-45 minute drive) that let you pick your own fruit. We've picked strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries so far this summer - peaches and apples will come up in the next few weeks - from three different farms:

Land's Sake (Weston) - strawberries
Smolak Farm (North Andover) - strawberries and raspberries
Connors Farm (Danvers) - raspberries and blueberries

All the fruit was outstanding. I made strawberry jam, raspberry syrup, blueberry pancakes, and blueberry-lemon bars (and spent days just snacking on the fruit whenever I could). Each farm had it's pros and cons. In terms of price, Connors Farm was unbeatable. I will definitely go back there for more fresh fruit.

writing advice

Not sure if I've included these before or not, but here are words of wisdom on writing from well-known writers. :)

From Kurt Vonnegut:

1. Find a subject you care about
2. Do not ramble, though
3. Keep it simple
4. Have guts to cut
5. Sound like yourself
6. Say what you mean
7. Pity the readers

From George Orwell:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.


(Brought to my attention/reminded from a post at 43folders.)

Eating my veggies

I am not a fruits and vegetable person. I'd like to blame my Mom, but I know that's unfair. It's really my Dad's fault :) - since he refused to eat any vegetable other than iceberg lettuce, corn, and peas while I was in my formative years. So incorporating more veggies (and fruits) into my diet is something I need to do, even though it's difficult for me. I came across this a awhile ago. It offers some useful suggestions for making sure you get those 5-7 servings a day. I found this hint particularly useful:

"Spend an hour on Sunday washing and prepping your vegetables for the upcoming week. It’s much easier to grab vegetables for lunch or to toss into your eggs or your dinner if they are already cleaned and trimmed. When you have grab-and-go veggies ready, you’re more likely to use them.

"You can buy precut carrots and other vegetables (especially from Trader Joe’s), but I find that the quality is not optimal and I’d rather do it myself. Cut a whole bunch of celery into sticks and put them in a bag or cup with a sprinkle of water. Bell peppers get the same treatment, as do peeled carrots. Trimmed radishes floating in a dish of water will last a week. Cauliflower and broccoli can be trimmed into florets and stored in a produce bag. Beets can be boiled unpeeled and refrigerated; the peel slips right off when you rub it with a paper towel. Lettuce and spinach should be rinsed thoroughly, trimmed of stems, then rolled up in a dish towel and refrigerated in a produce bag. They will last a week or more when stored this way."

CSAs

Meat CSA

Since we joined a monthly meat CSA with our friends Fredrica and Josh, I've been exploring more cuts of meat than I even knew existed. Here are some of the dishes I've made from the delicious meat we've been getting:

* Lamb Shank - Lamb Shank in an Oaxacan Red Mole Sauce
* Pork Shoulder - Puerto Rican Style Roasted Pork Shoulder
* Lamb Shoulder - Emeril's Stick-to-your-ribs Lamb, Potato & White Bean Stew
* Ground lamb - Tender Lamb Meatballs in a Fragrant Tomato Sauce
* Beef stew meat - Spicy Thai Beef Curry
* Beef Brisket - Barbecued Texas Beef Brisket

I've also made great dishes with these meat cuts:

* Pork Spare Ribs
* Pork tenderloin
* Country style pork spare ribs
* Pork Loin
* Whole chicken

As you can see, a meat CSA provides a wide variety of meats, some of which are difficult to find in the grocery store. In addition, the animals are grass-fed, which I think contributes to the quality of the meat, both in terms of the flavor and nutritional content.

Last month's meat load: pork spare ribs, chicken legs, lamb sausage, porterhouse steaks, t-bone steaks, and ground beef.

May's meat load: beef brisket, country-style spare ribs, pork steak (ham), pork chops, beef stew meat, ground lamb, ground beef, sweet Italian sausage.

FYI: we get our meat from Chestnut Farms.

Veggie CSA

The latest news is that we joined another CSA (Parker Farm) to get fresh veggies weekly. We joined in for a large share with our friends Mark, Melanie, and Bryan. So far, we've gotten:

* Russian red kale
* Yellow squash
* Fava beans
* Cabbage
* Yellow and orange carrots
* Parsley
* Spring onions
* Collards
* Beets
* Mizuna
* Strawberries

And it's only been two weeks! Aside from the squash and parsley, all of these are items I rarely, if ever, have cooked with before, so it's an interesting challenge. I've braised the fava beans and carrots with chicken stock and white wine (delicious), wilted/sauteed kale with shallots, garlic, and bacon (also delicious - but I feel like using bacon was a bit heavy handed), and grilled the squash. Some things unfortunately have gone to waste because I didn't use them fast enough (I'm sorry, collards), but hopefully in the weeks to come I will get better at using things quickly or storing them properly.

In the fridge this week:

* kale
* mizuna
* fava beans
* beets
* carrots

Plans for this week include:

* beet salad
* some pasta dish with the fava beans and carrots?
* braised kale with mizuna or a recipe for Calo Verde

Edit: The pasta dish ended up being fettucine with favas, escarole (store-bought), and sweet Italian sausage.

wikichow

Wikichow, my recipe sharing website, will turn 1 this week. I've enjoyed putting my recipes on the site - and being able to access them from anywhere. Throughout the past year, however, the number of contributions from other users only reached 4 pages and 3 forum posts. So, I will delete the site soon. I'm going to migrate some of the information to the blog, and with everything else I will create my own recipe box somewhere online. It's disappointing that friends who witnessed my excitement over creating the site didn't even bother to try it out.