Saturday, August 18, 2007

Early birds, early apples

While I recognize that at 27 I am probably still too young to begin bemoaning the fleeting days of my youth in earnest, I was nevertheless shocked by two distinctly autumnal phenomena at my early-morning trip to the USG today.
Item 1: It was really, really cold. Not just chilly - downright cold. I was ill-prepared for the temperature because IT IS SUMMER, though I did get there quite early today.
Item 2: Many vendors, including my beloved Terhune Orchards, were excitedly displaying their "early apples," which means that soon they'll just be "apples," and it will be fall. Where has summer gone?

My consolation came swiftly in the form of being early enough to snag the last basket of these Tristar strawberries - perhaps summer is not all lost.

FutureVeg/LoveFruits:

1 pint Tristar strawberries
3.5 lbs. white peaches
1 lb. nectarines
1 pint Sungold cherry tomatoes
4 heirloom tomatoes (two yellow, two crazy red)
2 ears corn
1 lb. green beans
1.5 lbs. spinach
4 zucchini
1 bunch carrots
1 lb. golden nugget potatoes
2 heads Rocambole garlic
1 bunch lemon basil
Total spent: $49

While I could probably eat all the peaches myself in a day or two, I bought so many because I'm going to try freezing some of them for smoothies. It would be amazing to have enough to last a few months once they're out of season, to cut down on my Trader Joe's frozen fruit habit...

All the other fruit will be eaten out of hand, the carrots will be chopped up for my lunches, and the beautiful/weird-looking heirloom tomatoes will be eaten in a "salad" with fresh herbs and a bit of cheese.

Lemon basil may be the best smelling herb in the universe; the freshness of the lemon brings the basil's spiciness to a new fragrance level. I'm really looking forward to using it. Monday or Wednesday I'll get a few pounds of "regular" tomatoes from the weekday USG and try my hand at some spaghetti sauce using fresh, rather than canned, tomatoes.

More on my sauce and freezing experiments later; right now, I've got some strawberries to eat.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am writing to inform you about Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, a national campaign that mobilizes Americans to help end childhood hunger by having a bake sale in their community. Now in its’ fourth year, over 1 million people have participated in the campaign to aid the 12 million children in America who are at risk of hunger. The campaign, which runs through August, was recently promoted by celebrity chef Rachael Ray on ABC. Although the campaign only runs through the end of August, you can continue to have your Bake Sale throughout the year. Many participants are having theirs in the fall and winter during holiday seasons.


Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale offers a unique way for you to connect with your readers about the severity of childhood hunger in America while providing them with a simple and fun way of how they can fight it. Perhaps you can include information about the campaign in a section of this blog?

I was unable to find an email in which to contact you. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and I can provide you more information about the campaign.

Thank you,

Mercedes
Share Our Strength
mbent@strength.org
(800) 761- 4227