Such an odd year. Picked the rest of the green tomatoes, finally, which will turn into salsa, and will make ajvar out of the ripe peppers. Cooking down apples into butter in the crock pot. Ethiopian berebere peppers, which have a fantastic flavor, and a bunch of Hungarian paprika and others gifted by Jeff Eaton, who wanted to share the remainder of his crop (thanks, Jeff!) are drying in the dehydrator along with another gift, a tub of newly fallen walnuts (thanks, Lara!). Still haven’t figured out what to do with all those cranberries, but that’s next.
If you’re interested in going nuts, the filbert crop is in and walnuts are coming. I took some shots of the harvest at Thistledown Farm the other day. They close a couple days after Halloween, so if you want your store of winter squash, potatoes, onions, or apples, head out there soon. It’s a time to be amazed by the bounty of our valley. Even in a crummy year, we manage to pull it off.
31 October 2011 at 12:06 am
We roasted sweet meat squash to accompany dinner last night. Tonight the rest of it made it’s way into a roasted squash soup with a mirepoix (onion, celery & carrot), organic mushroom broth, a pinch of cumin and a pinch of cayenne. It was topped with roasted pumpkin seeds & VERY tasty!
2 November 2011 at 10:49 am
Amazing apple year for my family this year-pressed 50 gallons of cider this weekend from my grandparents’ old place near Salem, and a lot of apples still on the sea. Today making ginger apple butter in the crockpot, and boiling cider down into boiled cider syrup.