Meals from the Farm

My favorite time at New Roots Farm is after I finish the morning's work - today we planted cabbage and lettuce seedlings -- when I walk around the farm harvesting my week's share of food. As I wander the farm gathering each vegetable I think about how to use it in a meal, and plan the week's menu.

The lettuce is for my lunch salads, topped with the young white turnips and red beets chopped raw, sliced cucumber, and sugar snap peas from our own garden. The flying-saucer like patty pan squash are delicious in a saute of vegetables served over penne tossed with basil pesto. Now that the basil is ready, I make a batch of pesto each week for just such a meal. Along with the squash I saute minced fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, sliced carrots, chopped sugar snap peas, and chopped Swiss chard stalks. The color is gorgeous and with a pinch or two of salt a nice summer dinner.

The beet greens are going into an Indian side-dish called pachidi. I often make this with spinach, but beet greens is what I have so beet green pachidi it will be. I just picked the first batch of green beans from our garden for tonight's dinner of pachidi, green beans thoren, rice, and some leftover kofta made from local beef.

Let's see what is left in the harvest basket. Swiss chard leaves. Once again I'll use these instead of spinach in an onion-Swiss chard quiche. Last week I brought home a slightly over-sized zucchini. Once the weather cools a bit I'll make zucchini bread. Okay, so that takes care of the week's harvest. The fridge is full of veggies and another three quarts of blueberries that I picked yesterday -- more for our granola, ice cream, blueberry crisp, scones, and any extra for the freezer.

When I arrive home from the farm, I wash all the veggies before stowing them in the fridge. It is less overwhelming dealing with a weekly harvest, since I've thought about a use for each and look forward to many fine meals from the farm.