Another beautiful Indian summer week

This week's 9 Bean Rows box (clockwise from top right):
small collard leaves, kale,
bread (which was really great this week and couldn't make it whole into the shot),
apples (huge and really juicy),
a rocket variety, red potatoes, parsley and rosemary,
mizuna (which I ate Saturday morning with this Warm Miso, Maple and Bacon Dressing),
mixed salad greens, and
a large head of bok choi (which I think I'm going to try in some egg foo young/an Asian omelet-- my plan is to somehow combine these two recipes Shiitake, Sweet Potato and Zucchini Foo Yung and Mushroom Egg Foo Young with Gravy and swap in the bok choi for one of the vegetables.)

We had another week of beautiful weather and I made a serious dent in my pumpkin/squash collection. The huge butternut squash from last week went into a roasted vegetable mix. Then I used it in pasta and with apples in a salad. I also baked off some turban squash and made a batch of vegan pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I thought they were great but my son Alex drove me nuts by loving the raw batter but only eating one of the cooked muffins!?

I attempted a cinnamon cupcake with an apple leather swirl (inspired by this ginger pumpkin cake) but they were overfilled and I shouldn't have let the apple leather stick out. They spilled all over and the leather stuck out too much, back to the drawing board...
Today we stayed in. Alex and I played several games of Jenga Max, which is very fun but maybe a tad to easy to beat. Alex helped make pizza for lunch. He's determined to be super creative with his pizza shapes and has been making balls and rolls. Today he came up with this pizza "Fortune Cookie", it was quite tasty.

9 Bean Rows share and the Dog Hill dogs

This week's 9 Bean Rows box and my plans: (clockwise from top right)
salad greens - more cashew/tamari dressing on these
Swiss chard - lots of caramelized onions is how I make this, my least favorite green, edible
bread - my son Alex stole most of the soft middle and John and I are sharing the crust
curly parsley - with apples in a quinoa salad with fennel bulbs from my garden
walnuts - added to the pile for my Christmas nut bowl and some for the above salad
apples - see parsley, plus it has been FAR too long since I made some cupcakes and I need to think of an entry for this month's Iron Cupcake Earth: Apple
garlic - I'm feeling a pot roast urge coming on
radishes - ume plum vinegar, black pepper and honey dressing
fingerling potatoes - pot roast as well
butternut squash - Crap, I already have 10 sitting on my counter and that's not including the pumpkins!! This one isn't in great shape so it has to be used quickly, maybe roasted in cubes and tossed with pine nuts and pasta...or more pumpkin bread.
kale - in bean soup later this week
pak choi - in miso soup

Now that I've gotten my autumn olive jam and leather done for this year, I've moved on to what's left in my garden. I harvested the Late Flat Dutch Cabbage on the left and they're in my crock becoming sauerkraut. Our dog Karmal is making sure there aren't any stray chipmunks that could cause me grief.
Most of my husk cherries are already jam but I keep finding a few strays while cleaning up. Maybe even enough for a torte. I have this recipe saved, it's on the list all the way at the bottom and husk cherries are called their other name, cape gooseberries but the almond/husk cherry combination sounds good so I'd like to give it a try.
Roxy helped consume some of the apples from the many trees on our land.
The criticism of CAFOs is becoming more main stream. If you missed it, last night's Bones episode dealt with factory farming. I'm a fan of the show as well as Kathy Reichs's novels and was happy to see them touch on a topic I care about. If you missed it, you can watch Bones: The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken on Hulu. Do you know where your chicken came from or how it was raised?

Smoky Collard Greens (no meat version)

No rain for trick-or-treating, sun peeking out from behind the clouds all week long and bearable temperatures even though we saw a few snowflakes. I'm a happy girl.

So between tests of every pumpkin cake/bread recipe I can find, to use up some of my squash-load from the garden, I made some greens today and thought I'd share my recipe. Now, I have no moral problem with pork and I love when someone else makes a big pot of collard greens with ham hocks. My mouth waters just thinking about driving through South Carolina and finding a really good BBQ joint. But, since I'm the only green lover in my house I've learned to make do with small batches, that means a slice of bacon or this version which has no meat at all. Smoked paprika (pimenton) is one of my most beloved of spices and can give a slice of bacon some competition.

Smoky Collard Greens
Makes ~1 1/2 cups of cooked collards

1 bunch collard greens (~8 leaves)
1 medium onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Frank's RedHot, optional*

*Note that my bottle is nearly empty, I go through the stuff like my son goes through ketchup. It's killer on buttered (or EBed - Earth Balanced) popcorn.

-Sweat the diced onions in a tablespoon or so of olive oil, the pimenton, a few grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt until translucent.
-Remove the collard stems, roll and chop the leaves and then wash them well in a lot of water. Do several changes of water for dirty greens.
-When the onions are soft, add the greens, vinegar and a splash or two of water. Cover and let the greens wilt over medium heat. In a minute or two check the greens and give them a stir. Add more water if needed to keep the greens moist, you want some liquid in the pot but not a soupy mess since we aren't cooking these very long. Cover and reduce the heat to low.
-Cook for 20 minutes or until the greens are tender enough for you.
-Taste for seasoning and serve with Frank's RedHot on the side.

Other collard recipes:
Gina Neely's Best Collard Greens
Crock Pot Collards from Mother's Kitchen
Braised Collard Greens from The Kitchn
Veganized Southern-style Collard Greens, with shiitakes

My son Alex was happy to find the milkweed pods are finally ripe.

Fall and winter food plans w/ 9 Bean Rows share

October will end in a few hours. We had a monster of a windstorm last night and all our trees were left bare sticks. And this morning was the last outdoor farm market day *sniff* Whether I like it or not, winter is coming.

I'm always an avid canner and I try to use the freezer to store what I can't use right away from my vegetable garden but this year I'm really trying to cover all the bases. I have a freezer that includes not just my usual homemade pasta sauce, stocks and frozen vegetables but also major load of local meat. I spent more time drying herbs for tea and spicing. I have dried pumpkin from my garden, dried apples from our land and a batch of local shiitakes drying as we speak (to replace the tasty but slightly dubious Asian market ones I love). And for the first time I committed to a CSA share for the fall and winter.

Yes, I'm late to the CSA party but I was reluctant to give up the pleasure of market shopping and the freedom to not eat Swiss chard. But the damn good bread and allure of permaculture treats (as well as the H1N1 factor and not wanting to be out and about as much this coming winter) made me want to give 9 Bean Rows a try. Plus, as much as I would have loved to get a hoop house up and running this year on my new garden it just wasn't in the cards. So now I'm all set for the winter with someone else to do the work.

Pictured above is this week's haul: (clockwise from top) fingerling potatoes, French breakfast radishes, bread, chestnuts, onions, apples, carrots, lettuce mix and collards (with a garlic bulb hidden underneath). I roasted half of the chestnuts for a Halloween party last night and I'm nibbling on a bowl of hot ones right now. The onions, radish tops and collards are going in a coconut red curry and the carrots will be roasted with a chicken and some other root vegetables from my garden for two meals later this week. I've been dressing my salads with a cashew-tamari dressing though I might switch to apples and cheddar this week with mustard vinaigrette. The rest of the apples and radishes will be snacked on. Oh and don't bother asking about the bread, my son and husband circle like sharks to snatch it out of the box. Sometimes they leave me an end to eat with olive oil.

My load of beef and pork from Gallagher's Centennial Farm from a few weeks back,
John is seriously addicted to their burgers and I love their arm roasts as pot roast.
See that pile of squash and pumpkins behind the boxes? That's just part of the haul from my garden.

Happy Halloween!
I've been listening to this soundtrack all day, despite constant complaints from
the grumpkid to turn off the "crazy music". He should be thanking me for
not digging out my Magenta costume for this evening.