Summer Harvest Week-end

I've had a good week-end which was grounded in the happiness of summer produce. On Saturday, I went to the farmer's market.  I was on a quest for tomatoes from the one farmer whose tomatoes have never let me down and Mills River corn.  The farmer had a $15 basket of blemished tomatoes for canning, and I thought that some of them weren't so blemished that they couldn't be eaten.  

I also found a pair of farmer dudes (young, hip, male) who had pumpkins for sale.  When I said I wanted to buy one, one of the farmer dudes asked me if I also wanted a pumpkin plant.  They looked beautiful and healthy, but my yard is not conducive to growing vegetable plants.  Last year, I put the autumnal pumpkins by the back yard fence line, where they rotted and one of them produced seedlings.  I had hopes, but the seedlings didn't flourish.  Similarly, I have a tomato plant from a seedling that I planted in May in a sunny slice of the side yard (dappled sun, but sun nonetheless).  That plant has grown tall--and continues growing taller even now--but has yet to produce a tomato.

Happily, there are farmers old and young who will provide:

When I got home from the farmer's market, we sorted the tomatoes and began "processing" them.  We don't have canning equipment, so we made a basic tomato sauce that can be used as a base for stews and chili.  We store the sauce in freezer bags in the freezer.  It's the one time of year that I wish we had a stand alone freezer.

On Sunday, I made a casserole out of the summer squash.  I steamed them and put them in the bottom of a rectangular glass pan.  I made a custard out of eggs and milk and poured it over the veggies.  I sprinkled some cheddar cheese over it--yum.

When we got back from church, we made homemade pizza, and while I waited for the dough to rise, I ate some casserole right out of the oven.  It was close enough to what my grandmother made that it made me happy.

I also made my lunches for the week:  lentils, barley, and tomatoes, with balsamic vinegar.  Some weeks I add feta, but this week, I'll go a bit lighter.  I also portioned out my baby carrots into 5 sandwich bags that I use over and over again. 

I love this summer harvest time, and I don't feel the same sorrow that I have in the past.  I live in a place where I am surrounded by apple orchards and pumpkins that grow in the ground.  I look forward to autumn harvests too, which tempers my sorrow as summer fades.