Summer is Ready, When You Are...

I always say I’m going to have the best summer in Asheville. Last summer rivaled many others, with lots of time on the water, lots of friends, parties, forests, great food, sweet children, and raw, blessed healing of the heart under warm skies. This summer, so far, has been a blur, with hints of the surreal. Editing a book. Kind of house hunting. Flirting with love. Greeting, meeting, and working with awesome people in my field, on a much larger scale than ever before. Is all this happening? Who am I fooling? Where did the day go? Or the day before that?

I woke up to a breezy, cool-ish late June day yesterday, and realized I am going to miss this summer if I don’t stop, and quick, jump in a river ASAP. It’s nearly July. I keep playing that Breeders song in my head, the one that says, Summer is ready…when you are… And of course, what eventually, finally readied me was food. Tomatoes lined up hip to hip and upside down, mushrooms revealing themselves on woodsy walks, and cucumbers with neat, mint seeds in orderly rows. Yesterday was spent concocting pickles and bright salads, trail running, brunching, napping and snuggling with summer wind on my skin, and a steady front-porch dinner with friends. The best day. As simple and un-fussy as a slice of melon. Here’s to many more.  

What I got in this week’s CSA box:

1 bunch carrots

1 pint small eggplant

1 lb green bush beans

2 heads broccoli

1 radicchio

4 mixed, medium summer squash & zucchini

1 bunch fresh onions

1 cabbage

1 bunch beets

4-5 pickling cucumbers

What I had leftover from last week:

Summer squash

Beets, without their greens

3-4 pickling cucumbers

What I made:

Summer Squash Latkes w Lemon & Mint

Paper Beet & Onion Salad

Bread and Butter Pickles

Sauerkraut with Radicchio and Onion Greens

Buttered Lentils with Citrus Creamed Beet Greens

Green Bean & Oyster Mushroom Pie w heirloom tomatoes

Curried Lamb Meatballs w Coconut Rice & Spicy Grilled Eggplant

What I bought or grew to supplement:

Whole Milk (I’ve been getting AMAZING sheep’s milk from my friends at Down to Earth Farm!)

Spices and herbs

Vinegars

Eggs (I trade for these, with a friend)

Mustard (I made this)

Lentils

Navel oranges

Fontina and parmesan cheeses, and chevre

Oyster mushrooms (my friend Pat found these on a walk in the woods and gifted them to me)

2 ripe, heirloom-type slicing tomatoes (from farm where I work)

organic pureed tomatoes packed in glass

lamb sausage (I made this)

jasmine rice

jalapeno

coconut milk

grass-fed butter

all purpose flour

snacks and fruit for my boys, and peanut butter and jelly

Total grocery bill for the week: $94.56. This does not include the $26/week that I paid to Paper Crane Farm for my CSA share back in January. For this amount, and using the vegetables, I took food to two potlucks. I also splurged and ate out once during the week.