Tomato Inspiro

Monday means tomato harvest here at Kings Valley Gardens. There's a 100 foot bed with 4 varieties, and even though Andrea staggered their ripening by planting some in the corn's shade, we always come away with over four 5-gallon buckets.




<--- better angle for the Gumby look-alike branch.





Also, since Colin's not around to dissuade me, I've decided that it's okay to post photos without specific recipes. Crazy, right? But I'll try (try) to keep the posts semi-useful. These stuffed tomatoes were Kyli's brainchildren, the inner ingredients stir fried and then poured into the tomatoes. I can't remember if she scooped out the tomato guts previous to stuffing them--seems like they must have been...(hmm, not so useful, jess). Recommendation: Make the innards a bit spicier and drier than you normally would, maybe adding a slightly-undercooked grain?, because when cooked the water from the tomato will seep in and dilute it, and if it can't hold it's own in the flavor department, everything will taste like tomato. Which hardly counts as a disappointment...

Fresh Fava Spread

This recipe is great if you're waiting for your fava beans to mature, which we were this past July.

2 c hulled fava beans (you can leave the white thin skin on)
2 t chopped rosemary
2 T lemon juice
1/4-1/2 c olive oil
salt, pepper
1 or 2 cloves garlic

Food process/blend all ingredients. Depending on the age of the fava beans, you may want to steam them 5-10 minutes, but we just left 'em raw. I think next year I'll be asking around at the farmer's market to see if anyone grows favas and if they'd let me buy some early.

A Triumphant Return

Hello from the Land of the Blueberries! My computer is fixed! I can unleash my mass of food photos onto the unsuspecting internet!

My computer's been away on holiday, but it has decided to return (It's actually September 13th, so some of my posts will be back-dated, sneaky, eh?)

Okay, back to the food.

Mushrooms!

A few weeks back a hike on Oregon's misty coast turned into a mushrooming adventure. What a thrill to see them in the wild! First we were met by these oyster mushrooms, later the bright turkey mushroom (which isn't technically a mushroom, i believe), and then, da da dah!, chantrelles. Lots of 'em.



Apparently mycelium, the mushroom's "roots", in a way, rule the world (an honor they share with phytoplankton). This book even shows how they're being used to clean up toxic waste spills.


No recipe, we just sliced them up and gently sauteed them. Mmm mmm, I have seen the light.