The first local farmers market (Copley Square, Boston) opened today for the season. I wasn’t there. I’ll wait another two weeks until farmers markets open that are close enough to walk to, followed about a week later by our first CSA drop-off.
I remember last year at this time that I eagerly anticipated a bounty at the farmers market. I know better. Harvest season starts slowly. So, while I feel entitled to stop hoarding and eat whatever vegetables are still in our freezer, I know that we’ll need some of them for a few weeks longer.
Frozen mustard greens and frozen diced-and-stewed tomatoes joined chickpeas, lots of curry powder, a bit each of cumin, coriander, cayenne, ginger, and of course salt, in a curried mustard greens recipe based on one in Joy of Cooking. The tomatoes can be thawed, microwaved, or simply cooked with the spices and chickpeas before the greens are added. The mustard greens are finnicky, in that they need to thaw before cooking. I left mine (in thin layers in ziplock bags) thaw at room temperature for a couple of hours, then cooked with them as if they were fresh. It worked, and they didn’t overcook. I don’t think I could tell the difference between cooking with frozen verus fresh, although it’s been many months since I’ve had the opportunity to taste it with truly fresh mustard greens.
Some frozen green beans went with a pasta and sauce meal. Some were a bit mushy, most were sort of generic frozen green beans, but a few still had crunch!
Frozen broccoli and frozen pepper strips joined tofu in a stir-fry. The peppers held up well, the broccoli not so well. That might mean that the broccoli was already a bit old when we got around to freezing it.
Apple sauce came out of the freezer to go into lunch bags. Tomatillo sauce came out of the freezer to go on top of tortillas with black beans and cheese.
In a demi-miracle of proper handling, we still had two happy, healthy butternut squash. One of them joined cannelini beans and sage to make a topping for pasta. Sage, a perennial, is up in our yard, but we didn’t notice until after cooking with stuff out of a spice jar. It was a missed opportunity, but we’ll have others.
The end, I mean the beginning, is in sight!
Tags: apple, broccoli, green beans, greens, mustard, pepper, sage, squash, tomatillo, tomato, winter squash
May 21, 2009 at 5:18 am |
Yes, its hard to realize that the opening of the market is just the start…. Ours opened, and we can get mostly cucumbers, asparagus, and some lettuce…. and not anything else! But it is a start. Eating down the stores for a few more weeks. On the frozen broccoli, I’ve found it doesn’t hold up that well in general, even though I remember picking it and then freezing it the same day. Its interesting to see how some veg are better to freeze and eat sooner, and some last for a long time (in the freezer or outside).