What seasonal food are you eating this month?

lemurcat12

French_Peasant wrote: »

@lemurcat12 I found both Florence fennel (for the bulbs) and herb fennel (bronze) to put in my garden, so will be playing around with it this year. Also, they seem to carry it at the stores I shop at--I have just never noticed it before. Now that I have noticed it, I will see if I can figure out something to do with it.

Excellent. I still haven't found any that actually seems to be in season, so I misjudged. Perhaps this weekend. It's at the Jewel, though. ;-)

French_Peasant

For anyone who likes growing eggplant and zucchini better than they like eating it, here is the perfect recipe that I like to recommend; when everything is coming on at once, I will harvest things fairly small and double the amount of eggplant and zucc I put in...but it is perfect when things get away from you and grow into monsters, too.

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/soup/vegetable-soup/eggplant-and-zucchini-soup-caldo-de-calabacitas.html

An added bonus is that you can easily make queso fresco on your stovetop with just milk, apple cider vinegar, and a thermometer (and cheesecloth for straining). Here is a Rick Bayless recipe that is a little fancier than what I usually do, but it sounds fabulous with the buttermilk and lime juice:

http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/fresh-cheese/

I am just now getting my hot weather crops in...we've had a cold rainy spring so my seed starts are a little behind where I'm comfortable launching them into the wild. I have several kinds of eggplants going in: Italian heirloom Rosa Bianca, Thai Green, unnamed Japanese, and then standards Black Beauty and Black Diamond. I always love to grow Listada de Gandia, with the white and purple streaks, but all my starts damped off in the cold spring, much to my annoyance. I will probably put in 15 plants but give most away to the food bank. Our large community garden is ravaged by aggressive thug deer, but they apparently don't like eggplants, so those thrive.

Need2Exerc1se

Anyone grow blue hubbard squash? A friend gave me one (plant, not squash) and I planted it even though I'd never heard of it. I looked it up and it sounds similar to a butternut only huge. The site I looked at said the squash can sometimes grow to 30 lbs!

If you've grown or eaten it, what did you think?

stealthq

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Anyone grow blue hubbard squash? A friend gave me one (plant, not squash) and I planted it even though I'd never heard of it. I looked it up and it sounds similar to a butternut only huge. The site I looked at said the squash can sometimes grow to 30 lbs!

If you've grown or eaten it, what did you think?

There are a couple of different winter squashes that get subbed in for pumpkin in canned pumpkin puree and Blue Hubbard is one of the common ones. So that gives you a rough idea what it tastes like.

I find it to be more mellow than actual pumpkin, and when I cooked with it the flesh seemed drier. The rind was a bigger pain than pumpkin's as well - there were a bunch of odd-shaped nodules that make it difficult to cut. Eventually I learned to just roast the thing whole until the rind softened and then cut it.

I love roasted Blue Hubbard squash, and I had a Blue Hubbard squash soup at an Italian restaurant in Boston that was amazing. Never grown it, though.

French_Peasant

^^^I second this comment. Very dry, mildly sweet, not stringy...a little disappointing at first if you are expecting butternut-level sweet when roasting, but still very good, and excellent in soup. I bought some blue hubbards for Halloween decorations and they lasted until about a month ago in my dry basement. HUGE. They are gorgeous! And yes, they need to be pre-roasted and then you can still spend a good amount of time hacking at them with a cleaver or a hatchet! Good luck with it!

frida001

Stuffed grape leaves from my garden.

MelanieCN77

Cherries and fennel!

Fennel and artichokes cooked up on some salad greens with some citrus and S&P yum.

French_Peasant

frida001 wrote: »

Stuffed grape leaves from my garden.

Frida, how do you prepare them--are you making dolmades? I have grapes that I need to prune down and after thinking about your post, would love to use their leaves, but have never done this before. Is there a certain size you need to use; can you use them all summer, or just spring, any other helpful pointers or recipes? I might have to give this a try.

Saveur just ran a brief article on edible leaves: http://www.saveur.com/how-to-cook-with-leaves

Need2Exerc1se

French_Peasant wrote: »

^^^I second this comment. Very dry, mildly sweet, not stringy...a little disappointing at first if you are expecting butternut-level sweet when roasting, but still very good, and excellent in soup. I bought some blue hubbards for Halloween decorations and they lasted until about a month ago in my dry basement. HUGE. They are gorgeous! And yes, they need to be pre-roasted and then you can still spend a good amount of time hacking at them with a cleaver or a hatchet! Good luck with it!

I'm excited to try it. The plant is doing well so far. I love trying new vegetables. I must say a fruit of this size is going to be a challenge since most of the time it's just 2 of us. I'll have to look for a good soup recipe and try canning it.

heavensshadow

Queenmunchy wrote: »

My mom picked up some fiddleheads for me and is bringing them by today!

Ohhhh, I've always wanted to try these!! What do they taste like?? It's hard to find stuff like this in Oklahoma.

MissMaggieMuffin

Asparagus, cherries.
Unfortunately, can no longer look forward to masses of vegetables fresh from my own garden. Moved into an apartment about 18 months ago, so we now only have a container garden with herbs and greens. Sigh!

French_Peasant

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

French_Peasant wrote: »

^^^I second this comment. Very dry, mildly sweet, not stringy...a little disappointing at first if you are expecting butternut-level sweet when roasting, but still very good, and excellent in soup. I bought some blue hubbards for Halloween decorations and they lasted until about a month ago in my dry basement. HUGE. They are gorgeous! And yes, they need to be pre-roasted and then you can still spend a good amount of time hacking at them with a cleaver or a hatchet! Good luck with it!

I'm excited to try it. The plant is doing well so far. I love trying new vegetables. I must say a fruit of this size is going to be a challenge since most of the time it's just 2 of us. I'll have to look for a good soup recipe and try canning it.

I got a couple of packs of "improved Blue Hubbard" seeds this weekend at Rural King (it's where we hang out while waiting for our daughter's parties to get over on this particular side of town--lookin' at chicks n' bunnies) because you got me thinking about it.

I use it with a Martha Stewart recipe that also calls for pears (I use apples) leeks, onions and shallots (I just use what I have on hand...seriously....like you'll be able to discern the shallots??), and a lot of carrots. I looked but can't find it online, but she has a lot of others that sound great. I will freeze the vegetable puree and then add cream after thawing it out. I have also frozen the squash chunks to use down the road but have never tried canning them.

My favorite thing about winter squash is just throwing it down in our dry basement (as opposed to our root cellar) and letting it sit for months on end till we need it. There is a description in "Little House in the Big Woods" about how they put their pumpkins and squash in the attic of the cabin, and Mary and Laura would use them as seats through the winter while they played with their dolls.

Need2Exerc1se

French_Peasant wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

French_Peasant wrote: »

^^^I second this comment. Very dry, mildly sweet, not stringy...a little disappointing at first if you are expecting butternut-level sweet when roasting, but still very good, and excellent in soup. I bought some blue hubbards for Halloween decorations and they lasted until about a month ago in my dry basement. HUGE. They are gorgeous! And yes, they need to be pre-roasted and then you can still spend a good amount of time hacking at them with a cleaver or a hatchet! Good luck with it!

I'm excited to try it. The plant is doing well so far. I love trying new vegetables. I must say a fruit of this size is going to be a challenge since most of the time it's just 2 of us. I'll have to look for a good soup recipe and try canning it.

I got a couple of packs of "improved Blue Hubbard" seeds this weekend at Rural King (it's where we hang out while waiting for our daughter's parties to get over on this particular side of town--lookin' at chicks n' bunnies) because you got me thinking about it.

I use it with a Martha Stewart recipe that also calls for pears (I use apples) leeks, onions and shallots (I just use what I have on hand...seriously....like you'll be able to discern the shallots??), and a lot of carrots. I looked but can't find it online, but she has a lot of others that sound great. I will freeze the vegetable puree and then add cream after thawing it out. I have also frozen the squash chunks to use down the road but have never tried canning them.

My favorite thing about winter squash is just throwing it down in our dry basement (as opposed to our root cellar) and letting it sit for months on end till we need it. There is a description in "Little House in the Big Woods" about how they put their pumpkins and squash in the attic of the cabin, and Mary and Laura would use them as seats through the winter while they played with their dolls.

Ah yes, I'm familiar with that Little House story. We have a large root cellar so storage won't be a problem.

French_Peasant

heavensshadow wrote: »

Queenmunchy wrote: »

My mom picked up some fiddleheads for me and is bringing them by today!

Ohhhh, I've always wanted to try these!! What do they taste like?? It's hard to find stuff like this in Oklahoma.

They taste like asparagus, and you can prepare them the same way. There are fiddlehead ferns native to OK--they are the kind of thing you can a) forage for free, or b) pay through the nose for at a fancy farmer's or specialty market. Ostrich ferns are the classic fiddlehead fern used for culinary purposes (there are probably others, like cinnamon fern, as well). But the season is long since past; it's just for a couple of weeks while the ferns start to unfurl. You can also grow them in your garden.

Sara2652

Dill! soo much dill! I need to learn to dry it. Radish, spinach and cilantro for now but all thats about to go to flower. Snow peas are just about ready!!
First year in this area and first year with a community garden plot.
I'm too nervous about foraging myself to do it yet but we had ramps, fiddle heads, garlic mustard and i have Japanese knot weed that is apparently edible but I'm trying to get rid of it.

agbmom556

@French_Peasant - thank you for the zucchini recipe links

Kullerva

Cherries and peaches are *back*, baby, and for less than $2/pound.

...and yes, I do love sugar, glad you asked.

Need2Exerc1se

Yesterday evening we picked a small buckets of wild raspberries. And this evening I'm going to pick some gooseberries. They are still a bit green. I'll save some to ripen fully for my husband but I love them when they are still a little sour.

beaglady

Asparagus, mostly. Our season is just about over. We have some spinach, beet greens and radishes coming in, but nothing else in our garden is ready yet. It's been a cool wet spring here.

I've grown Hubbard squash before, and used it like pumpkin. I also like to cut up cubes of winter squash and include them in curries as a relatively low calorie filler. We started calling them 'whales' cause they make me think of blue whales lying in the field.

hesn92

I don't know what's in season lol. I ate a bunch of nectarines last week though. Yum.

stealthq

Beefsteak tomatoes are coming ... the first one is just starting to turn red. *excited*

BTW, the eggplant are excellent. Ping Tung has zero bitterness, but gets soft when cooked. Chao Praya has a bit of bitterness to the skin (not much, it's slightly more than I like when eaten raw), but stays nice and solid and 'meaty' when cooked. Cooking seems to get rid of the bitterness, so I think it's my favorite of the two.

Mitoyo is almost big enough to harvest, maybe eggplant parm next week ...

French_Peasant

stealthq wrote: »

Beefsteak tomatoes are coming ... the first one is just starting to turn red. *excited*

BTW, the eggplant are excellent. Ping Tung has zero bitterness, but gets soft when cooked. Chao Praya has a bit of bitterness to the skin (not much, it's slightly more than I like when eaten raw), but stays nice and solid and 'meaty' when cooked. Cooking seems to get rid of the bitterness, so I think it's my favorite of the two.

Mitoyo is almost big enough to harvest, maybe eggplant parm next week ...

*jealous!*

Just thinking about a juicy beefsteak hot off the vine makes my mouth water.

I am just putting in tomatoes and eggplants. I put in three Hillbilly tomatoes at our large community garden and the deer have nipped off two--not sure if they will recover. Of course they went for the fanciest slicer tomato seedlings--they know what's good.

Last night I harvested some garlic scapes, which I will probably use as garnish for soup and pasta; probably about a half pound of rhubarb (all I am doing is making and eating rhubarb crisp this season, ha ha); and the straw I used in the garden last year has, naturally, sprouted, but I learned that our 4 bunnies go nutballs over what is called "wheat hay" when harvested before maturity, so I am harvesting that and saving a chunk of change on those stupid bags of timothy hay I get at the farm store. So I am feeling very virtuous and frugal, for turning a liability into an asset.

rogerlamar6

I live in Northern Virginia. My garden lettuce, spinach and kale are wonderful (cool and plenty of rain) and coming faster than we can eat. I am giving the bolted arugula to my neighbor for her chickens....in exchange for eggs. I picked the last of my sour cherries over the weekend. Blueberries are just ripening.....maybe another week for those. Carrots and beets are about two weeks out. Tomatoes are about 3-4 weeks out (plenty of green ones!) and my apples, pears and peaches are about two months out. I love this time of year!!!