September 20

Recipe suggestions:

Cress: try it in a delicate little sandwich with a slice of cucumber and some butter, or cream cheese, or something else emollient as a contrast. This copies an English tea party classic using watercress, which is not very closely related botanically but also has that peppery eyewatering flavor. Or mix with yogurt or sour cream as a dip. 

Gem marigolds: as with the big ones, petals-as-garnish is the main use. Salads, drinks, rice, pudding, cookies. The foliage is a love-it-or-hate-it scent, so nibble a leaf to see if you'd like it minced into something. I'm drying some because I would like it in a sachet, no idea if the scent will keep. 

Repeating the molokhia recipes because we haven't had it for a while: There are familiar dishes that use this, like gumbo: here's a comparison of molokhia with sassafras (gumbo) and filé.  A herbalist who farms next to me said, of the texture, That's demulcent! like slippery elm; good for sore throats. 

The seed description included this minimal cooking instruction: "Francois's sister in-law, Linda prepares this vegetable by chopping the leaves "very fine, do you hear me? VERY FINE! OK." Then cooking it in chicken stock with rice and lemon juice." 

For a cook's challenge, a complete and complex recipe: rich fragrant molokhia stew.  

Storage notes:

Rinse anything outside the big plastic bag before eating. Some crops don't wash well or don't store well when wet, and those will be delivered UNWASHED and OUTSIDE the big plastic bag, possibly in a small plastic bag. Big sturdy things like summer squash will just be loose. Rinse anything outside the big plastic bag before eating. 

Everything INSIDE the BIG plastic bag has been washed in at least three changes of water and drip dried. 

Basil and cilantro and flowers keep best with their stems in water, like little bouquets, I find. Basil outside the fridge, cilantro in the coolest part of my house or the warmest part of my fridge.

In general: root veg, including carrots,  should have their greens taken off promptly, after which the roots like cool dark storage. The greens on our root veg are all edible. All greens like cool humid storage. 

Getting ripe for next week: 

big round slicer tomatoes. wasn't sure they were going to make it this year but now the chances are good. Now I have to figure out how to transport them without squashing. A seasoned professional works that out first, but I guess this is how I become seasoned. 

There are also the first tiny fall-grown cool weather greens, planted the first cool week we got. And I think some BIG carrots, though alas sometimes we pull those up and discover that someone has eaten the whole patch of carrots  from underground. Gophers, probably, though I imagine Bugs Bunny.