Stretching Meat, Part 1: Tacos

Make a pound of ground beef go further by adding finely chopped and shredded vegetables.

I am always looking for ways to stretch our money while feeding the family the farm fresh produce.  One way, as I've mentioned, is to make 1 pound of ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken) stretch to serve more than 1 meal to our family.  Tacos are one way I've done this recently. 

We like to eat tacos, especially when our farm share has salad mix in season (all but the hottest weeks of summer).  One batch of this taco mix can feed us 2 meals if I repurpose the rest into Taco Rice.  Frugal, filling, and a farm fresh feast!

NOTE:  Normally I'd start with uncooked meat, cook it, drain it, set it aside and then toss the veggies in the same pan.  But today I'd tried to make turkey burgers for lunch, using frozen turkey burger patties, and they didn't retain the patty shape so I ended up with a pound of cooked ground turkey and started from there.  Always have a Plan B.

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Cucumbers, and . . . sushi?

Smoked salmon, cucumber, and cream cheese in a homemade sushi roll.

It helps me to divide up all my ingredients by the number of rolls I am making.

My family isn't crazy about cucumbers.  But our farmers have always provided us with farm fresh cukes.  So when I'm not pickling them, or donating to the food bank, or keeping it simple, I do like to make sushi.  It keeps the kitchen cool on a summer day, it's a great portable lunch when we're out on an adventure, it makes a terrific lower-fat and messy hand free snack for watching football, and the whole family loves it.

For other recipes using cucumbers, please see my Cucumber Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

How to Put Up a Pile of Pumpkins

Sometimes the best-laid plans go awry.  Happens to me a lot.  I tend to just go with the flow.
Take my garden plans.

My garden went nuts with pumpkins this year.  I didn't plant them.  My guess is that they came from my compost, from last year's CSA share pie pumpkins.

I'm not one to complain about free food, though.  We (and by we I mean my dear spouse) just mowed around the vines that spread into the yard.

Pumpkins are easy to store for a good while.  A cool dark place would be ideal, though they sat on my kitchen counter under the window until today's Pie Pumpkin Processing Party.

For ideas on what to do with that pumpkin puree, or even an entire sugar pie pumpkin, please see my Pumpkin Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

K.I.S.S. {Beau Monde Dip with Cottage Cheese and Vegetables}

My family doesn't really go for cucumbers.

When we get them in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share my first thoughts are big:

  

I'll make gyros and use the cucumber to make tzatziki sauce!  

We'll have Indian food and I'll make raita!  We'll have sushi!

This past summer I got into pickling.  The one common burger topping in our house is pickles.  Thanks to Food In Jars, I've discovered how easy and tasty it is to put up a couple of jars of refrigerated kosher dills.  I've expanded that to include pickling several other vegetables.

But sometimes I need to remember the KISS principle.

Keep It Simple, Sillybilly.

For other vegetable appetizers, please see my Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks Pinterest board. For other recipes using cucumbers, please see my Cucumber Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Want to know how to Use This Blog? Click here.

All About Garlic

Garlic is one of those crops that is ready to harvest all at once.

While it is easy to store for long periods, if you're harvesting your year's supply of garlic in June, you may want to have some put by when you go to grab a clove in November and find nothing but shriveled, dry husks.

In my garden, I use one raised bed for my garlic and pesto harvests.  In the fall, I plant garlic (around the time you'd plant tulips). After harvest in early summer, I plant basil in the same space. I'll use the basil throughout the summer, then pull the plants and put up a pile of pesto (link to my tutorial) for winter. For a full explanation plus more photos, please see my guest post over at She Eats.

Does a CSA save you money? Is a CSA a good value?

Whenever people hear that we do a farm share, one question I frequently get is "is it cheaper?"

George, showing us around his farm, Patchwork Gardens.

I always hesitate before I answer, because it's complicated.  I mean not rocket science (though our farmer trained as a systems engineer), but it's not an easy answer for me.

Each week, if I were to buy the exact amounts/kinds of produce at the grocery store's organic section or the farmer's market as I get in the CSA box, it would probably be cheaper over the course of the season to do the farm share.

Hello World!

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about "farm fresh" food is the tomato.  Everyone knows that a tomato from your backyard, your neighbor's garden, the farmer's market, or your CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share tastes AMAZING.  Period.  I look forward to the first BLT as soon as I see the crocus and daffodils and garlic poking their shoots above ground.

But what about in September?

By September, I've eaten my fill of fresh summer tomatoes.  I've had them in BLTs, on toast with lots of mayo and Crazy Jane's salt, in panzanella and caprese salads.

While they are still delicious, I am beyond satiated.

When they keep on coming until frost, I need to have ways to store this deliciousness.  And when that bounty comes in my CSA share, I've already paid for these tomatoes and I don't want my money to go to waste!

So here on Farm Fresh Feasts I will share how I make the most of the local, seasonal produce that I am overwhelmed with in the hope that it will help you put more food on your table and less in the compost bin.  Or trash can, if you're not composting (yet).

Every year I get thrown for a loop by a new-to-me fruit or vegetable.  The first year I did a CSA it was sorrel, and I still don't know what I'd do with it if it showed up in the box.  Please let me know what fruit or vegetable you're having trouble using.  We will all learn something.

To make it easy to find recipes, I've created a Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. Coupled with How to Use This Blog, these tools will help readers make the most of their farmer's efforts. Thank you!

Recipes Using Seafood

Recipes Using Poultry (Chicken, Turkey)

Recipes Using Pork

Recipes Using Beef

Pepper Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

Pineapple Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

Fall and Winter Fruit Recipe Round Up	Kalua Pig Pizza with Chinese Cabbage	Kalua Pig Summer Rolls with Kohlrabi	Make and Take Smoothies
Pasta Salad with Grilled Fruits and Goat Cheese

InLinkz.com

Plum Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

[There's room for more recipes in this category.]

Make and Take Smoothies

Plum and Whey-soaked Oat Muffins

InLinkz.com

Lime Recipes Collection

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up> is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. 

Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. 

Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Sweet Potato Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

Potato Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

Mango Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

[Yeah, this category will stay small, unless I move back to Hawaii were mangos are local.]

Beet Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

Tomatillo Recipes

I don't know about you and how you cook, but I frequently look at the contents of my refrigerator, my freezers, or my pantry, see what fresh or frozen produce needs to be used up is available, and then go searching for a recipe using that item.  To make it easier for cooks like me, I've put together this recipe index. Just click on the link below the photo to go to each recipe. Click here to return to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. 

[Pretty much, I make salsa verde out of all my tomatillos]