This week’s box includes: Yellow-skinned canary melon (or a cantaloupe instead), cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, eggplant, yellow squash, watermelon, Kirby cucumbers, bell & sweet Italian peppers,. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne Ward Cameron over the years.
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Oh, my. The first cantaloupe delivery of the season is magical. The fragrance! You’ll smell them as you walk up to your pickup location today. Cannot wait.
Some boxes will have a cantaloupe, and the others will have a canary melon. The yellow-skinned canaries have a light green flesh that’s a little more delicate than the cantaloupe’s. In either case, you’ll need little incentive to eat these earlier in the week, cut into cubes and tossed with watermelon or halved with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the emptied hollow.
It’s the first okra delivery of the year! Few vegetables polarize opinions as okra does. There are lovers, there are haters. Those that dislike okra have no doubt been subjected to overcooked preparations that bring out okra’s gooeyness. Trust me on this: overcooking is the culprit, not the unfairly maligned plant.
Remove the okra from the plastic bag and transfer it to a paper sack instead if you’re going to store it. It needs to breathe.
Okra, when it ripens, is like popcorn. The pods develop so quickly that growers complain that you have to pick them multiple times during the day. Getting the pods as fresh as possible is one of the best ways to avoid the goo. You can indeed eat it raw – we’d challenge kiddos with a fresh pod at market and were constantly impressed by how they enjoyed it.
Not sure about raw okra? Try it in this (Salad of the Week!) Brunswick Salad recipe from Chef Dave Larkworthy of 5 Seasons Brewing fame – a great way to use cherry tomatoes and any corn and potatoes you have on hand. Remember 5 Seasons from the heady days of Atlanta’s burgeoning local food scene? Chef Dave’s kitchen singlehandedly launched many a farmers’ success, ours included.
Cooked, okra has a fresh nutty flavor. Tossed with cornmeal and salt and pan fried with some thinly sliced onions or peppers in a bit of oil is my go-to that I can’t go beyond. We eat it like popcorn, a perfect accompaniment for watermelon on the summer dinner table. Try it with a pepper sauce as in Fried Okra with Spicy Red Pepper Sauce. Or grilled with a yogurt sauce as the vegetable whisperer Chef Stephen Satterfield of Miller Union recommends in Grilled Spiced Okra.
I’ve never been a fan of battered and fried okra – probably due to my inability to get beyond the ease-to-yumminess ratio of pan-fried – but you’ll find those recipes and more on our okra page, including Conne Ward Cameron’s suggestions for storing it for use later in stews.
I’m excited to see eggplant return today. Recently I made a vegan eggplant “parmesan” as a gift, but lacked enough for us to enjoy. I didn’t include cheese or even cheese substitute in the final version, but you could easily layer cheese in the mix and call it a proper parmesan, or skip the cheese and serve it over rice to keep it in vegan. With apologies for any imprecision, here’s what I recall.
Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
2 large eggplants (or whatever you have on hand)
Canola or vegetable oil
Salt
1 normal-large onion, thinly sliced
4-6 cups grated summer squash
1 pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
3-4 cloves garlic
½ cup red wine
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 ½ teaspoons curry powder
Salt & pepper to taste
1 handful chopped basil
1 cup panko bread crumbs
(optional: 1 ball mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan)
Slice unpeeled eggplant into ½” slices. Soak in well-salted water in a large bowl for up to 2 hours. Rinse, then pat slices dry. Pan-fry in a skillet glazed with a small amount of high-temp vegetable oil until lightly browned on both sides. Remove to plate.
Meanwhile, in a separate large skillet sauté the onions on medium high heat in 1 tablespoon of oil. Add grated squash and sliced peppers as the onions soften. Continue to sauté, turning the heat down to medium or lower as the mixture starts to brown.
After the onion mixture has caramelized, add the red wine to the skillet and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add tomato sauce, curry powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat. Mix in the chopped basil.
To assemble, layer the sauce with the eggplant slices in a casserole dish starting with a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. If you’d like to add cheese, intersperse the layers with sliced fresh mozzarella. End with a sauce layer on top.
Brown the panko in a scant amount of oil. Sprinkled browned panko on the top layer, or parmesan/panko mixture (optional).
Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Serve over rice. Bonus points for cooking the rice with a cinnamon stick to give it a bit of fragrance!
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What to say about lettuce in July?? Obviously there are hovering fairies aerating the plants with their gossamer wings to keep them cool during the heat of the day.
What’s next? More of all of this summer goodness, on rotation. At some point in the next month, a spaghetti squash will arrive, harboring the cooler weather to come. For now, enjoy!
~Suzanne