An Eggplant Kind of Summer

Farmer Derek told me the eggplants are abundant this summer, so you have to prepare to cook and enjoy them each week. Grilling your entire take each week all at once can make it easier and relaxing to enjoy them. See below for what I did to enjoy my harvest - if you have something you love to do with eggplant or other farm veggies, please share by sending to me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in the subject line.

Eggplant, sweet peppers, hot peppers, tomato, basil - made the Grilled Eggplant and Pepper Salad. I grilled 2 weeks worth of eggplants at the same time and used the remainder to make Eggplant Spread. The Eggplant Spread and traditional tomato bruschetta made a delicious summer CSA dinner!

Husk cherries, peppers, tomatoes, hot peppers, scallions - made the Ground Cherry Salsa. Yum!!

Cherry tomatoes, basil - if you have never done "burst tomatoes" before, try it - it works with store bought tomatoes because it helps concentrate the sugars, but it tastes unbelievable when using locally grown cherry tomatoes. Simply heat a bit of olive oil in a pan, and add just a couple slivers of garlic. Add the tomatoes and cook over medium or medium-low heat until the tomatoes start to break down a bit - about 10 minutes. Add a bit of salt and pepper and basil or parsley (if desired). Recipes for these often call for adding balsamic vinegar at the end, but these are so sweet, I love them the way they are. Serve along your desired protein or even over pasta.

Zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, pesto - made zoodles with tomatoes and pesto as a side dish. We are loving this dish right now.