More new Crops

One of the favorite farm crops should be ready for this week - edamame. Very nutritious and a fun, healthy snack to eat. Look for the plumpest beans to be at the bottom of the plants. Use 2 hands when pulling the pods off the plant, so you don't remove the entire branch. Fresh edamame should be eaten or frozen within a week. Store the pods in a perforated plastic bag in the fridge. To freeze, bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil and have a bowl of ice water ready. Boil the beans for about 3 min, drain and place in ice water. Once they cool down, place on a towel to drain. I place the bean pods on a cookie sheet, and place in freezer until frozen. Then place in a plastic bag or container.

To snack on, boil the pods in heavily salted water for 9-12 min, checking for done-ness starting at 9 minutes. Drain well, salt again and enjoy! There are a lot of recipes on this site for edamame - so take a look and enjoy.

Okra made it's first appearance this past week. People in line waiting to pick up commented that they don't know what to do with it. One of the simplest and most delicious things to do is to put a bit of oil in a pan. Slice the okra into "coins". Place in hot oil and cook until browning. Turn over and continue cooking until browned on both sides. Remove from pan, salt and enjoy - Okra Chips!

Something I do every year with okra and other veggies is to make batches of veggie stew. I start by sauteing onion, I add garlic and then whatever veggies I want to use, including okra, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes that may have gotten over ripe, corn and greens and allow to simmer until the flavors meld together and the veggies are softened. Spices such as cumin can be added, as can a hot pepper. Stock or canned tomatoes can also be added - I like this to be a bit saucy. I freeze it in serving size containers and then pull it out during the year to enjoy over brown rice, along with grilled sausages, as a topping for fish, chicken or pork, etc. There are also several delicious okra recipes on this site. One of my favorites is the Easy Indian-Style Stewed okra.

Enjoy the harvest.