Recipe: Roasted Salsa

Dry roasting all the ingredients in this salsa gives it a lovely deep and smoky flavor. The hot peppers in this week's box are a medium heat cayenne pepper, so you can add as much or as little as you'd like depending on your preferred level of spiciness. The seeds and ribs of the hot pepper have the most heat so you can leave these out if you would rather make a very mild salsa. Always make sure you wear gloves of some kind when handling hot peppers in the kitchen or you will live to regret it.

Ingredients:
- 1 lb tomatoes (preferably paste tomatoes such as Roma or plum)
- 3 large sweet peppers
- 1-3 hot peppers (depending on spiciness preference)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 1-2 tsp lemon juice
- salt to taste

Steps:
1) Slice tomatoes in half and destem. Slice sweet peppers in half and clean out seeds. Peel and slice onions in half. Lay tomatoes and sweet peppers skin side up and onions cut side up on a cookie sheet or shallow roasting pan. Don't cut the hot peppers, just place on the pan. Place garlic bulb unpeeled and uncut on pan.

2) Roast veggies under broiler until peppers and tomatoes have blackened, blistered skins.

3) Put sweet and hot peppers in a bowl and cover with a pot lid or plate for at least 10 minutes. Leave onions, garlic and tomatoes on the pan until cool enough to handle.

4) Peel and discard tomato skins. Peel and discard sweet pepper skins. Peel garlic (or you may be able to squeeze softened garlic directly out of peel if well roasted). Separate onion rings and toss into a food processor. Add tomatoes, sweet peppers and garlic to food processor as well. Save the hot peppers for last and WEAR GLOVES while you peel the skins.

5) Pulse food processor until salsa is chunky but well combined.

6) Add 1 tsp of lemon juice and taste. Add another tsp is more acidity is needed. Salt to taste. Refrigerate and serve cold.

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Recipe: Corn Relish

Corn relish is a sweet summer treat that captures the fresh taste of some of August's best offerings like corn, sweet peppers, tomatoes and sweet onions. Use it on anything that comes off the barbeque like burgers, hot dogs, steaks and grilled chicken. You can also toss a spoonful of corn relish into a simple chef's salad to liven it up a bit or mix it with rice and beans for added flavor. It's about as versatile a condiment as it gets. It will last for weeks in the fridge (if you don't devour it first), but you can also preserve it via the hot water canning method and enjoy opening up a jar of summer freshness in the deepest, darkest months of winter.

Ingredients (makes about three 500 mL jars):
- 6 ears of corn
- 1 1/2 cups white or apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 sweet bell pepper
- 1 tomato
- 1/2 sweet onion
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 11/2 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin

Steps:
1) Bring a pot of water to boil and cook corn for 3 minutes. Drop the corn in large bowl of cold water after removing from heat.

2) When the corn is cool enough to handle, cut the kernels off the cob. Any small, sharp knife will do the trick, but my favorite tool for this job is a corn zipper.

3) Dice tomatoes and place in a strainer over a bowl or in the sink. Sprinkle very lightly with salt to pull the water out of the tomatoes and let drain at least 10 minutes.

4) Dice peppers and onions.

5) Add vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard powder and cumin to a large pot and bring to a boil. Add corn, peppers, onions and tomatoes and simmer gently for 5 minutes.

6) Spoon corn relish into jars and make sure the veggies at the top are covered with a thin layer of liquid. There will likely be a bit of leftover liquid in the pot when you're done and you can discard this. Refrigerate relish and serve cold. Will last several weeks in the fridge.

7) For hot water bath canning pack corn relish into hot 250 mL or 500 mL canning jars and process fully submerged in water at a rolling boil for 15 minutes. Remove and allow jars to cool before storing on a shelf at room temperature. Check that the lids have fully sealed once cool. Refrigerate after opening.

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Recipe: Summer Pasta

I love cooking with fragrant basil, it is one of my favorite smells. I will use pretty much any excuse to add it to a dish, and I'm rarely disappointed. Along with tomatoes this veggie can elevate anything in such a simple way. For this light summer meal we get rid of the notion of a thick pasta sauce and instead the juice from the tomatoes themselves mixed with butter or oil create the perfect, light coating for the noodles. In-season tomatoes are extra juicy, so this is a perfect use for all that extra tomato water. Great for lunch or a not-too-heavy dinner after a hot summer day.

Ingredients (serves 2-4):
- 300 g pasta
- 2-3 bunches basil (80 g)
- 6 medium tomatoes (600 g)
- 4 tbsp butter or olive oil
- salt

Steps:
1) Chop tomatoes coarsely and place in colander or strainer over a bowl. Sprinkle with 2 tsp salt and mix. Leave to drain and don't discard the liquid.

2) Boil water for pasta. Salt lightly or as you typically prefer for cooking pasta.

3) Pull basil off stems and rinse lightly while getting pasta ready. A cute helper with butterfly tattoos makes the interminable task of de-stemming basil go faster.

4) Drain pasta BEFORE tender, when it's still quite al dente. You can use the guide on the box or bag of pasta to direct you and drain when 2/3 of the time is done.

5) Add drained tomato water and heat on low with the pot lid on, stirring occasionally. If needed, add a splash of water (ie, if still too al dente when the liquid has all been absorbed).

6) When pasta is tender and most or all of the tomato water has been absorbed, add butter or olive oil and stir.

7) Mix tomatoes and basil with pasta and serve immediately. Salt if needed.

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Summertime

Summer is officially here and so is the heat! The garden is soaking up the sunlight on these ultra-long days and growing fast.

In Fields 2 and 3 are potatoes, garlic, onions and various cover crops. Nearby are the two greenhouses. The old greenhouse in front is home to the tomatoes and the new greenhouse behind is still where seedlings mature before moving out to the field as transplants.

Through the roll-up sides of the old greenhouse (put up in the daytime for ventilation and put down at night for warmth) you can see the tomatoes are getting tall.

Inside view of the tomatoes growing up the string trellises.

Tomatoes!

In Field 1 are the peas, broccoli, eggplant, radishes, lettuce, spinach, bok choy, kohlrabi, beans, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, corn, carrots and beets. Most of the mid-late summer veggies are still small but growing by leaps and bounds every day.

Lettuce is one of the first late spring veggies to appear and we've been eating it for the past couple of weeks. It's so exciting to start digging into fresh garden produce after a long winter of root cellar veggies, preserves and pickles and the few things we buy at the grocery store. I'm never disappointed at the amazing taste of the food our land gives us.

Veggies aren't the only thing growing at the farm this season. Baby #3 is due to arrive in two months with all my late summer favorites like corn, peppers and zucchini.

The kids have started their own little garden in the front near the house. They check daily on the progress of the cherry tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, peas, carrots and lettuce. There's also a small corn plot nearby.

Stay cool during these sweltering days! Visit our CSA page for info on our local pick-up options.

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Spring snapshots

It's a busy time as the weather is finally settling. The greenhouse is bursting so here's a quick tour of what's growing.

Best seats in the house (on the heat storage tank): tomatoes, peppers and some new seedings.

West benches.

East benches.

The onions are ready to transplant.

Tomatoes are rarin' to go! I have one batch transplanted in the ground in the old greenhouse and these ones are ready to get out there once the nights warm up a bit.

Early beets.

The first wave of broccoli is in the field, here is the second.

Some trays of lettuce, also ready to get out to the field.

OK, back to work!

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Fall Greenhouse

Our greenhouse is getting close to its first birthday. Happily, we've gotten great use out of its first year. It serves multiple purposes depending on the time of the year; right now it's mainly being used to extend the growing season of late summer veggies like tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplant.

The side vents are open in the day and closed at night in the spring and fall.

It's pretty gratifying to see such healthy looking tomatoes in the greenhouse at a time of year when the field tomatoes are dying off. The next step will be some experimentation over the winter with cold tolerant veggies and possibly another, larger greenhouse in the future.

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Eva Mae Farm