Storing Summer's Produce

Eating seasonally, there are some dramatic ebbs and flows to the types and amounts of produce that come our way throughout the year. We support a local farm, and for $20 a week, get a big paper bag full of produce. For the last month, we have gotten a lot of tomatoes each week, and I actually requested that they stop sending pounds of summer squash! This week, I decided I needed to do something with all of the tomatoes and peppers we've been getting, so I had an afternoon of food prep.
I made roasted salsa with onions, tomatoes, chili peppers, limes and cilantro. I put the onions, tomatoes and peppers under the broiler until they had blackened a bit. Then I took the skins off of about half of the tomatoes and the seeds out of the peppers. The remaining charred bits gave the salsa a nice smokey flavor. It turned out really good. I am trying something a little different, and am lacto-fermenting the salsa. Why? It helps preserve foods longer, and enhances the nutritional benefits of the ingredients.





I still had a lot of cherry and grape tomatoes left, as well as fresh herbs, so I made a batch of sweet tomato sauce. I didn't bother to peel the tomatoes, I just used an immersion blender at the end to chop up the bits. I didn't make enough to store, but it was enough to use for a couple of meals this week. I simmered onions, tomatoes, garlic, red wine, thyme, and basil for about an hour, then threw in a little parsley at the end.

While I was at it, I also made a batch of saurkraut with a head of purple cabbage. To make it, just chop up the cabbage, add salt and any seasoning (I added fresh caraway from the farm-- it came looking like seed flowers, and I just crumbled the seeds off of the stems when they dried). Mash it up until you get quite a bit of juice. Pack it into a jar, making sure there's at least an inch of space at the mouth, and add some whey.


If you don't know how to make whey, it's really easy. Make some yogurt (just ask if you don't know how-- also very easy!) and then strain it through cheesecloth or a kitchen towel and catch the drips. This results in two products-- yogurt cheese and whey. You can use they whey to preserve foods or as a soaking enzyme for beans, grains and flours to make them more digestible. The yogurt cheese can be used like cream cheese, and make really good dips or spreads. To learn more about using whey to add nutrition to your food, the Nourshing Traditions cookbook is a great resource-- it is based on ancient traditions of food preparation that promote outstanding health.