A packed farmstand & a recipe
Hello!
The farmstand is loaded with goodies:
A choy
Komatsuna
Gailan
Carrots
Herbs, herbs, herbs: Perilla, shiso, Thai basil, and parsley
Stir-fry mix
Salad mix
Pea tendrils
Head lettuce
Garden cress (spicy!)
Garlic
And.. tomatoes!
We'll have some cucumbers and eggplant in there too, by noon today.
Now is the time when the season starts to peak. The flowers on eggplant plants are beginning to turn into adorable purple fruits, our cucumbers are coming in faster than we can pick them, and you can see the red clusters in our tomato hoophouse all the way from the road. I love this period of abundance, when many of our meals are a variation of this reliably delicious concept:
Chop up a cucumber/tomato/eggplant
If it's eggplant, cook it. Sauté it, roast it, grill it if you sliced it the long way.
Toss in a dressing of your choice. We like rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and also enjoy adding miso or sesame paste to the mix. Smashed cucumbers in chili crisp is also excellent.
Sprinkle with finely chopped herbs. My favorite is shiso, which pairs beautifully with everything. We also stand by our Thai basil in a classic tomato and mozzarella salad.
Steven recently made this tomato, tofu, and apricot salad, with shiso:
Here's the recipe, which he adapted from Shota Nakajima:
Ingredients
1 slicing tomato, sliced into 2 to 3-inch chunks
An equal amount of stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums would all work, I think), cut comparably to the tomato
Half a block of that standard boxed tofu, cut comparably to the tomato
3 shiso leaves, chopped into little pieces
1 glug of olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 pinch of salt
Steps
Put tomato chunks in a large mixing bowl. Add salt. Add tofu and stone fruit. Add olive oil, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. Carefully mix with hand. Garnish with shiso. Serve on plate.
Thank you all for supporting our farm, and happy almost August!
Elizabeth