I must confess that in spite of the fact that my business is growing food, I hardly cook dinner all summer long.

It’s just too busy in the gardens and around the farm, and the last thing I want to do at the beautiful end of a day is sacrifice the final hours of light to stand in front of a hot stove. Frankly, we eat lots of raw vegetables from June to August. But now – as the sun shifts and starts to make fall, all I want to do is mess around in the kitchen!

Once we’ve sown our cool-weather crops, there’s very little left to do in the gardens except harvest beans and tomatoes every five minutes. The weeds have slowed down and most plants are fine left to their own devices at this point. Yet pretty much every sort of vegetable is still out there for the taking, providing endless inspiration for recipe-making. And as our minds wander toward winter, it’s a thrill to be cooking down stocks and sauces to can or freeze for December soups. Here’s what’s in the box, hope you have fun with your own experiments –
Tomatoes – At their best right now, but these tomatoes could be our last. The vines are sick and stressed, probably from the dry weather, and may not continue to flower and make fruit. Make salsa while you can!

String Beans – Oh, I don’t know what I was thinking when I planted all of these beans! We’ll be harvesting these until a hard frost. Mostly, we’ve been fixing these very simply with olive oil and parmesan cheese, but now it’s time to start getting creative with ham hocks, curry and other ways to spice things up.

Turnips – These are the last of the summer turnips, though we’ll have more in the fall. The flavor will grow sweeter in the cold, whereas these are still a bit spicy. Great in soups and vegetable curries.

Fresh Red and Yellow Onions – Not dried and cured, these are intended to be refrigerated and used within a few weeks.

Garlic

Italian Zucchini

Cucumbers

Green Peppers – A Bell and a Sheepnose each.

Sweet Corn – Because most of our sweet corn got knocked over in a 15-minute windstorm, we don’t have nearly enough to put in the boxes for roasting. But here at home, we’ve been putting an ear or two of fresh corn, not cooked, in each batch of salsa we make. Yum! Fresh and surprising.

Serranos – These little babies are getting HOT! Just two or three in four cups of salsa is quite enough. Be careful, and don’t rub your eyes!

Eggplant – These beauties are like jewels in the garden, though protected by those shocking rose thorns on the calyx at the top of the fruit! We’ve included white, purple and a few exotic green.

Beets

Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, Chocolate Mint

Basic Mexican Salsa
I just got a food processor, for the first time in my life, mostly to make pesto and salsa. Here’s how to make the world’s easiest salsa! If you don’t have a food processor, just chop everything quite small.

2 large, ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 garlic clove peeled
2 or 3 Serrano chilies, seeded and cut into thirds
1/2 yellow onion, cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped or parsley, or a mixture of the two
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Char the tomatoes over a gas grill or under the flame of a hot broiler for a few seconds, turning them until the peel blisters. Slip off the peel, and the flesh will still be firm. Remove the green stem core and cut the tomatoes in half vertically. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds. In the food processor, turn the motor on chop first and drop in the garlic, cilantro, onion and chilies into the bowl of the food processor to chop for just a few seconds. Turn off the motor and scrap down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula. Add the remaining ingredients and puree to the desired texture. You want to see bits of all the vegetables through out the salsa. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a serving bowl and allow to season for approximately one hour.

Roasted Tomato Bruschetta

4 large tomatoes, halved
3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
6 slices sourdough bread
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped finely

Heat oven to 400. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Transfer tomatoes and oil to a rimmed baking sheet. Roast 35 minutes, or until tomatoes are lightly browned and wrinkled. While tomatoes roast, in a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer balsamic vinegar and reduce by half.

During the final 10 minutes of roasting, place the bread on one of the oven racks and toast until lightly browned. Remove tomatoes and bread from the oven, and let tomatoes cool slightly. Rub the toasted bread with the garlic.

Slather a generous amount of ricotta on each slice of bread, then top with the tomatoes. Sprinkle with basil and drizzle balsamic over each. Yum!