This week your basket contains: Florence fennel, SHALLOTS, sweet peppers, KABOCHA SQUASH, elephant garlic, cooking greens (Swiss chard and Chinese cabbage), and green tomatoes.

NEXT TUESDAY WILL BE YOUR THANKSGIVING DOUBLE BASKET.  We will be listing the items in that basket on Friday on our web site.  We will skip delivery Nov. 29^th and be back to normal on Dec. 6^th.

WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR YOU.  This fall we have had a lot of damage from voles, particularly in the winter beets.  They still have great greens, but most of the remaining roots have been nibbled to some extent by the voles.  Our question to you is whether we should harvest only the greens, or include the nibbled roots for you to trim and get some use out of them (we don’t have the time/labor to do the trimming here).  Please email to let us know what you think.

The recipe below makes a large cake.  It is easy to halve the recipe and use a smaller pan.  You may also need to cook for a shorter time.

GREEN TOMATO CAKE

4 cups chopped green tomatoes

1 tablespoon salt

½ cup butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup raisins

½ cup chopped walnuts

Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Place in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking pan. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to the dry mixture; add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Mix well.  Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 inch pan.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Your cooking greens would be great in stir fry.  Both types of greens have substantial ribs that add a nice crunch.  The leafy portion of both Chinese cabbage and chard will cook in about the same amount of time.  This is a great sauce for stir fry.

SESAME GINGER STIR-FRY SAUCE

4 Tbs toasted sesame seeds

2 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs grated ginger

4 Tbs soy sauce

3 Tbs rice vinegar

1/4 cup veg. or sesame oil

hot pepper oil (optional)

2 cloves garlic, minced

Whisk together oil, lemon juice, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sesame seeds, and hot pepper to taste.  Pour over stir-fry when all ingredients are cooked and mix well.

We love kabocha squash.  This is perhaps the easiest way to enjoy it!

BAKED KABOCHA SQUASH

Cut your squash in half.  After removing the seeds, cut the halves into thin wedges either with the skin on or off.   Sprinkle them with olive oil, salt, and black pepper.  Bake in a hot oven (400⁰) until browned on one side.  Turn the wedges over to brown evenly.  You can eat them hot, let them cool as a snack or use them as the basis for a pureed squash soup.