Purple Is Not Just for Barney

I promise--I did not Photoshop this picture to get the purple hue you see here. This head of cauliflower is truly purple.

It was the last head of purple cauliflower the farmer had at today's farmer's market in downtown Bloomington. I try to get to the farmer's market every Saturday morning to pick up organic meats, produce, and herbs. I couldn't believe how beautiful this cauliflower was, and decided to try it.

The coloring comes from anthocyanins, phytochemicals responsible for the purplish color in cabbage, leaves, and other vegetation; this cauliflower variety is richer in antioxidants than its white counterpart. The color is a little off-putting, but the farmer assured me that it takes just like "regular" cauliflower. I will cook it up tomorrow and then let you know what I discover.

In addition to the cauliflower, I purchased a 5-lb. bag of sweet walla walla onions, more green and chocolate beauty peppers, some green onions, radicchio, red-leaf lettuce, dill, cilantro, and chicken drumsticks--all chemical-free. I also picked up a 3-lb bag of hard red winter wheat berries. I had no idea what to do with them, but the farmer said I could grind them to make my own wheat (although I do not yet have a flour mill, although I'm looking for a reasonably priced one) or could soak, cook, and eat them like hot cereal. I found a couple of recipes online that use red winter wheat berries, so I will soon give those a try.

My goal with farmer's market food is not only to eat fresh healthier, chemical-free produce now, but I've started freezing the produce so I'll have almost-fresh, healthier, chemical-free produce over the winter. Today I managed to chop and freeze the green onions (about 1 1/2 cups, separated into 1/2-cup packages) and green and chocolate beauty peppers (about 5 cups total, separated into 1/2-cup packages). I also baked two loaves of zucchini bread (which won't make it to the freezer) and am in the process of shredding some more zucchini and also chopping some zucchini for winter soups. The cucumbers I'll throw in the refrigerator for future bread-and-butter pickles and perhaps even freezer dill pickles (I just found a recipe).

Tomorrow I'll tackle chopping the walla walla onions. I'm not sure how powerful they'll be--today's green onions were powerful enough to get my eyes burning and tearing--but I'll manage somehow. Come winter, it will be a delight not to have to chop any onions--just open the Ziploc bag and pour!

Cucumbers at Last!

Harvested 9 cucumbers this evening, with the promise of more in just a day or two. It's time to break out the freezer bread-and-butter pickle and the marinated cucumber recipes. Add to the cukes 4 more zucchini and 23 sun sugar tomatoes and a few sprigs of dill for today's total harvest.

Note: I will be spending the evening shredding zucchini for freezing until my arms fall off. At least I can do it while I watch So You Think You Can Dance.

Hornworm update: Upon investigation, hubby and I spied two more hornworms this evening, which met certain death. I plucked them and David stomped the first one.

Those two hornworms stripped the leaves from several tomato stems, and one of them was cheeky enough to eat one of the green tomatoes. It looked like he had been pretty darn hungry, because as you can see, a little more than half of the tomato is gone (with a big pile of what I can only assume is hornworm poo --not shown--globbed up where a couple of stems bifurcate). For his blasphemy, he was killed with a large rock and, five minutes later, had become bird food.

It looks like I will be on hornworm patrol daily now if I want any tomatoes.

Chocolate and Zucchini: A Delicious Pairing

I know, I know. Chocolate and zucchini together sounds a bit disgusting. But I assure you that it isn't! In fact, I made a Chocolate Zucchini Sheet Cake tonight! The zucchini doesn't really flavor the cake--the cocoa comes through strong and clear--but rather helps make the cake moist...while adding extra nutrition, of course. The icing on this sheet cake is still melting, so it's a little uneven in places, but it will even out into a kind of glaze as it cools. Chocolate heaven, I tell you!

I spent the rest of the afternoon picking zucchini again (thankfully, I'll have a few days reprieve from zucchini picking now while more grows). I thumbed through my copy of The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food: Easy Step-by-Step Instructions for Freezing, Drying, and Canning by Janet Chadwick (which is no longer in print, apparently, since it can be purchased at Amazon for a mere $103.14) and learned that I can tray freeze zucchini and then pack it in a freezer bag.

I also shredded a lot of the zucchini and packed the shreds in snack-size (1 cup) Ziploc bags and set them in the freezer. Once the packages are well frozen, I will slide several into a one-gallon Ziploc bag and date it.

Keeping Up with the Zukes

I checked my zucchini plants today and found 8 more zucchini ripe for the picking. I left several others to be picked tomorrow or the day after--they are still a little small and skinny. Of these 8, I picked all but two of the thinner ones (which I'll sautee for dinner tonight) to shred for future zucchini bread and other zucchini recipes.

For the freezing, I had to decide the best way to go about it. I decided that right now, I'd shred some zucchini (I'll look at flash freezing later on.) I packed 3-cup freezer bags (quart-size bags) for future zucchini bread since my recipe calls for 3 cups, but also 1-cup freezer bags (snack-size bags), which I could use for other zucchini recipes. I was very pleased to get all of this processed today; the zucchini is still fresh and none of it went to waste! The tips and ends will go into my compost bin, where the worms and other bugs and microbes can sample my garden fare as well.