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I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmer’s Market tomorrow with:

Crimson Sweet watermelons, lambkin melons. Surprisingly, plenty of tomatoes in all the same kinds as last week. And A TON of eggplant, 3 varieties.

Potatoes: German Butterball, Peppermint, Huckleberry Gold, Carola bakers; onions: sweet, red & cipollini; zephyr and lemon squash, okra; jalepenos & bell peppers; a variety of cucumbers; sweet potatoes; wheat berries.

Our grass fed, grass finished, Angus beef in these cuts: ribeyes, NY strips, filets, sirloins, flank, skirt, flat irons,  ground beef, stew beef, philly steak, cube steak, oso bucco, short ribs, brisket, soup bones, liver, sirloin tip roasts, eye of round and bone-in chuck roasts, and hot dogs and andouille sausage made from 100% grass fed beef without any nitrates/nitrites.

I guess I didn’t FIFO the cube steak and the oso bucco, because underneath I found some that was a previous processing date. It’s 40% off until it’s gone!

Now can we talk about eggplant?? I’ve been bringing home gallons of mini fairytale eggplants from the market. What, mini eggplant isn’t trending now? Am I the only one here on Pinterest because…Roasted Tiny Eggplant with Feta and Spiced Mini Eggplant in Tomato Sauce and

“Mini” Ratatouille with Fairytale Eggplant & Cherry Tomatoes. Pureed some cherry tomatoes instead of using tomato sauce. Ate it over baked Carolas. We had leftovers so the next night I browned some hot sausage from our pigs and tossed it with the ratatouille and quinoa pasta. So good.

Those tiny plants are working hard, really cranking it out. Wait til you see the Rosa Biancas at my table tomorrow too.

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So I’ve made a lot of recipes with them, and the very best is to roast/bake them: cut in half the long way,  skin side down. I mixed coconut oil, soy sauce, hot pepper, garlic and maple syrup and poured that over them before baking. 425 for 15ish minutes, so fast that I wait to make them until Shane calls to say he’s coming home. It takes a thousand years for him to drive home from the field on the tractor, so I have time to clean up the kitchen, sort socks, wash the dog, drink 3 margaritas and ponder the mysteries of life before I have to start cooking. Just kidding I do not sort socks. Anyway they come out so sweet and creamy, it’s by far our favorite way.

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Romas are coming in now. These are Long Toms, and they’re massive. My grandma taught me an easy trick for freezing tomatoes. Just wash and freeze whole, then when you thaw them the skins just pop right off, super easy! And the seeds squeeze right out.

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Lemon squash, okra mix, salt & pepper cukes and lemon cukes, fairytale eggplant, Asian cukes and slicers.

Folks keep stopping by the okra and asking, “why is it white?” or “why is it red?”  or “why is it so fat?” I grow 4 varieties, because I like variety. Silver Queen okra is white, Burgundy okra is red, and Eagle Pass okra is short and fat. There’s also regular green.

Also lots of questions about the lemon cucumbers. They don’t taste lemony, they are very fresh tasting and never bitter. The larger ones have bigger seeds but have the best flavor in my opinion. The Asian cukes are also super delicious, very fresh and crispy. I don’t peel them, just rub off the spines. I like to slice them thinly on the mandolin and put them in jars with water and Bragg’s unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (maybe 60/40?) and lots of sea salt for fridge pickles. It’s all just so good right now.

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American Original Beefsteak. So dependable.

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Picking outside tomatoes. I haven’t grown outside tomatoes in 5 years! There’s milo on the far left, then a row of pigweed, then 4 rows of green okra, then a row of pigweed (Baha!) and 2 rows of tomatoes. Man, it’s so much cooler picking tomatoes outside. The hoop house is like the inside of a volcano.

See you tomorrow!