“Man At The Wheel” statue within the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial

Clay and I are on vacation, taking a week to visit and explore* Gloucester, Massachusetts and the Cape Ann environs with my parents. We’ve rented a gorgeous little house near Stage Fort Park, and are enjoying the salty air between thunderstorms and patches of dense fog. The sun is valiantly trying to burn off the haze this morning, so I’m hopeful that the garden will dry out by mid-afternoon.

Since this is a driving trip, the fabulous team at Simpaug Farms arranged a swap on our CSA share; we arranged to pick up our bounty at a Saturday Farmer’s Market in northern Connecticut, on our way here over the weekend. The team in Ellington had boxed all of our beautiful vegetables and helped us move each selection into produce bags for the cooler or crate of food in the car. Then we arrived at the beach with a week’s worth of produce!

I didn’t bring the kitchen scale on vacation, and didn’t photograph the individual items this week, but do have a catalogue compiled from memory.

What’s In The Week Eight Share:

Vegetables

• Summer Squash, 3
• Pattypan Squash, 1
• Barbarella Eggplant, 1
• Savoy Cabbage, 1
• Slicing Cucumber, 1
• Slicing Tomatoes, 3
• Roma Tomatoes, 3
• Cherry Tomatoes, quart basket
• Swiss Chard, 1 bunch
• Bell Peppers, 3
• Bull Horn Peppers, 3
• Jalapeno Peppers, 2
• Carrots with their tops, 1 bunch
• Red Onions, 3
• Garlic, 1 bulb
• Savory, 1 bunch

Other

• Eggs – one dozen

What To Make With This Week’s Share

My Dad is on a medically restricted diet, so many of the squash-breads I make every weekend are off-limits this week. We supplemented this week’s share with a few remnants from last week (2 bell peppers, a head of garlic) and some items from the market (a bag of lemons and limes, a bunch of celery, a gigantic sweet potato, a quart of blueberries and a cute little watermelon), and have been enjoying our culinary adventures.

• On Sunday morning, we made a breakfast of omelettes stuffed with sauteed pepper, onion, garlic, chard, and cherry tomatoes.
• For Sunday dinner we picked up a quart of chowder from Roy Moore’s Lobster Shack, then grilled some chicken and served it over a gigantic salad alongside.
• Last night, Clay improvised a stuffed pepper dish from the leftover Chinese and Japanese take-away we ordered on Saturday night; a variety of meats and veggies were mixed into fried rice, stuffed into hollowed out bell peppers, and topped with minced carrot greens and crumbled flatbread crackers. It was delicious.
• Tonight we’re going to attempt making sweet potato gnocchi and serving it with the fantastic pasta sauce we made a couple of weeks ago.

If the weather continues to be stormy I’ll likely make a ratatouille of the eggplant, squashes, and remaining peppers, but if the sun decides to come out and play, all bets are off.

Rockport Harbor photographed from Tuna Wharf (behind Roy Moore’s)