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Recipes

Calabacitas

This recipe is one of my favorite traditional New Mexican dishes, another I adapted from a restaurant menu. On more than one occasion my friends and I biked a dozen miles across the desert to eat lunch at The Coyote Moon in Lemitar. We told ourselves it was for the great green chile cheeseburgers, but those burgers just wouldn’t have been the same without a side of calabacitas. It can be eaten as is for a side dish, but it also makes a great filling for vegetable tacos or burritos.

Serves 4

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound zucchini (or yellow squash), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
3/4 cup chopped heirloom tomato
1 diced hot pepper (optional)
1 cup corn kernels

In a large skillet, heat oil on medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic and cook for three minutes, stirring. Add zucchini and cook three minutes, stirring. Add tomato, pepper, and corn and cook for four minutes, stirring. Serve.

To make a wonderful breakfast, crumble and brown 1 pound sausage. Add sausage and calabacitas to a casserole dish. Sprinkle with 1 cup shredded cheese. Pour two or three beaten eggs over the top of everything. Top with ½ cup bread crumbs and salt & pepper and bake at 325 until bubbly, about 25 minutes.

Market News

This heat has really been something. Every year I seem to get a little less tolerant of it (not a good trait for a veggie grower in the South, I admit), and it seems to have arrived far too early this year. I just took a moment to look back at my records, though, and maybe I’m wrong. Seems to be too much, too soon, either way. We even have okra listed on the website this week, and this has to be the earliest we’ve ever had okra for sale.

So, the Spring greens have just about had it until fall. The tougher cooking greens (made tender via low and slow braising) are plentiful, and the summer crops are all coming quickly. Eggplant has returned, winter squash have come in (so named because they can keep through the winter, but there’s no reason to wait until then to start eating them), and the beans are growing backs just about as fast as they can be picked. I can’t go out to my garden these days without tripping over a five foot long zucchini.

And you know what? I actually prefer them that size. Modern squash varieties, the kind you find in the grocery store, are bred for growing quickly and standing up to shipping stress. That results in a tasteless spongy flesh that has to be eaten when small to get any flavor at all. I’ve noticed just the opposite with many heirloom varieties, however. The Costata Romanesco zucchini I grow develop a fantastic nutty flavor that only gets better the larger they grow. The old Delaware Indian crookneck yellow squash, the kind with the sharp warts, also gets a wonderful complex flavor as it grows. Yes, the area right around the seeds gets spongy and I scoop that out, but the rest of it is fantastic. There is a reason that people have bred them into so many shapes and colors throughout the ages, and it’s not to eat them all when they’re tiny.

Anyway, there is well over a thousand items from our growers available for you to purchase this week. We’ve got some pretty big and fancy grocery stores in Athens, but I can’t think of a single one that can match our variety of fresh food. It really is a testament to all of the hard work our growers have done in the last ten years (many of them for less than that), transforming our landscape both literally and figuratively.

We’ve re-instated our regular “Meet the Grower” table during the Thursday pickups. This Thursday, you’ll get to meet Summer Cordell, owner of Goodness Gracious! Granola. Her profile has this to say: “I started our local granola company in Atlanta, the spring of 2008, and moved the kitchen to Suwanee in 2009. We use local honey, Georgia sorghum, as well as other natural and organic ingredients. This year we began using safflower and/or coconut oil instead of canola.The flavors are amazing. Our granolas are 60-80% organic, no preservatives, no refined sugars, no salt. We also flavorfully roast cinnamon almonds, rosemary pecans and lime-spice cashews, and on occasion, have made the best almond coffee toffee available! We are currently changing our packaging to a compostable package made from recycled material.” While you’re waiting for us to fill your order, step up to her table and say hi!

Thanks so much for your support of Athens Locally Grown and everything we’ve tried to accomplish. With you’re help, we’ve been able to build something truly great and inspirational to people all across the country, more than you could know. Thank you also for your support of all of our growers, local food, and our rights to eat it. You all are part of what makes Athens such a great area in which to live. We’ll see you on Thursday at Ben’s Bikes at the corner of Pope and Broad Streets from 4:30 to 8pm!

Coming Events

Farmer for a Day: July 11, Sunday, at Veribest Farm (Oglethorpe County)

Certified Naturally Grown. We are pleased and grateful to find ourselves with enough of a patch of soil to participate in Athens Locally Grown and believe in the philosophy of thinking globally and eating locally. We believe in and strive for a sustainable lifestyle that includes growing fine vegetables produced without chemicals while conserving resources. This farm is approximately 33 miles from Athens, and it’ll take 50 minutes to get there. Space is limited, so please make reservations by adding them to your order. You’ll find it under the “Events Reservations” category on the website.

The Athens Farmers Market is held every Saturday morning at Bishop Park from 8am to noon and every Tuesday evening at Little Kings downtown. It’s a totally separate entity from Athens Locally Grown, but you’ll find many of the same growers at both. And of course, you can learn more about that market on their website.

Please support your local farmers and food producers, where ever you’re able to do so!