Veggie Tips

Green Beans: An easy way to cook green beans is to blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water (or steam them over boiling water), then fry them quickly with garlic, lemon, salt and pepper.  You can jazz them up with some sweet peppers and bacon.  Roasted nuts sprinkled over the top also combine really well with green beans.

Asian Pears:  Shaped like an apple, such a perfect size for an easy snack.  They aren’t going to soften up much more – they are crisp and firm when ripe. They will store for several weeks if you aren’t ready to eat them.

Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers:  These are very special Italian sweet grilling peppers.  The Jimmy Nardello is an heirloom variety, originally from southern Italy, that has been recognized in the Ark of Taste because of its rich flavor. This isn’t really a roasting pepper – it’s a frying pepper.  You can fry them whole, or split them in half, remove the seeds  and stems, and fry them that way.  Use a high heat in a heavy pan, toss and turn them as they cook, and sprinkle with salt.

Tomatoes: Our heirloom tomatoes are producing in huge quantities.  Brandywine, Cherokee, Marvel Stripe, Vintage Wine, Japanese Black, Italiano… Can you describe the differences in flavor?