Normally our roma tomatoes do very well, but this year we had a whistlepig eat them during the flowering stage so they have produced very few tomatoes and now are mostly dead.  So sad, but I guess groundhogs need to eat too.

We are lucky though that Spiral Path Farm CSA will be offering 25lbs of organic roma tomatoes for $6 to their CSA members at their next open farm day on August 21st.  We are definitely going to take advantage of that and dry some for later use.

Our dehydrator does a great job with the tomatoes, but if we didn’t have one we’d still be able to dry them in the oven.  For a well done video on how to oven-dry roma tomatoes check out this video by Keith Snow.  He adds thyme to his tomatoes and I don’t like to do that – it can sometimes take on a burnt flavor in the oven.  Better to just store fresh thyme in the jar with the tomatoes I think.  Garlic cloves can work well here too since the tomatoes are to be kept in the fridge or freezer.  Garlic in oil should NOT be left out on the counter or in the pantry.  It can go bad even if submerged in oil.

These are the first blueberries of the year from our own bushes. By all accounts they cost me $25 each so far but that price will drop drastically as more fruits mature.  There are hundreds and hundreds of little green berries ready to turn into big purple fruits.  As only the second perennial project on our property since we started improvements, I am pleased they are proving to be productive and low maintenance. So far they have only requiring water, soil acidifier, and some netting to keep away the birds.

For anyone who has never had a fresh blueberry, straight from the bush, still warm from the summer sun, no commercially bought blueberries, however grown, harvested, or selected, can compare to it.  Sweet flesh followed by a slight sour pucker from the skin, this is what nature intended for us to enjoy.

If you are looking for an easy to grow perennial give blueberries a try.  The effort has been worthwhile in my garden.  So long as the netting stays in place and the birds are kept away, I am expecting to harvest several quarts this year.  With even more in the future as then go from their current 2′ tall to upwards of 6′ or more.  I do recommend spending a little more money on more mature plants so you can enjoy a harvest your first year and not have to fret over whether or not they will survive.  Our 4 plants ranged from $20-25 a piece but they are 3 years old and come with a 1 year guarantee from a local nursery.

On this very hot day in May I picked up our second box from Spiralpath Farm CSA.  This one was lighter than last week so I knew it was full of greens – like I suspected last week’s would be.  No picture this week since all you’d see is a bunch of green!

What we got this week was:  3 pints strawberries, 1 bag baby arugula, 1 bag baby spinach, radishes, bunched spinach (it is huge!), red oakleaf lettuce bunch and green boston lettuce bunch.

Lots of salads this week.

We did make the Colcannon recipe last Saturday when we had family visiting and it was a hit.  I used smoked sausage and mild cheddar cheese. 

Basically you make mashed potatoes.  While they are cooking  you cook off some sausage with garlic and onion.  Then you add a bunch of spinach to wilt down.  You spread the sausage/spinach mix in the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan, cover with mashed potatoes and then top with shredded cheese.  Bake at 375 or so until cheese is melted, about 30 min.  It was awesome!

Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce, in any flavor, is my wife’s favorite brand of barbecue sauce.  With the summer grilling season upon us we hit the pantry and were ready to slather it all over some slow cooked ribs only to see “Modified Foodstarch” with no qualifiers.  Heartbroken, it was back to the cabinet to see what else we could find.  Thankfully there was a bottle of a lesser brand waiting in the wings and dinner was not ruined, simply not as tasty.  So this didn’t happen again I left a message with SBR’s customer service folks to see if they could expand on what exactly that food starch was.

The next day, earlier in the morning than I expected, I received a call back.  What sweet words they were to hear that they use modified cornstarch and those of us with gluten issues are safe to eat it.  The representative also followed up by saying that they use cornstarch in all of their products and at the moment all are gluten free.  When asked when they would update their labeling to say so, she didn’t know but wished they would do so soon.

Another mysterious modified foodstarch mystery solved.  Enjoy Sweet Baby Ray’s products with your next cookout.

I was preparing dinner for the family the other day using a few slices of Berks Ham Steak.  Setting them into a sinkful of cold water to defrost I noticed the ingredient list.  There at the bottom of list was the ambiguous “Natural Flavor”.  After the flap over McDonald’s fries containing a wheat based natural flavoring, my curiosity was peaked over whether or not the ham was OK to eat.  A quick call to the company, which was answered by a pleasant, knowledgeable customer service rep, revealed that their products are gluten free.

You can check it for yourself on their FAQ:

http://www.berksfoods.com/Faq.aspx

Even though we grow a garden, we also subscribe to a CSA with Spiral Path Farm.  If you aren’t familiar with what a CSA is, the acronym stands for “Community Supported Agriculture.”  With most CSA’s you sign up early in the growing season for a membership with them and you pay them a fee up front.  The farm uses that money to plant and grow crops that year and you, as a member, get a share of what is produced.

In Spiral Path’s case they offer half and full shares (you can see their pricing here - it is not too late to sign up, they pro-rate the cost) and in return for our membership fee we will receive a box of organic produce once a week from now until the week of Thanksgiving -that is 28 weeks.  We subscribe for a full share since there are five of us and we love it.  Our cost works out to be about $20 a week.

In addition to the weekly boxes of produce you have an invitation to visit the farm once a month for open farm days when additional produce is available to members of the CSA only.  Herbs, strawberries and peppers are some of the things you can pick yourself to take home with you.

There is some excitement each week as we wait to see what the box will hold – often there are surprises. So this week our box looked like this – filled to the rim with greens and heavier than I expected.  Spiral Path packages their produce in a biodegradable plastic bag.  Most of the time we just grab the bag and leave the box, but since this was the first week I wanted to show a picture of the box.

Inside the box was our weekly newsletter from the farm.  It is always interesting to hear what is going on and usually a recipe is included that features some of the items you received in your box.  This week the recipe is a Spinach Colcannon and we are planning on trying it tomorrow night.

The produce we received this time included: 2 pints of strawberries (a surprise, ours are just coming in), 5 1/2 lbs of small red potatoes (Spiral Path purchased these from another farmer as a bonus and this is why the box was heavier than I was expecting), 1 head green lettuce, 1/2 lb of baby lettuce mix (mostly red oakleaf), 1 1/4 lbs broccoli (also purchased from another farmer), 3/4 lb spinach, and 8 spring onions.

The first few boxes of the spring are always greens heavy as we wait for other things to mature.  Tonight for dinner we used up half of the baby lettuce mix in a family salad and half of the spring onions – our youngest daughter loves them.  I cut up the strawberries and everyone had a few of those as well.

Tomorrow we will use the potatoes and the spinach for dinner in the new recipe plus the onions.  That’ll leave us with the makings for salad and broccoli for a side dish for next week until the next box comes on Thursday.

While on a family trip to check out Mr. Ed’s Elephant Museum, I was surprised to see a sign out front offering the best gluten free cookies I’d find anywhere.  This was an offer that seemed too good to be true so I knew then that I would have to take some home with me.  That lead me to buy a package ominously named Kali, a robust ginger cookie.

Made by the Goddess Cookie Company and baker Caryn Sheckler, they are made with only the finest ingredients, with no junk or fillers.  They are free of a number of common allergens including peanuts, oats, wheat, dairy, casein, soy, and trans-fats.  They are, however, almond based, so if you have a nut allergy they should be avoided.  For those of us without one, the almonds give a wonderful texture with a thick outer crust surrounding a moist chewy center.  If the label had not listed almonds as the main ingredient I would have had no reason to suspect it.

In the case of Kali, she had a hearty ginger taste with chunks of ginger.  This is what we should expect from every gingersnap.  It is rich, mouth filling, with a spicy warm taste that lingers comfortably long after every bite.

Besides Kali, there is also Venus (Double Chocolate), Freya (Currants and Spices), Tara (Coconut), and Arasy (Apricot and Cinnamon).  And, for those Vegans out there, Kali, Freya, Tara, and Arasy are all safe.

In the end, the pack of cookies I bought never made it home.  Instead, I ate them on the ride back. As for Mister Ed’s pronouncement, I agree:  They were the best gluten free cookies I’ve had so far.

Here is a selection of the many appetizers provided by local vendors for the Harrisburg Gluten Intolerance Group Chef to Plate Kickoff lunch.  Starting in the upper left hand corner you have tiramisu, whoopie pie, and, in the cup above the pizza, sticky bun.  Then there is the pterodactyl dip and hummus with flat breads, a seared scallop topped with roasted red peppers on an Asiago cheese crisp.  Last is a slice of gluten free pizza and chicken saltimbocca with gluten free pasta.

Piazza Sorrento provided the tiramisu and pizza.  I couldn’t tell that the tiramisu was gluten free and the pizza was the closest thing I have found to the real thing to far.  Thin, very crisp, with a hint of char, it was married to a rich complex sauce that brought all the flavors together with a slightly acidic tomato bite, not sugary and insipid like the sauce you find from the large chains.

Fennici’s chef was cooking the chicken saltimbocca fresh while we waited.  This mix of chicken, prosciutto, and provolone was served with a garlic cream sauce over gluten free pasta.  My only complaint is that there wasn’t more.

Matthew Hickey, Executive Chef from The Cellar made the seared scallop.  I’m not a huge fan of seafood so cannot judge this dish appropriately one way or the other.  I will give the crisp two thumbs up. After trying to perfect something very similar to these crisps off and on the past few months, with nothing that could be called a success, a big thank you goes out to Mr. Hickey for an equipment tip to making them well: Silpat baking mats.

The pterodactyl dip and hummus are compliments of Isaac’s, a local sit-down sandwich chain currently with 20 shops in the central and south eastern areas of Pennsylvania.  Regretfully, neither of these items are available on the regular menu but are available for catering.   was glad to learn however that Isaac’s will serve any of their sandwiches on a gluten free flat bread and they are conscious of the needs of Celiac and Gluten Intolerance patients.  This includes employees putting on fresh gloves, covering the work surface with aluminum foil, and prepare your sandwich separate from other ingredients.  As can be expected in a sandwich shop with bread everywhere, they cannot guarantee there will be no cross contamination, but they do their best to insure it is so.

Gluten Free Innovations came through with the whoopie pies and sticky buns.  The former was rather pedestrian, though I find most whoopie pies are as there is little separating the best from the worst, but the latter were astonishingly good.  I had to stop and take a moment.  Ok, a few moments.  It’s why there isn’t much in the little serving cup in the photo: I stopped at the serving table and took a taste.  And another.  And another.  So good that I put them aside once I took that picture and saved them for last.

Finally, all the flat breads used at Isaac’s and for the lunch at the Kickoff were provided by Amaranth Bakery in Lancaster PA.  These were one of the items that impressed me the most at the luncheon because they tasted like whole grain bread, were flexible enough to roll around fillings, and  had a good texture.  If you’ve read any of my previous posts about baked goods, you know how important this last part is to me.

I’ll get right to it.  These are good.  Real good.  The closest thing I’ve tasted to traditional baked goods.  I’ve tried the brownies and chocolate chip cookies so far and both were great.  I took the cookies to share at my PDC and several people commented on how good they were.  The yellow cake and devil’s food cake are on deck to be baked up in the next few weeks and I’ll give you a heads up on whether or not they continue the revelation of tasty oven delights or not.  My expectation though is that they will.  I also want to see if I can somehow transform the devil’s food mix into a red velvet cake.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

In my local grocery stores these retail for $3.99 a box.  That made a 9×9 pan of brownies or 40 2 1/2″ cookies.  Compared to the other gluten free mixes on the shelf, it’s a bargain, especially considering how much better these are than some of the other options.  The Betty Crocker brand hit one out of the park with this product line, especially considering how pure the ingredients are.  There are no long lists of food additives or preservatives, just a blend of flours, sugar, cocoa or chocolate chips (also with a short list of ingredients), and some xanthan gum.  Why can’t other boxed mixes be this simple?

Here is a link to the nutritional and ingredient information for the brownies so you can see what I mean:

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/product_image.aspx?catID=23333&itemID=38507

The Harrisburg GIG is holding a gluten free luncheon to start the national GIG Chef to Plate and Celiac Awareness Month.  The menu will include:

Vegetarian vegetable soup
Buffet Menu Selections:
Shrimp Caesar salad with sundried tomatoes.
Greek chicken salad (olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta, Gorgonzola vinaigrette, lemon marinated grilled chicken).
Assorted “Amaranth Bakery” flat bread wrap sandwiches with chicken salad; tuna salad; or ham, turkey, and roast beef.
Ice Tea and Coffee Beverage Station
Chocolate cream pie with pecan crust for dessert

Price for the dinner is $18.80 per person, which includes tax and gratuity. Deadline to RSVP is Saturday April 24th. Your reservation and payment (by check, which should include your phone number) can be sent to:

GIG of Harrisburg
PO Box 312
Hershey, PA 17033-0312

I hope to see you there!