… is about to begin. With the strawberries, of course. And, those lovely garlic scapes.
We did a Costco run today to stock up on food saver bags, pine nuts, and other supplies. I am down to the end of the pesto. The rest will be used in a salad for a Conservancy planning meeting I am hosting next Monday here.
This is the last bag of pesto cubes. With garlic scapes coming soon, I will be making pesto. I got pine nuts today and Parmesan. I freeze my pesto with the Parm in it. Some people don’t.
This year the whole strawberries that get flash frozen will be vacuum sealed in the food saver. So will the blackberries and blueberries later this summer.
I also freeze whole tomatoes once they start producing. The vacuum sealer will help greatly with this task. Blanch, peel and squeeze out seeds. Put in bags. Slowly cook and put into sauces.
These tomatoes were dumped in a pan. Very low heat. Covered in herbs and salt, pepper. Once they sweated off all that liquid, I picked them up and made sauce with them.
There is nothing in a can or jar that comes close to this.
Check out Larriland all summer long. They have pick your own veggies and fruit, including tomatoes. With a few simple tools, and a chest freezer, you can eat wonderful meals without all that sodium and other garbage found in cans and jars.
Love those garlic scapes. And, any other greens to make pesto.
Ask Love Dove at the market Friday when scapes are coming in.
hocofood@@@
AnnieRie Unplugged 
Annie,
I just learned today that leeks have scapes, too. I’d stuck some leek bottoms into a raised bed for grins and giggles last fall, then my visiting dad mucked about in the bed and rearranged everything, so I assumed that they didn’t make it. Imagine my surprise when a green plant emerged from the garden bed earlier this spring! I assumed it was garlic when it formed a scape last week, but at today’s pickup we got leeks complete with intact scapes. Pretty cool–I also got a wee bunch of basil, so I’ll make a fresh scape/basil pesto–thank you for that suggestion. I’ve been hearing a lot about Costco foodsaver stuff–thanks also for another thumbs up about the product.
I also have leftover put up pesto in the freezer, that and some jars of crushed tomatoes and bags of spaghetti sauce are all that remains of CSA 2012. Besides the memories . . . .
I asked about scapes yesterday 🙂 he’s harvesting next week. Sounds like he’s a little ahead of ours…I know you’re up to your eyeballs in strawberries, but TLVs are divine!!! Had them over buttermilk cake last night.