Iron "Earthshare Gardens" Chef

Today was our scheduled pick-up at the local Community Supported Agriculture garden, Earthshare Gardens, which happens every other week. It's always a pot luck type event. You never know what kind of crop you are gonna get. This is actually one of the reasons that we really enjoy these weekends since the random crop always challenges us as far as figuring out new things to cook. Today was no different and the dinner on the table tonight was a veritable feast:

• Fresh caught cedar plank grilled drum (not from the coop but from a friend of ours) topped with thyme, garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon.
• Tomato, mozzarella and purple basil salad.
• Sauteed eggplant with garlic and banana and pimento peppers
• Lemongrass and cucumber water
• Broiled pears with rosemary
• Pear jam/honey with french bread

These were all small portions so the amount of food was not as crazy as it sounds especially since the pear dishes were more or less small sides made for storage...but still. Crazy assortment. We got about 10-12 cooking pears so I made a jam that turned into honey and the broiled pear dish just for fun. Carlee ad libbed the eggplant dish and the grilled fish has become my favorite dish as of late (regardless of the fish type, the cedar plank and seasoning is an excellent combination). Here's a few photos from the culinary adventure.

Figuring out what all these things are is sometimes hard. Figuring out what to do with them is sometimes even harder. Check out the look of concentration on Carlee's face.

The cajun/creole herb garden area. Based on our recent walks through the garden, I think there are at least 3-4 different herb areas. the purple basil (not even sure if that is the right name) was found somewhere out there.

If I knew what to do with okra...I'd do it.


Lemongrass and cucumber water - artistic and refreshing...

Drum all dressed up and ready for the grill.

I'm trying to figure out how to throw our own Iron chef-like party using the Earthshare Gardens ingredients. Maybe invite a few people over, divvy up the garden spoils in some way, and see what sort of magic happens. That might be kinda fun.