Today was Salsa Saturday at the orchard and it was wonderful!  We had lots of people coming in looking to try some yummy, refreshing salsa and others that were pleasantly surprised by our fairly spontaneous special day. 

Between Diane and I, we made up 7 different salsa’s made from ingredients mostly found at the orchard. 

These salsa’s included: Fresh & Spicy Salsa, Fresh Apple Salsa, Peach & Tomato Salsa, Ground Cherry Salsa, Salsa Verde, Zucchini Salsa, & Apple Raspberry Salsa.  I know I enjoyed on munching on some of these ‘different’ salsa’s throughout the day and I think our customer’s enjoyed them as well.  I would love to hear what your favorites of these were!

I’ll be posting the recipes of these that aren’t already posted in the next day or so. 

 

Five of my customers brought their salsa in to put it to the test against the public.  65 people voted and the winner is….It was a TIE!

TWO salsa’s both took 31% of the vote…

#2 made by Joan Van Grunsven!

AND #4 made by Eric & Katie Meyer

 

Thanks to everyone who brought their salsa out to share.  I heard from many that it was a really hard decision to choose just one that they liked. 

Jared and I decided that a tie for the win is just fine – both will receive a flat of canning tomatoes for winning!

I made a little ‘pocket’ cookbook of fun salsa recipes.  I have plans to make more of these ‘pocket’ additions so if you’d like you can make a collection out of them.  There are still some of the ‘Celebrate Salsa’ editions left so it’s not too late to start collecting.

Tomorrow morning, Frank, Diane and Jared will be in charge of the store.  I’m heading down with some friends to do the ‘Dirty Girl Run’ bright and early.  Wish me luck!

 

I realized today that I’m taking too long to get my posts about the applesauce up.  Today I’m going to tell you about the Dandee Red which we’re already sold out of for this year.  It will still be good to know for future though.  But it has encouraged me to be quicker with my applesauce analysis turn around though.  I have Ginger Gold’s and Sansa’s cooking up right now so I’ll try to post about them soon!

So…I chopped up the Dandee Red’s (too lazy to pull out the peeler/corer/slicer) and started cooking! So the sauce looks slightly pink but it’s only because I stirred it with the same spoon as the ‘Scarlet’ sauce…  The Dandee Red sauce had some tartness to it but it was very fitting and ‘apple-esque’.  I enjoyed it.

My Personal Overall Rating (POR) (scores are out of 10)

Flavor: 8
Texture: 8
Color: 6

AVERAGE POR: 7.33

Past Apple Tests:

• Baker's Mix
• Braeburn
• Cameo
• Fireside
• Fuji
• Gala
• Golden Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Jonathan
• MacIntosh
• NW Greening
• Scarlet
• Tolman Sweet
• Valstar

Our pick your own canning tomato garden had it's first visitors this week and we now realize that many of you have never picked your own tomatoes before. I (Diane) grew up picking and canning tomatoes (and everything else), so sometimes I forget this is new to so many of you.

On Sunday, a lovely couple stopped in the store to get some great fresh produce.  The woman was kind enough to share what she was planning on doing with some of her goodies.  Here’s a recipe she shared with me.  I made it last night and I’m almost drooling just thinking about it!  SO GOOD!

I’m not a food photographer…but this sort of gives you the idea…trust me it’s super delicious! 

Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Stuffed Grilled Mushroom Top

shared by customer, Deb Jacob

 

Clove of Garlic, minced

3 Diced Tomatoes from Lapacek’s Orchard

3 Oz. Fresh Mozzarella, cubed (I cut up mozzarella ropes for mine..I just couldn’t handle the cheese in that watery stuff…)

tsp. olive oil

fresh basil, chopped from Lapacek’s Orchard

Portobello Mushroom Cap

 

Mix the diced tomatoes, cubed mozzarella, minced garlic, olive oil and fresh basil into a container.  Try to do this a few hours before you plan to eat it so the flavors have some time to blend together. 

Grill a portabella mushroom cap on the grill similar to how you would cook a burger (I’ll admit – Jared did this, it was perfect but I don’t know the details). 

Once the mushroom is grilled and warm, top it with a few heaping spoonfuls of your tomato mixture.  Enjoy!

This is also fabulous on burgers (per Jared) and I’m thinking I may try putting my left over's on some scrambled eggs for lunch… 

If anyone wants to bring me some mushroom caps I’d be happy to eat them for my dinner again tonight!