In The Market and In The Kitchen

This past Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market. It was a lovely morning, perfect for a stroll and shopping. I tend to circumnavigate the market first, eyeing the offerings and letting my brain buzz with excitement and inspirational visions of various dishes and menus.  Then of course, to sit, and collect those thoughts.  In this case also to remind myself that I would have chemo again in a few days, and my energy levels are unpredictable at best.  I overdid it the previous week, but more about that later.

Despite all the wandering, I seem to purchase from the same farms again and again.  This week, suitably chastened about excess, I tried to rein in my purchases, not completely successfully. Here is my haul from this past weekend.

Not shown is a bunch of local asparagus, purchased at the local co-op, which was promptly roasted for lunch.  

Note the carrots.  Lots of carrots.  This is where my exuberance got the better of me. Blame it on the previous week. As my energy level was fairly high and the carrot top season short, it seemed I could justify a little, controlled, abundance.

But why the reference to the previous weekend?  Above is the Memorial Day weekend haul, and, as you can see, it is somewhat smaller in total volume, but actually higher in cooking effort required. The broccolini and raspberries were promptly consumed, as well as the Japanese turnips, which are good for both cooking and thinly slicing and eating raw. Then there was a lovely bunch of carrots, only one, and a lovely bunch (head?) of celery with gorgeous leaves.  The flavor of celery is more concentrated in the leaves and inspired me to make soup.  Celery and carrots with plentiful leaves are a seasonal treat here in Tennessee, whereas they were a much more plentiful staple when I lived in the mid-Hudson region of New York.

Cook I did. I had already planned to make a big pot of venison chili, and thought I could make a couple of batches of soup at the same time, packaging everything up in quart-sized vacuum-bags for future meals.  I managed to do that despite the fact that my energy was at its lowest since my first chemo, about 25%, 30% on a good day, of my normal.  Having recently inventoried the freezer, I knew there were two boxes of washed and chopped carrot greens remaining from last fall, when I was inspired to purchase them but too low on energy to actually cook.  The fresh greens plus the frozen greens yielded four quarts of soup and the fact that the frozen greens were already washed and chopped saved me a great deal of effort. It says much when chopping 4 to 8 cups of carrots greens uses up one's energy and requires a multi-hour nap for recovery.

Over the course of the three-day weekend I managed to put away 10 quarts, or roughly 20 meals. (shown above): 3 quarts of chili, 4 quarts of carrot greens soup, and 3 quarts of chicken and celery soup.  It sounds like a lot, but in my past life, at full energy, I could easily have cooked and packaged three to four times that over the course of a long weekend.  Also admittedly this was a more esoteric selection than I usually put away, as I like to keep food on hand to deliver to people in need.  This was meant for personal use.  I couldn't quite manage running two pots at once, as I needed too much rest time between work sessions. Nonetheless, it was a satisfying accomplishment. 

By. Monday I realized that my heart rate was consistently lower than usual, my body temperature was low, and although I could raise my pulse, I needed excessive rest time. Tuesday I ended up in the hospital where I got a few days rest and some strategies for dealing with future chemo sessions.  I was mildly nauseous after the first chemo session, but tiredness seemed to be a bigger issue than initially anticipated.  I do have a congenital heart defect, and my pulse tends to run on the low side, which I tend to ignore for the most part, always refusing to see myself as someone who is, or can do, less than anyone else.   After a little worry on the part of the internal medicine department, a lot of rest on my part, and consultation with my cardiologists and several others, we decided that my heart is strong, even if atypical, and that no intervention was needed other than rest and some strategies for dealing with future chemo sessions.  

And before I knew it, I found myself at another farmer's market.  Of course the freezer was already rather full.  But the season for carrot greens is rather short, so yes, I did indulge.  When I got home I trimmed and chopped the carrot greens and washed them in several sinkfull's of water.  A nap was undertaken during one of those washing cycles.  My guess was that the four bunches of carrots would yield approximately 4 quarts of soup, which was close.  I ended up with 4 1/2, all now happily packaged and frozen,  The local onions went into the soup, the tops have been chopped and frozen with bags of vegetables for the making of stock.  

The chicken stock supply has now been exhausted. Although I have bags of chicken carcasses, necks, and vegetable trimmings in the freezer, stock making will not commence for at least another week or more, either due to exhaustion or the pending nausea period that immediately follows chemo.  I am not certain that nausea and a house that smells of chicken stock are compatible forces.  Not that I need stock.  Between the cooking festival over the past two weeks, the five 2-serving moussaka's that remain in my freezer, and other soups that have been frozen periodically, as well as a selection of fish and chicken frozen in single serving portions, I should not need to do any serious cooking for some time.

As an aside, and not really related to this post, here I am all masked and turbaned, port connected and ready for chemo yesterday afternoon.  The turban helps keep the requisite mask, hearing aides, glasses, and yes earrings, in place and hopefully adds a bit of mystery.  Acceptable wigs have not yet arrived, and I remain comfortable without them but am open to experimentation.

All that remains to be dealt with from Saturday's haul are the actual carrots.  I am one of the odd people who prefer my carrots cooked, unless of course they are perfectly fresh young carrots such as these.  However I don't believe I can eat them all raw so I plan to make carrot puree with the rest and freeze it in 1/2 cup portions.  Carrot puree requires minimal effort, especially when the carrots are this young, fresh, and flavorful, and the puree makes a wonderful delicate sauce for use with fish, or probably chicken as well.