Our usual Thursday post

I know I have no one but myself to blame for the torrent of fruit rushing through my kitchen, but it’s still pretty amazing. You may recall that I signed up for the extra fruit option in the CSA, although I can’t think of why just now. So I had a box of fruit (and eggs.)

To be fair, the lemons came from a homeowner this morning, and the green fruit in the upper left hand corner is a pluot from my driveway tree that I picked up on my way into the house. Those are apricots and Santa Rosa plums in the bags. Coincidence? Some say no.

And we’re back to greens, greens, greens.

In the box liner, we have baby bok choy and some zucchini from a family share that were in the swap box when I arrived. I’m dehydrating them right now. Then, continuing clockwise, we have carrots, beets, romaine lettuce, collards, a beautiful bunch of basil, spinach, dandelion greens, arugula and radishes, with a bag of green beans in the center. There was also a bag of potatoes that escaped being photographed. I admit that I saved neither the beet nor the radish greens, despite the fact that they are perfectly esculent. The dandelion, spinach and arugula I made into a frittata to take to the 15th Street house party tonight. I thought about making pesto with the basil, but just put it into a jar on the counter for the nonce.

Other brave souls took the culls from this morning’s harvest, so I just cooked last week’s stone fruit, making a cross between a clafouti and an upside down cake. Then I even dragged out the bag of kumquats from a few weeks ago (still OK, but not for long) and pureed them with sugar, freezing most of it and making a loaf of quick bread with the rest. I used the baskets of strawberries and some middle-aged cherries to make another batch of ice cream.

The upside-down clafouti, like so many fruit desserts, looked prettier before I baked it.

I put some sugar and butter on the parchment-lined bottom of a baking dish, then alternated halves of plums and apricots, cut side down. Then I poured a thickish batter over them and baked it. It smells good, even if it’s not that pretty anymore.