Quick Summer Recipes with Basil and Squash

Community supported agriculture was something I grew up with back in my home state of Delaware.

Each week, when I was teenager, my family and I went to Rising Sun, Md., to pick up a box of produce from our CSA. Usually, the box was filled with chard, kale, beets, various squashes and sometimes a vegetable I was actually familiar with at that age.

I liked to call it our stir-fry box. We'd often just take the produce we were given and cook up a stir-fry, because we didn't know what else to do with it.

Now, as an adult, I love to eat fresh-picked produce, and because I love to cook I try to find something other than stir-fry to make.

Earth Spring Farms, one of the vendors at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market, is a CSA. Yet they have a wider range of produce available for clients and customers at the farmers markets they attend.

Owner Mike Nolan is a 10-year veteran of farming. He first started work on an organic farm in Austin, Texas, shortly after a stint in the Peace Corps.

This year is his first running the farm in Gardners, Pa., and his first selling his certified naturally grown produce at the market. Though he has not completed the process to have his farm certified organic, the produce is grown organically, he said.

Nolan's CSA has 80 members, although he said they are always looking for more.

Earth Spring Farms is a hands-on CSA, which means some members work for their produce, helping to keep labor costs low. For six hours of work, members receive a box of produce.

Nolan sells a number of items at the farmers market, including lettuce, carrots, a variety of tomatoes, peppers, chard, eggplant, different kinds of squash, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers and herbs, including chocolate mint and stevia, a natural sweetener.

The vegetables are grown in a hoop house, which is different from a greenhouse.

He also sells organic raw milk cheeses that he gets from a nearby Amish farm in Pennsylvania.

Although there were plenty of vegetables to choose from, I decided to take home basil. Last week, I bought green and yellow zucchini and eggplant from Nolan's stand.

Basil is obviously great by itself or with slices of mozzarella, tomato and olive oil.

But my favorite way to eat basil is in a fresh pesto. It's great on pasta during the summer, when you're craving something cool, or just on bread.

Here is an easy recipe for pesto and one for a hummus pizza that uses zucchini and eggplant.

Traditional Pesto

• 1 bunch of basil, about 2 packed cups
• 1 large garlic clove
• ¼ cup of pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
• 2/3 cups of olive oil

• ½ tsp of salt

• pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the basil, garlic and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.

2. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated. Season with salt and pepper.

3. If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and cheese and pulse until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

You can also freeze pesto for up to three months. The only difference in the recipe for freezing is to skip step No. 3 until after you thaw it out later.

You can substitute walnuts for pine nuts, since pine nuts are sometimes hard to find and more expensive.

Also, you can use a blender to mix the ingredients, but you should take care not to blend them into a paste. The texture of pesto is better if it is not completely smooth.

Pesto can be put on chicken and pasta or with orzo and shrimp.

As for the pizza, it's a few more steps but still easy. If you're using fresh dough, follow the package directions for the crust.

Hummus Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 small eggplant
• 1 yellow zucchini
• 1 green zucchini
• ½ cups of hummus spread, roasted red pepper variety is fantastic.
• fresh mozzarella
• a couple springs of Italian parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• ½ tsp of garlic powder
• 3 tbsp. olive oil.

Directions:

1. Follow the directions for how to make the pizza crust.

2. Slice vegetables in small rounds and add olive oil, garlic powder and salt and pepper.

3. Roast veggies at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

4. Once the crust is formed, spread hummus on pizza.

5. Add vegetables and place evenly on pizza.

6. Add slices of mozzarella and bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes until cheese has melted.

7. Sprinkle parsley on top of pizza when ready to serve.