New Earth Farm

One of the reasons I'm glad we joined the CSA at New Earth Farm this fall is that we now have an excuse to visit the farm every weekend, come rain or shine. Over the past few months, it has become one of my favorite places. Not only is it the place where we get most of our food, not only is it all delicious (and 100% organic), but every person we've met there is warm and welcoming (almost suspiciously so) and the farm itself is beautiful. I especially love the old tumbledown house that greets us when we arrive.

The past few weeks we've gotten a ton of eggplant in our New Earth CSA boxes, so I thought I would share one of my favorite eggplant recipes, modeled off of a Middle Eastern dish my grandmother used to make, called Batinjan. It's heavenly on chilly nights.

Beef and eggplant stew

2-3 cloves garlic
1 small onion

2 tablespoons cumin

2 lbs ground beef

4 small eggplants (I used the skinny purple and green ones)
3 cups tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 large potatoes

Brown the onion and garlic in olive oil in a saucepan, add the meat, sprinkle cumin on top. Cook meat until almost done, and add the chopped eggplant and saute a bit longer. When eggplant has just started to brown and meat is cooked, add the can of tomato sauce. Add enough water to just cover all the meat and veggies in the pot. Bring to a boil, and then turn down heat and simmer for about 40 minutes.

Microwave the potatoes for five minutes and let cool. About halfway through the stew cooking time, cut the potatoes into chunks and add to the stew. Season with salt and pepper according to taste. Serve over rice or in a bowl with flatbread.

Happy Monday! What did you get in your CSA box this week?