Gold Dust Peaches

I stopped at the Mud Creek Ranch farm stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday to admire their selection of peaches. They had three varieties of tiny, 2-bite peaches — including donut peaches and heirloom gold dust peaches.

Thinking they were all a lovely size to serve whole for dessert, I asked the farmer what the taste difference was between them. She said the donut peaches and the other unlabeled kind were very sweet, but the gold dust peaches had the best peach flavor.

I'd eaten great donut peaches before (you can see my post here), but never tried gold dust peaches. I love new things, so I brought some home to try.

Wow, were they good. Sweet and peachy and juicy — we couldn't stop at just one each.

Eating unusual yet awesome heirloom varieties makes the effort of getting to a farmers market completely worthwhile.

Sunday Shopping

It was a beautiful morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Last night's rain had cleaned the streets, and the sun was shining even though the air was chilly.

Flora Bella had my favorite rutabagas again, and, in what I'm calling the Solstice Miracle, the Cafecito Organico stall had its espresso machine back. I was able to warm my hands on an Americano as we strolled the market. Truly a wonderful morning.

Here's a list of the organic produce we brought home with us:

8 valencia oranges, 2 heads of garlic, 5 large yellow onions, 1 large sweet potato (to make solstice sweet potato biscuits), 4 tiny leeks, 1 head broccoli, 1 small winter squash that looks like a red pumpkin, 6 small white potatoes, 3 bartlett pears, 3 sundowned apples, 3 cameo apples, 1 bunch of rutabagas with greens, 1 lb almonds from Yemetz farms, 18 page mandarins that Larry juiced to go with our Sunday brunch, 5 satsuma tangerines, 1 bunch celery, 1 bunch collard greens, 1 bunch parsley, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 green pepper, 2 dozen eggs, 3 small plain St. Benoit yogurts, 1 lb Cafecito Organic Mixteca coffee and 1 lb of their decaf blend.

Creative Cooking

Someone asked me the other day why I used green cabbage instead of red in my spicy coleslaw.

Red cabbage is often considered healthier than green because of the additional protective phytonutrients in the red pigment. However, each variety of cabbage - red, green and Savoy - contains a different combination of health-promoting nutrients, so a variety of cabbages in the diet is a good thing. Diversity is the key to health.

That's the highfalutin' reason I made my coleslaw from green cabbage.

The real reason is that the farmer I bought my fresh organic cabbage from at the Hollywood Farmers Market only had green cabbage for sale. I choose to support local organic farmers, and that means eating what they grow, not necessarily what I planned to cook.

For example, last week I planned to make ratatouille. Sunday morning at the market I picked up organic red peppers and tomatoes, and went on the hunt for eggplants. There were none. For weeks I've been buying eggplants, but now they had disappeared.

I considered going to Whole Foods for an organic eggplant, but I prefer to put my grocery dollars in the hands of the people who grow my produce.

So I turned to Plan B. Instead of ratatouille this week, we're eating stir-fries with the red peppers. I'm making a chili sauce with the tomatoes. Last night I used the zucchini in this kamut pilaf.

And maybe next week the eggplant will have returned and I can make a ratatouille.

This kamut dish is an easy one to put together on a warm summer evening. Cook the kamut ahead and let it cool to room temperature. Then 20 minutes before you want to eat, finish the cooking quickly in a skillet. It has a slightly Asian flavor. Add more tamari if you are used to saltier food. Look for organic rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil at your local health food store. They're a great addition to the pantry.

Kamut with Zucchini
3/4 cup kamut
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp minced ginger root
2 cloves garlic
1 1/4 lb zucchini
2 tbsp mirin (or dry sherry)
1 tbsp tamari (soy sauce)
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Cook the kamut in plenty of boiling water until tender, 30-40 minutes. It's cooked when it's lost its crunch but still has texture - like al dente pasta. Drain and set aside.

Warm the canola oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook a couple of minutes until fragrant.

Chop the zucchini in roughly 1/4 inch dice. Add to the skillet and cook about 5 minutes until it is tender.

Add the mirin, tamari and kamut and cook until warmed through. Stir in the rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil.

Serves 3-4

Beans and Greens and Mushrooms

I was buying cilantro and chard at the South Central Farmers Cooperative stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday when I noticed some beautiful burgundy leaves. I was told they were amaranth, a green that we have not eaten before. So I bought a bunch to try.

When I nibbled a leaf, I found it was surprisingly bitter. So I decided to cook it with some curly kale (for texture) and beet greens (for sweetness). I combined them with mushrooms and white beans for a simple and nutritious dinner.

You could make this recipe with any combination of greens you like. I recommend the curly kale because it bulks up the dish - it doesn't shrink quite as much as chard and other types of kale. Some arugula or rapini would be nice for flavor. And a gentle green like collards or beets is always appreciated.

I used a variety of mushrooms because I was feeling adventurous at the market. Plain creminis would be fine too, or even white mushrooms.

The white beans look pretty against the greens, but any bean can be used. If you don't feel like cooking your own, drain a 14-oz can of whatever strikes your fancy.

Beans and Greens and Mushrooms
1/3 cup dry white beans
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lb mixed mushrooms (I used oyster, shiitake and cremini)
1 bunch curly green kale
greens from 1 bunch of beets
1 bunch purple amaranth

Cook the white beans in plenty of simmering water until tender, about 90 minutes depending on the beans. Drain and set aside. (At this point they can be refrigerated overnight if needed.)

Warm 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Peel and chop 1 shallot and 1 clove garlic and add to the oil. Cook, stirring, until onion is translucent and garlic is golden but not brown.

Wipe the mushrooms clean with a damp cloth. Remove the base of the stem if it's dirty, and remove woody stems from shiitakes and oyster mushrooms. Slice the mushrooms and add to the skillet with 1/4 tsp of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are brown, about 5 minutes. Remove them to a bowl and set aside.

Wash all the greens. Cut the tough stems from the kale and discard them. Slice the leaves into 1/4 inch ribbons. Cut the beet stems at the base of the leaves and discard them. Slice the leaves crosswise. Remove the stems of the amaranth and discard. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Put the skillet back on the heat. Warm 1 tbsp oil and peel and chop the other shallot and clove of garlic. Add to the pot and cook until soft. Add the curly kale, stir well, season with a little salt and pour in about 1/4 cup of water. Stir again, then cover the pot and cook for 10 minutes until the kale is wilted and cooked down a bit. Add the beet greens and amaranth, a little more salt and pepper, stir well, then cover and cook another 10 minutes until all the greens are tender.

Add the reserved mushrooms and white beans to the skillet, and cook some more until everything is warmed through. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Sunday Shopping

It was a grey morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market, and the piles of greens shimmered in the light. I showed great restraint because the collards, purple mustard greens and lettuce in our garden are flourishing.

Here's what we brought home:
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms
2 leeks
6 oz shiitake mushrooms
5 grapefruit
2 dozen eggs
4 small St. Benoit plain yogurt
2 onions
blueberries
1 small butternut squash
8 tangerines
1 pomelo
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch baby rutabagas
12 oz hot onion garlic pistachios
1 small red cabbage
1 small green cabbage
1 bunch beets
2 bulbs garlic
2 bunches asparagus
8 pink lady apples
1 red onion
1 bunch cilantro
2 bunches carrots
1 packet Spring Hill smoked firehouse Mike cheddar
1 pound of El Carmen coffee (grown in Acatenango, Guatemala) from Cafecito Organico

Sunday Shopping

The smoke from the Colby fire had lifted this morning, and the sky was blue with whispy white clouds as we headed to the Hollywood Farmers Market.

We were an hour too early for the americanos at the Cafecito Organico stand in the Farmers Kitchen, so we settled for a drip from their stall on Argyle, near the St. Benoit yogurt stall.

Then we started shopping. This is what we bought:
1 bunch green garlic
1 bunch beets with greens
1 bunch dill
10 red potatoes
2 heads of garlic
cherry tomatoes
1 bunch carrots
1 onion
2 bunches scallions
5 pink lady apples
2 bunches purple frilly kale
1 kabocha squash
1 delicata squash
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms
1 bartlett pear
1 bosc pear
6 tangerines
1 dozen eggs
2 fuerte avocadoes
6 grapefruit
12 oz pistachios in their shell
1 block 3-year old cheddar from Spring Hill Dairy
1 bunch radishes

Sunday Shopping

We received excellent news at the Hollywood Farmers Market today.

Cafecito Organico is soon going to start selling americanos again. They served them years ago, but market politics required them to give up their espresso machine and just serve drip coffee. It's good coffee - fair trade, organic, shade grown - and I buy a cup each week to sip as we stroll the market, but I miss the americanos.

An americano is an espresso with extra hot water added - also known as an allongé - and I find it easier on my stomach and my nerves than drip coffee. (I rarely drink coffee except for Sunday mornings.)

They will be setting up in the Farmers Kitchen on Selma, just east of Vine. I was told they'll definitely be ready in February. I can't wait.

In the meantime, we bought a few organic vegetables to eat this week:
9 red potatoes
1 onion
4 grapefruit
cilantro
10 limes
dandelion greens
7 tangerines
parsley
romaine lettuce
1 orange sweet potato
1 smallish spaghetti squash
1 lb khadrawy dates
green curly kale
bloomsbury spinach
1 dozen eggs
enoki mushrooms
2 bartlett pears
2 pink lady apples
3 summer field apples
1 winesap apple
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch young beets with greens
1 red leaf lettuce
St. Benoit Yogurt!!!! - 1 quart plain, 4 cups of plain and 1 cup lemon

Sunday shopping

It was a quiet morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Fewer shoppers, fewer farmers, and no St. Benoit Yogurt stand.

We said hi to our favorite farmers and were back on the road by 8:15 a.m.

This is what we bought:
cherry tomatoes
cilantro
collards
7 tangerines
6 grapefruit
carrots
2 anjou pears
3 bosc pears
2 summerfield apples
baby rutabagas with greens
2 jars of almond butter
1 dozen eggs
pistachios

Sunday Shopping

With all the leftovers in the fridge, I didn't feel the need to buy much at the Hollywood Farmers Market today. But I did want to wish my favorite farmers Happy New Year. And I never know what I will find to inspire the week's cooking.

Yes, you know how this story ends.

Here's what we bought:
8 oz cremini mushrooms
8 oz green beans
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
3 parsnips
3 bosc pears
16 oranges
1 bunch baby rutabagas
1 bunch baby turnips
4 leeks
2 fennel bulbs
3 grapefruit
3 summer field apples
1 bunch celery
1 dozen eggs
1 lb oaxacan coffee
olive oil

Food for the Week

Potatoes will form the centerpiece of our Christmas lunch, so we carried a lot of weight home from the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning.

Here's a list of the organic produce we bought:
1 head garlic
1 onion
4 cameo apples
3 bosc pears
2 shallots
arugula
parsley
dill
Spring Hill Dairy jersey jack
Bloomsbury spinach
many pounds of red potatoes
2 celeriacs
carrots
lots of tangerines
2 fuerte avocados
2 dozen eggs
1 bunch spring onions
celery
pistachios
5 cups and 2 quarts plain yogurt
collard greens
2 red butter lettuce
1 romaine lettuce

Food for the Week

With the cooler weather, greens and root vegetables are flooding the Hollywood Farmers Market. It's hard to decide which ones to eat this week.

I love turnips and beets because they are two vegetables in one. I separated the roots from the greens when I got home, and stored them separately in plastic bags in the fridge. The greens will be sautéed with onions and garlic as a simple side dish, and the roots will be roasted or steamed or added to soup (I haven't decided which yet).

I was grumbling to Larry that this year the farmers are growing celery root and parsnips but not rutabagas when we stopped at the Flora Bella stall to buy young turnips, radishes and mustard greens. I noticed what looked like tiny yellow parsnips and inquired what they were. They were rutabagas!!!! I have never seen finger-sized rutabagas before. They were in bunches with their greens attached, and I was told the greens are delicious. I nibbled a piece, and it was true! They are sweet - sweeter than lettuce. Unbelievable. So I bought a bunch. The roots will be sliced in our Solstice Soup this Saturday, and the greens will be a yummy vegetable early in the week.

Flora Bella has planted a lot of rutabagas this year, apparently, so this is just the beginning. I am so happy!!!!

This is what we bought today: 1 red pepper, 1 red butter lettuce, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, 4 onions, carrots, 1 1/2 lb assorted mushrooms - cremini, shiitake, portabello - turnips with tops, cauliflower, radishes with tops, tiny rutabagas with tops, 15 oranges, 6 grapefruit - 4 pink, 2 ruby - spinach, 6 cameo apples, 2 bosc pears, 15 tangerines, 1 lb honey dates, 1 dozen eggs, Mike's firehouse jack from Spring Hill Dairy, beets with greens, mustard greens.

Have you ever seen such tiny rutabagas?

Curly Purple Kale

We brought some vibrant purple curly kale home from the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday.

It was so young and tender, the stems were not even 1/4 inch wide. I just had to chop it, stems and all, before gently sautéeing and steaming it for a colorful nutritious side dish.

Kale has been found to lower blood cholesterol and help prevent heart disease and certain cancers. Surprisingly, cooked kale has more health benefits than raw, probably because we don't chew enough to break down the fibers and absorb the goodness.

There are many ways to cook kale, but this one is simple and tasty. The cooked green can be served as a side dish, added to rice or other grains, or stirred into soups or stews.

I served it the other night with a bean stew, potatoes, and Baked Heirloom Pumpkin.

Cooked Kale
1 bunch curly kale
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
sprinkle of hot chile flakes
salt

Wash the kale. Remove the stems if they are more than 1/4 inch wide. Chop the leaves coarsely.

Warm the olive oil in a large pot. Add the peeled and chopped garlic and a sprinkle of chile flakes.

Add the kale along with the water left on the leaves after washing. Stir well so all the kale is turned in the oil. Sprinkle with salt. Cover the pot and let the kale cook gently until it is tender, stirring occasionally.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Shopping

It was cold at the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning. Chilled fingers had a hard time counting bills, so every transaction took a little longer than usual.

We ate breakfast out so we didn't buy oranges to juice, but we were still weighted down. I had looked in my pantry last week for white lima beans to cook with the beautiful rapini from Flora Bella (see the recipe here), and found I had run out of them. Zut alors! I used a combination of yellow-eyed beans, black-eyed peas and barbecue beans, which tasted fine but didn't look as good, which is why I didn't post a picture. This week I bought both lima beans and rapini, so I have hopes of an attractive and tasty bean dish this week.

Larry bought an organic brisket from Rocky Canyon Farms where the cows eat grass until the day they are driven to the slaughterhouse. I think if you're going to eat a cow, it's nice to let it have a good life first. Also, for your health, grass-fed creates less inflammation in the human body than corn-fed does. (Most grass-fed cows are fed corn for the last 3-6 weeks of their lives to create more marbling in the flesh.)

We discussed grapefruits with Jorge. The ones we've been eating are sweet with yellow flesh. He says they're pink grapefruit, so named because of the color of the skin - there's a pink blush on it - not the color of the flesh. He gave us two ruby grapefruit to try - they will have pink flesh, he says. I hope they taste as good as the pink ones. (Are you confused now too?)

We also learned that the blueberry bushes at Forbidden Fruit Orchards near Santa Barbara got frosted this week, so no more blueberries from them until spring. I hope our bushes will be fruiting then too.

Still no rutabagas at the market. Instead I had to once again restrain myself from gathering armloads of squash -- this week we'll start eating our Thanksgiving decorations.

Here's the organic produce that we did bring home:
olive oil, feta, pistachios in the shell, 4 cups plain St. Benoit yogurt, blueberries, 1 dozen eggs, 13 German butterball potatoes, 4 tangerines, 2 heads garlic, cherry tomatoes, 8 red potatoes, purple curly kale, 1 red pepper, carrots, purple mustard greens, young turnips with tops, beets with tops, rapini, parsnips, cauliflower, 2 chestnut sweet potatoes, 1 lb coffee, 1 green pepper, 8 pink grapefruit, 2 ruby grapefruit, 2 lbs each of lima beans, Christmas limas and chickpeas. Russ sharpened two of our kitchen knives while we shopped.

Post-Thanksgiving Shopping

I was not inspired when thinking about food this morning. We still have Thanksgiving leftovers, but we'll be needing new food by mid-week, and I could not think of a single thing I wanted to cook or eat.

Fortunately we went to the Hollywood Farmers Market anyway — Larry needed his St. Benoit yogurt fix — and the piles of vegetables at Flora Bella and Finley Farm stands were so beautiful that I found it hard to restrain myself from buying one of everything.

Okay, to be honest, I did a lousy job of practicing restraint.

We will be eating a lot of greens this week.

And because we have to finish the Thanksgiving sour cream, I bought a small spaghetti squash that I will make a decadent casserole with.

This is what we will be eating this week:

Rapini, arugula, cabbage, mustard greens, baby turnips with greens, broccoli, 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, 6 red potatoes, 2 dozen eggs, 6 grapefruit, 2 cameo apples, lightly-salted pistachios in their shells, collard greens, 1 small spaghetti squash, 1 red onion, 2 small white sweet potatoes, 2 bartlett pears, 5 cups of St. Benoit plain yogurt, red butter lettuce, orange blossom honey and 8 oranges. Also, while we were shopping, Russ sharpened two of our garden shears.

Giving Thanks

On Thanksgiving Day I give thanks to all the farmers and their families and the farmworkers for growing the beautiful food that keeps me healthy.

Every week at the Hollywood Farmers Market I look in amazement at the piles of fresh organic fruit and vegetables, and I place my dollars with gratitude in the dirt-grimed hands of the farmers who grew them.

Thank you Jorge and Jared; Finley Farms and St. Benoit yogurt makers; Mr. Ha; James at Flora Bella; the growers of almonds, walnuts and pistachios; the South Central Farmers Cooperative; and Tutti Frutti.

Your hard work helps keep us healthy and strong.

We will raise a glass to you at our Thanksgiving table, as we enjoy the food you raised from the earth.

Sunday shopping

This year we'll be having a vegetarian Thanksgiving. Our niece Tracie has decided to be vegetarian, and since she is joining us, Larry decided that he would forego turkey so we could all eat the same delicious vegetable bounty.

Today we went and bought the bounty and hauled it home. The Hollywood Farmers Market was bustling at 8 a.m. as people shopped for the big food feast. This is the organic produce we bought:

22 oranges, 2 carrots, cilantro, 4 shallots, 3 onions, dinosaur kale, garlic, red onion, 1 celeriac, 2 pomegranates, 1 early girl tomato, 1 bunch parsnips, fresh goat cheese from Drake Family Farms, 2 dozen eggs, 2 garlic, 3 fuyu persimmons, 1 bartlett pear, 4 pink lady apples and 4 sundowner apples which will be mixed in a pie, 2 quarts plain St. Benoit yogurt, 2 grapefruit. We also stopped at Flora Bella farmstand, where James had chickweed and nettles. Yes, I know those are weeds in my mother's Montreal garden, but they are full of nutrition and I can't grow them in the dry heat of southern California. (James' farm is up near Three Rivers where it is cooler and moister.) So I bought some of each - the chickweed for salad and the nettles to add to Green Soup.

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage

I'm always looking for new ways to cook sweet potatoes. Larry would be happy if I just cooked regular potatoes, but sweet potatoes are so much healthier - not to mention more colorful on the plate.

Sweet potatoes are high in antioxidants, and contain compounds that help our digestive systems be less sensitive to heavy metals and other toxins. We've done so well at polluting our soil and groundwater that our bodies need all the help they can get.

One of the challenges with sweet potatoes can be their texture. I buy from a farmer who has three or four varieties of sweet potato, some the soft juicy orange kind, others are dryer and more chestnut-y, and yet others are purple-ish. I tend to buy the orange ones because I like the color. And then I have to find a way to dry them out a little.

Slicing thin, sprinkling with salt, and roasting made the sweet potatoes delicious. I added garlic and sage, and a drizzle of lemon at the end, and Larry said these were the best sweet potatoes ever. (He thinks it was because of the salt.) If you don't like sage, leave it out. Or use thyme or rosemary instead.

The oil is essential, because we need to eat sweet potatoes with a little fat in order to get the health benefits. (That's true of so many vegetables, isn't it?)

In the picture on the right, the sweet potatoes are below, and a casserole of roasted shallots is on top. I keep experimenting with baking members of the onion family because I feel I should like them, but I don't. They get slimy and are hard to cut. We ate a couple of the shallots as a side dish, but I chopped the rest and added them to Green Rice the next day.

Roast Salted Sweet Potatoes with Sage
1 lb sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
coarse salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage
juice of 1/2 lemon (or so)

Preheat oven to 375°F. (400°F works fine too if you're cooking something else at the same time, just keep an eye on the sweet potatoes so they don't burn.)

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into 1/4 inch slices across. Place on an oiled cookie sheet and lightly brush with more oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and garlic.

Bake until the potatoes are tender when you poke them with a fork. Sprinkle with sage and lemon juice and serve.

Serves 2-3

Sunday Shopping

Turnips are back at the Hollywood Farmers Market!! Well, they were today. Who knows if they will be there next week. That's part of the pleasure and frustration of shopping at a farmers' market.

This is what we bought this morning: 1 red butter lettuce, 1 bunch turnips with greens, 10 small red potatoes, 1 dozen eggs, cherry tomatoes, 1-lb jar of raw organic wild-fermented in LA aromatic Four Thieves sauerkraut by Brassica & Brine, 2 bartlett pears, 2 anjou pears, 1 bunch of red fine-leaved mustard, 11 cippolini onions, 2 bunches scallions, 1 green pepper, 2 bunches carrots with tops, 5 cremini mushrooms, 2 yellow onions, 20 oranges, 1 red pepper, 1 bunch collard greens, 2 pomegranates, 2 bunches parsnips with tops, 1 bunch giant purple radishes with greens, green seedless grapes, 6 grapefruit, 12-oz lightly-salted pistachios in the shell, 4 apples (2 cameo, 1 winesap, 1 mutsu), 4 pixie tangerines, 6 gold nugget tangeries, 2 fuyu persimmons.

The Week's Groceries

It was another excellent week for organic groceries at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

This is what we brought home with us:

Cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, red butter lettuce and spring onions for our lunch salads; 1 lb coffee from El Salvador, 1 avocado, 1 dozen eggs, 16 oranges and 1 whole wheat rosemary boule -- awesome Sunday breakfast; 1 poblano chile; 7 small red potatoes; 2 small green peppers; 2 leeks; 1 quart and 3 cups plain yogurt; 2 small tomatoes; 2 heirloom squash, 1 small pumpkin and 1 kabocha squash -- for Thanksgiving decorations and then to eat; parsley; 1 large fennel; 3 bartlett pears and 6 grapefruit for morning fruit; tarragon; 5 shallots; 1 bag pistachios in their shell; cilantro; 1 bunch celery; chestnuts(!); 1 onion; 5 tangerines and 6 apples for our lunches - the apples are 2 mutsu, 1 black Arkansas, 2 cameo, and 2 whose name I have forgotten.

The Week's Groceries

Everyone was perkier than usual at the Hollywood Farmers

Market this morning, probably because of the time change.

A chilly breeze blew through the market, making it really feel like fall. I indulged in squash as a consequence, including the most beautiful heirloom pumpkin I've ever seen.

This is what we brought home with us:

6 small daikon radish (with greens!), 1 heirloom pumpkin, 1 quart and 6 cups plain yogurt, 1 lb almonds, 1 jar almond butter, 1 sweet dumpling squash, 14 oranges, 2 celeriacs, 1 kabocha pumpkin, a bag of trail of tears beans, mustard greens, 3 pink lady apples and 3 cameo apples, 2 grapefruit, 3 smallish eggplant, 2 onions, 7 small red potatoes, 2 small bunches of celery, 3 bartlett pears and 2 dozen eggs.