Holy Heaping Vegetables!

This is my Old Path Farm pick-up day.  We head right to the farm after work to get our surprise gathering of vegetables.  Today, I was less than enthused.  It is chilly here and rainy, too.  Spending my afternoon in my warm house sounded better than traipsing through a field to pick beans.
However, sometimes the gloomiest of conditions bring to us the most glorious goodies.  I left the farm with my usual array of canning tomatoes, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a few beets, two huge onions, and some broccoli, but add to that 3 of the biggest fat heirloom tomatoes and some delightful golden beets and I was happy.  And that wasn't the end.  There are also often "help yourself" veggies at the end.  These are often "seconds" or slightly blemished goods.  Today, though, I walked off with an extra fennel bulb and a bag full of mixed braising greens.  And there were also my new favorite vegetable...roma beans.  These were a u-pick item left on the vines and picked by the consumer.  Top all that with several large cuttings of edamame that we are to harvest ourselves at home.
Of course, thinking that the veggies were going to start coming in a little slim, I had stopped at an orchard on the way home.  Here, I grabbed a dozen ears of sweet corn, a large bag of paste tomatoes, apples, peaches, some dried fruit, and two pints of sweet raspberries.
Don't forget I also have a garden in my backyard that is starting to thin out, but still hands over a pint of cherry tomatoes a day, hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions, winter squash, pattypans, and white heirloom pole beans.
Oh, and my foodshed pickup is tomorrow afternoon.  I ordered a 5 pound bag of mixed onions, a bunch of red russian kale, pingtung long eggplant, 1 pound of chesnok garlic, an heirloom zucchini, French heirloom green beans, and 14 pounds of heirloom tomatoes for canning.
I'm also staring at 3 sugar pie pumpkins waiting to be cooked into puree on my kitchen desk.
Did I mention I have a tiny kitchen?  :)
Luckily, I share my CSA share with my parents, but it was still a trunk load of food!  Tonight I was at least able to preserve most of the farm vegetables.  I blanched and froze the corn, Roma beans, and mixed greens.  I harvested the edamame for blanching tomorrow.  I blanched and slipped the skins of the paste tomatoes before I chopped and froze them.  Then I poured out most of the rasberries into a single layer for a quick freeze.  I wrapped and chilled most everything else.  Lots of salsa will be eaten at our house this weekend, and I'll be trying to can tomato sauce for the first time.  (I'm running out of freezer space!)
On top of that, I did have time to make a home cooked mostly local dinner tonight.  For those foodies looking for local ideas, here is what I made:

Stir fry beef and Vegetables
I chopped up Sunnybrook Farm's minute steaks and stir fried them in some olive oil and crushed garlic.  Then, I added chopped mixed color sweet peppers and an onion.  After they softened, I added a head of heirloom broccoli florets and two heads of bok choi.  I did season it with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and some ginger, but as flavorings, they are wild cards!  My one downfall is that I served it with rice and a few cashews sprinkled on top.  Both my kids ate their bowls and Alayna asked for more!  Jeremy loved it, too!  This meal was so yummy and I'll be eating the leftovers over pasta noodles this weekend!