Holy Cases of Veggies, Batman!

[aggieterpkatie]

Soooo....hubby brought home lots of veggies today. A tractor trailer had an accident and lost part of its load in the median of the highway today. DH's coworkers loaded up the crates and brought them into work (the coworkers are on road crew). Sooo....now I have a crate of green beans, a crate of beets w/ greens attached, a crate of some sort of lettuce, and a crate of papayas!!!

Help!!! I know the green beans will either be canned or frozen. I would like to dry some of the papayas, but I've never even eaten papaya so I don't know what else to do with it. I'm not convinced I like beets, but I'm willing to try again and I have heard you can cook the greens too. And the lettuce....most likely we'll have to give a good bit of it to friends and family since I dont' really think you can preserve lettuce.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

 

[big brown horse]

WOW!! Lucky you!!

Love beets roasted (cubed up first) in the broiler w/ olive oil and seasalt. Steam the greens and serve with butter and salt.

I could eat roasted beets all day any day.

Papaya ice cream, papaya salsa or fresh.

eta: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/PAPAYA-SALSA-106536

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, great score!!!

Roasted beets are wonderful. I also fermented some with a recipe from the NT cookbook. They had great flavor.

As for the papaya, uuhhh I am pretty sure its a natural laxative. Maybe some fruit puree into leather? Jam, pie??? I have no idea.

g

 

[freemotion]

Papaya is good dried, I see it in the whole foods stores all the time. It is supposed to be good for digestion, and an extract from it is used as a meat tenderizer!

I don't like beets, but do get them into my diet on occasion just because.....once in a while I put on my big girl pants and eat something I don't care for because it is good for me....as long as it doesn't trigger a gag reflex!

I just discovered a lovely casserole recipe using beets and other roots that I think I posted on my journal lately....

eta: Here it is, post #407: http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2702&p=41

 

[miss_thenorth]

Love love love beets. If you don't want to ferment them, i have canned them with the following recipe. 1 part sugar, 1 pat water, 1 part white vinegar. cover teh cooked beets with syrup. Not sure about the hedspace, and I think waterbath time is 10 minutes. Beet tops, blanch and throw in freezer.--sub for spinach when making lagana etc. Papayas, i think I would try the dehydrating. good score!!

 

[Wifezilla]

Papaya salsa is yummy and so is dried papaya.

As for the lettuce, got critters? Ducks, chickens, goats?

 

[BarredBuff]

The lettuce could be animal feed. You could dry or can or freeze the beans. The beet tops could be animal feed, and you could make pickled beets. Not sure about the papayas.

 

[patandchickens]

Too cool! Lucky you!!

Beets are good roasted - try it, very easy. They keep "reasonably" well in cold storage under the right conditions but for longer keeping try making pickled beets, which will last a long time and are very good IMO.

Cook and eat the beet greens, or at least feed them to your critters. They're very nutritious.

Papaya you could dry if you have a dehydrator, otherwise could freeze in chunks or pureed for smoothies.

The lettuce could well keep for a week or two with proper storage, but you're right, there is no good way of preserving it longer. Perhaps you could trade it to someone?

Have fun,

Pat

 

[baymule]

Love love love beets. If you don't want to ferment them, i have canned them with the following recipe. 1 part sugar, 1 pat water, 1 part white vinegar. cover teh cooked beets with syrup. Not sure about the hedspace, and I think waterbath time is 10 minutes. Beet tops, blanch and throw in freezer.--sub for spinach when making lagana etc. Papayas, i think I would try the dehydrating. good score!!

You can also put whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in the jars to make the beets more yummy. Cut tops off beets, leaving an inch or two of tops, don't peel or cut into the beets. Boil until tender, then peel, the skin should slip off. Then process as above.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Love love love beets. If you don't want to ferment them, i have canned them with the following recipe. 1 part sugar, 1 pat water, 1 part white vinegar. cover teh cooked beets with syrup. Not sure about the hedspace, and I think waterbath time is 10 minutes. Beet tops, blanch and throw in freezer.--sub for spinach when making lagana etc. Papayas, i think I would try the dehydrating. good score!!

You can also put whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in the jars to make the beets more yummy. Cut tops off beets, leaving an inch or two of tops, don't peel or cut into the beets. Boil until tender, then peel, the skin should slip off. Then process as above.

Our favorite is the Spicy Pickled Beets recipe in the Ball Canning Recipe book. Cinnamon/allspice are in there -- PERFECT with hardboiled eggs