Elkhart Citizen proud to help his Elkhart County neighbors

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Appreciation, Church Community Serices, Civic Engagement, Civic Service, Community, Community Engagement, Dave Hochstetler, Donation, Elkhart County, Elkhart County Indiana, Feed, Food bank, Food Pantry, Franklin Citgo, Fresh Garden Vegetables, Garden Crops, Generosity, Grateful, Green Beans, Harvest, Harvests, Helping Neighbors, Mr. Singh, Need, Neighbors, Ron Robinson, Seed to Feed, Tomatoes, Volunteering

“This a testament to the reach of hunger and the plight of people in need. What an excellent expression of Elkhart…. ” said Rob Robinson, executive director of Church Community Services in response to Mr. Singh of Franklin’s Citgo’s generous donation.

“Elkhart as been good to me and my family. I want to give something back to this community.” Mr. Singh, owner of Franklin’s Citgo, said his generous gift to Elkhart families in need was  his way of giving back to Elkhart County.

Thank you, Mr. Singh, for the financial gift you brought to us from your business. You’re helping us extend hope to lots of your neighbors. What a pleasure to meet you,” Rod Roberson, executive director of Church Community Services, is most appreciative of the support Church Community Services has received from businesses like Mr. Singhs and from much of the Elkhart Community.

The results of some of ‘Seed to Feed’s” first harvest. I can hardly believe the summer and food picking season is almost over.

Church Community Service’s Weekly ‘Seed to Feed’ Update…

Hi Everyone,
As summer is coming to a close, so will our gardens. But, we still have
some good harvests left to pick. We will go back to our regular schedule:
the Bullard Garden on CR17 will be picked on Monday, Sept 10th at 6:00 p.m.
This will probably be about our last picking. We might have one more on the
17th of Sept, but we will let you know.

The Goshen Garden on CR 36 will be picked on Tuesday, Sept 11, at
6:00 p.m. and we should have a “stellar” harvest of tomatoes and peppers. The
green beans are just about finished, but we still might get some this next
week.

The potato field will be tentatively be ready to pick up next Friday,
Sept.14. The field will be “turned” and then we have a 24 hr window to
pick up the potatoes before they turn green which is not good. We will need
about 50 volunteers with 5 gal buckets to pick them up and load them into
the containers that will then be loaded onto the semi. Date and details to
follow next early next week.

And finally, I’d like to thank the 7th grade class of St. Thomas School
for their wonderful support of the Seed to Feed program. They came to CCS
yesterday along with their teachers and mothers, took a tour of CCS to see
what happens on a daily basis at the Food Bank and then came to the Bullard
Garden to pick beans. The students, 50 in total, along with their teachers
and mothers all got down in the dirt and picked 430 lbs of green beans in
2 hrs. It was a good learning experience for the kids and what a wonderful
blessing for the Food Bank and the people they serve. Thank You kids,
teachers and mothers for your wonderful support!!!
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you at the gardens as we close out
the harvests over the next few weeks, and don’t forget the potato field.
Details will follow next week.

Blessings
Dave Hochstetler
Coordinator of the ‘Feed to Seed’ Program

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Have a LOT of tomatoes? Garden tomato sauce with basil and homemade meatballs

Tags

Basil, Cooking, Cooking Basics, Dinner, Food, Fresh Vegetables, Garlic, How to make tomato sauce from garden tomatoes, Olive oil, Recipe, Tablespoon, Tomato sauce, Tomatoes

How to make tomato sauce from your garden tomatoes…

If you’ve got a LOT of tomatoes try this spaghetti sauce. Everybody LOVES spaghetti and meatballs. This is a recipe that I’ve been making for years.

Browning the meatballs and simmering the tomato/basil sauce.

MY MEATBALLS

Soak in milk, water or stock;

1 slice of bread, 1 inch thick

Beat:

2 eggs

Add eggs to:

1 1/2 lb. ground meat/Martin’s ground sirloin is the best

Saute until golden brown:

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

Add to the meat. Wring the liquid from the bread. Add the bread to the meat and then add:

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/2 chopped clove garlic

3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp. fresh oregano or basil/I’ve used mixed dried Italian herbs when I didn’t have fresh herbs

Mix and form into balls. Brown lightly in:

2 tablespoons butter

Cover your frying pan and simmer on low until the meatballs for 1/2 hour or until the meatballs are firm and no longer pink in the middle.

Cooking down the sauce.

SPAGHETTI SAUCE WITH FRESH TOMATOES AND BASIL

6 peeled, seeded and cut up tomatoes (2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce)

garlic, minced to taste or pinch of garlic powder

1 tablespoon white sugar

2 tablespoons fresh basil (more or less to taste)

DIRECTIONS In a large skillet or saucepan combine the tomatoes,  tomato sauce, garlic, sugar and basil. (Other herbs may be added. I really like basil and prefer just that with tomatoes.) Stir all together and simmer over low heat until thickened. More sugar and a tablespoon of butter may be added if the sauce is too acidic. Flour (1 to 2 tablespoons) may be added if you prefer a thicker sauce. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

HOW TO PEEL TOMATOES

Put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 – 45 seconds is usually enough)

This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes!  If you leave the skins in, they become tough and chewy in the sauce…not very pleasant.

After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half.

Now you need to remove the seeds and excess water. Wash your hands then squeeze each tomato and use your finger or a spoon to scoop and shake out most of the seeds. You don’t need to get fanatical about it; removing just most will do.

You reward for all that work…homemade spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and basil over meatballs and spaghetti. I promise your family will be smiling.

‘Seed to Feed’ has yielded 510 pounds of food so far this summer! More volunteers needed!

Tags

Community, Community Service, Food, Food Pantries, Food security, Garden, Goshen, Green bean, Harvest, Home, Home-Grown, Potatoes, Sweet corn, Tomatoes, Tuesday, Vegetables, Volunteer, Volunteering

Posted on August 10, 2012 by churchcommunityservices

Yield from the Goshen farm.

Beautiful produce from our beautiful Seed to Feed acre in Goshen.  Our clients are so happy!

Fresh vegetables for Elkhart Counties food pantries.

Fresh air, exercise, good honest dirt, and service that helps sustains CCS’s food supply: From now till the end of harvest season, Seed to Feed will need at least 15 volunteers 2 days a week. We will pick the green beans and sweet corn at the Bullard Garden every Monday at 9:00am. It is located on C.R.17 and Middlebury St, directly across from Sorg Jewelers on the west side of C.R.17.

The Fresh Produce Garden in Goshen will be picked every Tuesday at 7:00pm. It is located at 14723 CR36. It is just east of CR33 about 1/8 of a mile on the north side of CR36. The gardens are really starting to produce nice yields each week and should until the end of the season. If you can help, please contact Church Community Services either by email (dhhooch@aol.com) or phone (574-349-4905).

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• Volunteers needed this week to help Seed to Feed’s garden (part of Church Community Services) (elkhartcountygrassrootshub.wordpress.com)
• PLANTING A MILE: Group Goes The Distance (whotv.com)
• County farmers and ‘Church Community Services’ join forces to feed the hungry (elkhartcountygrassrootshub.wordpress.com)
• August update on the development of The Mustard Seed (themustardseedcoop.wordpress.com)