Week 3 Wrap-Up

Doing pretty well. Half the Calo Verde is gone. Bringing the last two portions to work with me for lunch this week.

We had dinner with friends on Friday and brought Mustard Greens salad with roasted beets, roasted turnips, and carrots with a vinaigrette. The sweet beets complemented the mustard greens, but the buttermilk ranch was better than the vinaigrette (but I thought ranch and beets was yucky). Next time, we'll make a cold vegetable side of root vegetables and let the greens stand more or less alone.

Usually I discard beet greens... which is funny, because I'm a big fan of collards.... but in the spirit of things, I wilted them at the same time I was making the soup and sauteed them with some garlic. This evening they'll go into a quiche with feta and pine nuts for my wife's lunch bunch.

The last of the strawberries went into the blender along with a half pineable and into the freezer to make some awesome popsicles.

And with that... can't wait till Weds.

Calo Verde

Portuguese kale and potato soup.

1. Slice and brown some Chorizo (or in this case, Andouille... it's what I had) & remove.
2. Wilt one onion in some olive oil
3. Add peeled sliced potatoes and water. Simmer until soft.
4. Mash the potatoes in the pot.
5. Add the Russian Kale (washed and chopped) and simmer for another 10 minutes
6. Season (good bit of salt. I added some saffron and a dried chili to make up for Chorizo-Andouille gap)

CSA Share - Week 3

Getting exciting:
1 Beet
1 Turnip
1 Carrot
1 Mustard Greens
1 Russian Kale
and... 1 Pint Strawberries! (Strawberries mostly vanished soon after this picture was taken)

Mixed Greens with Watermellon and Cod

Meal 1: Cod McNuggets over fresh mixed greens with watermellon and goat cheese. The kids skipped the salad and had the broccoli stir-fried with some soy sauce.

Meal 2: the snap peas and bok choi got stir-fried in sesame oil and a touch of soy sauce and served over cold sesame noodles.

Meal 3: used most of the rest of the arugula in BLTs.

Meal 4: another salad, this time with smoked duck breast provided by our neighbor.

Unfortunately, without company over for the weekend, we didn't get to the remainder of the salad greens before they were wilted. We'll have to try harder next week.

CSA Share - Week 2

1 Bok Choi
1 Broccoli
1 Red Leaf Lettuce
1 Mizuna
1 Arugula
1 pint snap peas

Week One - Eaten and Done

Last night, we tossed our wilted spinach in with some pasta and red sauce to give a boost to a lazy, rainy Monday meal. The spinach was a little lost in the shuffle, but it's all gone and in my tummy.

As for the fresh greens, it took us until Sunday, but made our way through without them wilting on us and are the better for it... Salad for guests Friday night. Greens and cheese wrap for Sunday lunch.

What could be in store for Wednesday?

What's all this then?

We'll see is the answer. Will this be a one time experiment in blogging or a lifelong passion ranging far and wide?

In the short term, I wanted to document and share my family's experience with Community Supported Agriculture. I've always been very interested in food and self-reliance and so we make a lot of our foodstuffs ourselves. The next step was to start sourcing our own food. Frankly, last fall our farmer's market tab started eclipsing even our cable bill.

So, we signed on for Steven Parker's farm. Or, as I like to think about it, the farm to sign up for when you're signing up to late for any of the more tony farms in Lincoln or Weston. But that's OK. No fresh cut flowers, but the price is right and he delivers to central square.

When we signed up, my first worry was that we would enthusiastically consume all the greens the first week or two and then loose steam and wind up throwing out a lot of produce. I thought by writing about what I've done with the share will help me stay focused on coming up with new and innovative uses.

So, week 1:

Spinach - I washed it and steamed it and chopped it up. It's only one bunch so it won't be enough for creamed spinach, but should make a nice dip, or a frittata or quiche for lunch next week.

Arugula, Mustard Greens & Pea Tendrils - in anticipation of the greens, we got some buttermilk and made a nice light ranch dressing. The spicy mustard greens are perfectly complemented by the cool, tangy dressing if I do say so myself. We had salad for dinner last night. Again for lunch today (with a little left-over grilled chicken) and we'll toss the rest tonight since we have something like 50 or so people coming over.

Tune back in next week to see what comes in next and to learn if we wind up eating the spinach or not.

Farm Share - Delivery One

1 bunch spinach
1 bunch arugula
1 bunch pea tendrils
1 bunch mustard greens