Week 11

This week's haul:
Corn, Cherry Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Asian Eggplant, Apples and Mustard Greens (not pictured).

Now that we're in the heart of summer, preparation is a lot easier. Pretty much wash, grill (optional) and eat.

Below, corn we grilled with spicy mayo:

And eggplant grilled with miso glaze:




















Truth be told, the eggplant, mayo and miso weren't from our share but instead was from Julia's garden, but we'll get to ours soon enough.

Week 10

So we've been on vacation for a few weeks. To catch you up, our neighbor Julia at Grow. Cook. Eat. did a lot more with our vegetables than we ever did!

Week 8

A great week! Nothing I don't know what to do with...
2 Cucumbers
Red spring onions
Beets
New potatoes
Broccoli Rabe
Totsoy
Bok Cohi

Since it's a short week, I hopped right on prepping and consuming.

The cucumbers were half eaten right away... just add a little salt.

I turned the grill on and roasted the beets, a few onions and grilled the Bok Choi.
The beets went on top of the Totsoy for lunch.
Turned the new potatoes into potato salad with the roasted onions.
We'll grill up some sausages and have the potato salad and bok choi on the side... maybe turn last week's cabage and the kohlrabi into a slaw too.

That leaves the Rabe which we like on top of pasta with lots of garlic.

Pickling...

Here's the first batch of dilly beans. I made one patch spicy and one batch just pickled. I'll turn the cucumbers into bread and butters as soon as we finish the last batch we made which shouldn't take long.

Falling behind but making strides

OK. This is last week's summer squash and the zucchini from two weeks ago that I'm finally getting to eat today (in training for a week with free lunch), but still I haven't (yet) let much go to waste. The Ratatouille is excellent cold. I prepared it simply:

• Saute the squash and zucchini at high heat till they soften and squeek but are still toothsome and set aside
• Add 2 weeks worth of spring onions and one red pepper and saute till the onions are translucent
• Add one can of tomatoes (we ate the fresh ones we bought for this purpose in BLTs... so sue me) plenty of thyme, salt and a lot of black pepper
• Add the squash and zucchini back in and heat through to help it all come together

I hated Ratatouille as a child, but if you avoid eggplant and make sure it doesn't get mushy, it's sweet, zesty and delicious.

For this week, I've got some catching up to do, especially since we're going away for the weekend, so I think we're going to make the potatoes into french fries, eat the arugula in salad, and pickle the green beans. I'm debating whether to try to turn the cabbage into Kim Chi or just lay up and make Cole Slaw (hmm. and maybe some pork barbecue to go with).

Week 7

String beans
Cabbage
Spring Onions
2 Cukes
3 Zuchs (one the size of Manhattan)
New Potatoes
Arugula

Week 5 Update

OK, so we're slowing down. It feels like I've hit the entree of the meal and it looks really good, but I shouldn't have eaten so much of the bread and I drank too much wine, but I couldn't help it.

On Weds I processed a lot of the perishables but didn't really cook much until last night. The beet greens were cleaned and wilted and the kale washed and stored in paper towels.

The Kale went into a mis-translated Tuscan Kale Soup. The recipe called for white beans, but for some reason I read chick peas. And so, we have Ceci Toscano with Kale (adapted/bastardized from Gourmet cookbook).
- Sautee one onion in olive oil
- Add 1/2 lb chick peas and 2 quarts water
- Add a parmesan rind (I had one parmesan and one romano), rosemary stem and bay leaf
- Bring to a boil and then simmer till the chick peas are tender (1 hour)
- Remove the cheese rind, rosemary and bay leaf and add the kale. Simmer till tender (10 minutes)

Last night/this morning, two weeks of beet greens went into a quiche along with some feta and pine nuts.

In advance of tomorrow's pick-up, I'm going to try to use the spring onions and zucchini in a ratatouille. I'll make it tonight and serve it at room temperature tomorrow.

This still leaves the beets, carrots and kohlrabi. I saw a recipe for ginger, beet and carrot soup which looked good. The problem is that I'm in training most of this week and next and so I have one fewer occasion to eat our produce. We'll see.

As for the Kohlrabi. I thought I might try a hasty pickled Kohlrabi and see if that does anything for it.

CSA Share Week 5

Baby Fennel
Zucchini
Carrots
Spring Onions
Beets
Kolrabi (so?)
Russian Red Kale

I Take It All Back

Well... not the part about the fava beans, but the home-made Tabouli is great. It just took a day for it all to come together. We didn't have any Bulgar wheat so we made it with couscous which as far as I can tell is indistinguishable.

I'll do Anything for the CSA...

The Gurgling Cod recently asked the question what's worth making yourself. Shelling and skinning fava beans ain't among them. An hour and a half later I have a half cup of beans that look like Lima beans but taste like peas, except they're all bruised from me peeling them. I welcome Fava fans to chime on, but otherwise, I'm going to canvas the line to see if anyone wants to swap beans for greens.

Otherwise it wasn't a very inspiring week CSA-wise. Collards were wilted and braised with garlic and served on the side of some home-made sausage. Beet greens are wilted and awaiting a quiche. Beets, roasted and waiting a salad.

I kept the kids away from the strawberries for the first 24 hours, but then we didn't find the occasion to eat them the next 24 and then they started getting mushy, so those got thrown in the freezer for Popsicles and smoothies. Lesson learned.

The most interesting thing we did was turn the parsley into tabouli salad which came out well, but how much tabouli are you going to eat, really.

Week 4 - CSA Share

Carrots
Beets
Fava Beans
Collard Greens
Parsley
Strawberries

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