CSA: Lots of Greens

Got our latest box from Farm Fresh to You this morning. Still heavy on the winter greens. Today's box had spinach, purple kale, golden beets, tatsoi, fingerling sweet potatoes, red onions, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, an avocado, carrots, and a butternut squash,

The carrots came without greens, so no pesto, but the beets had a glorious crown of greens. Love golden beets, so that was a good thing.

Tatsoi is new to me. It's a cultivar of Brassica Rapa, making it the same species as turnips, Napa cabbage, and broccoli rabe. It has a very spinach-like texture, with a mildly bitter, mustardy taste. It can be eaten raw or cooked.

My roommate has requested a curry, as he has never had it. I figure a chicken curry with the beets, carrots, squash, bok choy, and some grape tomatoes over a black cumin rice will be great for dinner.

Happy Eating!

Roots and Greens

We got our second box from Farm Fresh to You today. This was a good haul this week. It was heavy on the root vegetables and greens. For greens, we got lettuce, green cabbage, kale, and frisee. I see a lot of salad in the near future. I haven't worked with frisee before. From what I can find, it seems to be best eaten raw, with an acidic vinaigrette.

For roots, we were given beets, fennel, carrots, and radishes. I kept the greens from all of these as well. The spouse is not a huge fan of fennel, but I enjoy it in small amounts. I have a couple of beets left from the last box, so am planning on pickling and canning all of them.

We also got some fruit. An avocado, a pint of strawberries, four blood oranges, and a couple of navel oranges. Need to do something cool with orange and strawberries.

Looking forward to playing with everything.

Trying a New CSA

Last year we subscribed to Suzie's Farm. Now, we had absolutely no issues with them. The quality of the produce, and the value for the money was excellent. The problem for us was simply that it was difficult to come up with the advance all at once.

The spouse found a Groupon for Farm Fresh to You. They allow you to buy one box at a time, rather than requiring a seasonal subscription. They offer a wide variety of boxes, in a number of sizes. We chose the regular Valley box for our first delivery. The valley box is mostly vegetables, some fruit, and focused on local seasonal produce. Another advantage, they deliver to you, rather than having to go to a pickup point.

We got our first box today. It contained 2 navel oranges, 4 blood oranges, 3 beets, a bunch of broccoli, a large head of lettuce, a pint of strawberries, a bunch of carrots, and a large bunch of kale.

I'm looking forward to having fresh produce again to inspire experimentation.

That will, hopefully, lead to more blog posts.

The Greens Revolution

Today was the last basket from our CSA subscription. I hope we can find money in the budget to re-up, spring is usually an exciting time for produce.

We got a lot of greens today. We got lettuce(3 heads!), red frill mustard, Savoy cabbage, chard, baby turnips(with greens), kale, cilantro, onion sprouts(luv 'em!), escarole, baby Chioggia beets(with greens), and sorrel.

Any good recipes for sorrel? I've never worked with it before. One of the joys of a CSA, always trying something new.

HalloweenTreats from My CSA

Halloween was my pickup day from my CSA. It seemed to be a particularly bountiful box. This time we got a head of bronze leaf lettuce, some beets with greens, some variegated eggplant, a lot of kale, two spaghetti squash, some late season tomatoes, some mixed herbs, a couple of onions, clover sprouts, carrots with greens, fennel root, and a large bunch of mint.

I'm particularly happy to have the carrot greens, inasmuch as they make terrific pesto. I love fennel, the spouse isn't so thrilled. I'm looking at a Spanish cream of celery and fennel soup, though, that looks fabulous.

As always, any suggestions on different things to do with the bounty are always appreciated in the comments.

Happy Eating!

My Refridgerator Runneth Over

Our CSA provided us with a rather voluminous bounty this week. Still transitioning from summer to autumn. Got two heads of lettuce. I have such a surfeit of lettuce, any good ideas beyond the usual? Getting more of the sturdier greens; kale, rainbow chard, and beet greens. Moving to fall squashes; got a nice butternut squash, and some lovely round yellow squash. I found that they make a great vegetarian meal, as squash Parmesan. Lots of fresh rosemary and cilantro. One yellow, and one white onion. Three beets, which may be pickled. Radish sprouts, which I love. And, finally, another favorite of mine, wax beans. As always, I'm open to suggestions, if anyone has any great ideas to use this bounty up, post a comment.

First Fall Harvest

We got our first box of produce for fall from our CSA. ?Starting to transition from summer to fall produce. Still getting peppers(both sweet and hot), tomatoes, and lettuce (head and mixed leaf), but also getting bitter greens, this time kale, sunflower sprouts, a couple of white onions, a pile of zucchini, cilantro, and a small baking pumpkin. I'm excited for the pumpkin, because I will be stuffing and baking that. Look for that in an upcoming post.

End of Summer Bounty

This is the last box from our CSA for the summer. This time around we got spinach, lettuce, rainbow chard, zucchini, onions, white egg plant, purple beans, mixed sweet peppers, heirloom tomatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes, and micro basil. I tasted the purple beans, and they are surprisingly sweet. I think at least some of them will get just lightly blanched, and made into salad with the cherry tomatoes. I have a surfeit of eggplant, so I think eggplant parmigiana will be a dinner soon. As always, if anyone has any good ideas for using these vegetables, let me know.

Happy Eating!

Late Summer Abundance

So I picked up my box from my CSA this afternoon.  It was a goodly haul. Two heads of lettuce, rainbow chard, mixed sprouts, a variety of sweet peppers, purple okra, white cucumbers, white egg plant, zucchini, onions, and a big box of cherry tomatoes. If anyone has some innovative recipes for any of this, post them in the comments.Especially for the peppers and eggplant, because I have so much.

I still have tomatillos left from the last box, if that helps.

Happy Eating!