Category Archives: Food

We have a new CSA this year! They’re right down the road, and I wrote about them here.

here is our first share:

AND they apologized for it being so small. YIKES! we are a little nervous.

All spread out:

kohlrabi, a giant cucumber, 4 heads of lettuce (two each red leave and possible boston?), bunch of dill, gigantic bag of spinach, and 2 quarts of strawberries

The strawberries – oh my lord, the strawberries. They are so magnificent. I can’t even explain how great they are. And the cucumber! the first cucumber of the season is so incredible – the fullness of flavor is so startling after winter grocery store cukes.

two heads of lettuce (one red leaf and one oak leaf), swiss chard, cabbage, rainbow carrots (you can’t see the red one here), regular tomatoes and 1 heirloom tomato, cucumbers, jalepeno peppers, some cubanelle peppers, cilantro, eggplant, fingerling potatoes, green beans, patty pan squash, leeks, and ground cherries.

no fruit share this week. Thank goodness! I have hardly touched the nectarines from last week. they’re just perfectly ripe now.

tonight I plan on cooking a bunch of stuff, including potatoes, leeks, kohlrabi, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, corn fritters, and cubanelle peppers. phew!

status:

wk 1 oregano
wk 2 parsley
wk 4 kohlrabi
wk 5 onions, cilantro.
wk 6 some apples
wk 7 parsley
wk 8 cabbage, carrots, red onions, carrots, nectarines, zucchini.
wk 9 basil, carrots, white onions, purple kohlrabi, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, and plums.
wk 10 lettuce, yellow squash, cucumber, garlic, tomatoes, dill, dragon beans, green peppers, arugula, beets, apples and nectarines.
things I have had to toss: wk 5 spinach, wk 6 chard, wk 8 potatoes, wk 6 fava beans, wk 7 wax beans, wk 6 lettuce? where did it go? wk 7 lettuce, wk 10 english cucumber

I’m happy to report that I feel a lot more comfortable with the quantity of vegetables in my refrigerator. I did a solid 3 hours of cooking last night, and things seem so much more under control!

I tackled the big bowl of white turnips and made two dishes:

a turnip casserole

the turnip casserole tasted better this morning with two fried eggs on top.

and a really incredible korean turnip salad:

I also tackled the bags and bags of wax and green beans, and the raddichio. I roasted them up with the some of the garlic. This recipe was perfect, actually, because every thing it called for? I had almost exactly that quantity.

this is just one of two pans of beans.

I think this will taste better with a chopped hard-boiled egg over it. The raddichio is still kind of bitter, and the egg will mellow it out a little.

while I was cooking I boiled the 5 ears of corn from last week in preparation for making spicy corn fritters later in the week.

and then I took a bunch of plums and made elsie’s cobbler:

which came out really really pretty with the yellow and purple plums mixed! I used more fruit than I should have, but it still was pretty tasty.

1 bunch and 1 head of lettuce, 2 yellow squash, 1 regular and 1 english cucumber, 2 heads garlic, 1 heirloom tomato, 2 regular tomatoes, dill, dragon beans, 5 ears corn, 2 green peppers, bunch arugula, beets, apples and nectarines.

last night I used this recipe to make a plum “cake.” I think there is something wrong with the recipe, because it says to POUR the batter and I ended up patting it down like a giant slab of playdough. One of my friends had disasterous results with the cake, too. Mine came out pretty good, though it’s more of a plummy sweet bread than anything else.  I’ve eaten a lot of the plums but it’s hard to stay on top of 2 lbs of stone fruit a week. and these plums are good, but I don’t know a lot of plummy recipes to use them up with.
I still have a whole mess of beans to eat – green beans, 2 lbs of wax beans (though I thought there was more) and now dragon beans too. And I have to do something with the raddichio, though the stuff from wk 6 might be the worse for the wear.

STATUS:
wk 1 oregano
wk 2 parsley
wk 3 white salad turnips
wk 4 kohlrabi, some garlic, white salad turnips
wk 5 onions, white turnips/radish, cilantro.
wk 6 raddichio, lettuce, fava beans, some apples
wk 7 wax beans, parsley, garlic, lettuce, cauliflower, beets
wk 8 raddichio, cabbage, carrots, small cukes, red onions, carrots, wax beans, nectarines and plums, zucchini.
wk 9 basil, carrots, white onions, purple kohlrabi, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, and plums.

things I had to toss: wk 5 spinach, wk 6 chard, wk 8 potatoes
things I may have to toss later: wk 6 lettuce, wk 6 raddichio, herbs from wks 1, 2, and 5. also fava beans?

I have 3 weeks to catch up on:

Week 7:

peaches, plums, wax beans, parsley, yellow squash, peppers, garlic, cucumbers, chard, lettuce, cauliflower, beets.

I used the cauliflower from this week and the prior week with some of the garlic and created a delicious roasted cauliflower dish. it was So Good!

Week 8

I almost didn’t get this one, b/c I was singing the national anthem and forgot to call ahead to have my share bagged. Luckily the clean-up crew bagged an extra share that day!

raddichio, cabbage, head of lettuce, carrots, yellow squash, small cukes, kale, dill, red onions, carrots, wax beans, nectarines and plums, zucchini, and potatoes.

also purchased 2 lbs of honey from local source. the beekeeper has some hives set up in the backyard of our pick-up family!
Week 9

basil, carrots, oak leaf lettuce (so cool), white onions, purple kohlrabi, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, green cubanelle type peppers. peaches and plums.

Things I’ve made:

fried yellow squash

cottage cheese “pie” starring chard and kale (wks 6, 7, and 8 )

pot of yellow squash soup to use up all the squash, some suspicious zucchini, an onion, and dill

stir fry of cubanelle type peppers, onions, and patty pan squashes to serve over whole wheat pasta with parm cheese. surprisingly yum.

I’ve been eating the lettuce hot-salad style, with indian food or thai curries poured on top. it’s pretty good and an easy way to demolish 1/2 a head in a meal.

I’ll do a status in the next post.

raddichio, cauliflower, lettuce, swiss chard, beets (yay!), yellow squash, cilantro, fava beans, and extra: english peas. I should have snagged extra garlic scape but didn’t think of it until the next day.

also my first fruit share: peaches and apples. I let the peaches sit for a day out and they are so perfectly ripe now… and the most incredible sweet and juicy things ever.

I shelled the peas (with 2 other weeks worth of peas) right away and I’m finishing them off right now with chopped hardboiled eggs for my 2nd breakfast. I that night I also made the epically wonderful cheese sauce of yore for the old broccoli. and I washed off all old lettuce and ate it for lunch yesterday. While I was washing greens I cooked the beets (just boiled) and I’ve got the 2nd half of them for my lunch today as well.

status update:

wk 1 oregano (keeping pretty well in the fridge in a glass of water with it’s parsley and cilantro friends)

wk 2 parsley [I had to chuck the rest of the frisee… there wasn’t much left, at least.]
wk 3 white turnip

wk 4 kohlrabi, cilantro, 2 heads of garlic, white turnips

wk 5 spinach, onions, white turnips/radish, cilantro.

I can’t believe it, but I’m really catching up! amazing. the fruit share may make things a little harder. oh, and I didn’t finish my garlic scape soup (from, like, 2 weeks ago), so I have to chuck it. it smells… extra special. it LOOKS ok, but I don’t think I’d better risk it.