A bit of catch-up (weeks 3 & 4)

So I kinda dropped the ball on this whole adventure after week 2: sorry, I got caught up in trying to bang out a dissertation chapter on three novels (still not quite finished with it) and building a fence in part of my backyard for my dog (she now has a lovely 40' x 30' area to run around in like a maniac).

So week 3's haul included a lot of peas, some potatoes, tiny carrots, a tiny squash, a tiny zucchini, arugula, and maybe a few other things that I've forgotten.  I only have pictures of what's left from that week:

Peas

Arugula

Also during week 3 I bought this awesome spice mix:

The university's Campus Kitchen project has a booth at the market and every week they make something highlighting at least one ingredient (usually a few) found at the market.  That week they make roasted chick peas with a few different spice blends--the chick peas were fantastic and we zoomed over to the spice lady, sampled and bought some spice blends.

Last week I wasn't in town, so one of my friends picked up our box for us.  This week's box had mixed salad greens (no picture, since I already ate them), turnips, swiss chard, potatoes, zucchini, and squash--and two garlic bulbs (I declined one since there are three of us splitting--maybe this week there will be more):

I was very glad there were no more peas!  I like peas and all but 3 weeks of snap peas and shell peas and I was done.
This week I plan on sautéing the chard and turnips, and I'm going to see if I can find a way to freeze the rest of the veggies. This Saturday's haul will be mostly going into the freezer to since I'm going on a research trip and won't be able to eat a week's worth of veggies before leaving.

Week 2

This week's CSA box was about triple the size of last weeks.  I only have pictures of my share of the box.

Mesculan Greens:

Spinach, Chard, Garlic Scapes, Scallions:

Beets, Japanese salad turnips, radishes:

snow peas:

Other Farmer's Market goodies:


Veggie burger patties:

strawberries:

tomatoes:

jam:

Plans for all these veggies this week?  Stir-fry, salads, possibly roasting the beets---I'm not a big fan of beets, but I haven't tried them in many years.

Turnip, Radish, and Greens Stir-fry with Tofu bites

After a weekend full of salads, all that was left from this week's CSA box were turnips, radishes, garlic scapes, snow peas, and kale.  I figured the easiest way to cook everything was a stir-fry--and was I ever right: it turned out to be delicious!

I also made baked tofu bites, which is my favorite tofu recipe.  My timing of the dishes was a bit off, so the stir fry was done WAY before the tofu.  I made it a two course dinner instead of one.

Stir fry ingredients:
Japanese salad turnips
radishes
garlic scapes
snow peas
kale
green tops from the turnips and radishes
Mirin (rice vinegar)
Teriyaki sauce/marinade
crunchy rice noodles

Once all the veggies are prepped, I added a bit of extra virgin olive oil to my wok, let it heat up and then dumped in the turnips and snow peas for a few minutes, then the radishes and scapes.

Along with the radishes and scapes, I added a couple dashes of miring and teriyaki

I let this cook for a couple minutes, then added the greens to wilt

Since the tofu had just gone into the oven at this point, I served this over some crunchy rice noodles (you could substitute rice or other noodles if you wanted)

The baked tofu takes about 10 minutes to make (5 minutes, at least, of marinating time) and then another 15-30 in the oven--depending on how crispy you want the tofu and if you have the patience to flip every little square (I don't, so I usually bake it for 15-20 minutes).

All of this took roughly 30 minutes to make, and it was great!  If the snow peas, turnips, and radishes show up again, I'll be making this again--just with better timing (making the tofu first since the stir fry took all of 8 minutes or so to cook).

Week 1

This was the first CSA box.  I expected it to be fairly light because it's still early in the growing season and last week at the market most of the booths just had a mix of greens and not much else.

Here's what is in the box:
Russian Kale, Mesculan Salad Greens, Radishes, Japanese Salad Turnips, Garlic Scapes, Snow Peas

Russian White Kale:

Mesculan Salad Mix:

Japanese Salad Turnips, Garlic Scapes,  and Radishes:

Snow Peas:

I also pick up some salad tomatoes ($2.75/quart) and delicious strawberries ($5/quart)

So the CSA box was, as I expected, a bit light this week.  So far I've gotten two salads out of this, and I still have most of the kale, another salad bowl full of mesculan greens, all the snow peas (1/3 of the pictured above is my share), a garlic scape, most of the turnips and radishes.  The strawberries are gone--they were SO good I couldn't stop eating them!  And I still have a couple tomatoes left--I've just been slicing them and eating them with a bit of salt and pepper (sometimes a splash of balsamic vinegar to be fancy).

Hopefully, I figure out what to do with the turnips and radishes soon (I sliced up a bit of each in one salad, but  I'm not sure that's the best treatment for them).

Beginnings

So you joined a CSA....

I live in a college town with a great farmer's market--this market runs all summer and into the fall (June-Oct) and then a few weeks in the winter (Nov-Dec) and another few weeks in early spring (Mar-May).  So for most of the year, I can go to the market on Saturday mornings and buy local products: goat cheese, pasta, vegetables, bread, fruit, soap, baked goods, etc.  Even though I have this at my disposable for most of the year, I don't go very often.  I have no good reason why, besides forgetting about it until it's too late (the market is only open until 1pm) or sleeping in and missing the best hours (most of the good stuff is gone by noon).  But I'm committed to eating fresh, locally grown and/or organic (I'll take local over organic--because I'd rather help my local economy) food.  Last year I did 90% of my holiday shopping at local, independent stores, and that has really shown me how easy it can be to support Main St.  Also, my little college town is bursting with new businesses and most of the businesses in town are locally owned anyway.

So, I've joined a CSA along with two fellow grad student friends.  We're splitting a full farm share In total our share costs $575, so $192 each for 22 weeks of fresh organic produce which we can pick up at the farm or at the local farmer's market. This breaks down to a mere $8.73 per week for my share of the vegetables.  Now, the only question is, how much produce am I really getting?  According to the farm's website for our full share with can expect $28-$30 worth of produce each week--I'm not sure how many pounds that is and of course that depends on the crop that week and the season and a whole host of other factors.  I'm betting that this CSA share will end up being a much better bargain that buying regular produce at the regular grocery store.

Here is how this summer is going to work:


Saturdays: pick up CSA box.  I will photograph and log the entire contents of the CSA box and note what my 1/3 of that is. I'll also note any extra produce I picked up at the Farmer's Market--I usually go with $20 in my pocket and leave with a bag full of produce and some cash leftover.


Wednesdays: when the grocery store ad comes out, I'll peruse it and try to compare/contrast their prices with my weekly cost of $8.73 to show how much money I'm saving.  I'll compare my local, organic produce price to either the stores regular produce (a lot of their produce is local) or the organic produce--whichever happens to be cheaper that week (which is what I would buy).  I'll also share any additional produce I buy to supplement my CSA haul, since that is another factor to consider--this will mostly be fruit, since the farm only has veggies.


The rest of the week: I will share how I prepared or stored for later use that week's haul.  Expect a lot of roasted veggies, salads, and tips on how to freeze things.  I will post sources for recipes I do not make up myself and sources to the information I found on how to freeze things--if it's not just cutting up the produce, freezing it in a single layer, then bagging and tagging it.

I hope you will follow my CSA venture and I welcome any comments, tips, recipes, etc.