CSA Share - 3rd pickup

First Tomato of 2010

From left to right: scallions, cucumber, tatsoi, dandelion, red chard, cucumber.

Bok Choy and Beets with greens

Patty Pan Squashes

Lettuce and Broccoli

Peaches

Sunflowers!

CSA Share Week 2

Today was the second week of our EOW (every other week) CSA share.  It is quite a haul: spinach, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, bok choy, romaine, arugula, chard, radishes, 2 quarts of strawberries and snow peas.  Tucked in with the romaine you will see a bit of white plastic grocery bag and a basil start.

We had arugula salad with chick peas and radishes for dinner, and strawberries for dessert.  It is summer!

THE ROT REPORT
As of today, we used everything from last week, except a bunch of bok choy that rotted.  I think that I didn't trim, wash and dry it well enough before putting it away.  This week I took more care.  Each vegetable was washed, trimmed and thoroughly dried before wrapping in kitchen towels, and nestled into a large plastic storage container.  Hopefully this will work better.

At this point, the 1/2 share seems to be just right for the two of us. 

No Use Crying Over Rotten Veggies (aka the Rot Report)

July was a very busy month. The past week was a whirlwind of visitors and swirling chaos of paperwork involved in the purchase of an apartment. As a result, out of sheer exhaustion, we ordered pizza and ate out a couple of times. The consequence: 1 small head romaine, 1 small head red leaf lettuce, 2 cucumbers, and 1 batch of veggie slaw were laid to rest.

In the past, when I've let a veggie from SuperMarket go to rot, it was a shrug at the waste and a toss in the trash. Now there's this sense of not living up to my part of the bargain, my link in the chain. From the seed, the soil, the earth, the rain, the sun, the moon, the farmer, the farmhands, the truck driver and the CSA members who work together to purchase and distribute each vegetable, a great deal of effort is expended. Not that this is any less than the energy expended by an AgribusinessFarm but I don't have faces for the links of that chain.

And so it goes.

A summer of recipes or how i used everything

My goal this season is to use every bit of goodness from my CSA share. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, in the spring, one buys a share in a local farm, and collects dividends in the form of produce. Here in New York State it's approximately $600 for 22 weeks of veggies and 20 weeks of fruit. If the farmer has a good year, you eat well. If not, you don't eat so well, but the payback is that the farm survives the season.

Every year it is an adventure. Like a box of chocolates, "you nevah know what cha gonna get" each week. In a 2 person household, it is a challenge to use everything before rot sets in.