thoughtful consumption

Carrots, onions, and beautiful potatoes make me think of beef stew.

However, our heat pump recently passed away, and I can’t imagine cooking and eating beef stew at the moment. Wish I liked cold potato salad more.

I wonder if sugar snaps and radishes would make a good combo?

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In case you didn’t get the memo, it’s definitely spring…

sugar snaps, green onions, and radishes

And everyone knows the best part of spring is strawberries.

I’ve been buying an extra couple of pints of strawberries each week and freezing them. I love frozen strawberry halves and plan to enjoy them for a while.

Coming in a close second to strawberries is field lettuce. (more…)

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beautiful pork chops from Gum Creek Farms

strawberries (I bought an extra pint from the store.)

eggs and granola

peas and spring onions

green cabbage and purple sweet potatoes

field greens

sage with flowers, winter savory, rosemary, oregano, and fennel

Fran had some instructions for making herbed vinegar, but I’ve been using the herbs as herbs so far.

Here are two meals we’ve made with veggies and herbs:

sweet potatoes with savory, broccoli, and peas with fennel

green onions sautéed in rosemary-fennel-garlic olive oil, broccoli, and purple sweet potatoes with rosemary and savory

The purple sweet potatoes are pretty but drier and not quite as tasty as their orange brethren. We’ve got one more, and I think I’ll make bigger chunks, add more olive oil, and roast them at 300 degrees instead of 350.

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Hi, everyone! I’m so behind on posting about my CSA subscription. (But not behind on enjoying it!)

I’ve got a big project due 5/16 and won’t be able to post again before then.

So here are some archives from April and May in years past. They’ll give you an idea of what to expect and maybe some ideas of how to use what you’re getting.

• April 2009
• April 2010
• May 2009
• May 2010

In the meantime, here’s a quick tip if your spring has been as busy as mine:

Get a box of fried chicken!

Fried chicken goes with anything that will come in your CSA box anytime of the year. Salad and peas? Check. Tomatoes and squash? Check. Sweet potatoes and greens? Check.

If you don’t like the fried part, try a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store instead.

On the other hand, if you’re watching your wallet, you can find coupons and deals at fried chicken place to make it really inexpensive.

Enjoy your food!

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They’re here!

local strawberries!!!

A pint of joy! Mine are washed, chopped, and freezing as we speak. I hope I don’t eat them all tonight and not have any left for the rest of the week.

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Eggs!

I ordered an extra dozen eggs this week. I’ve decided that egg custard makes an eggscellent start to the day. I’ve already made one batch. It’ll be gone by the weekend and then I’ll make another.

Wish I’d gotten duck eggs now. I got chicken eggs because they were cheaper, but duck eggs have richer yolks, which make richer custard. They also have five times as much vitamin B12 as chicken eggs. I’ve gone ahead and placed my order for a dozen duck eggs next week.

Lettuce!

Notice anything different about this lettuce? (more…)

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This week, we had two meals with two characteristics in common:

• They were made entirely of CSA ingredients (except for salt, pepper, olive oil, rice vinegar, and milk).
• They photographed really well.

They were also pretty simple, which is kind of a prerequisite for meals I make.

Here they are. I hope they’ll give you some ideas and inspiration for your CSA kitchen.

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Here’s what I pulled out of my CSA box this week.

strawberries!

These have been washed, halved, and frozen. I had a handful last night out of the freezer, and they were soooo sweet! (more…)

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Here’s what was in my CSA share this week:

Kale: always yummy and especially good with sweet potatoes.

Lettuce and snow peas

Snow peas mean it’s really spring!  I’ll put the smallest of the pods in salads and stir-fry the rest.

Broccolini

I think this is broccolini because of its slender stems. But it works the same way as broccoli. Steam it and serve with butter and lemon.

Green beans

Chris was so excited to see these green beans. I’ll simmer these for 30 minutes or so with a little olive oil or bacon drippings.

Sorrel

I was so excited to see the sorrel. I’ve defrosted my last ball of goat cheese from last year, and I’m going to snack on sorrel leaves wrapped around pieces of goat cheese.

Sweet potatoes, blueberries, and eggs

Infused olive oil and yogurt

The yogurt was delicious but a little sweet for me. Especially when the yogurt’s this creamy and flavorful, I like it better plain.

The oil is infused with roasted garlic and basil. Can’t wait to warm some and add it to hot pasta! The best part is these flavors will work with Italian and Asian dishes.

Enjoy your food!

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Here’s this week’s cache of goodness. Combined with some celery from last week, it’ll be a good week for salads.

cabbage, green onions, and apples

Green onions are good in salad and pretty much everything; we’re happy to have these. Green cabbage lasts so long that I can’t work up the energy to devise a plan for it yet. I’ll get around to it next week. I think we’re finally getting to the bottom of the barrel with last season’s apples. Mine are a little blemished. No real problem – I’ll just cut off the spots.

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