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Archive for the ‘Farmers Fresh CSA’ Category

Reporting from HQ

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on March 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Last Tuesday, I visited the weekly packing operation at Farmers Fresh. It’s a lot of work! I got to meet Patricia, Janet, Fran, Michele, and Bryan. I even put together some cardboard boxes (although they turned out to be the wrong ones. D’oh!)

Patricia and Fran cracking open the produce.

Patricia and Fran crack open the produce.

Patricia and Michelle amidst the bounty.

Patricia and Michelle bag amidst the bounty.

Janet wrestles with a 25 pound bag of red peas.

Janet repackages 25 lbs of red peas.

Bryan drops off his beautiful spinach, lettuce, and kale.

Bryan drops off his weekly harvest.

43 boxes - just under half of this week's deliveries

43 boxes - just under half of this week's deliveries

Member Dianne Cox seems pleased with her weekly order.

Member Dianne Cox looks pleased with her weekly order.

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Gardening, anyone?

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , on March 9, 2009| 2 Comments »

A few years ago, I decided to plant a square-foot garden. We built a frame, improved the soil, planned our grid, and bought and planted seeds. We got some herbs and sugar snap peas. Everything else eluded us that first season. Chiggers made it hard for me to tend the plot as much as I needed to, and horn worms took care of the rest.

So over the past couple of years, I’ve only grown sugar snap peas. Their season is early enough that I don’t run into many chiggers, and I love fresh peapods. Everything else I gave up on and decided to invest that money with the Farmers’ Fresh pros instead.

mmm... peapods

mmm... peapods

Still, we’re getting back to gardening this year. I’m hoping that my husband can take over the summer gardening duties, and maybe we can grow more stuff this time It would make a good complement to the CSA subscription. We could grow stuff we really like or stuff we could freeze, like tomato sauce. I’d love to grow tomatoes and basil. After watching a pot of fresh tomatoes cook down to nothing last year, I realized you can never have too many tomatoes.

our 2x8 container garden

our 2'x8' container garden

Chris read about a system for growing potatoes. You start with one frame and keep stacking dirt and frames as the potatoes grow. Then you harvest the frames as you need them from the top. I figure it’s worth a try.

the first potato frame - sans potatoes

the first potato frame - sans potatoes

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3/1 And so it begins…

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , , , , on March 4, 2009| 3 Comments »

Got my box of stuff today – a family pack plus muffins!

3/1 Family pack order

3/1 Family pack order

  • rice grits
  • Asian turnips
  • big head of leaf lettuce
  • kale
  • romaine
  • 1/2 dozen eggs
  • 1/2 dozen blueberry muffins
  • bay leaves
  • lemon thyme
  • 4 apples
  • dried red peas

The muffins are pricey, but they’re so good! My husband and I have been looking forward to them for weeks now. These are little blueberry ones. We each had one as soon as we got the box open, so there are only four in the picture.

There’ll be lots of salad this week with sliced Asian turnips. I’ll also tear up the greens and put them in with the lettuce raw for a nice mix.

Thanks to Kim’s advice, I’m willing to try kale crisps again. Probably only a small batch, though, to be safe. The rest I’ll cook with raisins and pinenuts or pasta.

I had planned to make some chicken today with leftover rosemary. Now I’ll add the lemon thyme, too. The bay leaves will have to wait for beef stew or vegetable soup.

These apples are great snacking apples. But I kind of want to try something else with them, too. Maybe I’ll cut them up and put them in a salad with the turnips. Something fun like that.

The peas and grits come from Anson Mills in South Carolina. I’m waiting for the weekly newsletter to see the suggested recipes. I’m thinking some kind of Hoppin’ John recipe maybe with thyme and a bay leaf. The Anson Mills site lists some recipes for grits and red pea gravy, but the gravy recipe sounds a little complicated for me. It calls for pureeing some of the peas, and I so hate washing my blender.

Yesterday, I visited with the farmers while they were boxing up all the items. What a huge job! I took a bunch of pictures, and I’ll post them soon.

Sadly, after my bragging about not getting a cold this season, I came down with one yesterday. So I’m happy to have all this nice produce again. Enjoy!

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2/18 – final pre-season delivery

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here’s what was in our box for the last pre-season delivery.

this fortnight's spread

this fortnight's spread

  • herbs: lemon thyme, salad burnet, rosemary
  • leaf lettuce
  • romaine
  • carrots!
  • spinach
  • pecans
  • whole wheat bread
  • turnip greens
  • popping corn
  • dozen eggs
  • pac choi
  • apples

We’ve already broken into the lettuce, salad burnet, eggs, carrots, and bread. See?

an all CSA supper

an all CSA supper!

The carrots are amazing. I’ve been scrubbing them, cutting off the tops, and eating them as is. I haven’t even bothered to cut them up. We just eat them Bugs Bunny style.

The spinach is delicious. It’s got nice texture, color, and no bitterness. The pac choi is really pretty, too. I’m thinking of chopping it and lightly cooking it like cabbage. I’ll probably serve it with pork loin cooked with some of the rosemary and thyme.

I’m giving the turnip greens to my parents. Might as well share the love, right?

I now have 2 pounds of pecans to candy. Now if I can just rope the guys in to helping me shell them this weekend…

We’re excited to try the popping corn but haven’t yet. The CSA flyer said this corn pops completely so there’s no hull left.

It seems you can’t judge an apple by its cover! I cut up a kind of sad looking red apple to eat yesterday… and it was tart, crisp, juicy, and perfect.

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2/12 Pre-season update

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , , on February 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Lots of salad

Here are some of the salads we’ve had.

leaf lettuce plus extras with CSA-herbed chicken breast

leaf lettuce and radishes with CSA-herbed chicken breast

Asian turnip, baby belle radishe, daikon radish, and green onions for salad topping

Asian turnip, baby belle radish, daikon radish, and green onion for salad topping

chef spinach salad with cheese and bacon

chef spinach salad with cheese and bacon

Happily, we’ve still got enough spinach and romaine to see us through this week. The baby belle radishes are gone, but I’ve still got some turnips and another daikon.

Eggs!

We’ve made brownies and scrambled eggs so far. The scrambled eggs were so good! These are a real CSA treat. Fresh eggs turned scrambled eggs into a gourmet meal. I hope to be able to have another scrambled egg and salad meal soon. You know that the eggs are great when you don’t want to make any more brownies because you’d rather have more scrambled eggs! (more…)

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2/4 pre-season weeks 3 & 4

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , , , , , on February 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Brrr…

It sure was cold picking up the produce this morning. Here’s what I brought home.

feb4

  • Goat’s milk soap with Romance scent
  • Asian turnips
  • Radishes
  • Lavender-lemon verbena-rose geranium sachet
  • Apples (2 lbs)
  • Pecans (1 lb)
  • Sweet potatoes (2 lbs)
  • Leaf lettuce (8 oz)
  • Bordeaux spinach (6 oz)
  • Romaine lettuce (16 oz)
  • 1 dozen eggs
  • Chard (12 oz)
  • Chocolate-raspberry-pecan muffins

Meal planning

Tired of salad yet? Me, neither. The little radishes were great salad additions last fall. We didn’t know we liked radishes till then. The Asian turnips aren’t bad, either. They’re mild, and I just slice them up with the radishes for salad fixin’s. In terms of greens, we’ll start on the leaf lettuce first and then alternate with the spinach and the romaine. I’m not planning on mixing them because I like the distinct tastes.

I’m going to try to make apple rings with a couple of the apples again. And I’m definitely making candied pecans. They’ll be great for snacking and on top of sweet potatoes and spinach salads and ice cream.

I am very happy to have eggs again. We made French toast which used up half our eggs from the first delivery. I’m not eager to do that again. We’ll have scrambled eggs and lots of baked treats this time, I hope.

Here’s an interesting page with kale and chard recipes.  Our chard will wind up in something like these later in the week.

The soap and sachet both smell lovely. I tied the sachet to the lamp over my bed in the hopes of sweet dreams. Even my husband likes the smell.

I was very strong and did not eat a muffin while I was taking pictures. I can tell you they’re very moist, though. We plan on having a couple for dessert tonight.

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Fortnightly wrap up #1

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Made it through the spinach!

We finished all our spinach Sunday night. We had lots of spinach salad, a spinach pasta dish, and a pan of spinach artichoke dip. Surprisingly, I’m looking forward to getting more this week. Spinach is a nice thing to have around, and it keeps well, too.

Other dishes

Some of my apples got a little soft before I ate them. I peeled and cored them, sliced them and put them on a baking sheet. I sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon on them and baked them at 425 for several minutes. I ate them all right out of the oven earning me dirty looks from my family when they came in looking for theirs. Hey, it was my experiment, right?

I finally tried the kale with raisins and pinenuts and really liked it. I’ve still got one bunch of kale left, and I’m going to make another batch today or tomorrow.

We had some potato soup alongside our spinach salads a couple of days.

potatosoup

The soup was based on this recipe. I subbed onions for leeks and 1/2 a cup of cream for 1/2 a cup of the water.  And I didn’t puree it at the end because I didn’t feel like cleaning out the blender afterwards. It was perfectly fine with soft potato chunks. “Better than it looks,” was Chris’ comment. It was a great way to use up the extras from the 5lb bags of potatoes and onions I had from the grocery store.

The rosemary and lemon thyme went into this chicken breast recipe. (I just made the chicken breast part along with some rice.) The chicken was really good. I’m not a big fan of balsamic vinegar on salads, but it gave the chicken a nice, sweet flavor.

What’s left

After two weeks, I still have a bunch of kale, a daikon radish, and half a green onion. The green onion and daikon will continue to be added to spinach salads over the next week, and I’ll cook the kale some time in the next couple of days.

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2 strikes for kale crisps

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , on January 26, 2009| 4 Comments »

I tried making kale crisps again according to this recipe.

tear into pieces

Step 1: tear into pieces

drizzle with olive oil

Step 2: drizzle with olive oil

add salt and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes

Step 3: add salt and bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes

They did not turn out well.

after only 7 minutes

after only 7 minutes

The only thing they had going for them was the salt. The rest tasted like burnt, kale-flavored tissue paper.

It’s possible that I’m using younger kale than the recipe calls for. That might explain the burnt results even after cooking only 7 minutes instead of the prescribed 10-15.

I love snack food and the idea of kale crisps. I was really hoping it would work this time.

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Spinach salad

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2009| 1 Comment »

So I’ve made a couple of spinach salads now. Thursday night was the best one: Bordeaux spinach, sliced green onions (white ends), sliced daikons, parsley, and salad burnet with a mustard-y vinaigrette. Here’s a pic.

spinachsalad

The salad burnet was really nice addition. I don’t like cucumbers so I was hesitant to try it, but I’m so glad I did. It added a crisp, fresh taste to the mix.

I don’t think the dressing was as important to the salad as the ingredients, but here’s what I’ve been using so far.

Herb-mustard vinaigrette

Mix up

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

1/8 cup white vinegar (I ran out of white wine vinegar.)

3 tbsp water

1 tsp dried herbes de Provence

1 tsp ground mustard

Then add

½ cup canola oil

Mix again, chill, and serve.

You could also add some honey to make it a little sweeter. (But I don’t think the Bordeaux needs it.)

mustardvin

I found this great little beaker for making dressing on clearance at Tuesday Morning. It has recipes on the side, but they seem awfully oily to me.

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1/21 – Hooray! pre-season weeks 1&2

Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2009| 3 Comments »

The pre-season subscription is 3 deliveries every other week from mid-January till March. Because it’s supposed to last two weeks, there’s more stuff. Instead of a bag, we picked up two boxes today! I am very, very happy to have some produce to play with again.

Here’s what was in our boxes.

1-21

  • Green onions (14 oz)
  • Cane syrup (16 oz)
  • Green spinach (15 oz)
  • Bordeaux spinach (22 oz)
  • 5 grain bread (17 oz) – We had to eat a chunk first!
  • Collards (27 oz)
  • Red Russian kale (23 oz)
  • Daikon radishes (16 oz)
  • Apples (34 oz)
  • Sweet potatoes (12 oz)
  • Herbs

Oops – forgot the eggs! (more…)

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