Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 9, 2011| 2 Comments »
The overview
Here’s a photo of my third CSA delivery of 2011. (You can also take a look at the first and second.) Not pictured are the eggs and Jack cheese because I forgot recollect them from the fridge.
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »
My first pre-season delivery came with surprise: a greenhouse-grown zucchini.
It really kind of threw me. I’ve gotten used to patterns of seasonal produce, so I picked up this January zucchini and blinked at it for a while. Then I remembered stir-fried squash.
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
This week, we’ve been eating peanut-butter sandwiches and apples for breakfast and the occasional afternoon snack.
Perspective alert: this is a salad plate. It’s not the world’s biggest apple and peanut-butter sandwich.
How long has it been since you’ve had a peanut-butter sandwich? It’s worth a trip down memory lane – especially if you have yummy honey-flax bread and local honey.
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA on February 5, 2011| 1 Comment »
This past week, I’ve had a lot of fun using the herbs that came in the most recent pre-season delivery.
Herby meal #1: Mediterranean supper snack
Leftover restaurant pita is the best – don’t ever leave any in the basket! Brush it with excessive amounts of olive oil, top with herbs and cheese, and toast for a light, simple treat.
Toasted pita, dried figs and honey, apple, Pinot Grigio
I slow-cooked some sliced garlic in olive oil to give the oil more flavor. Not sure if it worked, but it made me feel special. The cheese was Asiago, and the herbs were mostly thyme along with some winter savory and rosemary (from my very own bush).
I really love this kind of light supper late in the evening! (more…)
Posted in Farmers Fresh CSA, Peasanthood, Tips, tagged CSA on January 31, 2011| 3 Comments »
One way to get more out of your CSA subscription and keep your CSA kitchen sustainable is to collect dishes that are flexible, easy, and veggie-intensive. It’s not hard to do – dishes like this exist in every food culture and have the following characteristics:
Veggie lo mein!
Here’s a quick list of possibilities. (Our two current favorites – lo mein and cottage pie – are discussed in more detail below.)
Posted in CSA notes, Farmers Fresh CSA, Tips, tagged CSA on January 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Sustainability doesn’t stop at the farm. Joining a CSA is neither sprint nor short-run performance – it’s a lifestyle change. (You’re not doing it just because it’s trendy, right?) Check your dreams of instant local food bliss at the door. There’s simply too much work to be done.
Is your operation sustainable?
It’s a good idea to prepare for this long-term effort by dreaming up and adopting sustainable practices for you and your household. By sustainable, I don’t mean environmentally sound. I’m talking about careful stewardship of your household’s most valuable resource: your sanity.
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged CSA on January 27, 2011| 1 Comment »
The second preseason delivery of 2011 came in an enormous box with plenty of good stuff inside.
bread, butter, and eggs
We’re excited about making peanut butter sandwiches with this bread. We haven’t gone on a good peanut butter sandwich binge in a while. Toast the bread, use local honey instead of jelly, and cut it in quarters for even more bliss.
I’ve got about a pound and a half of Sparkman’s butter in our fridge already, so this block is headed to the freezer for now. It’s nice to have butter you feel good about using, but it’s a bit of a pain to measure carefully in this conformation when you’re used to the little sticks and their convenient markings. Good thing I don’t measure butter carefully. My rule of thumb is when in doubt, it needs more butter.
And I love the bright pepto-bismol egg carton! Out with the chewed-up, dingy grey! The carton and its contents make me smile. (more…)
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged CSA on January 20, 2011| 3 Comments »
Ever since I started eating local food, I’ve had a dream of roasting a free-range, happy-except-for-that-last-day chicken. I’d serve delicious roast chicken, pull the rest of the meat for other dishes, and make stock from the carcass. If you’re going to eat a chicken, it seems only right to use as much of said chicken as you can.
But something’s always gone wrong. One time I misread the recipe and dreadfully overcooked the chicken. Last time, Chris was too efficient with the kitchen clean-up and tossed the carcass before I could make stock.
Finally, it all came together earlier this month with a chicken I received last fall as a member of a CSA program run by Judith Winfrey and Joe Reynolds. (more…)
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged CSA on January 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Kohlrabi is related to cabbage and definitely sports a cabbage-y flavor. Often kohlrabi comes with stems and leaves attached. You can sort of see a whole kohlrabi in this picture of a CSA delivery from May 2009.
The kohlrabi's the purple thing towards the left laying on its side.
But it’s easier to see in this picture from Washington State University’s herbarium.
Last week, I received a green bulb and a purple bulb without tops. (more…)
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, tagged CSA on January 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »
We’re a week into CSA pre-season and our first delivery. This past week, Chris and I have eaten lots of salad. The hydroponic lettuce was a little bitter and not keeping so well from last week’s extreme temps, so we powered through it and finished it at lunch today. Now we’re onto the baby spinach and romaine.
The apples are amazing – fresh, crisp, and bursting with flavor! They remind me of my childhood and apple-flavored Jolly Ranchers. (I never understood why that flavor was considered “apple” until I started eating local apples.) Afternoon snacks of apple and Havarti slices have made this a wonderful week.
People, see to your sweet potatoes. In the fall, I got used to ignoring sweets for a week or so, but these guys need to be cooked promptly. They’ve already done their time in storage. I’m chopping and roasting the rest of mine tonight even though we probably won’t eat them until tomorrow
For lunch today, I got the tiniest bit fancy and made sausage-stuffed kohlrabi. Turned out pretty good, but fancy doesn’t do it for me. I wish I had made a casserole-like dish with the same ingredients instead.
Coming up…
Tomorrow, I think we’ll have roasted sweet potatoes and Komatsuna greens. Prepping the Komatsuna will leave some large stems that I’ll include in a lo mein stir-fry along with some green onions, cabbage, and my last Asian turnip. And I want to make French toast with the whole-wheat sourdough bread this weekend.
Enjoy your food!
thoughtful consumption 