thoughtful consumption

I’m really excited about this summer season and the presence of beets and potatoes. (Last year, we got lots of rain at the wrong time, and there weren’t any beets or potatoes to be found. )

The potatoes are Yukon Golds. They are not overly happy potatoes…

but they seem friendly enough.

(They’re also delicious cubed and roasted with olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper.) Continue Reading »

Here’s what I got last week in my CSA box from Farmers Fresh:

blueberries, peaches, and strawberries - oh, my!

dill, Mexican tarragon, par-cel, and thyme

(soft and mild) radishes, (sweet) onions, and (enormous) carrots

eggs and spinach

lettuce and tomatoes!

The tomatoes were terrific, and early summer’s so nice because you get tomatoes and lettuce. For me, one of the shocks of eating local, seasonal produce was that lettuce and tomatoes really don’t overlap that much – even though we eat them together all the time conventionally.

I also ordered some stuff from the store:

strawberries, sorrel, and beets

(By the way, sorrel and roasted-then-chilled sliced beets is the world’s best combination.)

Not pictured: crunchy sprouts.

Lots of salads!

Lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, sorrel, beets, radishes, onions, sprouts, and carrots call for lots of salads. Here’s one:

And here’s another:

The funny thing about this salad is its tiny-ness. This is a 6” salad plate, and those eggs are a half a dozen quail’s eggs, scrambled. It made a perfect little late-night supper. (The quail’s eggs were kind of neat. They’re frustrating to open, and the taste – at least, for scrambled eggs – is not that different from chicken’s eggs. Still, they was cool to try, and they’re supposed to be really good for you.)

Monday, I made fried rice with lots of local stuff. We started with leftover Carolina Gold rice and then cooked up some local eggs and a handful of sustainably-harvested Georgia shrimp. Then we added these veggies:

snap peas, sprouts, onions, beet stems, radishes, and carrots

For sauce, I combined some soy sauce, sherry, dark sesame oil, and some homemade chicken broth. The broth and the Carolina Gold rice made for some rich-tasting rice.

which I forgot to take a picture of until we were almost done eating.

We’ve been eating lo mein for so long that this fried rice was a really nice change of pace.

What’s left over

I still have some beet greens left to sauté with raisins and local pecans. We’ll probably have that tonight for supper. I have some dill left, which is great because I ordered more beets from the store. Fresh dill is really tasty with beets.

I also have some thyme and blueberries. Maybe we’ll have a summery cocktail this evening.

It’s Wednesday, so I’m off to get more CSA-goodness. Enjoy your food!

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?

Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

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.

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!

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.

… Continue Reading »

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? Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

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! Continue Reading »