2013 - CSA Season - Week 3

Let's see...Last week's veggies and eggs are all gone.  All except the kale.  That's destined for the freezer after it's been chopped and blanched.  Saving it to use in soup later in the year.  Didn't do anything too fancy with anything.  Just enjoyed some nice fresh organic veggies with our meals.

So, this week, we brought home 5 pickling cukes (1 lb), 10 oz shelling peas, 6 oz garlic scapes, 4 beets with greens (12 oz),  3 kohlrabi (1.5 lb), and half a dozen eggs.  I'm especially excited about the garlic scapes!  In fact, I was just lamenting that we hadn't had any this year.  I thought I remembered having them early in the year over the last few years, but am grateful that I remembered incorrectly!  The kohlrabi does not thrill me; it's just one of those things that I try every year in hopes that I'll like it, but it doesn't work.  So we'll probably roast it and serve it as a side with some nice fish.

Have a great week!

2013 - CSA Season - Week 2

So, this week, we brought home 8 oz shelling peas, 1/2 dozen eggs, 6 oz bunch radishes, 12 oz bunch kale, 8 oz bunch Swiss chard, and 8 oz salad greens.  

 We did very well using all our veggies last week.  With the spinach, Brad made chicken Florentine served with a side salad using the mixed greens.  The snap peas were sauteed and served as a side dish on another night.  We used the eggs for breakfast and for a chef salad.  We tried out a new recipe to see if we couldn't convince ourselves to enjoy kale, and low and behold, it worked!  We served it with it with a side salad.  The dish is pictured below.  

At the end of the week all that remained was the bunch of radishes.  I'm thinking we might try pickling or making a relish with them.  

Here's to another great week of local, organic produce!

2013 - CSA Season - Week 1

Yesterday marked the first pick-up for our third season of CSA with Simmons Organic Farm of Middletown.  As you may recall, our first season of CSA was with another farm and was, shall we say, a less than ideal experience.  The Simmons Family has redeemed the CSA experience for us.  We signed up for a couple's share and added half a dozen eggs.  The season lasts for 22 weeks.  Here's what the first week provided:

5 oz. mixed salad greens
8 oz. bagged spinach
8 oz. snap peas
6 oz. bunch of kale
6 oz. bunch radishes
9 oz. bunch Swiss Chard
1/2 dozen eggs

Everything is organic, including the eggs. 

My summer mini-project is to photograph and catalog what we bring home each week.  Ideally, I'd like to make a list of the supermarket price of everything and compare it with what we pay for the season.  I know that it's a great value because of all the benefits of eating locally produced, organic food - even aside from the nutritional standpoint, but I'm really interested to see how it all adds up financially.  It would be really helpful to be able to give someone actual numbers when they ask about what we get compared to what we pay.  I'm fairly certain we pay about 2/3 of what we would pay at the grocery store.  We'll see how it goes.  I'd also like to post how we use some of the trickier vegetables.  By tricky, I mean the ones we don't really like (ahem, kale).  

Happy eating!