10/03/2013 CSA SHARE: What we got, what I took, & what I will do with it

HERE IS WHAT WE GOT AND WHAT I TOOK:

Baby Beets- 1 bun
Swiss Chard- 1 bun
Boston Lettuce- 2 heads(green or red)       Red Peppers
Tomatoes- mixed variety
Arugula- 1/2 lb. bag
Toscano Kale  – 1 bun
Long Red Peppers -3 pcs

The first major question I heard from other CSAers was “what happened to the beet greens”? Someone figured there was a CSA out there somewhere which had only beet greens and no beets!

With the Swiss Chard, it was me doing the “I will/I won’t” dance. In the end, I did come home with a bunch of chard – just not the bunch I had put in the trade box. What will I do with it?  I am not real sure just yet, but I am thinking wraps with the leaf halves and a ferment with the stems.

Beets?  I just haven’t decided  yet.  Thank heavens beets will stay in the refrigerator for a while, giving you time to think things over.

I ended up bringing home some arugula – I tried it on a sandwich but it was most unpleasant for me. I tried it in a marinated greens recipe, but it was grim.  Dehydrate it and grind it and add it to my super-greens jar?  Sounds like a plan.

At least half of the (sweet) red peppers I came home with will go into a hot ajvar. I know it. I have been radically protecting my Monday night event with New York Ferments, and I’m taking the ajvar with me.  This won’t be a traditional ajvar (you cannot keep me away from garlic – it will be in there, I will likely substitute chili powder for the red pepper needed, and I will probably feel the need to put some onion in it)

The kale? Ah! The kale! Kale cheeze and, probably kale chips!  I do love kale!

Advertisement

6/7/12 CSA SHARE: WHAT I ACTUALLY GOT & WHAT I AM GOING TO DO WITH IT

I love it when the CSA is in season. It is so nice to go there and see so many happy people picking up their shares. Sometimes they are even friendly.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to pick up my share (early shares are always slim pickings, and overloaded with lettuce-t kinds of things, but… hey! That’s the way it is — they really really want me to start liking salads.

Yesterday, we got:
Baby Arugula – 1 bag
Romaine Lettuce – 1 head
Boston Lettuce – 1 head
Swiss Chard – 1 bunch
Garlic Scapes – 1 bunch
Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch
STRAWBERRIES!  We got strawberries in the box, and I also got strawberries as my fruit share! Yum! Smoothies!

ARUGULA – I decided to keep it. I’m not overly fond of arugula, but I decided to make a raw version of the Greek beet, arugula, and goat cheese salad (I’ll post it later
ROMAINE – I kept it. I think I’ll make some wraps.
BOSTON LETTUCE – I like this stuff well enough.   I can deal with a salad or two a week.  This is a fairly big head, so I might be having three salads. I like to mix in seaweed (I stalk the Japanese supermarkets for sales on the mixed, or else I just get wakame when it is in the bulk bins at Integral Yoga Foods, my favorite natural foods store) and sauerkraut, along with onion, and, if I have it, some red bell pepper.
SWISS CHARD – I am still not ready to even try to like this stuff.  It is high on my yuck scale. I traded it for more turnips.
GARLIC SCAPES– these look weird, but they are GREEN, and they taste like garlic, so I like them.  I chop them up or grind them in the food processor,  and put them in everything as a garlic (they are a part of one kind of garlic).  These will get chopped or ground and put in salad, or go into pates.  Since I was lucky and got two bunches, I will probably experiment with my next sauerkraut, and put some sliced garlic scapes in there with lots of sliced jalapeno.
JAPANESE SALAD TURNIPS – I have no clue why they call them Japanese Salad Turnips (my Japanese room-mate did not recognize them.  When I was testing a recipe with them, she said she had never seen them before).  So, okay, they are all white, where other turnips have some purple on them. Never mind. They are turnips and they taste like turnips. I grind them in the food processor to almost an applesauce consistency, then add apple cider vinegar, olive olive oil, and any seasonings which strike my fancy (usually garlic, sometimes coriander, sometimes Spike)
STRAWBERRIES – These are going in smoothies. I am not really into eating right now, but I know I need some protein, so I will put these into a hemp or soy protein shake in the morning. I am also thinking of making some strawberry leather in the dehydrator.

So! I have things to do with all these vegetables!  I got into a use- everything -in-the-box a few years ago, when the CSA issued a challenge.  I continued it when my job went south – the CSA box was my food for the week (I’d have maybe $5 more to get other food.  Good I have that experience because I am back there now. Smart people who have full-time work tell me about all the things I should do, like save money, or invest in a 401K, but, when you can barely pay the rent, and you have to think twice about what food to get, and you can’t afford your health insurance and medicine copays on top of all that, well, the CSA is very very important — at least I will not die from malnutrition. I feel so blessed that my CSA has jumped in this year and allowed me to make payments as I can.)

11/04/10 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

Here we are again… the weeks just keep on rolling by.
This is what they say we will get tomorrow. 

• Arugula……………….1/2 lb
• Carrots………………..1 bun.
• Curly Cress………….1 bun.
• Potatoes………………1 qt
• Romaine Lettuce….1 hd
• Radicchio…………….1 hd
• Peppers………………..2 pcs
• Broccoli……………….2 pcs
• FRUIT Mutsu and Empire Apples

Looks like “lettuce city” again – 4 leafy things! (And there, I had been so happy when the lettuce was not arriving so often. Oh well.)

10/09/08 CSA SHARE: What I got

I could not report on what we were going to get because the farm would not tell us.  This is what I did get:

RED BATAVIA LETTUCE….1 hd
TOMATOES…………………2 pc
LEEKS……………………….2 pc
BUTTERNUT SQUASH…….1 pc
ACORN SQUASH………….1 pc
BABY BOK CHOI…………..2 hd
SAVOY CABBAGE…………1 hd
CAULIFLOWER……………1 hd
CARROTS………………….1 bunch

I also got a small bag of mixed apples and pears.

10/02/08 CSA SHARE (happy birthday to me!) what they say we will get

Thursday is my birthday. Maybe I will put a bow in my hair when I go to pick up the share. (I’d like to have one of those birthday girl tiaras, but I don’t know where to get one.)

This is what they say we will get:

RED OAKLEAF LETTUCE…………..1 head
GREEN CRISP LETTUCE……………1 head
BABY SALAD TURNIPS…………….1 bunch
LONG RED PEPPERS
BELL PEPPERS……………………….1 piece
Red, Yellow or Orange
BABY BOK CHOI……………………2 pieces
SWEET DUMPLING SQUASH……. 2 pieces
SUNSHINE SQUASH……………….1 piece
BROCCOLI or SPINACH…………..1 bunch
RED TOMATOES
CHERRY TOMATOES………………1 pint

Oh please let me get spinach, not broccoli.
I guess it is squash season.  Not a problem… Can do.
Now I see where they have been hiding the lettuce.  We went almost the whole summer without much, if any, and, now, last week we got some, and this week we get more.
Thank heavens for peppers.  I keep hoping they will send a spicy one, but they apparently don’t have those kinds of seeds.  Oh well.  That is why God gave us markets and supermarkets.

Thank heavens I have finally finished dehydrating the 40 lbs. of Roma tomatoes.  It did not seem to take as long or be as hard as last year, even though I had less time to do it in this year, owing to my weird schedule.  Whatever. …. I have two big bags of dried tomatoes.  I think I want to put some in olive oil and see how that works, so I am prowling for a little jar to use for my experiment.

Yum!  More tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  Those cherry tomatoes are just like candy.

8/27/08 CSA SHARE: What I Got

I’ve been having an unusual summer, so I haven’t been posting as much as I think I should.

Anyway, here is what I got

RED TOMATOES…………………….4+ lbs! (About 4 tomatoes)
Plus, the woman who was emptying her box next to me just asked me if
I wanted her tomatoes, so that was 4 more, and then I found 3 in
the trade box
CHERRY TOMATOES …………….1 pint
CARROTS……………………………1 bunch
GREEN CRISP LETTUCE………….1 head
BOSTON RED LETTUCE………….1 head
EGGPLANT………………………….2 pieces
LONG GREEN PEPPERS ………….4 pieces
SUNJEWEL MELON – I traded this for a watermelon
BABY WATERMELON…………….1 piece
ZUCCHINI………………………….2 pieces
YELLOW SQUASH………………..2 pieces

Yum! I love tomatoes!!!!!

I should get around to posting some recipes…. I know the lettuce will go into smoothies with the tomatoes.

What I got this week:

RED BEETS…………………………..1 bunch
DILL……………………………………..1 bunch
ZUCCHINI.………………………….5 pieces
ZUCCHINI ROUND…………….1
PARSLEY…………………….1 bunch
SWISS CHARD.……………..1 bunch
RED BATAVIAN LETTUCE…1 head
ROMAINE LETTUCE………..1 head
CUCUMBERS…………………2
BLUEBERRIES………………..8 oz.
RASPBERRIES………………..8 oz.

I loved the round zucchini I got last week!  Of course, I spiralize any zucchini in sight — the round one was easier because I did not have to cut it into pieces, and I did not lose as much as I would with a long zucchini. Plus, it’s just cute.

The raspberries will go into a smoothie, probably tomorrow morning.

Blueberries are so curious — they gel up right away — I may make a dessert with them for my roommate.??? Blueberry pie???? Probably not… maybe just gelled up blueberries, as a “pudding”.

The beets had lovely greens – I will probably make up some massaged greens tomorrow night, for my weekend lunches.  I’ll juice these beets, just because I still have some left from last week, so I have plenty for my famous ground beet salad.

lettuce lettuce and more lettuce… and chard.  My room-mate has come up with a salad dressing that wilts anything in sight — I must study that and learn to make something that works like that.

Yum!!! Cucumbers!  I will need to score some tomatoes, to make my easy cucumber tomato salad — thinly sliced, sprinkle with pepper, soak in apple cider vinegar — just like Grandmom used to make.

This parsley doesn’t look like parsley to me — it has big leaves. I ate one as I bagged the bunch, just to find out what it was… tastes like parsley.  I told my room-mate she could use some of it, and she thought it was a leaf for salads — hey!!! it wasn’t half bad as  1/3 of a lettuce mix with tomatoes (I gave her a bag of the lettuce mix I got last week)

6/5/08 CSA DISTRIBUTION – what I got

This first CSA distribution was cute – they had boxes into which all of vegetables fit nicely, with no extra space — it made it look like a lot. I was volunteering, and it was very interesting to watch the first time members look inside their boxes — they all looked so excited.

I, too, was excited “Lookey what we got!!!!”
spinach…………………. 1 bunch
boston lettuce………… 1 head
baby arugula …………. 1 bag
another arugula………. 1 bunch
big red radishes……… 1 bunch

Because I was volunteering, I also got a little extra spinach – whoopee!!!!!

I’m going to make marinated massaged spinach with some radish greens, and then there will be some salads and a smoothie or two.  The radishes?  Salads?  Miscellaneous munching?

11-19-07 CSA SHARE: What I got

what they said we would get, vs. what I got

Purple Top Turnips
Brussel Sprouts……….Mystery Leaves
Cabbage
Broccoli
Kale
Carrots
Celeriac
Leeks
Yellow Potatoes
Parsley

Celeriac is something new to me. Someone said I could chop it raw into a salad.

WHAT I SPIRALIZED LAST NIGHT

Once I had my Saladacco in my kitchen, I could not stop until I had spiralized every single spiralizable thing in the kitchen. I had a totally spiralized dinner.

First I spiralized two zucchinis and set them aside.

I made my basic sauce (I have to work on getting it less thick, I think, but, as thick as it is, when I am tired of sauce, it is easy to dehydrate quickly into patties)

MY SPAGHETTI SAUCE
1 C almonds, soaked at least 4 hours (or overnight)
@ 1 T extra virgin olive oil
@ 1/2 t Tabasco (or apple cider vinegar)
@ 1 T vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
(yes, I give the recipe, no, not totally raw)
@ 2 C dehydrated tomato “flakes”
(I blended tomatoes then dehydrated them),
soaked in water to cover
Italian seasoning (or oregano) to taste
garlic to taste

• In a food processor, grind the almonds fine (alternatively, homogenize them in a Champion juicer with the blank plate)
• Add remaining ingredients, and process until well blended.

I set that aside.

MY SALAD
Then I spiralized a beet, a turnip, a carrot, and a small daikon
(about 6 inches long)
I tapenaded three big red lettuce leaves (roll up leaves to a
fat cigar shape, then finely slice, then chop through the rounds
once or twice)
I combined the spiralized root vegetables and the lettuce shreds,
and added some olive oil, Spike, finely minced garlic, and
apple cider vinegar…

I put the spiralized zucchini on the plates and topped it with about 3 T of the sauce.
Then I filled up the rest of the space on the plate with the salad.

Now I have to get some more spiralizable vegetables. MUST SPIRALIZE. AM VERY HAPPY.