MY NEW CSA – YOU CAN STILL SIGN UP HERE

The history of Pretty Smart Raw Food Ideas is directly tied to my first venture into CSAs.  Some years back, I saw an announcement for a CSA a couple of blocks from my home, and I signed up right away.  As CSAs often deliver vegetables folks have never seen before, I began to hear people asking what they should do with what they had received in the box.    Me? Being raw, I just went on-line, found out about the vegetable in question, and then started experimenting.  People started asking me for recipes.  I asked the CSA if we couldn’t have a way to publish recipes for the benefit of the members. They poo-poo’d my idea.  My blog was born the next day, with raw recipes for the vegetables I found in my box. 

Now, I have found  a CSA which allows you to casually  join whenever you find out about it, and allows you to pay by the week.  (I have had to leave that first CSA because they require an up front payment which I could not manage).  I’m telling you this because, if you have thought about a CSA, but didn’t sign up for one in the spring (most CSAs require you to sign up before May), there is a CSA that you can still join.

Corbin Hill Food Project is a CSA that works with local farmers to provide low cost organic vegetables and fruit (and other products, as add-ons), mostly in low-income neighborhoods (that doesn’t mean that you can’t join if you are not low-income – it just means that you might have to travel a bit).  The beauty of this CSA is that you can sign up at any time during CSA season (summer to fall), and, if, for any reason, you cannot receive your share the next week (for example: you will be away, or you can’t afford it), you can put your share on hold, simply by notifying them a week in advance.  If you are interested, please visit Corbin Hill Food Project to find the most convenient location for you to receive your share (I’ll be going to the Community Kitchen and Food Pantry on 116th St in Harlem – it’s familiar to me, and I want to support its programs, and, also, the commute there and back home is reasonable, even if it is not right near my home – heck! Fairway, Costco, and Trader Joe’s involve commutes so it is not really that big of a deal). 

The first deliveries are June 18th and June 19th (depending on your chosen location – I’m set to receive my share on Tuesday, the 18th), and the last day to sign up for that week is June 10th. 

Just saying.

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6/21/12 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

POST #754

This is what they say we will get tomorrow:

Kohlrabi – 1 piece
Fennel – 1 piece
Carrots – 1 bunch
Cilantro – 1 bunch
Escarole – 1 head
Scallions – 1 bunch
Arugula – 1 bag
Green Romaine Lettuce – 1 head
Green Boston Lettuce – 1 head

Most people cook kohlrabi, but I slice it thin on a mandolin, and use it as a wrapper for raw vegan ravioli.  Some folks slice it thin, salt it, and then eat it like that. You can also slice it thin and make matchsticks of it, and throw it in salads. 

I chop up fennel and put it in whatever I am making. It gives a kind of licorice flavor to a salad.

Everything else will go to salad (you know me – not going to happen that often).  Since I’m getting so much salad-y kind of stuff, I expect I will again be experimenting with green smoothies (hear, here, I hate green smoothies, but I can buy some bananas and some apples and experiment with adding those to lettuce drinks.  I am committed to using all of these vegetables (especially since I am way broke, so, once again, this is all the fresh food I have — I have some canned things and dried things in the pantry, left over from last year)

If you are like me, do not try to put arugula in your smoothie (it tastes like dirty feet — okay, like dirty feet smell — I’ve never actually tasted it because the smell was so off-putting)    Arugula does tastes nice in salads, and it is also tasty mixed into sprouted quinoa, with other vegetables.

6/14/12 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

POST #753

WEEK #3 CSA SHARE

This is what they say we will get.  I’m happy to see something I would want to trade if I could score an extra bunch of kale – I really like this toscano, or dinosaur, kale for chips.  If the beets are a reasonable size, I will make my raw beet salad.

Baby Spinach – 1 bag
Scallions – 1 bunch
Toscano Kale – 1 bunch
Romaine OR Red Boston Lettuce – 1 head
Cilantro – 1 bunch
Red Beets – 1 bunch
Bok Choi -OR- Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch

Now,  I’m all about the logistics of getting in there first, to have the best chance at the kale I want.  Tomorrow I’m working until 3pm and it is payday.   I guess I could get the check, run home, change clothes and drop excess baggage, run up to pick up the share, go home and drop the bags, then turn around and go to the bank to make my deposit.  Sounds like a plan! (You are wondering why all the stops at home: I’m in NYC. No car to leave stuff in, and anyway, there would be no place to park it, if I did have one.  I could go to the bank before I go home, but then I would have to stop at the CSA on the way home, with an extra 10 lb bag to carry in addition to the vegetables and fruit.  I could go to the bank before I go home from the CSA, but I’d be carrying a bag of vegetables. I vote for the many forays. Hope I have the energy.)

10/28/10 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get and what I think I will make

Here’s what they say we will get:

Arugula…1/4 lb.
Golden Beets…..1 bun.
Daikon Radish….2 pcs
Sweet Potatoes….3.5 – 4 lbs
Green Cabbage…1 hd
Toscano Kale…..1 bun.
Guy Lon (Chinese Broccoli)… 1 bun.
Leeks….2 – 3 pcs
Mixed Red and Golden Delicious Apples

I love golden beets – mainly because they don’t stain your hands.  One of my students has reported that she added lemon juice and ginger to her grated beets – that sounds like a good thing to try out.

Toscano kale is also called lacinato kale and dinosaur kale.  I wonder why it has that many names.  I find it funny.  Regardless, I think I will make some more kale chips .  The chili/cheddar-cheezy ones I made a few weeks ago were really yummy, and the “smoked jalapeno” cheezy ones I made were very nice and spicy.

It’s time to make Amazing Sweet Potatoes again.  Yumm!

I’ll be making sauerkraut this week, of course.  What else to do with cabbage?  Perhaps I’ll make a little coleslaw, as well. We’ll see.

Daikon Cheeze Bites!  I’ll use my usual cheddar cheeze instead of the fancy one I originally posted – the usual one has fewer ingredients, so is cheaper and easier, and I like it better.

06/04/09 CSA SHARE: What We Got & What Happened!

What I got in my box:

1 bunch Baby Bok Choi
1 bunch Beets
1 bunch French Breakfast Radishes
1 bunch Rhubarb
1 bunch Japanese White Salad Turnips
1 bag Arugula
2 heads of Lettuce (one red-leaf, one butter)

The French Breakfast Radishes are most curious – the look like little fat white and red fingers. Why are they called Breakfast Radishes?  I mean, do French people actually eat radishes for breakfast?  Anyway, they came with beautiful greens.

The Japanese salad turnips are pretty plump little white turnips with lovely greens.

The beets are pretty little medium sized ones (not as tiny as the ones I picked up at the farmers’ market yesterday)  with nice greens.

Rhubarb! We did not get rhubarb at all last year, after I had spent all that time the year before coming up with a rhubarb recipe.  I got about 8 stalks in my box today.

We also got a surprise box of delicious sweet strawberries! Yumm!

The fruit share started today, too, and we got a big box of strawberries (a pound, maybe?)

I immediately traded out my head of  butter lettuce  for the box of strawberries that was in the trade box.

This was also my night to do my volunteer shift.  Wow!  That was so interesting.   I was the coordinator for the winter share, so I understand  (I think) what the coordinator needs to do.  This year, it seems they have about 3 coordinators (one for opening, and two for closing).  That is probably not a bad idea (coordinating is not as easy as it looks, requiring people skills which you never even thought had been invented or would ever be required, unless you were born a psychopath), as long as the coordinators can coordinate with each other and deal with the volunteers..  (I do not think I would like to be in on that at all, to be truthful).   I was very interested to see that my idea of how to set up the tables has been carved in stone now – it is in the set-up guidelines.  My ideas about how to close (take down the tables as the number of boxes goes down, ending up with only one table for boxes by 1/2  hour before closing – makes for ease of cleaning the floor before closing time) have also been written into the procedures (private smile of satisfaction)

Since I was a volunteer only, I could see what the coordinators were doing and just stand back.  When one of them said something about some reactions they had noticed from people coming in to get the boxes, I was able to tell them how I would react to what they were doing – a couple of them kept opening boxes and shoving them at the members as they came in, and they did not understand why the members preferred to select their own unopened boxes.   I do understand – I want to be the one to open my own box (I mean, how can I know if it is untouched if it is opened? Oh, I am sure it is untouched, but I want to be the one to open my own box, and I don’t appreciate hovering either – I saw some people who looked like they wanted to sock the coordinator who was hovering over them.  Yes, I am going to have to have a talk with myself before I go in next week, so I can deal politely with that situation, should it happen to me.)

I also did know how to close, and I had read the new guidelines on closing, and I knew where the guidelines were posted, and I was able to read them, and I knew what had been done at closing in the last two years of spring/summer and winter distributions.  For everyone’s good luck, I have now finished my volunteer obligation (unless someone bails and they need a substitute – I have volunteered to fill in)

LA LA LA! At the end of the evening, we volunteers got to raid the “trade box”, and I got one more bunch of rhubarb, a head of butter lettuce,  and another bunch of turnips.

Getting Ready for New Year’s

I went out today and go the supplies to make my little New Year’s celebration.  I’m planning to spend time alone on New Year’s Eve.  I don’t get a lot of quite time alone, but my room-mate is in Japan with her family, so I am going to luxuriate in the quiet.  I may even take a bubble bath…

Tonight, I have started some rejuvelac wine to celebrate.  I don’t know that I am going to make champagne rejuvelac this year. I’ll decide tomorrow when I start the rejuvelac.

I have also started soaking some black-eyed peas to sprout for my traditional good-luck black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.  I also have a small bunch of collards which I will prepare on New Year’s Eve and let marinate until New Year’s Day.

I’ve also laid in 10 nice big lemons, some sea salt, a jug of Grade B organic maple syrup, and some herbal laxative tea, so I can begin my Master Cleanse on New Year’s night — I think it is better to go ahead with my traditional New Year’s good luck meal, and then get started with the Master Cleanse.  (I have heard of a powder that you can use for the Master Cleanse, and, when I run out lemons, I may buy it and see how it works– that is still up in the air– I have enough lemons for most of the first 10 days.

RAW SOUL’S CHEF TRAINING

Aw, man! Another thing to add to my wish list! Raw Soul is doing a Raw Chef training,in New York City, and I just know it is going to be fabulous! The raw food training I attended at Raw Soul was so fabulous that I KNOW I want to do their Raw Chef training.

Since I won’t be able to attend the March training, which I believe is the first (because I will be attending another training at that time, as well as paying for my CSA membership for 2009), I am going to have to hope and pray that all goes well and that the training is a big success, so that there will be more, and I will, hopefully soon, be able to plunk down the $1800 investment. I hope that the word will get around — they don’t seem to be publicizing much — about this program, which I am sure will be fabulous.

Sadly, on my visit to check on this training, I see that, apparently, Lillian Butler has discontinued her fabulous Raw Food training. This was the only raw food lifestyle training available in New York City, and it will be missed. I imagine that their failure to publicize this program may have contributed to demise of the program. Hopefully, Raw Soul will find a way to publicize their programs more actively and widely, and soon.

I would also recommend Raw Soul’s new book, Raw Soul Health Journey, by Lillian Butler and Eddie Robinson, the powers behind Raw Soul.  I  have only had one opportunity to look through the book, but it looks like just about everything that Lillian presented in her raw food trainings is detailed in this book, in addition to a healthy selection of the recipes Raw Soul serves daily.  This book would be a good addition to anyone’s library of nutrition, lifestyle, and food prep books. (This is not available on amazon.com — you will have to go directly to the publisher, Raw Soul — although I do think I may have seen it at the Integral Yoga bookstore in Greenwich Village, in New York….)

CSA WINTER SHARE INFO: What it is about, what might come

Here is how my winter CSA Share is supposed to work, according to the newsletter announcement:

WINTER “VEGETABLE” SHARE
20+lb share each delivery
$28 per delivery
5 deliveries
$140 TOTAL PRICE

1 – Week of December 15th
2 – Week of January 5th
3 – Week of January 26th
4 – Week of February 16th
5 – Week of March 9th

Contents of share may include:
Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes (white & yellow varieties), Carrots, Red Beets, Celery Root, Rutabaga, Watermelon Radish. First share may include: Cabbage, Kale, Leeks (depending on the weather– no guarantees on this!)

I also signed up for a Mixed Apple Share ($21.25 total for 3 lbs per delivery) and 2 Cider Shares ($20 total for 1/2 gallon per delivery). It came out to a little over $200 for December through March organic fruit/vegetable/cider delivery. All I will have to get from the market will be greens and onions, as I see it. (I have a boatload of dehydrated tomatoes from the summer tomato share.) Oh, but I have already finished 1 of the cider bottles. Yum!

I got the job of “coordinator” (or whatever they are calling it) of the Winter Share Distribution, which is at a local community center. Yea!!! One of the interesting things about the job is that I have to count people and children, so that the center can get funding. Good! Probably more than half of the members come in bearing children. Some come with three or four. Good numbers!

APPLE CIDER

Oh, you knew this!

APPLE CIDER
apples
cinnamon (to taste)
cinnamon sticks

juice apples through a Champion juicer.
Blend juice and cinnamon in a blender.

Pour into cups. Place a cinnamon stick in each cup.

For a warm treat, warm cider in the dehydrator for 30 mins.

CSA POTLUCK TOMORROW, and I still don’t know what dish I will take

There is a CSA Potluck Dinner tomorrow, coupled with a silent auction. I have donated a malachite and silver necklace and a package of 20 corn crackers with a container of cashew cheez.

Now I need to think about what I will make for my contribution to the potluck. I am really really thinking of bringing a plate worth of the corn crackers and a pot of the cheez, to generate interest in buying the auction item.

Maybe I should make something else as well.

I have several sweet potatoes lying around, and some oranges, some dates, and some raw unsweetened dried coconut. That is the beginning of two possible recipes (I don’t think I want to make my two usual stand-by’s – raw marinated massaged collards, or raw beets/turnips in vinegar– although I do have some beets, some radishes, and some turnips in the refrigerator)

I’m thinking of one of two sweet potato recipes. I like them both because people are surprised when they realize that what they are eating is raw. I don’t know if I would make the whole pie, but I would offer the filling — with all those dates, it is very sweet. I am also thinking about a “stuffing” recipe made with sunflower seeds.

AMAZING SWEET POTATOES
2 – 3 sweet potatoes (or yams)
1 C coconut, dried
2 apples
1/4 C ginger root
4 lemons juiced
2 oranges, juiced
1 C walnuts, chopped fine

• Chop sweet potatoes, apples, and ginger, and run through Champion juicer with ….blank plate. (Alternatively, grate sweet potatoes, apples, and ginger).
• Remove mixtureto a large bowl. Add shredded dried coconut, lemon and orange …juices, and chopped walnuts.
• Mix thoroughly

JUDY’S “JUST LIKE PUMPKIN” PIE
this is most amazing

2 C almonds, soaked
1 C walnuts or pecans, soaked
1 C unsweetened shredded coconut
20 dates, soaked overnight
2 C cashews, soaked overnight, and drained
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced.
3 t pumpkin pie spice
drizzle agave nectar

CRUST
• Combine almonds, walnuts (or pecans, and coconut in food processor or Vitamix, …..and process until ground fine and dough-like
• Pat the dough into two pie plates

FILLING
• Drain dates; reserve soak water.
• In food processor, puree dates, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie spice
• Remove mixture from food processor and set aside in a bowl.
• Set mixture aside in a bowl.
• Process cashews, agave nectar, vanilla, and date soak water as needed, until …..smooth and creamy.
• Combine cashew mixture and sweet potato mix puree
• Spread filling in pie shells
• Dehydrate for 6 hours, then refrigerate.

SUNFLOWER SEED DRESSING
1 C sunflower seeds, soaked and drained
1 T flax seeds
1-1/2 C celery
1-1/2 C onion
1-1/4 C red bell pepper
1 T sage to taste (or use Bell’s Poultry Seasoning)
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic to taste (optional)
1/2 C kalamata olives, chopped fine

• In a food processor, grind soaked sunflower seeds fine.
• Grind flax seeds fine in a coffee grinder.
• Remove ground seeds to a bowl.
• Place all remaining ingredients, save olives, in the food processor, and mince.
• Add olives and combine all ingredients thoroughly.
• Place in a pie tin, or rectangular tin of suitable size and dehydrate for six hours, or until dressing has reached your desired consistency.

No matter what, I need to go to the supermarket.

If I make ‘Amazing Sweet Potatoes” I need lemons.

If I make the sunflower seed dressing, I need the olives.

Oh!! If I make the pie filling, I don’t need anything, and it tastes really good…

What will I choose??? I need to decide in the next half hour. Oops! I’ve just gone for the easy one. Excuse me, I need to go soak the nuts.