CSA 2013 Partial Share #7

CSA 2013 Partial Share #7
- 12 oz yellow wax beans
- 1 bulb fresh garlic
- 1 Walla Walla onion
- 2 golden or green zucchini
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 petit green cabbage
- 1 Napa cabbage
- 11 oz green beans

 Winner: This is tough. Just kidding. Obvious winner of the week is the humble yellow wax bean. I won't even pretend to understand my fascination with these, but it borders on the obsessively unhealthy. I just like the idea of waxy vegetables. Waxy beans, waxy potatoes, waxy eggplants. It's kind of like my obsession with stems. I should note that wax beans are not waxy in texture. No one really knows why they're called wax beans (or butter beans, which is equally as cute). Speculative theories point to the yellow color of the beans as a possible explanation, but I personally find that solution too easy. I will ruminate over this quandary while I ruminate on some wax beans. (Sorry not sorry. Couldn't help it. When do you ever get to use the same word in different ways in the same sentence? If you have a brain like mine, the answer is "not often." Indulge me.)
Challenge: Zucchini. Sorry I just...not a fan...I like looking at them? I will try to be creative. Also a little concerned about the sheer volume of cabbage. Too bad none of these are very freezable, except perhaps the green beans. I must say though...I'm thankful for the break from the flood of lettuce and turnip/radish/beet greens. :)

CSA 2013 Partial Share #6

CSA 2013 Partial Share #6
- 8 oz green beans
- 4.5 oz baby salad greens
- 1 bunch Japanese turnips
- 1 head frissee
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 bunch parsley
- 2 patty pan squash

Winner: green beens (yes, beens. It looks cuter like that.) Why? Because they are tasty and most importantly, they require little to no prep. Rinse and eat. Boom.
Challenge: Basil and parsley. I wish I had a food processor so I could make pesto T_T I did manage to use up half the parsley in some delicious buttered pasta. Apparently, even my drunk self knows that using up perishable things in the fridge is a Key Priority. I'm proud, but I'm not sure I should be.

I'm starting to wonder how long I can keep cooked veg in the fridge without making myself sick. I've been eating the maneul jjong jangachi in small quantities and so far, so good! But I have definitely been testing the limits with some of my other creations. I sauteed patty pan squash with basil and spring onions and a hefty dose of lemon and dried lavender. It was delicious. I left it in the fridge for about a week and got scared though, so I threw half of it out :/ Ditto for some massaged kale salad :/ :/

I have a bit of frissee, the herbs, and some spring onions left. I'm simultaneously excited and nervous about tomorrow's share. meep.

CSA 2013 Partial Share #5

Multiple post Tuesday! Cause I got behind. Woops.

CSA 2013 Partial Share #5
- 1 bunch lacinato kale
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 4.5 oz salad mix
- 3/4lb shelling peas
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 bunch mint

Winner: This is tough. My first instinct is to freak out about the peas, because OMG peas and I haven't had fresh peas in years. But then, the kale. And the basil and mint! So many cool things to choose from :D This is the first time Free Bird Farm has tried growing mint and shelling peas, so I'm very excited about that. When we were up at the farm, Ken was telling us how another farmer had told him to grow some shelling peas, because us city folk go crazy for them. Ken didn't understand why, since the volume of edible food per square foot of soil is quite low (you can't even eat the pea pods!), but he figured why not? Make the city people happy with some novelty items. This is why I love my CSA. <3
Challenge: On the bright side, there's no garlic scapes or multiple heads of lettuce! I'm not the hugest fan of Swiss chard, so when I saw that someone had left a half dozen eggs in the swap box, I jumped on that and swapped out the chard for some free-range eggs. They look so lovely, all brown and different sized. :)

Today was a fantastic haul for me. I love everything in my share and I even got my hands on some eggs! I got another chicken too, so I'm planning on butchering the chicken this weekend and making some soup stock. I'll use a bit of the stock to make some light summer soup with the pea pods and garlic scape trimmings. The pea pods are pretty delicate, but the garlic scapes are also mild, so I think everything will balance out nicely. I'm thinking about throwing in the mint as well. Mint-pea soup sounds so summery and fresh :)

CSA 2013 Partial Share #4

CSA 2013 Partial Share #4
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
- 1 head broccoli
- 1 bunch beets (and greens!)
- 1 bunch Japanese turnips
- 3/4lb garlic scapes

Winner: Japanese turnips. I love these mild, tender, sweet turnips. They're white and small and thin-skinned and they're wonderful in a salad or just sliced into coins and eaten raw as a snack. In fact, I love them so much I swapped out the broccoli for another bunch of turnips. Also, I don't like broccoli. I love the swap box <3
Challenge: I...may have overdone it with the garlic scapes. I now have probably 3-4 pounds of scapes accumulated over the last few weeks. O.O I shall smell, forever. On the bright side, no mosquito bites lately! I can't tell if it's because I managed to kill enough of the pesky little guys (and their dead carcasses on my walls are warning the other ones away) or if it's because garlic blood is less tasty. Whatever the cause, I am not complaining.

* I got my extra chicken! Thawed it out overnight in the fridge and butchered it successfully. Two boneless/skinless chicken breasts pounded flat, two tenderloins, two thighs, two wings, and the carcass for soup! Plus a little bowl of chicken fat that I plan to render later. I didn't realize how much chicken smells though. After butchering and cooking, my apartment smelled like chicken meat for days and I was too chicken (ha) to open the windows because of mosquitos. #firstworldproblems

CSA 2013 Partial Share #1

Here we go! Official kickoff of my second CSA season :) I signed up for a partial share this year and I'm already feeling veggie envy when I compare my share with the full share. However, I realize a full share would be way, way too much for me, so I'll do my best to be content with my partial share. Besides, I technically have more this year, since I was splitting last year's share in half with my old roommate.

CSA 2013 Partial Share 1
- 1 large head red leaf lettuce
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 bunch Easter egg radishes
- 1 chicken*

I think I'll highlight two types of produce per share this year. One that I'm excited to see and one that promises to challenge my culinary skills (or the endurance of my taste buds...remember all the carrot tops last year? ugh.)

Winner: Radishes, though this is hardly a fair comparison.
Challenge: Cilantro. No one is surprised.

I flipped back to my CSA Share 1 post from last year and it's kind of funny looking back. It makes me glad I'm documenting my little escapades. I got lost, it was raining, and I was mildly horrified when some lady found a bug stowaway hiding in the produce.

This year's share and last year's share are similar (lettuce, radishes, spring onions, cilantro), though this year is starting out a lot lighter in terms of volume and variety (no kale yet :/). I think it's because we had cold weather so late into the spring. Perfectly fine by me, as I'm sure the rest of the season will be fantastic.

It should be pretty easy to use up this week's share. The lettuce and radishes will make for a nice salad, especially if I supplement them with some chicken. The spring onions can chill in the fridge I guess. Maybe I can make cilantro, radish top, and onion omelettes with some Wisconsin cheese grated over the top? I think I have some frozen sausage too. Actually, that doesn't sound half bad. I'll invite the girls over for brunch this weekend :)

On a side note, my window box got a little crowded, so I thinned out the seedlings last night. They were choking each other to death, but it was still hard to uproot so many of my little babies T_T For the record, baby borage leaves really do taste like cucumbers. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the basil, but I can't tell which of the sproutlings are basil and which are parsley. I have my suspicions, but for now, they remain unconfirmed. I suppose I could just google it, but where's the fun in that?! Stay tuned for more sprout updates.

*Poultry share will be delivered every odd week plus one extra on the last week (total of 12 birds).

CSA Share #21

Good thing CSA's are seasonal up here in the Northeast. I truly have no idea how regular bloggers can maintain their steady stream of output for our enjoyment and consumption.

Hurricane Sandy hit NYC right after my last post and in the flurry of trying to regain some sense of normalcy after the storm, I fell out of the habit of posting CSA updates. We lost power and steam in my neighborhood for about 4-5 days, which meant pitch-black darkness after the sun set, no hot water, and freezing temperatures inside. Fortunately, our gas was still working, so we were able to use a lighter to start the stove and boil a bit of hot water for washing our faces or for some tea, to keep us warm and lift our spirits a bit. It was like urban camping. Eerie and not something I want to experience again, if I can help it. Lower Manhattan looked like a post-apocalyptic world. Bizarre.

Grateful that I did not have to endure anything worse than this though. Truly a tragedy that people are still struggling to recover from. My heart goes out to all those who were affected and I hope the communities that were hardest hit will continue to draw strength from each other and lean on the rest of us as they rebuild their lives.

Anyways, it's well into winter here in NY and we've been hopping on and off the weather rollercoaster for the last week. One day it's 50 degrees and positively balmy and the next day, it's back to freezing temperatures. While I anxiously wait for the CSA season to start again, I'll catch up on my backlog of CSA posts.

CSA Share #21
1 bunch Tuscan kale
1 acorn squash
1lb yellow onions
1 bunch beets
6.5 oz spinach
5 oz salad mix
1 bunch cilantro

To be honest, because I picked up the share in the middle of the blackout, I straight up just told the coordinator for that week that I had no refrigeration, and could I please swap out the perishables for the hardier vegetables in the share? A lot of people hadn't showed up to retrieve their shares that week, so there was quite a bit of surplus. The coordinator took one look at my sad little face and the mountains of unclaimed vegetables and graciously encouraged me to swap out as much of my greens for squash and onions as I could manage.

So...no weekly roundup for this share, but a very heartfelt thank you to the wonderful lady who let me swap out my vegetables :)

Side note: The subways were still down, so I had to walk home with my cache of produce. On top of the other minor indignities I'd endured, this was just one more, but it made me truly grateful for the progress we've made in the last century or two. I have no idea how the Pilgrims or pioneers or even the Koreans after the war managed to eke out a daily existence. Much respect, and I am very aware that if the zombie apocalypse ever happened, I'd probably die of starvation before the zombies even got a chance to reach me. Ha.

Extra side note: We lost all our perishables in the freezer and fridge :/ But on the bright side, we didn't have much in there to begin with. And even better yet, that disgusting carrot top soup? Yup. It was one of the casualties of Hurricane Sandy. I don't have to eat carrot tops until next summer yay!!! :D

CSA Share #17

Let us have more lettuce. Sigh.

Oh well. I'm tackling the last of the red oak leaf lettuce from CSA Share 15. Dinner tonight? A colorful salad of crisp lettuce and raw beetroot chips topped with oven-roasted chicken. The sweet crunch of the beets contrasts nicely with the chicken. Both the beets and the chicken are low profile with a delicate flavor. The oak lettuce is light and crisp and manages to provide an unobtrusive background that allows the flavor of the beets and the chicken to shine through. Extremely simple (and perhaps plain, by some standards), but delicious. I always tend to like simpler fare anyways. Yum.

Notice that I said "crisp" and "CSA Share 15." That is not a mistake. I kept the lettuce head in the crisper and used one leaf at a time in an effort to keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible. Last night, I took inventory of my fridge and realized the eggplant and yellow bell pepper from CSA share 16 were a bit wrinkly and the lettuce was starting to wilt in spite of my heroic preservation efforts. To revive the lettuce, I washed the lettuce and let it sit in a tupperware container overnight with a bit of extra water clinging to the leaves. Voila, re-crisped lettuce.

I did have to throw out a leaf or two though - they were so far gone that extra moisture might have led to rot, not rejuvenation. I also didn't wash the lettuce well enough...I can taste gritty sand specks here and there >.<

Oh well.

I sliced up the yellow bell pepper for a snack and sauteed the eggplant with some gorgeous opal basil, which was, incidentally, the same deep rich aubergine shade as the eggplant. I wasn't sure if it would keep its color during cooking, but it did! I also wilted the arugula with some garlic, as it was starting to yellow a little bit.

Having taken care of the veggies-in-danger, I cleaned up the 17th share and stored it away in my fridge for later use. Resplendent with rich fall-themed colors, this was a beautiful share worth admiring.

CSA Share 17
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 bunch carrots
- 2 bunches curly leaf parsley
- 1 bunch opal basil
- 1 bunch red Russian kale
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 1 head red Romaine lettuce
- 2 red bell peppers

CWTC: This might come as a surprise, but...carrots! More specifically, carrot tops! See the below post for a full explanation. I washed up the carrot tops along with the celery leaves from last week and tossed it all in a ziploc bag to freeze for later. I have a whole chicken from dinner that I'm working my way through, so I should have a nice bag of chicken bones for stock by the end of the week. I'm hoping that freezing the carrot and celery tops for a few days won't damage them too much. These will have to replace the onions that I usually throw in my soup pot, as I've run out of onions. :(
TAV: Red romaine lettuce. Lettuce is lettuce and this is the same as any other...but the color! It's so beautiful,with a dark green heart gradually shading out to deep shades of red masquerading as purple along the edges. I might cook this. I'm so tired of salads.
TAV alternate: Color isn't really adventurous. I just wanted to wax poetic about my lettuce. My vegetable adventure for the week will be another foray into herb-drying. Normally I would look at my parsley, think very hard about how to eat it, and despair. I am not very partial to the strong taste of fresh parsley. I recall feeding some to my pet rabbit years ago, but sadly, I do not have a pet rabbit anymore. I do like sprinkling dried parsley on my pasta and potatoes for a little color though.
Emboldened by my success in air drying my leftover sprigs of dill, I decided to dry my two large bunches of parsley as well. Why not? But I wanted to avoid perfuming the apartment with the smell of drying parsley, so I decided to expedite the process a bit. I washed and dried the parsley and popped them in my warmed oven on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet. I realized I needed to de-stem them halfway through, in order to fully dessicate the parsley but keep the leaves from burning. After I popped them back into the oven, I forgot about them and went to bed. I did turn off the oven before I put the parsley in, so I'm hoping when I get home tonight, that the parsley will have dried nicely instead of burning to a crisp. I hope. We'll see. This is an adventure, right? One cannot expect perfection when being adventurous.
WTF: I have plans. I am prepared. I can tackle what would ordinarily be a WTF contender (carrot tops, parsley). The carrot tops will be turned into a soup stock ingredient and the parsley is being crisped and dried. So...the WTF vegetable of the week will actually be the more mundane bell pepper. Mostly because this week's bell peppers came in a wider variety of sizes than I have ever seen before. I literally picked out one bell pepper the size of my head and another that was smaller than my fist. You could totally make Russian dolls out of these bell peppers. Or a rather plain, red Faberge egg.

CSA Share #14

Mmm munching on mild and tender White Lady turnips.

Crazy busy at work, but managed to snag my (very green) share. No idea when I'll have time to wash and prep it all, but I made some headway already! Props to me.

CSA Share 14
- 7 oz arugula
- 7 oz baby salad greens
- 3 heads garlic
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 pint salad tomatoes
- 1 large slicing tomato
- 1 bunch carrots
- 1 head oak leaf bib lettuce
- 1 bunch White Lady turnips

CWTC: tomato. This one looks gorgeous, meaty, and is a beautiful deep, rich red. Storing it carefully on the countertop (tomatoes go mealy in the fridge!) and waiting for a good opportunity to slice it up and savor every juicy bite.
TAV: Arugula. I like arugula, but there's only so much salad I can eat in a month. Maybe this week I'll try cooking it up somehow. Recipe exploration time!
WTF: T________T more cilantro?!?! asdlfjkasl;fjkljas.

Also, I have given up on carrot tops. I just tossed them this time around. Couldn't help but feel a very strong twinge of guilt though. :(

CSA Share #13 and Radish Greens

Slow on the updates in spite of a long weekend... I have a few posts in reserve and will update accordingly when I get the chance.

In the meantime, this week's share:
- 2 red bell peppers
- giant lovely mess (10oz) of arugula (or rocket, as it's known in the UK)
- 1 bunch spring onions
- 1 bunch Italian basil
- 3/4lb green beans
- 1 bunch radishes
- 1/2lb soybeans!
- 2 large tomatoes

CWTC: soybeans! I don't think I've ever had fresh soybeans before. Only frozen. This should be interesting, and fun.
TAV: Radish greens. Typically something that gets thrown out, but I was determined to make them edible in my quest to reduce food waste.
WTF: Arugula. I love it. But what do I do with this much of it? Maybe I can saute a plate of arugula and top it with a fried egg?

Radish Greens
Wasn't sure what to do with these, as they didn't look very appealing, especially with bug holes eaten through nearly all of them. After washing them very well and chopping them into small pieces, they looked considerably more appetizing.

I chopped up and froze the green portions of the scallions for later use, but I reserved the bulbs for my radish greens. The scallion bulbs were about as big across as a quarter, so they probably were more like onions than scallions at that point.

I sliced two cloves of garlic, the reserved onion bulbs, stray basil leaves, and sauteed them in a pan over medium heat. I added the chopped radish greens fairly quickly. I used a dash of fish sauce, rice vinegar, and a drizzle of sesame oil to finish off the dish, which actually turned out quite nicely. I think it was the seasoning that did it. Sesame oil is a nice counterpoint to root vegetable greens, with the nutty flavor balancing the bitterness of the greens. It's similar to using bacon when cooking turnip greens, but more subtle.

Pretty pleased with myself :)

CSA Share #12

Time is flying! Hard to believe, but there's only 10 shares left in the season (barring some unfortunate early frost/storm).

CSA Share 12 is in and it looks pretty solid:
- 5 medium red onions
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 1/4 lb small tomatoes (~12 ping pong size tomatoes)
- 2 small bulbs garlic
- 1 eggplant
- 3 leeks
- 3 bell peppers
- 6 oz baby salad greens
- 1 bunch cilantro

Lots of heartier vegetables this week than in earlier CSA shares. I noticed we've been getting a lot of stuff from the Solanaceae aka Nightshade family (tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers), which is fine by me!

CWTC: eggplant! I know, I know. I've had eggplant in the last few shares AND there's still one forlorn eggplant sitting in the bottom of my fridge. But this one is so beautiful! It's a rich, bright purple with creamy white streaks stippled across the skin. Also, I discovered several recipes for eggplant that I want to try (I have another eggplant in my fridge remember?) Baked eggplant chips anyone?

TAV: Cilantro. I normally would place this in WTF, since I'm not sure what to do with an entire bunch, but this time, I'm going to experiment with broiled eggplant marinated in a cilantro-lemon based sauce (lots of eggplant, remember?). Also, I cut off the bottom of the stems, stuck the bunch in a cup of water, and tented an open ziploc bag over the top of the cilantro bunch. Hopefully it'll stay alive until the weekend.

WTF: None. These are all quite literally garden-variety vegetables!

CSA Share #11

The drought is really hitting Free Bird Farm pretty hard...

...but the tomato, I am pleased to say, is alive and well!

This week's share:
- 1 bunch basil
- 3/4 lb green beans
- 4 large tomatoes
- 3 lbs salad tomatoes
- 3 red bell peppers

CWTC: all of it? If I had to pick one, I'd probably pick the large tomatoes. They look like they'd be amazing on a piece of foccacia with basil and olive oil drizzled on top.
TAV: bell peppers. These are ordinary peppers, but I think I'll experiment with charring them over my open gas stove to see if I can get the equivalent of a roasted bell pepper.
WTF: none! I like it all :D

I'm really excited about the green beans too. They're such a treat when they're as fresh as they are in my CSA share.

Free Bird Farm purposely put a bunch of basil with the bumper tomato crop this week in the hopes that some of us would get proactive and make some tomato sauce. If you recall, we've been getting a LOT of garlic and onions in the last few CSA shares, so this really is a great suggestion on their part. I could even make a batch of spicy tomato sauce with the jalapenos! Yum.

I need a break from all the partying, so I think I might devote my weekend to tomato sauce and soup making escapades. Both tomato sauce and soup freeze well in ziploc bags and they'll be welcome additions to my winter meals when CSA shares become a distant, wispy memory. I'm already excited. I really need to get some ground pepper though. Tomato sauce without ground pepper just seems wrong. It's like wearing sneakers without socks. >.<

CSA Share #10

Can't believe we're already at CSA Share number TEN. Crazy! But, here we are, and so are the tomatoes. The dry weather has been wilting the corn but the heat has been equally as oppressive to all but the mighty eggplant, according to our lovely Free Bird farming family. Extreme heat keeps tomatoes from producing carotenes, including lycopene, according to “The Mystery of Unripening Tomatoes," an article from the Cooperative Cornell Cooperative Extension newsletter. That's really too bad because I fucking love corn and tomatoes.

However, the tomatoes at Free Bird Farm conquered the heat and made their grand debut this week in the form of a pint of ping pong ball size tomatoes and a gorgeous beefsteak tomato. Happy to report that the ping pong tomatoes made a delicious accompaniment to dinner at work. I still think the hydroponic tomatoes my dad would bring home from his research lab win the all-around-tomato award though (he researched irrigation techniques, so never fear - the tomatoes were perfectly edible). I suppose it's unfair to compare heat-stricken tomatoes with greenhouse tomatoes. I'm sure if I were a plant, a greenhouse would be a bit more comfortable. Regardless, I'm just happy to have tomatoes.

If we get a lot more tomatoes in subsequent CSA shares, I fully intend to bring a bag of them to work and blend them into tomato milkshakes (YUM). My coworkers are incredibly skeptical of tomato milkshakes, but I am here to assure them that they are delicious and out of this world. My mom used to blend up milk, ice, sugar, and tomatoes in the summer. Odd combination but the frothy, strawberry-colored milkshakes would always hit the spot for me.

On to the CSA share.
- 1 pint small tomatoes
- 1 large tomato
- 1 eggplant (American)
- 2 fennel bulbs
- 2 jalapenos
- 4 onions
- 3 heads of garlic
- 6 oz baby salad greens

CWTC: if the previous three paragraphs haven't clued you in yet...the CWTC winner this week are the tomatoes.
TAV: fennel. I like fennel when I encounter it in restaurants, but I have yet to cook them myself. Excited! Although...the fennel fronds look alarmingly like carrot fronds...
WTF: onions. Oh dear. I still have two onions from previous shares sitting on my countertop. Six onions, one little Asian girl. Whatever shall I do? There's only so many ways to eat onions. On the bright side, at least they'll last for a while.

Plus, my little brother is in town and he eats lots of anything. I shall make him eat onions. Heh heh heh.

CSA Share #9

This drought must be heavily affecting Free Bird Farm. Supposed to get a ton of rain this weekend though. Good for them, bad for me, especially since I have no clue where I put my umbrellas as I was moving to my new apartment.

Anyways, this week's share:
- 2 japanese eggplant
- 2 light green bell peppers
- thai basil
- carrot and carrot tops
- 3 leeks
- swiss chard

CWTC: leeks! I'm thinking about making leek soup this weekend. om nom nom.
TAV: Carrot tops. Must find a new use for them, as I would very much prefer not to repeat last week's toasted grass experiment.
WTF: Thai basil. What to do with MORE thai basil???

I've actually managed to do pretty significant damage to this week's share already. Down to the eggplants, one bell pepper, the leeks, and some thai basil. But before I get ahead of myself, I must admit that it's probably just because the drought is reducing the sheer volume of our shares.

Since my update is a bit delayed, I already made a few things with this week's share, with varying degrees of success.

Bell pepper and carrot sticks make for lovely office snacks, especially with a bit of 된장 or hummus.

Carrot top tea is...interesting. I couldn't stomach (haha) the thought of eating more woody, chewy, bitter stems, so I decided to try carrot top tea. Besides, I fucking love tea. Apparently, carrot top tea is chock full of vitamins and minerals, and detoxes your kidneys. I probably need a liver detoxifier more than anything else, but any kind of detox is probably a good idea for me. Pretty straightforward stuff.

1. Wash and trim carrot tops.
2. Boil a pot of water.
3. Drop carrot tops into the pot and wait one minute.
4. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let cool.
6. Strain out carrot tops.
7. Refrigerate and enjoy.

The carrot top tea was a pale olive green color and tasted pretty nasty when still warm. Much better after being chilled in the fridge overnight, but it was a struggle to finish the entire glass. I would probably only make two or three cups of tea and call it a night. I don't think I'm capable of drinking more than that in one week. Definitely interesting though!

Sauteed swiss chard with garlic and wilted thai basil
Yum. This was probably the crowning glory of my culinary experiments with my CSA shares this season. I blanched the chard and sauteed it with some aromatics. It's pretty simple, but it's more like a real recipe than anything else I've done so far, so I'll document it as such. Really delicious stuff. Even my coworker thought it tasted good. It probably can't compete with anything from the food trucks or midtown eateries, but hey, one step at a time right? #turtlewinstherace

Ingredients:
- Handful of thai basil
- 7-8 large leaves of swiss chard
- 5 cloves garlic (or to taste)
- olive oil
- salt

1. Wash chard and basil thoroughly.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
3. Drop the swiss chard in the pot of water for about 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Drain and refill pot (with swiss chard still in there!) with cold water. Repeat until water drains cold.
5. Squeeze the water out of the swiss chard, chop into ribbons, and set aside.
6. Slice garlic.
7. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan (medium-low heat). When a drop of water "spits" back at you, add the sliced garlic. Stir occasionally until the garlic just begins to brown.
8. Add chopped swiss chard to the pan.
9. Sprinkle some salt over the pan.
10. Add the handful of thai basil leaves (stripped from their stems).
11. Stir gently until the thai basil is wilted.
12. Remove from heat and serve!

 Yum yum. This weekend will be eggplants and leek soup. We'll see if I can top the swiss chard dish...

CSA Share #8

I love my new apartment! I think a housewarming party this weekend is in good order.

Sangria + CSA produce + friends + summer nights = happy people

In fact, my eighth CSA share seems like it was designed just for a nice summer dinner:
- 1.5 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 bunch Thai basil
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 2 heads garlic
- 1 bunch red onions

Extras:
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 bunch carrots

CWTC: POTATOES! Eek! I love new potatoes and these are as new as they get. They look so lovely and waxy and yummy... My absolute favorite dish to cook when I'm in a hurry but need a crowd-pleasing favorite for potlucks or dinners is roasted new potatoes. This "recipe" is super forgiving. Quantities, temperature, and timing are all approximate and have large margins for error, which is excellent news for challenged cooks like me.

1. Preheat oven to 350 ish.
2. Wash potatoes thoroughly.
3. Quarter into bite size chunks. Leave the skin on!
4. Drizzle with olive oil.
5. Add a dash of salt, rosemary, and pepper. Extra points if you can get coarse sea salt flakes, fresh rosemary, and freshly ground pepper. I just love the texture and taste of the giant salt crystals on the potatoes. In lieu of rosemary, feel free to experiment with dill, parsley, or plain.
6. Line a pan with foil for easy cleanup.
7. Evenly spread the potatoes in a single layer.
8. Pop in the oven and wait a while. Depending on the size of the potato chunks, this could take anywhere from 15-40 minutes. Check the potatoes by poking them with a fork (or chopstick). If the fork slides in easily, the potatoes are cooked. If not, best leave them a bit longer. If I'm in a huge hurry, I'll slice the potatoes smaller so they cook faster.
9. Garnish with sprigs of rosemary or other pretty things if desired. ENJOY.

I'm getting hungry thinking about this. Oh man. I'll probably roast them along with the beets and onions. I still have another batch of beets from last week that I need to use up too.

WTF: None. I like all these. And I know what to do with mostly all of these.
TAV: Thai basil. Everything else is pretty garden variety, but I'll admit that I'm less sure of how to use this herb. However, I've eaten it in pho and curry countless times, so I know I definitely like it. Brainstorming ideas for this weekend...my best ideas so far are:
  - Thai basil infused lemonade (spiked :D)
  - Eggplant stir fry with garlic and thai basil

If I still have leftover basil, I suppose I could always try to freeze it. Nahhh...moar cocktails! :D

CSA Share #7

Alright, I've resigned myself to perpetual busyness. I'll be moving to a new apartment this week and I'll need to figure out a new routine for bringing my produce home. Seems like I'm not the only one staying busy though - our farm has their hands full trying to combat the record drought and heat.

A few posts back, I touched on last year's season and how the heavy rainfall (and Hurricane Irene) wiped out a lot of farms and CSAs. The idea of rain being a bad thing for crops honestly didn't really cross my mind until I read last year's Free Bird Farm blog posts. However, droughts and excessive heat are nothing new to me (yay Arizona). When our CSA sends out the farmer's updates on how weather is affecting what's ending up in our share boxes, I definitely empathize.

On a related note, corn fields in particular seem to be getting hit pretty hard. From what I remember in my plant genetics lab research days from high school, corn is quite heat-hardy but needs a lot of water. Not only does this mean no sweet corn for me :( but it means less corn for everyone. Including animals. So...we can probably expect higher corn, beef, pork, and chicken prices next year. Ah well. Good thing I don't eat much meat these days anyways. :)

This week's share was pretty good (no more broccoli yay!):
- another bunch of beets
- parsley
- 3/4 lb green beans
- 3 medium red onions
- 1 bunch carrots
- 1 Italian eggplant
- 1 red cabbage

Extras (not included in the original distribution list but available at pickup):
- 2 patty pan squash
- 1 yellow zucchini

Alrighty then. This week's roundup:
CWTC: GREEN BEANS! I love green beans. I rarely manage to cook them - I end up eating them way too fast. I don't even really need dressing or dip for these, as long as they're fresh. Just wash, snap off the tips, and voila. Snacks.
WTF: parsley...
TAV: Eggplant. I love eggplant in Chinese food, but I've never really eaten it on my own. I have no idea how to cook it. Everyone loves to hate on eggplant for some reason, but I'm determined to make this work. Just watch me!

Side note: I love how much purple there is in this share! The onions, cabbage, eggplant, and even the beets are all various lovely shades of red-purple to deep purple-black. Pretty!

Side note of shame: I still have a lot of leftover produce from last week. I'm falling behind...help! I still have the romaine lettuce, zucchini and squash, chard, broccoli (for the last two weeks, actually), and garlic scapes from a while back. I think I should invite my friends over for a housewarming party. Little will they know it's really just a cover for using up all my extra produce. I feel like it's not a good sign when you start viewing your friends as broccoli vegetable disposals.

CSA Share #6

Apparently upstate NY is suffering the opposite problem of last year: not enough rain. Sadly, the sweet corn crop is one of the casualties, which is a bummer since there is really nothing better than a lovely corn on the cob sprinkled with a smidge of salt. Or just eaten plain.

On the bright side, the fruit shares are benefiting from the hot, dry weather. Too bad I didn't sign up for a fruit share...next year, perhaps? Those white nectarines I walked past during today's pickup smelled amazing.

Here's the roundup for this week:
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1 bunch carrots
- 2 kohlrabi
- 1 bunch broccoli
- 1 bunch sweet onions
- swiss chard
- 2 patty pan squash
- 1 golden zucchini

I'm steadily accumulating salad greens and lettuces in my fridge. I really should invest in a salad spinner for next season!

The carrots and patty pan squash are noticeably bigger than last week's version, but they are still super adorable. :)

CWTC: patty pan squash. I have a tender spot for these bright yellow zucchini-like vegetables. So good!
WTF: more broccoli? shit. haha.
TAV: kohlrabi. I've seen them before but I've never tried them. Apparently, they're like a cross between radishes, turnips and broccoli stems. I love radishes and turnips but broccoli stems are really not my thing. So...I suppose we'll find out how I feel about these vegetables this week. They do look fascinating though! I googled them and one person described them as "green Sputnik-like bulbs." Intriguing. I think I'll chop some up and try them raw as snacks, along with my carrots.

I still have garlic and cucumbers left from last week's share too. Cucumbers are good snack food. Garlic will keep forever, so I'm not in a hurry. I can probably saute the garlic with the onions and some eggs for a nice brunch this weekend. Yum.

CSA Share #3 and #5

Wow. Between traveling home for some (much-needed and much-appreciated) vacation time and a million other life-events, I just haven't had time to do much beyond pick up my CSA share and try to figure out ways to incorporate more veggies in my life.

Quick recap of the last few weeks...

CSA Share 3
- garlic scapes (picked by yours truly :D)
- patty pan squash
- romaine lettuce
- swiss chard
- kale
- arugula
- basil

CWTC: Patty pan squash. They're just so cute!
WTF: None. I like all of these :)
TAV: None. THese are all pretty garden-variety (haha). And I got so up close and familiar with the garlic scapes after spending an hour picking them that I don't really consider them adventurous fare anymore.

I picked up this share, dropped it off at home, grabbed my luggage, and ran like crazy to catch my flight back to Arizona. But...this share was too cute and I couldn't help but pack a few veggies into a bag and carry them with me. I imagine a lot of the passengers on the plane were a bit confused. I know security at JFK was certainly a bit bewildered. As I was collecting my shoes and laptop from the plastic buckets, I overheard one security person whisper to another as they examined the x-ray screen, "Are those...vegetables?"

Haha. My parents were very impressed by my dedication and even more impressed that I cooked a lovely lemon-basil pasta with summer squash for dinner the next night. Most of all, they were impressed that I did the dishes (voluntarily!) and kept my room clean. I feel like they think I'm still 16 years old sometimes.

As an added bonus, the basil kept my air-sickness at bay. Every time I felt a bit nauseous, I just snagged a leaf from my bag and took a quick sniff of my basil. Mmm.

CSA Share 4
Skipped - out of town :/
On the bright side, I was having the time of my life at home, so I could care less. Plus, my CSA donates leftover vegetables, so it's not wasted!

CSA Share 5
- 1 head fresh garlic
- broccoli
- purple basil
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 Cousa-style squash (aka Korean hobak/zucchini)
- 2 golden zucchini
- red leaf lettuce
- carrots
- beets

CWTC: Carrots! They're so adorable :)
WTF: Broccoli. I like vegetables. I do. But not this one. Sigh...I still packed some for lunch, but I'm not thrilled about it.
TAV: Golden zucchini - zucchini itself is pretty standard stuff. But the color! So pretty! :)

Not sure what to do with this share yet. Very happy there is hobak in there. Apparently people didn't know how to cook/eat it, because this week's newsletter included a request for ways to prepare it. I EAT THIS ALL THE TIME. GIMME MOAR. 호박전, 된장찌개, 호박 무침...omg. More korean-style veggies are popping up in my CSA share than I expected. Plus points!

I might just pack some of my share and bring it with me to the BBQ my friend is throwing this weekend. Zucchini and beets will probably grill nicely. Lettuce on a burger? Cucumbers for snacks and cucumber water! Basil and cucumber for making mixed drinks? Mmm.

CSA Share #2

This CSA run, I'm happy to report, went much more smoothly than the last one. No rain, no getting lost, got back to the office in less than 45 minutes, #winning, etc.

This week:
- 1 head of bok choy
- 1 head of escarole
- 2 stalks green garlic
- 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
- 1 napa cabbage
- 1 head red leaf lettuce
- 1 bunch salad turnips with green tops
- spring onions
- garlic scapes

I've decided to do a weekly roundup of the highlights of each share...
CWTC (can't wait to cook): This week's CWTC award goes to the turnips. For some reason, I've always been fascinated by the idea of turnips and turnip greens. I think one of my favorite books had a main character that lived off of turnips and bread for a while, but I can't really remember. It seems like the most plausible explanation for my mild obsession, considering my mom never cooked turnips. I remember really wanting to eat a turnip in high school, so I convinced my mom to buy one for me. I cooked it and took a bite, but it was awfully mushy and tasteless. Maybe it was not in season? Or maybe I cooked it wrong? Oh well, I'm still fascinated by them and very excited to cook and eat them. Fingers crossed that this attempt goes better than the last one!
WTF: parsley. What do I do with an entire bunch of parsley?!? I looked up recipes, but all I could find was parsley pesto or parsley soup, and I don't own anything that can puree parsley. :( I feel like it's just going to wilt into sad oblivion in the back of my fridge, which is a shame because it looks so fresh and lively...
TAV: The adventurous veg award this week goes to the garlic scapes. To be honest, I've actually eaten these before many, many times, but I didn't recognize them in their fresh, raw form. I've always eaten them as a Korean side dish called 마늘쫑 반찬 (maneul jjong). But seriously, these are my favorite. Even when I couldn't stand spicy food, I would fight the peppery taste just to relish the texture and taste of the garlic stems. I think I like eating stems in general, because I also like eating sweet potato stems. Hmm. But anyways, fresh garlic scapes are so cute! I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

While I was picking out my produce from the crates of vegetables, I saw another bug (a fat, snot-colored, slimy-looking caterpillar) in a head of Napa cabbage. The man in front of me, who was acccompanying his girlfriend/wife/very good friend, spotted it and amusedly said, "This stuff really is organic isn't it?" Haha...

Free Bird Farm doesn't grow organically certified veg (partly because certification is a hassle, especially for smaller scale organizations and farms), but they do note that they try to stick with organic methods as much as possible. So yes, it is essentially organic. And the sad reality is that organic veg has a higher probability of ending up with frequent live protein supplements embedded in it. Yeck.

Fortunately, I don't think I have any bugs in this particular share (though I might be sadly mistaken). I'll find out when I get around to washing my produce. I just haven't had a free minute all week (thank you work), but none of the produce will go bad in a day or two, so I don't feel too bad about leaving it to languish away in the chilly depths of my fridge.

Preview for the next post: unless I get some free time to cook, my next post will probably be about the field trip to the farm! Every year, my CSA organizes a trip out to the Free Bird Farm, where we get to meet the farmers, tour the farm, help harvest a little bit, and get to know everyone. I guess this is the most visibly "community-esque" part of the CSA experience and I'm really excited. The trip is on Sunday from 7:30am (eek!) to 7 or 8pm. It's an all day trip since the farm is located about 4 hours away by car, so it'll be quite a drive. I'm looking forward to napping the whole time. I haven't roadtripped in a while and this might be just what I need. I've been feeling really closed in and claustrophobic from all the buildings lately, so a little fresh air and countryside should help with that. Plus, I'm going home (to Arizona) in a week too, so that should help as well. YAY!

CSA Share #1

Our CSA share pickup times are 5pm to 8pm, but I obviously need to be at work during that time. However, I figured I would plan out my CSA rendezvous so that I could grab my share, drop it off, and be back at work in about 30 minutes. A good plan - a great plan.

Of course, life doesn't go according to plan. For starters, it was raining.

Remember a few posts ago, how I waxed poetic about the rain? Yeah. All well and good in theory, but slogging through puddles was a bit less than fun. Especially since I was slogging and hopping awkwardly over puddles in heels. I'm just glad I managed to not sprain anything vital. Graceful, I am most definitely...not.

Once I made it to the pickup building, I took an elevator to the 5th floor, where the distribution was supposed to be taking place. I ended up on a floor with rows of numbered rooms. I walked down one hall, then another, looking for the "conference room," only to realize halfway down the third hall that I was wandering through a hotel. Wrong building.

I went back to the elevators and waited patiently for the elevator to bring me back down to earth so I could continue my CSA quest. I say patiently because the elevators (there were two!) took about 5 minutes to reach my floor. If I wasn't sure before, I was sure now: this was an old, decrepit building, and I was probably safer walking up and down the stairs than risking the elevator. But I'm lazy, so I just waited for the elevator.

Once I was safely on the ground, I went through a pair of double doors and asked the nice gentlemen at the front desk where the conference room was. They pointed right and said through those doors. I went right. I climbed a flight of stairs, only to realize it led straght to a locked door on the second floor. I went back to the nice gentlemen and inquired politely where the conference room was. This time, they pointed left. I thanked them and went on my way.

Once I went through the door on the left, there were two hallways and multiple doors. I went right. Nothing. I backtracked and went left. Eureka! Elevators! And the people coming out of the elevators were holding plastic bags full of green leaves. I was getting close. I could feel it!

This time, the elevators were slightly faster, but I was surrounded by sweaty people in a hot, dank elevator. We also stopped at every floor. My offended nose informed me that this was rather unpleasant, and this CSA share had better be worth it...

Upon reaching the fifth floor, I went left and for the first time all day, I had guessed right the first time. The conference room was straight ahead! (Okay, I cheated. I went left because that's where all the other people with bags of vegetables were coming from. But I still went the right direction the first time, which I think is remarkable regardless of the circumstances surrounding the decision. Plus, it shows my strong deductive skills.)

CSA Share #1

I walked in, initialed my name on the sign-in sheet, and went down the row picking out my vegetable allotment for the week:

- 1 bunch frisee

- 1 head romaine lettuce

- 1 bunch Easter Egg radishes

- 6.5 oz mixed baby salad greens

- 1 bunch red spring onions

- 1 bunch arugula

- 1 bunch kale

- 1 bunch cilantro

It all looked so good and so fresh, I wanted to start munching away at the table. But that would have earned me some odd stares and possibly an escort out of the building (plus a mouthful of dirt), so I restrained myself and packed away my shares into my plastic bags.

Halfway through my perusal of the red spring onions (such a pretty color!), the woman next to me found a large bug in the pile of frisee I had just been sorting through.

Lady: Oh hello! What are you doing here?

Other lady: Is that a bug?

Lady: Yeah, let me just take him outside. Come here little fella! I'm not gonna hurt you. Come here!
Other lady: Wow, he's a big one!
Lady: Aww come here, little guy! Aww he's scared!

Me (in my head): UHHHHHHHHHH.

Fortunately, I'm not the squeamish type except when it comes to cockroaches and millipedes/centipedes. Earwigs freak me out too, but those I can deal with. I used to play with potato bugs and collect earthworms. And I caught scorpions and released them outside in the name of humane-bug-treatment. So I wasn't completely unsympathetic to the lady. But at the same time, I think 5+ years of living in super-urban environments has made me a bit less capable of mentally dealing with bugs, so I decided to speed through the CSA pickup line and pray that the bug would remain terrified long enough for me to escape into the elevator before the bug-savior managed to catch him. I wasn't exactly keen on the idea of sharing a cramped, dank, humid SLOW elevator with our lovely bug-savior, the bug, and a couple of sweaty strangers who might not take kindly to the ongoing bug-rescue.

I grabbed my spoils and fled out the door, willing the elevator doors to shut before bug-savior came barreling through. Fortunately, my prayers were answered and I was on my merry way down to the ground floor sans bug.

Walking home was a trial, as I tried to balance my umbrella, bag and vegetables while hopping around puddles in my heels without crushing my delicate salad greens and arugula. Fortunately, I'd had the foresight to pack away my delicate greens in my purse, so they were somewhat more protected than the plastic bags banging away at my knees as I jumped and skipped my way home.

I dumped the vegetables into individual plastic bags after admiring them for a few minutes, shoved them in my fridge, and ran back to my office. Total adventure time? 45 minutes. Not bad, but next time I'm hoping to shave that down to half an hour.

After seeing this week's share, I'm thinking a salad spinner would be really handy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with everything just yet, but I've got a few ideas. The radishes will make a nice snack or salad addition, and I can use the spring onions and cilantro in spam fried rice. I've invited one of my friends to come eat salad with me on Friday night and she happily accepted. Since she just moved to the city, all she has in her pantry is spam. Ergo, spam fried rice. I can't use all the cilantro though (and my roommate hates it), so I'm not sure what to do with it. We'll see...

I'm really excited about the kale though! Lovely, gorgeous kale leaves that will make beautiful kale chips. Woo!

  

KALE CHIPS?!

And I'm thinking that sauteed radish greens and frisee would make lovely additions to our salad/spam fried rice dinner. We'll see!

Frisee: wilted?

 Anyways, it's late, I'm out. I think I'll hold off on washing anything until Friday and cross my fingers that the cilantro and greens stay fresh. Not worried about the radishes or kale, but a little concerned about the baby salad greens. I always feel like Friday is so far from Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday...), but this Friday in particular feels like it can't come fast enough.

More pictures of this week's haul:



Radishes! So cheerful and bright :)



So happy :)