CSA 2013 Partial Share #8
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 bunch leeks
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 bunch carrots
- 1 Japanese eggplant
- 1 Walla Walla sweet onion
- 1 head lettuce
- 1 zucchini
Winner: Japanese eggplant! Cause they're damn tasty (in moderation) and they're purple! :) Alternatively, leeks, because leek soup.
Challenge: basil. It's like the world is mocking me. Look! Giant, fresh clumps of basil with green leaves from plants that happily live in the soil outside with real sunlight! Ha ha, looks nothing like the spindly four-leaf plants pathetically scrabbling to survive in your window garden box, surrounded by mushrooms that SHOULD NOT BE HERE. My basil sprouts, by the way, have four leaves on them after a nearly 6 week struggle to grow. Sad.
P.S. I changed my mind about zucchini. Kind of like the stuff sliced into super thin coins and fried in butter. But that could just be the butter talking.
Showing posts with label beets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beets. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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
- 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
Friday, January 18, 2013
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
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
Thursday, October 4, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Housewarming-ish
I am finally getting ahead in my summerlong battle with the vegetables!
The roasted beets, potatoes, and onions were lovely. The roasting kitchen was rather not. I think I'm going to avoid roasting anything in the summertime from now on... On the bright side, I did manage to finally use up (and eat) all the root vegetables I'd been collecting over the last few weeks!
The roasting process itself was quite simple: drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil packets, bake for 40-60 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. I'm pretty impatient though. I kept taking my potatoes out every 15 minutes and serving them, hoping they were fully cooked (they were not). I think my poor guests ingested at least one entire undercooked baby potato each. Luckily, I have very patient friends who let me putter around the kitchen, constantly shuttling their dinner back-and-forth from their plates to the oven and back again.
The eggplant sauteed very nicely. I splashed a bit of olive oil in a pan, added some sliced up garlic, and let the garlic crisp and turn a bit golden. When the garlic was on the verge of browning, I dumped in my eggplant cubes, sprinkled some salt on top, and let the whole thing cook for about 10-15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Carrots with 됀장 made for a nice midnight snack (and desk snack).
I tried cooking my carrot tops like I cook 쑥갓, since the taste is pretty similar. I blanched the carrot tops for about 30 seconds to a minute and then sauteed them lightly with garlic and oil and a smidge of fish sauce. While they weren't too bad, I don't think I'm going to try that again. I seriously felt like I was eating garlicky toasted grass.
On a side note: I'm really glad I have so much garlic. At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of it, but then I realized that it really helps with the vegetables. Especially since I have no spices at the moment (thanks to moving into my new apartment).
I think next time, I'll probably try making carrot top tea instead. Apparently there's a lot of Vitamin K, potassium, and other minerals/vitamins that are quite good for you. Carrot top tea is also supposed to serve as a particularly effective kidney cleanser. Regardless of the health claims, I'm obsessed with tea, so I'll give that a try the next time I get carrot tops in my share.
The roasted beets, potatoes, and onions were lovely. The roasting kitchen was rather not. I think I'm going to avoid roasting anything in the summertime from now on... On the bright side, I did manage to finally use up (and eat) all the root vegetables I'd been collecting over the last few weeks!
The roasting process itself was quite simple: drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil packets, bake for 40-60 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork. I'm pretty impatient though. I kept taking my potatoes out every 15 minutes and serving them, hoping they were fully cooked (they were not). I think my poor guests ingested at least one entire undercooked baby potato each. Luckily, I have very patient friends who let me putter around the kitchen, constantly shuttling their dinner back-and-forth from their plates to the oven and back again.
The eggplant sauteed very nicely. I splashed a bit of olive oil in a pan, added some sliced up garlic, and let the garlic crisp and turn a bit golden. When the garlic was on the verge of browning, I dumped in my eggplant cubes, sprinkled some salt on top, and let the whole thing cook for about 10-15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Carrots with 됀장 made for a nice midnight snack (and desk snack).
I tried cooking my carrot tops like I cook 쑥갓, since the taste is pretty similar. I blanched the carrot tops for about 30 seconds to a minute and then sauteed them lightly with garlic and oil and a smidge of fish sauce. While they weren't too bad, I don't think I'm going to try that again. I seriously felt like I was eating garlicky toasted grass.
On a side note: I'm really glad I have so much garlic. At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with all of it, but then I realized that it really helps with the vegetables. Especially since I have no spices at the moment (thanks to moving into my new apartment).
I think next time, I'll probably try making carrot top tea instead. Apparently there's a lot of Vitamin K, potassium, and other minerals/vitamins that are quite good for you. Carrot top tea is also supposed to serve as a particularly effective kidney cleanser. Regardless of the health claims, I'm obsessed with tea, so I'll give that a try the next time I get carrot tops in my share.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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.
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
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.
- Preheat oven to 350 ish.
- Wash potatoes thoroughly.
- Quarter into bite size chunks. Leave the skin on!
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- 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.
- Line a pan with foil for easy cleanup.
- Evenly spread the potatoes in a single layer.
- 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.
- Garnish with sprigs of rosemary or other pretty things if desired. ENJOY.
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
Thursday, July 26, 2012
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 asbroccoli vegetable disposals.
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
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Beets and BBQ
What a lovely weekend full of friends, swimming, and lazy lounging in the sun :)
I contributed my zucchini, beets and lettuce to the BBQ this weekend and the reactions were interesting, to say the least.
As always, people were politely interested in the idea of a CSA, and I doubt most of them would go the extra step and sign up for one.
However, when it came to eating the vegetables, a very clear divide emerged. Reactions fell squarely into one of two camps:
1. Yes, please!
2. Is anyone going to actually eat that?
Interestingly, perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all the girls fell into the first group, while almost all of the guys were firmly in the second camp.
We lost a few slices of zucchini to the coals, but the rest disappeared pretty quickly. Beets also disappeared pretty fast. We ran out of coals, so the beets were more like gently-warmed beets than grilled beets, but they were still quite tasty. I didn't even know you could eat beets raw until this week. o.O
The guys, for all their earlier scoffing, were intrigued and I saw more than one person tentatively trying out a beet slice, probably for the first time in their lives. Very amusing and I managed to use up my CSA share and get other people to cook my vegetables for me. #winning :D
I contributed my zucchini, beets and lettuce to the BBQ this weekend and the reactions were interesting, to say the least.
As always, people were politely interested in the idea of a CSA, and I doubt most of them would go the extra step and sign up for one.
However, when it came to eating the vegetables, a very clear divide emerged. Reactions fell squarely into one of two camps:
1. Yes, please!
2. Is anyone going to actually eat that?
Interestingly, perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all the girls fell into the first group, while almost all of the guys were firmly in the second camp.
We lost a few slices of zucchini to the coals, but the rest disappeared pretty quickly. Beets also disappeared pretty fast. We ran out of coals, so the beets were more like gently-warmed beets than grilled beets, but they were still quite tasty. I didn't even know you could eat beets raw until this week. o.O
The guys, for all their earlier scoffing, were intrigued and I saw more than one person tentatively trying out a beet slice, probably for the first time in their lives. Very amusing and I managed to use up my CSA share and get other people to cook my vegetables for me. #winning :D
Thursday, July 12, 2012
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.
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.
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