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 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.

hard times

This has been a rough week. First of all, I have more broccoli in my fridge than I ever cared to have. Second of all, Jeremy is no longer a local, so I will not be able to talk about him anymore. T____T


but, lol.

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.