CSA Share #16

I can't keep up! But this week's haul looks particularly promising :) I'm very excited to pick it up later today!

CSA Share 16
- 1 eggplant
- 2 bell peppers
- 2 heads garlic
- 1 bunch arugula
- 1 pint salad tomatoes
- 1 bunch assorted braising greens
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 head romaine lettuce
- 1 bunch purple carrots
- 3/4 lb yellow wax beans
- 1 bunch young celery stalks

CWTC: purple carrots! Actually, it's a tie between the purple carrots and the yellow wax beans. I have a thing for odd-colored vegetables and fruits. I don't know. Nom nom. Did you know carrots were originally purple until the Dutch bred all the purple right out of them? Yeah, me either. Someone should invent a produce trivia section on Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit and Who Wants to be a Millionnaire,
TAV: Yellow wax beans. I'm going to try very lightly sauteeing them with a squeeze of lemon, a bit of garlic, and a dash of chili pepper flakes. That plus some nice braised greens sounds like a perfect fall weather dish to me!
WTF: Celery tops. What? Apparently, the farm's field team mistook the celery tops for parsley, and harvested them a bit early. Oops.
Oh well! I'm glad they're distributing them, instead of throwing them away. They'll make a wonderful addition to a hearty fall vegetable soup. I've been squirreling away bags of chicken stock for an occasion like this!

I think, with all the work and travel and life happenings that have been going on, that it makes more sense for me to accumulate a pile of post-season topics that I'll return to later. I'll continue to update with the weekly CSA share and interesting tidbits, but I'll save the meatier posts and the recipes for when things settle down a bit. That way, I'll have something to occupy myself with, even during the winter months when there's no fresh produce coming in.

I've been keeping a pretty decent photo log of my CSA adventures on facebook, so hopefully that will help. And I'll try to go back and retroactively post all my lovely pictures in this blog during the post-growing season as well. In the meantime...I will fight off this nasty little stomach bug and the aftereffects of my flu vaccine! Rawr!

It seems frosty weather has begun to nip at our heels. Free Bird Farm reported the first Jack Frost visitations and have wrapped up the summer vegetable patch. No more eggplant, tomatoes, or bell peppers for us. That's okay with me, I think I've eaten more eggplant and bell peppers than I ever thought I could in the past few months. I hope we get potatoes and more garlic!

I've noticed another upside of seasonal eating. Vegetables ripen just when they start to look appealing and appetizing. For example, I wouldn't want a lot of potatoes and heavy collard greens or escarole, winter squash, and chili peppers in the dead middle of a hot and humid summer. Shudder. I'd have to turn my oven on. >.<

Neither would I want light salad greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers when chilly fall evenings start to creep into the Northeast. I want something more substantial, with more depth and smoke and body. But boy, does a refreshing salad sound delicious in the summer! And on a crisp, cool autumn evening, a hearty dish of roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed beans, and sturdy bitter greens cooked with garlic and a bit of fried pork sounds like absolute heaven. Preferably eaten while wrapped up in a warm, cozy sweater or a fleece blanket. See what I mean? Yum yum.

Side note: I WANT A FRUIT SHARE T___T. This week, Maynard Farms is distributing Chardonnay grapes and the last of the summer watermelon. I die.

Apparently, these are very sweet grapes with 24% sugar content, that can be eaten right out of hand. To reiterate, T___________T.

Next year...I am going to sign up for chickens, eggs, and fruit. I can eat the light veggies and eggs during the summer and cook/freeze up the leftovers in soup for winter. The chickens come pre-frozen, so I can just store them away in the freezer until the winter, and then I can make all sorts of lovely dishes. A whole roast chicken on a cold, snowy December night sounds brilliant. I'll have to think about this a little more and check the past few growing seasons to see if this is feasible, but if I'm careful, I may be able to stretch out a full CSA share over a good portion of the year. Hmm...

CSA Share #15

I just had the best damn apple of my life. Excuse my language. Now I know I haven't been around that long (relatively speaking), but I have eaten more than my fair share of apples in my lifetime. I love apples. Every time I see a new variety, I have to try it. I am very picky about the freshness of my apples, but otherwise, I'm open to trying anything and everything.

This week's fruit share included Macoun apples and as a reward for volunteering at this week's distribution, the coordinator let me poach an apple from the leftover pile. I didn't expect much of it, which made my first delicious bite all the more surprising... Anyways, I'll make a separate post dedicated to the Macoun Apple Experience - yes, it really deserves its own separate post.

In the meantime, this week's share and my sneaky plotting ways to use it up without eating salad all week:

CSA Share 15:
- 1 bunch radishes
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 bunch dill
- 1 bunch mixed "braising" greens (kale, tatsoi, green and red mustard, hon tsai tsai)
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 jalapenos
- 2 pounds plum tomatoes
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 head Romaine lettuce
- 1 head red leaf lettuce

CWTC: jalapenos! I've been craving something spicy lately.
TAV: Mixed braising greens. These look incredibly beautiful, with a variety of green and purple stems and gorgeous veining patterns on some of the leaves and bright, tender green leaves poking through. They intrigue me. I have never heard of tatsoi or hon tsai tsai and I have never cooked fresh mustard leaves before. I didn't even know there was a red variety. I love that Free Bird Farm incorporates Asian-style veggies into our shares (e.g. Thai basil, bok choy, hobak). Yay!
WTF: Dill. :( These herbs are killing me. What am I going to do with this much dill?! I still have my cilantro too. FML.

Brainstorm area:
This is me thinking out loud. Welcome to my brain. HA.

I have two lemons in the fridge and some cilantro. The rest of my share has (thankfully, finally) been consumed, with the last sad remnants of the lettuce from last week straggling into my lunch and dinner salads today. No more salads please...

I suppose the lettuce is best in a salad, since I don't have time to grill or cook them this week. I can throw some radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes together and make a decent lunch and dinner for myself. That leaves the braising greens, bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, and dill. And radish greens.

The braising greens can become dinner for later in the week. The radish greens can wait in the fridge until next week. The green onions and dill can be mixed into some cream cheese for a nice savory spread.

I can also mix the dill with lemon juice and Greek yogurt for a tasty yogurt dip that I can pile into pita loaves. !!! I am brilliant. I can stuff the pita loaves with yogurt dip, shredded lettuce, cucumber and tomato for a yummy Mediterranean style vegetarian sandwich. I am so genius. That's how I'll use up my leftover veg next week.

The leftover green onions and dill can be tossed into chicken soup for lunch next week. (I still have several Ziploc bags of frozen chicken soup in the freezer, so this is really perfect).

Too bad I don't have potatoes. Then I wouldn't be stuck wondering what to do with all my dill. Ah well, maybe next time.

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!

Tomato Sauce from Scratch

This weekend ended up being a little less domestic and a lot more crazy than expected. I need a month long detox. But I did manage to get around to making my tomato sauce!

My roommate, his friend, and yours truly, were bumming around the apartment on Saturday evening with no energy left for going out to eat dinner. We debated ordering takeout, but I really needed to use up my tomatoes, so I told the boys I'd cook pasta. They seemed skeptical, but they took a leap of faith and agreed to eat pasta for dinner. They even offered to help in the kitchen :)

The tomato sauce was sort of improvised, but I was pretty happy with it.

Pasta with Spicy Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 onions
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1 bunch basil
- 1 package pasta
- salt and pepper to taste
- a bit of olive oil

Recipe:
1. Peel and chop onions. Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Toss in onions and garlic.
3. Wash and chop tomatoes into small chunks.
4. Stir the onions and garlic occasionally until the onions turn slightly translucent.
5. Add tomatoes to the pan.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the pan simmer, stirring occasionally.
7. Put a pot of water on to boil.
8. When water reaches the boiling point, add pasta.
9. Boil the pasta for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
10. Drain pasta and set aside.
11. Chop up the jalapenos and basil leaves. Add to the pan.
12. Stir the tomato sauce and let it simmer until most of the liquid has boiled off. If the sauce is too thick, add water.
13. Ladle sauce over the pasta and serve. Garnish with extra basil leaves if desired.

Note: Be careful with the jalapenos! We were informed by my roommate's friend that the peppers "weren't that hot." Turns out, they were. If you're worried about making the sauce too spicy, remove the seeds and the white pith (this is the spiciest part of the pepper) or just omit the jalapenos altogether.

The boys were impressed, especially since there was no meat in the pasta. We were all happily fueled up for a night out, I used up a lot of my leftover CSA share, and I didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! I'd say it was a success.

Tomato Sandwiches

I realized my TAV (the adventurous vegetable) for CSA Share 11 should have been the tomato, not the bell pepper. I decided last minute that it would be nice to bring some sliced tomato and bread to work before the bread went bad. I think my original plan was to eat the bread with jam or hummus and eat the tomatoes as a snack, but then someone sent me a link to tomato recipes, and I became utterly fascinated by the tomato sandwiches featured in the article, which called for nothing more than bread, tomato, mayo, and a dash of salt n pepper.

I'd heard of such things before, of course. And I am no stranger to strange sandwiches. When I was a little girl, my dad would occasionally have the thankless task of feeding me and my little brother while my mom was out of town for work. I love my dad dearly, but when I was growing up, it was clear that he was rather clueless in the kitchen. When mom wasn't home, we knew exactly what we'd be eating: bibimbap, sandwiches, or dinner at the local Hometown Buffet. Unsurprisingly, we would always beg dad to take us to Hometown Buffet, but the one time we ate there every night, my mom got mad at him for being lazy and feeding us unhealthy food. Second of all, my dad doesn't eat a lot. Two small children don't eat a lot. Buffets are a bad idea for my family, in general. We end up subsidizing everyone else. One time, when I was a toddler, we were at a fancy buffet in an upscale Las Vegas hotel. I picked out exactly three strawberries, ate them happily, and declared I was full.

So instead of Hometown Buffet every night, we would add sandwich nights to the mom-less dinner rotation. To make it more entertaining, my dad would turn this into a competition to see who could eat the most sandwiches in one night. I usually won, which is kind of disgusting now that I think about it. I'm pretty sure Hometown Buffet was probably healthier, but I must admit, the sandwich competitions were hilariously fun.

There was definitely a method to the madness. First, we would raid the pantry and the fridge for all the condiments and fillings we could find, including a few rather unorthodox ones with questionable expiration dates. Then, we would start combining condiments to make sandwiches. The rule was one sandwich on a plate at a time. You had to finish your sandwich before you were allowed to grab two more slices of bread. Each sandwich had to include at least one filling and two slices of bread. Speed was not important, as it was the total number of sandwiches that were eaten which determined the winner. Although fillings like butter or jam were easier to eat, recognition was given for sandwiches made with flair and style and creativity, and eating 10 butter sandwiches was considered poor sportsmanship. Sandwiches did not count towards the total unless they were completely gone, no matter how disgusting the filling might be.

We got creative and invented all sorts of odd sandwiches. PB & banana, ketchup and cream cheese (we only tried this once), cheese and jam (yum), grilled PB a la Shel Silverstein, butter and PB (a bit redundant), and even relish and ranch (VILE). I tried all sorts of combinations of all sorts of things. I even tried putting soy sauce on my sandwich once, but I don't think it worked. There were two things on the table that I never touched though: the mustard bottle and the mayo jar.

I despise mayonnaise (and mustard). As far back as I can remember, I have always ordered my Subway sandwiches and chicken burgers with no mayo or mustard. If there was a trace of mustard or mayo on my food, I would throw it out. As I got older, instead of throwing out mayo contaminated food, I would just wipe it all off or throw out the mayo-soaked bread, but I still couldn't help but shudder as I scraped off the gloopy white sauce.The most disgusting thing I had ever seen was a pizza in Korea that was slathered in Kewpie mayo. I nearly barfed right then and there. Apparently mayo coated pizza is a thing...?

The only exceptions to my no-mayo rule were tuna salad sandwiches and the occasional BLT. I would mix in just enough mayo to make the tuna stick together. To keep my BLT bread from getting soggy, I would smear the stingiest smudge of mayo on my bread in a super thin, molecule-sized layer. And that's about it.

This tomato sandwich thing though. There was mayo, a horribly healthy generous slather of mayo, and it seemed the mayo was integral to the tomato sandwich. I had to try it though. If the queen of tea (me) could try something as odd as carrot top tea, the queen of sandwiches (also me, in case you were wondering) should be able to give the tomato sandwich a chance, right? I had a packet of Hellman's mayo buried in my drawer from last week's dinner, so I went digging in my drawer and managed to fish it out of the chaos of napkins, pens, and sugar packets. I took my bread, spread some mayo all over the slices, piled on the tomatoes, added salt and pepper, and then took a tentative bite.

Before we talk about my reaction, you may be wondering why I didn't just skip the mayo and eat the tomato sandwich plain. According to the internets, the mayo provides a nice balance to the acidity of the tomato AND it keeps the tomato juice from turning the sandwich into a big soggy mess. The internet is not always right, but in this case, collective wisdom seemed trustworthy. I went with it and took the jump.

It was good. I liked it. But then, a dawning realization...surprisingly, I liked it because of the mayo. As promised, the mayo provided a nice balance to the sandwich and kept the sandwich bread from disintegrating from my juicy tomato slices. I tried a nibble of tomato and bread without mayo (I somehow missed a corner of my bread slice when I was spreading my mayo) and it just wasn't as good. It tasted dry and off balance, kind of like eating s'mores without chocolate (heresy!) I can't believe I just equated mayo with chocolate. o_O The world is ending.

In any case, I declare this sandwich a winner. And I will quietly acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, there's a reason someone invented mayo.

If only I'd known about this during my sandwich-competition days...!

On a side note, my coworker has separately discovered that toast with scallion cream cheese and tomato slices makes for a lovely savory breakfast at the desk. Similar concept, and a nice way to compensate for the lackluster tomatoes in the 2nd floor cafeteria. Might detract from good quality tomatoes though, so I'd save the scallion cream cheese for post-tomato season.

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.