It’s week #9 of our CSA share, and we’re really starting to feel overwhelmed! Our fridge is absolutely jam packed with vegetables and fruits right now, and we’re scrambling to eat everything before they spoil. Not to mention we’re going away Friday for a long weekend, and when we come back next week, it’ll be time to pick up yet another batch of vegetables/fruits.
No, I’m not really complaining. I love having so many different kinds of produce on hand, and we’re having a great time experimenting with things that we’ve never cooked before. We’ve already made two new recipes tonight, which I’ll talk about more shortly. This week our vegetable share contents included:
Squash – 1 1/2 lbs
Cucumber – 2 lbs
Eggplant – 1 each
Asian Melon – 1 each
Carrots – 1 lb
Napa Cabbage – 1 each
Tomato – 1 lb
Squash, asian melon (in the back), eggplant, napa cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes in the middle
I combined the cucumbers from this week and the larger ones from last week to make Julia Child’s famous baked cucumbers recipe (I mistakenly said braised cucumbers earlier!). Definitely an interesting outcome, which I’ll be posting about soon. We also made a gorgeous ratatouille with some of the squash and the eggplant we got last week. Yet something else to post about!
Fruit-wise, our share this week included:
Peaches – 2 1/2 lbs
Apricots – 1 pint
Plums – 1 pint
Plums, apricots, peaches in the back
We got four decently sized peaches, but I don’t think it was 2 1/2 lbs worth, so perhaps they changed it but I didn’t notice. Oh well, not a big deal. We have an insane amount of apricots and plums in our fridge, so I think we’ll be taking a bunch with us on vacation. I can take fruit if we’re flying domestically, right?
Also, if anyone knows what an asian melon is, or how to cook it, please let me know!
Tags: Apricots, Asian Melon, Carrots, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Napa Cabbage, Peaches, Plums, Squash, Tomatoes
Have you thought about trying canning? http://www.canningacrossamerica.com/resources/
Hahahah that funny I was just about to leave a comment saying “please share your recipes for asian melon” when I saw the last line. I see these all over china town but never had the courage to get one, maybe just try it as is?
According to a few emails from our CSA group, the Asian melon should be eaten as is, like a fruit. Supposedly it’s a lot like cantaloupe. We’re going to be cutting into it soon since it’s starting to feel a bit mushy so I’ll let you know if it’s worth picking up in Chinatown!
With regard to canning, I have thought about it but the process scares me a bit! Maybe when we have a solid free weekend, I’ll look into it a bit more. It would be nice to preserve some of this stuff for future use, since I feel like we’re just eating things for the sake of eating them before they spoil, rather than enjoying them and appreciating them at a leisurely pace…