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This week our vegetable share contents included:
Celery – 1 each
Greens – 1 lb
Carrots – 1 lb
Turnips – 1 each
Winter Squash – 1 each
Leeks – 1 each
I’m curious about the winter squash because we got one a few weeks back but we haven’t eaten yet. I think it’s buried in our fridge somewhere so I hope it’s still ok! I wonder if we’re just supposed to bake it? It has a super hard shell and reminds me of one of those gourds people put out during Thanksgiving. Anyone have suggestions on how to cook it?
The leek is a new item for us, but unfortunately it’s pretty small so I’m not sure what we’ll do with it. The turnips are pretty tiny as well. The carrots I’m already planning on turning into soup. We made a really great carrot ginger soup a while back, but I never got around to posting about it. I should, because it was really yummy. For the greens we got kale, as usual, since we’ll never tire of eating kale chips. Those chips rock! As for the celery, we’ve been making bloody marys out of the previous batches, since these are pretty thin and spindly celery stalks, not the fat watery kind you get from the supermarket. They have a much more concentrated celery flavor, but they’re also kind of bitter.
As for our fruit share, we are getting buried by even more apples and pears. This week our fruit share contents included:
Apples – 5 lb
Pears – 3 lbs
I’ve been snacking on apple slices with peanut butter, but that gets tiring very quickly. It doesn’t help that Josh and I aren’t really “dessert” people, so when I make a cake or tart out of the fruit, we still have trouble eating it. I’m considering just making a huge batch of applesauce, since some of the apples are starting to get mealy from sitting in the fridge for so long. I’m trying not to let anything go to waste!
]]>The second week, they also picked up our share for us and left the goodies with our doorman. Lisa put them in the fridge for us so that when we got home on Sunday, we had fresh food on hand. We cooked up a feast in honor of Lisa’s birthday that week, using a lot of our CSA items. I didn’t take any pictures but everything turned out so well that we’ll probably make each dish again sometime in the future. As a pre-dinner snack, we served up heirloom tomato bruschetta on slices of baguette from Amy’s Bread. We noshed on this while drinking some Pisco sours that I whipped up using Pisco that I brought home from Peru.
The first course was a creamy zucchini soup, followed by a roasted beet salad with arugula and radishes tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette. The main course was chicken that Josh butterflied and brined before roasting in the oven. The skin was crisp and the meat was tender and juicy. As for sides, we roasted potatoes underneath the chicken so that they basted in the juices and fat that ran off – yum! We also made a rustic ratatouille with zucchini, eggplant, and red pepper. Finally, for dessert, I made a buttery apple tart that paired perfectly with Josh’s homemade vanilla ice cream. We had prepped most things the night before so the dinner was relaxing for all of us, and we were able to enjoy our company.
Going back to the CSA shares, Josh picked up our produce last week before he and Lisa went to the Roger Waters concert at MSG, but I was too lazy to take pictures and post. I had met them for dinner before the show, and then afterward I went home to pack since we left for San Francisco the next day. Now that we’re back, with no travel planned for another month, I hope to get back on track with everything.
This week Josh and I met up to get our share together, which was good because even though the veggie side was a bit light, we got a ton of fruit. This week our vegetable share contents included:
Radishes – 5 each
Broccoli – 1 each
GreensĀ – 1 lb
Fennel – 1 each
Squash – 2 lbs
Turnips – 5 each
The original list also said onions, but we didn’t see any at the pickup site. For the greens, we got kale, which we absolutely love. I made a huge batch of kale chips last night and we gobbled them right up. The secret is to make sure you salt them liberally before putting them into the oven. For the squash, we picked up a large zucchini because those are heartier and last longer in the fridge. The broccoli is a new item for us, and although it’s quite small, I can’t wait to see how it tastes.
For the fruit, we’ve just been getting tons of apples and our fridge is totally packed. I see a lot of apple pies, apple tarts, and apple chips in our future. This week our fruit share contents included:
Macoun Apples – 4 3/4 lbs
Seckle Pears – 1 quart
Honey Crisps Apples – 2 lbs
We now also have tons of these little pears, and a few quarts of plums as well leftover from previous weeks. Anyone know of any good recipes I could try?
]]>This week we’ve really been working on clearing out our fridge because I don’t know what will last until we get back from our trip. I made a wonderful plum cake with some of our Italian plums, and Josh and I made a really delicious peach pie from a recipe sent to us by James. The season is starting to change so this week we saw some new items in both our veggie and fruit shares. This week our vegetable share contents included:
Celery – 1 each
Jerusalem Artichoke – 3/4 lbs
Tomatoes – 2 lbs
Greens – 1 lb
Squash – 2 lbs
Pac choi (bok choy) – 1 each
Corn – 2 each
The list we got with the contents said radishes, but I was happy to see corn instead. For the greens, we got some more kale. We’ll have to use those up before we leave because they probably won’t keep. I’m not sure what to do with the Jerusalem artichokes though, which look like knobs of ginger. Anyone know any good recipes?
For the fruit share, our contents this week included:
Grapes – 1 quart
Pears – 1 quart
Apples – 8 each
I’m super excited to try the pears, and Josh has already snacked on the grapes, which he says are super sweet but have a weird texture and lots of seeds. We’ll try to eat those quickly, but I think the apples will be ok to keep. Felipe and Silva will be taking our shares next week, and we hope that they enjoy the produce as much as we do!
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