Posts Tagged ‘Plums’

CSA Week #14

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 by virginia

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; we spent most of Labor Day weekend in NJ, and now we’re back again to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. We’ve been eating nonstop and spending lots of time with family/friends. Josh stayed in the city today just long enough to do some volunteer truck unloading and to pick up our CSA share. He also arranged the produce this week and took the pics, so they may look a little different. This week our vegetable contents included:

Watermelon – 1/2
Onions – 3/4 lb
Greens – 1 lb
Tomatoes – 2 lbs
Squash – 2 lbs
Radishes – 5 each

Kale, tomatoes, watermelon, radishes, onions, squash

The original contents list we received also said celery, but unfortunately they weren’t delivered. For the greens, Josh picked kale instead of swiss chard, since we’ve had a lot of chard lately. The watermelon was another half of a yellow watermelon, which we ate with dessert tonight. It wasn’t as sweet as the previous watermelon, but everyone was fascinated by the bright yellow flesh.

The fruit share this week was basically a repeat of last week, and we really do have an overpopulation of peaches in our fridge. Claire just sent us a book about canning and preserving foods (thanks Claire!) so I’ll need to look into that, and I also heard that freezer jam is pretty good as well. This week our fruit share contents included:

Plums – 1 lb
Apples – 11 each
Peaches – 3 1/4 lbs

Apples, peaches, plums

It’s crunch time for us because we have a week and a half to go before we leave on our two-week trip to Peru. We’re really excited about our trip but we want to make sure that we use up all of our veggies and fruits before we leave, or at least find ways of storing them so that they’ll still be good when we get back. We made a pretty good dent last week so I’m confident that we won’t let anything go to waste!

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CSA Week #13

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by virginia

The weather this week has been unbearably hot, and I wonder how that has affected our CSA crops. I felt bad because Josh had to run home right after work to pick up our share, and then go out again to meet some people for a happy hour. We had a bunch of repeats this week, and our fridge is absolutely packed with squash and tomatoes. The tomatoes I don’t mind, but does anyone have good suggestions about what to make with squash? We’ve already made squash soup, ratatouille, zucchini bread, and squash pancakes (similar to potato pancakes). We’re running out of ideas, and we still have lots of squash left. This week our veggie share contents included:

Watermelon – 1/2
Peppers – 5 mini
Tomatoes – 1 1/4 lbs
Mixed Greens – 1 lb
Squash – 2 lbs
Beets – 3 each
Spearmint – 1/8 lb
Beans – 1/2 lbs

Greens, squash, watermelon, tomatoes, spearmint, pole beans, mini bell peppers, beets

I’m not sure what kind of greens we got this week. They kind of look like baby collards. Anyone have any idea? The watermelon we got has yellow flesh. I don’t think I’ve had yellow watermelon before, and I wonder if it tastes the same as pink watermelon. We also got a lot of mint, so I foresee lots of mojitos.

We got lots of fruit this week, and I think we currently have more fruit in our refrigerator than we have vegetables. I made a tasty apricot tart with our CSA apricots that were starting to get overly ripe. It was a great way to make sure the fruit didn’t go to waste. This week our fruit share contents included:

Italian Plums – 1 3/4 lbs
Apples – 1 bag
Peaches – 2 lbs

Apples, peaches, Italian plums

The apples we got were similar to macintoshes. The Italian plums this week were pretty soft so we’ll either have to eat them really quickly, or I’ll have to turn them into a dessert. Meanwhile, the peaches we’ve been getting are fantastic. They’re the juicy, sweet, white variety and I’ve been eating a few each day. Can’t believe the summer is almost over!

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CSA Week #12

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 by virginia

After a hectic day at work, I was excited to come home to our CSA share. We got a long message from the farm today that made me feel bad about what the farmers are dealing with this summer, in addition to the extreme heat. Also, we learned that heirloom tomatoes should be picked ripe, which means they’ll often be soft and split. That’s a hard thing for me to reconcile because it makes me feel like I’ll have to eat them right away, but now I understand why so many of the tomatoes are in that particular state.

This week our share contents included:

Mini Bell Peppers – 5 each
Watermelon – 2 small or 1 large
Tomatoes – 4 lbs
Cabbage – 1/2 head
Squash – 2 1/3 lbs
Mixed Greens – 3/4 lb

Ruby chard, heirloom tomatoes, watermelon, cabbage, squash, mini bell peppers in front

The mini bell peppers are super cute, and I think we might just eat these whole since they’re basically bite sized. The watermelons were pretty small so Josh picked out one of the larger ones, which is just enough for 2 people to share. We have lots of heirloom tomatoes now, some of which are really soft and some which are slightly firmer. I foresee lots of caprese salads in our future, which is just fine by me. For the mixed greens, Josh got swiss chard with huge leaves and thick ruby red stems. Gorgeous!

Our fruit share is starting to overwhelm us but James just sent us a delicious-looking peach pie recipe that will help me get through our rapidly ripening peach bounty. This week our fruit share contents included:

Italian Plums – 2 lbs
Peaches – 3 lbs
Nectarines – 2 2/5 lbs

Peaches, Italian plums, nectarines

I have absolutely no complaints about the fruit this week. The peaches are large, ripe, and picture perfect. It took lots of willpower not to dig in before I snapped my photos!

In addition, today is Market Day for our CSA. That means in addition to our regular shares, we had the opportunity to order some extra goodies, such as cheese, yogurt, eggs, organic meats, spices, and more. When Josh and I first decided to purchase a CSA share, we debated whether to get an additional egg or dairy share but decided that we wouldn’t use up those items fast enough. Market Day gives us the opportunity to try out some of these item on a one-off basis (you pay per item you choose). We put in our order a few weeks ago and today we received our goods.

This is what we decided to order from Market Day:

Organic Eggs – 1 dozen
Yogurt – 5 containers (6 oz each)
Cheese – 2 packages (8 oz each)
Honey – 16 oz organic wildflower

Organic eggs, assorted yogurt, horseradish cheddar, wildflower honey, garlic and dill cheddar

For the yogurt, there were four different flavors available, so Josh picked out one of each – blackberry, orange, strawberry, and he doubled up on raspberry. For the cheese, he picked horseradish and garlic/dill flavored cheddars (other options included mild cheddar and smoked cheddar). We’re excited to see if organic eggs taste different from regular supermarket eggs, since we debated for a while whether to get a half dozen weekly egg share. If we like these eggs enough, maybe next year we’ll go for the weekly option. Yes, we love our CSA enough that we’re already thinking about next year!

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CSA Week #10

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 by virginia

Today’s CSA share was probably the heaviest one we’ve had so far. Josh was picking up the car from NJ (we’re dog-sitting the next two days) and I really struggled to carry our vegetables and fruits the few blocks home. According to the farm report we got, the heat wave has caused all of the melons to ripen two weeks early. We had a choice of melons this week, including the Asian variety we got last week, and I picked up one that looked like a small honeydew. For the greens, the email said we had a choice between kale and chard, but I think I picked up collard greens. I saw the kale but didn’t see anything resembling the swiss chard we got a few weeks back.

This week our vegetable share contents included:

Cucumber – 3 lbs
Squash – 2 lbs
Greens  – 1/2 lb
Melons – 1 each
Tomatoes – 3 lbs
Basil – 1/2 lb
Corn – 3 each

Squash, basil, melon, tomatoes, collards, corn, cucumbers

I was thrilled to see basil again, and half a pound is a ridiculous amount. Seriously, I have like an entire basil bush right now, just waiting to be turned into pesto. I don’t want to make the same mistake as last time, letting the basil blacken prematurely, so I want to use it up right away.

I have to be honest that I was not happy with the fruit share this week. I liked the kinds of fruit that we got, but the quality was pretty bad. I noticed the same thing with the tomatoes – most of them were super soft and had split open.

Our fruit share this week included:

Donut Peaches – 1 quart
Plums – 1 lb
Apricots or Peaches – 1 lb

Donute peaches, plums, apricots, peaches

I was super excited to see donut peaches, little peaches that look like they’ve been flattened. But when I dug into the quart container, the peaches at the bottom were brown and moldy. I tried cutting off the mold and brown bits, but four of them were totally inedible. Sad.

Moldy and gross

A few of the plums had also split open, but I just washed them off and ate them right away. They were sweet and tasty, but I was pretty disappointed with the state of the fruit. Hopefully it was just because the weather has caused everything to ripen too quickly, and that this won’t happen in later weeks. We still have a hefty bounty left but I hate seeing food go to waste.

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CSA Week #9

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 by virginia

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!

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CSA Week #8

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 by virginia

It was a hectic CSA Wednesday for me, as Josh is currently in Las Vegas and I had a softball game right after work so I had to run out and pick up our share during the day. It was really hot out and I was a sweaty mess by the time I got back to my office, but I didn’t want to take the chance that I wouldn’t get back from the game in time to get our veggies and fruit.

This week our share did match what was sent in the email, and I was happy to see cucumbers on the list. Our vegetable contents this week included:

Squash – 2 lbs
Fava Beans – 1 lb
Carrots – 1 lb
Cucumber – 3 lbs
Eggplant – 1 each
Greens – 1/2 lb
Beets – 3 each

Cucumbers, fava beans, carrots, eggplant, kale, beets, squash

The greens this week was kale once again, and I look forward to making more kale chips. I also plan on making ratatouille with the squash and eggplant, something that I’ve never tried before. And of course, braised cucumbers, because I want to see what all the fuss is about!

We got lots of fruit this week as well, and our fridge is just bursting at the seams right now. We’ve actually found a great use for most of the plums we’ve been getting, making a really wonderful plum salsa that I’ll be posting about. This week our fruit share included:

Shiro Plums – 1 1/2 lbs
Apricots – 1 quart
Blueberries – 2 pints

Shiro plums, blueberries, apricots

I don’t know the difference between Shiro plums and sugar plums, since they look very similar. Maybe they taste different? We’ll see. And two pints of blueberries doesn’t sound like a lot but I feel like we have an abundance of them right now. Josh wants me to bake a pie so maybe I’ll consider doing that, or just making a big batch of blueberry pancakes. The possibilities are endless!

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CSA Week #7

Friday, July 23rd, 2010 by virginia

No, I didn’t forget about CSA Wednesday. Due to a previous commitment for the church where we pick up our shares, this week our distribution was moved to Thursday. I was super excited when we got the email this morning that listed our share contents, as there were lots of new vegetables for us to try. Much to our dismay, however, when we went to get our share, three items were missing – basil, cucumbers, and purslane. We’re not really sure why those items weren’t delivered, and while our share was still pretty robust, I had already been thinking about the basil pesto I wanted to make, and I was looking forward to trying braised cucumbers, the highly touted Julia Child recipe.

Oh well. We did get some things that weren’t on the emailed list, like lettuce and greens, so I guess it works out in the end. Our share contents this week included:

Squash – 3 lbs
Fava Beans – 1 lb
Carrots – 5 each
Turnips – 4 each
String Beans – 1lb
Lettuce – 1 head
Greens – 1/2 lb

Turnips, string beans, lettuce, greens, fava beans, carrots, squash

For the lettuce, it looked like we had a choice between green leaf and Boston lettuce. Because we’ve already tried the green leaf lettuce before, we chose the Boston even though the heads were tiny. The greens turned out to be kale, which means we can make kale chips again! For the squash, there were lots of different varieties so we picked up a standard yellow one, a smaller, round yellow one, and a large, pear shaped pale green one.

Our fruit share this week was the best one yet, with several different items. The contents included:

Sugar Plums – 1 quart
Apricots – 1 quart
Red Plums – 1 pint

Sugar plums, apricots, and red plums in front

The apricots look gorgeous, and I really liked the sugar plums from last week, though the skin is a bit tart. Josh made a lovely salsa with it that I’ll be posting about. Unfortunately, Josh will be on the road for work the next two weeks, which makes it tough for me to enjoy our bounty. I don’t want him to feel like he’s missing out, but then again, he’s going to have a lot of access to great restaurants while he’s away so I’m the one who’s going to end up feeling jealous. I’ll just have to figure out some really awesome things to make so that maybe he’ll have incentive to travel less!

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