Posts Tagged ‘Radishes’

CSA Week #6

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by virginia

It’s been yet another hot week and according to the farm reports we get from our CSA, the weather hasn’t been so great for the crops or the farm workers. Our share this week was larger than last week but I wonder what the long term ramifications are of the unbearable heat. The contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head red leaf
Basil – 2 oz
Fava Beans – 1 1/4 lbs
Radishes – 4 each
Greens – 3/4 lb
Squash – 1 3/4 lbs
Pole Beans – 1/2 lb

Fava beans, greens, basil, red leaf lettuce, squash, pole beans, radishes in the middle


Unfortunately we haven’t had the chance to cook a lot of veggies recently so we still have tons of stuff left over from last week. A neat little trick I’ve discovered is that if you soak a lot of the veggies in cold water, they’ll perk right back up. This especially works well with limp lettuce. Just chop them up and soak, and they’ll be as good as new.

With regard to our fruit share, we’re overwhelmed with cherries! This week was a smaller batch at least, but we still have tons in our fridge. We’ve been snacking on them left and right but can’t seem to eat them quickly enough. Our fruit share this week included:

Sugar Plums – 1 quart
Cherries – 1 pint

Sugar plums and cherries


I’ve never seen sugar plums before but I hope they’re sweeter than regular plums. They’ve got a lovely yellow color and feel soft to the touch. I’ll let you know how they are when I get around to tasting them!

CSA Week #5

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by virginia

It’s CSA Wednesday again! I ran home during the day to pick up the share because I had a softball game after work, and boy, is it hot out. Unfortunately the hot weather has not been good for the crops, and our share this week was the smallest that we’ve had so far. I’m not too concerned because we still have stuff left from last week, plus Josh is traveling so I haven’t been eating our veggies (otherwise he might get jealous). Our share contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head green leaf
Radishes – 4 each
Squash – 1lb
Onions – 4 each
Peas – 1/2 lb
Fava Beans – 1lb each

The peas and the beans will be interesting to cook with, since we don’t eat too much of either, but I’m really interested to taste freshly shelled peas/beans.

Peas, white and red onions, green leaf lettuce, squash, radishes, fava beans

Our fruit share also included less fruit, though we did get a strawberry rhubarb jam, which should be interesting:

Cherries – 1 quart
Jam – 1 pint
Juice – 1 pint

Cherries, strawberry rhubarb jam, blackcurrant apple juice

A new juice this week as well, blackcurrant apple this time. Still sad that it’s the smaller bottle, since the first week was more than double the size. The cherries this week are a different variety from the last two weeks, and hopefully they’ll be a bit sweeter. Still more recipes to come!

Red Leaf Lettuce With Radishes, Beets, and Goat Cheese

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 by virginia

Red leaf lettuce

Radishes

As part of our second CSA share, we got a large head of gorgeous red leaf lettuce that we weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do with. Usually we only eat red leaf lettuce with Korean food, wrapped around pieces of grilled bulgogi or marinated pork. Since we didn’t have any on hand (H-Mart has really good pre-marinated meat that’s relatively cheap), we decided to make a simple salad with lettuce, beets, and goat cheese.

To make the salad dressing, I combined equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, then added a dollop of mustard to make the dressing thicker. I blended it all together in my handy knock-off magic bullet, then tossed it with the washed and chopped red leaf lettuce.

I piled the lettuce onto plates, then topped them with slices of canned beets. Some people might scoff at using canned beets, but I think they have good flavor and are super convenient. No mess, no fuss. On top of the beets, I added crumbled bits of soft goat cheese. To contrast the sweetness of the balsamic vinaigrette and the beets, I thinly sliced some CSA radishes and added it to the salad for some crunch and slight bitterness.

Red leaf lettuce tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with beets, goat cheese, and radishes

It was a hearty salad, and although it was vegetarian, we still felt full afterward. It’s rare for us to not miss meat, but this was a great combination of flavors and textures. I could definitely eat this salad again and be satisfied!

CSA Week #3

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 by virginia

Yet another week has gone by and you know what that means: CSA! We’ve got veggies bursting out of our fridge but we still can’t get over how great they are. Farm fresh really does make a huge difference. Our share this week included:

LettuceĀ  – 1 large head
Garlic – 3 bulbs
Garlic scapes – 5 stalks
Radishes – 4
Onions – 4
Greens – 3/4 lb

We had a choice between romaine lettuce and red leaf lettuce so we chose the romaine, because we still had red leaf left over from last week. We also had a choice between ruby chard and kale for the greens, and we went with the kale because we had chard last week.

From left to right: onions, radishes, garlic, romaine, kale, garlic scapes

In even more exciting news, our fruit share started this week!! The email that we received regarding the contents was a bit confusing, and so we thought we were getting three pints of juice. Not exactly fruit, but we figured it was because it’s still early in the season. Turns out that we got three pints of cherries, plus a juice. There were several juices to choose from and we opted for rhubarb apple, since it seemed to be the most unusual option.

Cherries – 3 pints
Juice – one bottle

Cherries and rhubarb apple juice

The cherries are slightly tart but have a great firm, juicy texture. They’re good for snacking on their own, but I’m hoping to bake with some as well, since three pints is quite a lot of fruit.

Oodles of cherries

We’re still trying to cook more each week, and we’re getting much better about it. More recipes to come!

CSA Week #2

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 by virginia

It’s CSA time again! Can you believe that a week has already gone by? Josh picked up our second CSA share bounty and it was even bigger than the first week! For week #2, our share contents included:

Lettuce – 1 large head
Bok choy – 2 heads
Garlic – 1/4 lb
Garlic scapes – .2 lbs
Radishes – .45 lbs
Onions – .45 lbs
Greens large – .5 lb
Arugula – .2 lbs

The large greens this week had beautiful red stalks – anyone know exactly what kind of vegetable this is?

From left to right: Garlic, large greens, bok choy, radishes, red leaf lettuce, arugula, garlic scapes, onions

We are already starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with vegetables, and it’s only week #2! We still have some mint, bok choy, radishes, and greens left over from last week, and our schedules haven’t let us cook as much as we would like. But we’re making some progress, and we’re definitely enjoying every bit of our fresh veggies. More recipes to come soon!

CSA Week #1

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 by virginia

Josh and I decided to join a CSA this year after reading about CSA shares on other blogs. What is a CSA? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Read here for a good description of what a CSA is, but basically you buy a share of a farm for a season and your share translates into weekly vegetable deliveries. In addition to the vegetable share, we got a fruit share as well, though the fruit deliveries don’t start until later in the season.

The vegetable shares were supposed to start next week, but due to the freakishly hot weather recently, some of the crops have ripened sooner, so today was our first delivery. The pick up location is near our apartment, so Josh headed there straight after work, as we were both eager to see what we got. The core group of our CSA sends out the list of share contents the day of delivery, but seeing it on paper is different from seeing the bounty before your eyes.

So for Week #1, our share contents included:

Garlic Scapes – .16 lbs (or 4 scapes)
Lettuce – 2 heads
Pac Choi (bok choy) – 2 heads
Radish – .5 lbs (or 6 radishes)
Mint – .3 lbs
Greens – .75 lbs

It doesn’t sound like a lot, but believe me, we have enough vegetables to last us the week.

From left to right: Bok choy, greens, mint, lettuce, radishes, and garlic scapes in the middle

And considering that this is early in the season, I can’t even imagine what our contents will be like during the heart of the summer! I’m thrilled to bits that we decided to join a CSA, and I really hope that means we will be cooking more from here on out. We’ve already made a pesto sauce from the garlic scapes, which I’ll be posting about soon. Hopefully this will become a weekly feature from us every Wednesday when we pick up our share!