CSA Week #6: Hang in There!

Any week with multiple boxes of berries is a good week.  Strawberry season in New Jersey is the bomb.  Don't bother trying to save this kind of thing for Shabbos if you're getting it on Tuesday, unless you're baking it into something that will hold up or freeze well.  Just eat the darn things. Judging by the way my pregnant self snarfed all the blueberries last summer, PM is going to enjoy tasting them when they come in.  But I was a little stupid with the strawberries, dawdled on washing them, and then some ended up wasted by the time I got to them.  Don't repeat that mistake!

• Radishes
• Swiss chard
• Chives
• Romaine lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli
• 2 boxes of strawberries
• A stevia plant

When you get a week's worth of veg like this without getting to choose the items yourself, planning meals can be a real adventure.  Alstede Farms posts the week's take a day or so before I actually get it, which helps me plan ahead a bit, but Tuesday night is when I really try to think things out and decide how to use what.

This week, for example, I'm going to use the tomatoes to make soup,

CSA Week #5: Green Vision

My apologies for the current lack of picture, BSB went off to a conference and took the camera with him.  But here's week 5!

• Butter lettuce
• Red leaf lettuce
• Bok choy
• Swiss chard
• Kohlrabi (an awesome purple one)
• Scallions
• Asparagus
• Parsley
• Strawberries

Kohlrabi was one of last year's pleasant surprises.  A friend introduced me to it in seminary - it's very common in Israeli grocery stores - but BSB had never had it, and it was fun to discover something new that he really enjoyed.  You can make slaw with it, a lot like broccoli slaw, but I actually prefer to just slice and sprinkle with a little sea salt.

At some point in the season, your enthusiasm for dark green leafy things starts to falter.

CSA Week #4: How to Eeet Beets

It's Pesach in May!  Not one but TWO heads of romaine lettuce this week.  Not to harp too much on one thing but dudes, if you think checking romaine lettuce is hard, then you're a lettuce pansy.  Red leaf is darker and curlier.  Romaine is practically flat!  But it's all green and yummy.

You know how when you were taught to check strawberries for bugs (which, FTR, was not a thing that I heard of until I was at least bat mitzvah), you were told that if you cut off the top and there's a hole down the middle, you have to cut the berry in half?  It makes your chocolate-covered ones rather less attractive.  Well, with local-grown in-season berries, that won't be a a problem:

How Crunchy is Crunchy Enough?

Sometimes being crunchy can be exhausting.  I mean mentally, not physically.  If you ever got a look at me, you'd know I was built to toil in the fields, I could use some more physical exhaustion of the crunchy sort.  But navigating the road to crunchiness (or maybe that should be the road of crunchiness?) can be a real pain in the butt.

Even when you pick your battles, or fight them one at a time, I constantly worry "is this enough?"  You saw my post about local vs. organic milk, and there are all kinds of ways of determining which foods are healthiest, but my biggest internal dilemmas seem to involve bath and body products.  I buy shampoo for my kids that's free of parabens, phthalates, and sulfates, but should I be aiming to make my own out of grass clippings and hand-rendered shmaltz*?  My deodorant is aluminum-free and naturally scented, but would I be better off scrubbing my underarms with a chunk of Himalayan rock salt?  

CSA Week 3: More Salad

In this week's box:

• Arugula
• Spinach
• Green leaf lettuce
• Boston lettuce
• Radishes
• Beets
• Scallions
• Chives
• Tomato
• A cilantro plant

Are you intimidated by all the leafy greens yet?  It definitely takes some work, but there are a bunch of reasons why it's worthwhile.

CSA Week 2: Saladocious

I've been boring lately, I know.  I'm just embarking on a new crunchy venture though, so there will be something more interesting in a few weeks.  I think.

Anyway, my second CSA arrived just hours before Shavuos, which meant I was frantically washing greens and putting things away and didn't have a chance to post.  And then I was just lazy all day Friday and didn't bother.  And then I was waiting to try something out but didn't get around to it yet.  This week was a pretty typical early-season box, with lots of yummy salad fixins.

• Arugula
• Spinach
• Red leaf lettuce
• Radishes
• Asparagus
• Chives
• Scallions
• Curly parsley
• Basil plant
• Farm fresh eggs! 

First CSA of the Year!

 'Tis the season folks!  I got my first box o' veg from Alstede Farms yesterday, and it was definitely a good start.  It's sorta hard to tell from the picture, but it contained:

• 3 enormous leeks
• 1 enormous head of red leaf lettuce
• A bunch of radishes
• A bunch of asparagus
• A bunch of scallions
• A bunch of cilantro
• A mint plant in a pot
• A greenhouse tomato

And, best of all,

• A jar of raw local honey!

Ranting About the Issues: Circumcision and Intactivists

One of the biggest issues that comes between Jewish crunchies and the rest of the crunchy universe is circumcision.  Intactivism is a pet cause for a lot of eco-hippie minded people (and others, to be sure), and perhaps more than any other issue, it induces mouth-foaming rage.  I know people who have dropped off of crunchy discussion boards and even lost friends over this one issue.

They say it's mutilation.  They say it's wrong to do it on an unconsenting child.  There have been movements to ban it altogether, and people have been arrested and prosecuted for it in some places.  Luckily none of those efforts have born real fruit yet, but let's not kid ourselves: if it happened to shechita in Switzerland, it can happen to bris milah elsewhere.  Aaaah, galus.

On Milk and Honey (well, sugar)

There's some debate in the crunchy community about the relative benefits of local food vs. organic.  It can be argued that local is better for the environment while organic is better for the body.  Local food should be fresher, and buying it supports the local economy (and often small farmers and other businesses as opposed to megacorporations) while organic items are guaranteed to be "cleaner" from pesticides, artificial hormones, and so on.  Check out some articles that discuss it here and here.

This debate came to a head for me this week as I discovered that a neighborhood supermarket carries "local" milk - it's produced within 275 miles of where it's sold.

Things My Husband/Toddler Eat: Green Chips

So, QE and I had some fun making green chips last week.  Kale chips are the hottest healthy snack going these days, and for good reason - but lots of frum people are put off making their own because curly kale can be a pain to check for bugs.  But one of my CSA newsletters last year mentioned that you can make them with other types of sturdy dark greens, which, it turns out, is the solution to the whole thing.  Collards are as cheap and easy to come by as kale, but the leaves are flat - so rinsing and checking is WAY quicker than with more complicated veg!  They taste more or less the same as kale chips once baked (ie: like salt and garlic), they're just slightly less cute.

Even with reducing wash-and-check time, making green chips is a bit of a drawn out process because you have to put them in a single layer on the pan and watch like a hawk so they don't burn.  But the satisfaction of seeing QE snarf her leafy greens makes it all worthwhile.  (To be honest, if you call anything a chip, she'll eat it). It's a fun afternoon activity around here.  Here's what to do:

• 1 bunch of collard greens (Or kale if you got some in your CSA or feel like dealing with it.  Or chard or mustard greens if you feel like being creative - anything sturdy and green)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Paprika

Um, I don't really measure with this one.  I wash the leaves, cut out the thick spines, and slice/tear what's left into small-ish pieces.  I drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt, and toss them around in the bowl til they're all more or less coated.

Ok, here's the chap: because collards are flat, they can be annoying to lay in a pan and they don't bake quite as nicely as kale.  So what I did the other day, to good effect, is crumple some aluminum foil and put it in the bottom of the pan.  Then I lay the pieces in a single layer over that, allowing some airflow all around.  Bake 'em at 350 for around 10 minutes til crispy, but check frequently.  I'm in the habit of letting them burn.  Remove crispy pieces from pan, add more, and put back in oven.

BSB is lucky if there are any left by the time he gets home.

Post-Paleo Week Roundup: Lessons Learned!

Ok, it wasn't all frustration and cash outflow. Paleo week had some positive outcomes, and it more or less achieved its purpose. If you haven't been following along, I decided to make a crazy drastic change in eating habits because I consumed so much sugary junk over Pesach that I scared myself. I felt pathetic and insatiable.  Paleo seemed like a good way to thoroughly cut out the sugar and unhealthy carbs long enough to maybe get over it, while still being allowed to eat my fill of "approved" foods.

So, limiting myself for the week should have been very upsetting, but it mostly wasn't. I found out that I can get by eating less frequently (I'm a grazer by nature, which is part of my problem to begin with) and a different variety of food choices than I'm used to.

Post Paleo-Week Round-up: Ranty Pants Edition

Here's the whiny version of my post-paleo week feelings; I'll post the more worthwhile ones separately, so you can pick the half-full or half-empty version as you see fit.

Paleo week kind of went out with a kvetch.  Thursday afternoon was one of those crazy ones where one kid was clingy and the other was whiny and there were heaps of unwashed dishes strewn around the kitchen.  So I busted out the hotdogs (and a homemade veggie soup!) for supper.  Hmph.

Then I went to Whole Foods in search of some ingredients for Shabbos.  And I came to the final conclusion: the paleo diet is something dreamed up by bored wealthy gentiles.  It will not work for me/my family.  Healthy and delicious, yes.  Affordable?  Heck no.  And if you don't have a dishwasher or a maid or at the very least two sinks, it ain't happening.

So far so good

Well, it's 2 1/2 days into my "Whole7" and I haven't cheated yet.  Except for an accidental taste of QE's popsicle and licking my fingers while cleaning up from her meals once or twice... but that totally doesn't count.

I made veggie egg muffins for BSB to take in the car for breakfast, but I hate that kind of thing, so I've been experimenting with recipes for "fauxtmeal"

I can't believe I'm doing this...

I'm not the diet kind of person, I'm really more into moderation in all things.  I know people on the vegan end of the food spectrum and people on the paleo end, and I can tell you right now that neither lifestyle is for me. I can't live with the lack of variety inherent in either of those eating extremes.

But the fact is that over Pesach I ate way too much junk, candy specifically, and ended up sort of appalled at myself.  I felt gross, and also felt like I couldn't help eating more and more of it once I got started.  I don't especially like feeling that way, so I'm doing something this week that I've never done before.

I'm going on a diet.

Reusable Stuff: When Washing is Actually the Lazy Option

QE's lunch supplies

Yes, it is easier in general to throw something out rather than deal with washing it.  There are disposable items that will never lose their place in my household: garbage bags, for example.  While I love my bamboo kitchen cloths, I do not see us ever making the switch to "un-paper towels."  And I might be using the occasional cloth diaper wipe right now (can't be bothered to acquire a full set), we will categorically never be  a "family cloth" kind of family.

Sometimes it seems like frum people are obsessed with using as many disposable items around the house as possible: why do you think Amazing Savings is so popular?  But my family is definitely not one and done on everything.

Things My Toddler/Husband Eat: "Obalars"

I know you think your kid is stubborn, but most of you haven't met QE. If that kid doesn't want something, she won't eat it, no matter how many times she's liked it before. In fact, she will convince you that there's pumpkin in the chicken soup, even when she helped make it and knows darn well that there ain't no pumpkin in that there bowl. But if pumpkin is her kryptonite for the day...

On the other hand, BSB is happy to eat pretty much anything I stick in front of him, and has been good about my homemade experiments. He gamely switched to letting me make the bread, and adjusted to my meat-is-usually-too-much-trouble-during-the-week attitude. When I suggested replacing his daily Nature Valley bar with a homemade granola bar, he agreed - as long as I could maintain the supply and not put too much fruit in them.

I discovered Playgroup Granola Bars a while ago, and thanks to QE's adorable baby mispronunciation, my whole extended family now refers to them as "obalars." I fiddled with the original recipe to make it a bit healthier, and then fiddled with it some more when I realized just how versatile it is.

Are frum people less crunchy?

In my opening post I mentioned a few scenarios that frum crunchy folks may have experienced, times when you felt like your crunchy tendencies removed you from the chevra. I kind of dislike talking about cloth diapering because it gets annoying to have to justify it to people who think I'm either insane or just gross. Have you ever actually been sneered at for being the weird hippie? Do people ever act as if caring about the environment makes you more "modern" or less frum? And why is that?

For an awful lot of the Orthodox population, these issues are just not on the radar. People have a lot of kids and their husbands work 3 jobs/learn at night/think dishes are women's work, so they use paper plates ALL the time. If the local kosher supermarket sells anything organic or grassfed or otherwise eco-friendly it's it's way expensive compared to the regular cutlets in the next case. Healthy snacks and lunches are a no-go because people think their kids only want to eat what the other kids are eating.

Eat All the Veg! About CSA...

I'm pretty gung-ho about the CSA thing, since last year was such a big success for my family. It's getting to be the end of the sign-up period in a lot of places, since most start in May, so if you're on the fence about getting a CSA share, read on.

Why am I writing this on a Friday when Shabbos is pretty much unmade? I'm a masochist, clearly. Rega, must run and put pita dough in the bread machine.

For the untutored, getting a CSA share means that you pay a farm a chunk of money to give you a box of food every week. Depending on the place, the amount and variety of fruit and veg can vary, as can the price and whether or not the contents are organic.

Mine comes from Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ, and it's pretty fabulous. They started a payment plan this year so I wouldn't have to pay the whole price up front, and I got an early bird special for signing up in December too. You can see last year's weekly share lists online, which gives you an idea of what to expect over the course of the season. It goes from May to November, which means for half of the year, my Shabbos menus are half-planned for me.

But where did the crunchy come from?

The salesperson at a natural baby gear store once told me that babywearing is like a gateway drug into cloth diapering. I think that's the case with a lot of element of the crunchy lifestyle: trying one thing leads you into considering another.

I grew up with an occasional garden, my father baked bread as a hobby, and we always used a real (unprotected!) tablecloth and proper dishes on Shabbos. I also used my former cloth diapers as doll blankets. But I never really got interested in making specific attempts to live naturally until I was married and running my own home.

I think I did this the wrong way around...

I started a Facebook group on a total whim, and now figured I might as well blog it too.

For a lot of frum people, the elements of living an eco-friendly, natural, etc. lifestyle can seem overwhelming or just irrelevant. When you've got a big family and keep kosher, buying organic and pasture-raised food seems prohibitively expensive. The people around you might be concerned with buying the perfect stroller, but buying the perfect baby carrier is not on the radar. You might gawk at people buying 8 days' worth of disposable utensils so that they don't have to wash dishes on Pesach, but you're the only one at Amazing Savings who thinks it's odd.