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,
the broccoli will end up a snack or side dish on a weeknight, the lettuce will get used as we go.  But I'm saving the chard for this chicken-and-rice dish for Friday night, and I want to saute the radishes and their greens with some garlic for a side dish as well.  Cooking radishes was one of the unexpectedly awesome lessons I took from last year.  But the real point here is that not making all the choices can be helpful when it comes to meal planning, especially if you're sort of lazy about doing it to begin with.

The stevia plant is a bit of a poser.  I had to use some Google-fu to figure out what to do with it: this happens when you get something that unexpected or unfamiliar, but its part of the fun of a CSA.  Apparently, my options include:

• Drying the leaves and using them to sweeten tea or lemonade
• Adding a fresh leaf to soups or stews in place of sugar (kind of like a bay leaf)
• Homemade stevia extract 

I spoke with a CSA newbie tonight who's at the point of despair, where you really doubt whether it was worth it: you're getting weird amounts of things you're not accustomed to using and it all feels kind of awkward.  But I told her that it'll change soon: in a few weeks the boxes will be full of zucchini and tomatoes and eggplant and peaches, things that are easier to prepare and consume.  כל התחלות קשות!

CSA Tip #6: Don't let the beginning of the growing season get you down: stick it out until July and August, when more ordinary produce ripens, before you try to judge whether or not it's been worthwhile.