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:

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!

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.