Farm share week 25

In this week's box:

• Turnip: 1.25 lbs
• Butternut squash: 3.25 lbs
• Green beans: 2 lbs
• Russet potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Carrots: 2.25 lbs
• Onions: 3.75 lbs
• Cranberries: 0.5 lb
• Mixed herbs: 0.1 lb

You can definitely tell that an effort was made this week to include items traditionally served at Thanksgiving, as indicated in this week's newsletter (PDF). Although I'm not aware of any dish that calls for 15 onions... Fortunately we're hosting dinner here this year, so I'll be able to use a bunch of this stuff.  For those keeping score at home, I now have 9 squashes in the refrigerator. However, hope is on the horizon -- we hear from our friends that they go through a squash a day at their house because their 1-year-old loves it, so I think they may be getting a Thanksgiving gift from us soon.

This is the last week of the farm share! But I'm planning to write a "reflections" post after Thanksgiving to sum everything up, so this isn't the end of the blog.

Potato-cabbage-kale soup

 

After I unpacked this week's box, I had a hard time getting everything into the fridge because there were so many damn potatoes in there. I love potato-leek soup, but didn't have any leeks. What I did have was a head of savoy cabbage and a bunch of kale that were on their last legs, so Internet recipes to the rescue!

After peeling about 20 potatoes (Carl asked me if I felt like a serf), I started out making colcannon (traditional Irish side dish of mashed potatoes with cabbage) but then realized that perhaps having JUST mashed potatoes for dinner might not be so nutritious.  So, I modified this recipe as follows in order to make a soup: I didn't drain the liquid after cooking the cabbage (and kale - just threw it in there with the cabbage); I put about half of the potatoes, greens, and sauteed onions in the food processor, then added it back into the cooking pot with the rest of the potatoes, greens, and onions. Oh, I also had some parsnips to use so I chopped those up and cooked with the potatoes - yum yum!

In retrospect, I would have used stock to cook the potatoes and greens in instead of water, as that would have made the soup more flavorful (one of the pitfalls of changing intentions halfway through cooking). I made a huge quantity so we could have some for another dinner later in the week -- probably at least twice the proportions of the original recipe.

Farm share week 24

In this week's box:

• Acorn squash: 1.5 lbs
• Wheat berries: 2 lbs
• Golden beet: 0.75 lb
• Cabbage: 1.75 lbs
• Collard greens: 0.75 lb
• Cucumber: 0.75 lb
• Apples: 1.5 lbs
• Carrots: 2.75 lbs
• Potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Grape tomatoes: 1 pt

 Rats, I got another bag of wheat berries and I haven't used any of the bag I got over the summer! Time to start making some grain-based salads...

The inclusion of an avocado in last week's share, and the cucumber and grape tomatoes in this week's share, indicates that once again the farm is supplementing what it produces with produce obtained through exchange with farms further south. And there's only one week left in the farm share! After next week, a winter-spring program starts up, but I decided not to participate in that (it's a lot more money, and to be honest I'm looking forward to having a break from the constant onslaught of vegetables!). See this week's newsletter (PDF) for more details on the winter-spring program.

Starting to have a bit of a situation here with carrots and squash -- I'm now up to 7 squashes in the fridge (2 butternut and 5 acorn), and at least 5 pounds of carrots. I had to make an additional "crisper" out of a large tupperware to store all the carrots. Fortunately both carrots and squash last for quite a while in the fridge...

Farm share week 23

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 2 lbs
• Butternut squash: 3.75 lbs
• Avocado: 1 lb
• Turnip: 0.75 lb
• Lettuce: 1 lb
• Bok choi: 1 lb
• Chard: 1 lb
• Celeriac: 0.5 lb
• Parsley: 0.25 lb

Well, I can see now why the bok choi we had been getting was referred to as "baby bok choi," because this guy is enormous compared to them. But the butternut squashes are scaled down this week -- each about half as big as the ones we got a few weeks ago. Speaking of butternut squash, I made a great curried squash soup last week that was a big hit here among people who don't like squash. Here's the recipe.

The thing in the middle that looks like a pineapple gone wrong is celeriac, or celery root. I had seen it listed on this week's newsletter (PDF) but had forgotten and was like, what the hell is this thing? The top of it does actually smell like celery. I think a person is supposed to cut it up and roast it with other root vegetables.

No apples this week, bummer, although an avocado is a nice treat (it's via the East Coast produce sharing program that my farm belongs to). I wish they'd stop sending parsley every week or so -- how much parsley can a person eat, I ask you?

Farm share week 22

In this week's box:

• Apples: 1.75 lbs
• Bok choi: 0.75 lb
• Turnips: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 3 lbs
• White potatoes: 1.75 lbs
• Parsnips: 1 lb
• Onion: 0.5 lb
• Kale: 0.5 lb

Well, this is certainly an autumnal selection of vegetables... Those things that look like a cross between a beet and a rutabaga are apparently "scarlet turnips," according to this week's newsletter (PDF). Growing up in Florida, I never once ate turnips or parsnips (to the best of my knowledge), and here they've been things I might have been served at a restaurant but I've never cooked them myself.  Happy to get some more sweet potatoes, although one of them is the size of my finger (!).

And, this week's apple variety is Macoun. :)

Farm share week 21

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 1.5 lbs
• Acorn squash: 1 lb
• Onions: 1.25 lbs
• Beets: 1.5 lbs
• Red leaf lettuce: 0.5 lb
• Napa cabbage: 1.75 lbs
• Collard greens: 1 lb
• Apples 2.75 lbs
• Parsley: 0.5

The red leaf lettuce is actually two junior-sized heads in one bag... cute and the perfect size to make a salad for two people. I love it! I wish all lettuce was small. According to this week's newsletter (PDF), it's "heirloom mini lettuce," hee. And the thing that looks like romaine lettuce is actually Napa cabbage.

The apples are Mutsu, which is a variety I learned about last year at the orchard where we picked apples -- the attendant suggested we try them. They're like Granny Smiths but without such a tough skin.

Farm share week 20

In this week's box:

• Squash: 1.75 lbs
• Sweet potatoes: 1.5 lbs
• Daikon: 1 lb
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Potatoes: 0.75 lb
• Bok choi: 1 lb
• Kale: 0.75 lb
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb
• Arugula: 0.5 lb
• Onions: 1 lb
• Green pepper: 0.25 lb

This week's squash is Kabocha, according to the newsletter (PDF). I made a curry out of one of the butternut squashes this week; neither of us really liked it, though -- Carl because it was too squashy, me because it didn't have enough flavor or variety (it was just a lot of squash, with some tofu).  If I make it again, I think I would halve the amount of squash and add potatoes or something else to give it some variety (I did add some broccoli, though).  And the amount of red curry paste called for in the recipe is woefully inadequate, even for me, who orders everything "mild" at Indian restaurants.

Interesting to get a piece of daikon radish before (that's the white thing in the bag on the left).  I've seen them whole before in Asian grocery stores, but not sure if I've ever eaten daikon before. And really happy to get sweet potatoes -- those are basically a staple of my diet, but I haven't been buying them in the store since we have so many white potatoes to get through. It'll be good to have sweet potatoes back in the mix again.

Farm share week 19

In this week's box:

• Butternut squash: 2.75 lbs
• Broccoli: 0.75 lb
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Leeks: 1 lb
• Potatoes: 3 lbs
• Kale: 0.5 lb
• Arugula: 0.5 lb
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb

Now that the weather is cooling down, we seem to be getting lettuce every week again. I guess salad season is back! As mentioned in this week's newsletter (PDF), broccoli is also a cool-weather crop -- we didn't get too much of it this week, but I hope we'll get more in future shipments.

MORE potatoes! It's like the potato famine in reverse here. But, more leeks! So, more potato leek sooop... I now have two butternut squashes plus the two acorn squashes to do something with. Carl doesn't like squash, so this may be a challenge. Maybe squash soup would be tolerable?

Farm share week 18

In this week's box:

• Carrots: 2.5 lbs
• Apples: 2 lbs
• Squash: 2.25 lbs
• Cabbage: 2.75 lbs
• Potatoes: 2 lbs
• Beets and greens: 1.25 lbs
• Lettuce: 0.75 lb
• Dandelion greens: 0.5 lb
• Parsley: 0.5 lb

It seems like we get a different variety of apples each week, which is great. According to this week's newsletter (PDF), these are Honey Crisp. And this week's squash is Acorn.

More potatoes, more carrots... fortunately they last forever in the fridge. I've never had dandelion greens, but am looking forward to trying them.

Potato leek soup

Since I could basically start my own root cellar right now with the number of potatoes I've got stockpiled in the fridge, I decided to make some of them into soup. I'd also gotten some leeks in the past week's box, so thought potato leek soup would be a good option (thanks to Amanda for the suggestion!).

One of the great things about getting recipes from the Internet is you can basically keep browsing until you find a recipe that calls only for the things that you have on hand and not for things you don't have. A lot of potato leek soup recipes include cream, which I didn't have at the time (not something I tend to keep on hand). A lot of them also called for only using one leek, and I had three. So, I kept browsing the Google results until I found a recipe that called for three leeks and no cream!  Here it is: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/potato_leek_soup/.  (I also didn't have any marjoram or thyme, but I never let the lack of certain herbs stop me from making something... I just throw in whatever I have at the time.)  The soup was delicious, so much so that we ended up having the leftovers later the very same evening...