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?