Farm share week 6

In this week's box:

• Cucumbers (3)
• Corn on the cob (4, smallish)
• Zucchini (1)
• Yukon Gold taters (7)
• Callaloo
• Raspberries (1 pint)

Last week a friend said he was impressed that I always knew what the leafy greens were in each week's shipment. Generally I'm pretty good at distinguishing kale from chard, etc., but this week I was completely stumped by the bunch of greens we got. I referred back to the weekly newsletter from the farm (PDF), and discovered that it was callaloo. I only knew Callaloo as a literary journal of the African diaspora -- I guess I assumed it was named after some sort of gourd. But no, it's a green. (Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry maintains that callaloo is the dish, rather than the green itself, while the farm calls the green callaloo.)

The corn seems kind of runty -- I got some more robust corn earlier in the week from the supermarket (I know, I know... but it was "local corn" and sometimes you just crave something, you know?).  Will have to see how it compares taste-wise.

No lettuce this week, for the first time (yippity).  The newsletter alludes to the recent hot weather we've been having as not being good for the lettuce crops, which I suppose should make me sad, but, um, just happy to have a respite from salad.

Farm share week 2

Here we are with a new box full of stuff... of course, we haven't finished with last week's box yet, but what's left seems to still be in pretty good condition.

In this week's share:

• Lettuce: 7/8 lb. (At least it's a lot smaller than last week's lettuce.)
• Beet greens: 1 lb. (Attached to runty beets)
• Cabbage: 2 lbs. (This is actually half a cabbage, which is a little weird.)
• Arugula: 0.5 lb.
• Kale: 0.75 lb.
• Cucumber: 1 lb.
• Grape tomatoes: 1 pint
• Blueberries: 1 pint

It's nice to get some variety -- I was afraid we'd be getting a lot more of the same. I added some of the grape tomatoes to a salad leftover from last night and it made a nice change from the tyranny of shredded carrots.

This week's box came with a fantastic sheet of suggestions on what to make with each item, prepared by the folks at Local in Season. The weekly newsletter from the farm usually contains one or two recipes that can be made using veggies in that week's share (here's this week's newsletter). But it's really cool to have just a few simple suggestions for each item. Example for the arugula: "Simple salad -- add goat cheese, pine nuts, and a light dressing. Add to the top of a pizza after it comes out of the oven--pairs well with the grape tomatoes in your share, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Bacon is a nice option as well." Um, sounds good to me!  The sheet also suggests local brands of other ingredients listed, all of which are available at City Feed and Supply, where I pick up my share each week. (Full disclosure: I am City Feed's website admin.) I hope Local in Season continues to produce this sheet each week, because I can see it's going to be hugely helpful to me in figuring out meals.

Salad days

Lunch

I'm working my way up to salad three times a day. The good news is I've lost 2 pounds in the past week...

Ever feel like someone's watching you?

I stored the Yukon Gold potatoes in the pantry, because that's where I always put potatoes (I read in How to Pick a Peach that refrigeration converts the starch in potatoes to sugar, so should be avoided). I usually have no problem with keeping potatoes in the pantry, but I noticed last night that these guys were regarding me beadily with newly formed eyes. They were also starting to get soft. It has been pretty hot here lately; perhaps the "cool, dry place" that the pantry is supposed to be isn't really happening. So, they got chopped up and fried last night in the cast iron skillet. (Along with a farm share carrot.)

In other meal prep news:
Sunday night: My neighbor, coworker, and fellow CSAer Amanda advised that when she gets a lot of salad greens, she makes a salad with grilled chicken and a couple of veggies on top. I decided to make an approximation of the Santa Fe Chicken Salad from our local burrito place -- lots of greens, grilled chicken, shredded carrot and beet (thank you, thrift-store Cuisinart), chopped tomato (from the market, not quite up to par yet), shredded cheese, and some leftover beans and quinoa from a meal earlier in the week. Served with corn on the cob.  It was REALLY good. Sorry, Purple Cactus.

With two days left until the next box of produce arrives, we still have left: a ton of carrots, a whole onion, two beets, a bag of beans, a zucchini, and about half the lettuce/mixed greens. eep.

We're going to need a bigger fridge.

Contents of the first box!

The farm says that a half-share is generally about 10 pounds of stuff per week. They send a newsletter each week that lists everything they're sending out; cautioning that because of different pickup sites and different share sizes, you might not get everything on the list. Here's this week's newsletter (PDF).

Here's what we actually got:

• Potatoes: 1.25 lbs.
• Zucchini: 0.5 lbs. (I never heard it called "summer squash" until I moved to New England)
• Vidalia onion: 0.75 lbs.
• Beets: 1.5 lbs.
• Carrots: 2 lbs.
• Romano beans: 1 lb.
• Mixed salad greens: 0.5 lbs.
• Lettuce: 1.75 lbs.
• Blueberries: 6 oz. pkg.

We started eating the blueberries right away, and they were delicious. I set about putting away all the stuff, using the guidelines in The Joy of Cooking (my go-to vegetable reference; there might be better ones out there, but this is what I rely on) for proper storage of each veg.  I'm hoping that proper storage will lead to greater longevity/less wastage. It turns out I could use an entire refrigerator that's just crisper drawers... If this stuff doesn't get completely eaten each week, we're going to run out of storage space really fast.


Prepared tonight: Salad of lettuce, mixed greens, two carrots, one zucchini. (Tonight's main course used non-CSA ingredients.) We ate half the salad; I hope it'll get finished tomorrow.