Week 17 Box

This was the last box that we will get this year, the newsletter this week informs me.  It was a little strange in its proportions (for example, the box had one brussell sprout in it) and a lot of it was already of a somewhat-questionable freshness.  Many of the sweet potatoes have already been thrown away because they were already moldy.  What is listed below is what I saved.  It should also be mentioned that the herbs listed here are actually from my mom's garden, so they were in extremely plentiful quantities.

• Carrots
• Garlic bulb
• Sugar pumpkin
• Butternut squash
• Oregano
• Basil
• Thyme

Week 16 Box

Apparently next week we will be box-less, so they really overloaded this week's box. Many of the things listed were in bulk.

• Potatoes
• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Garlic
• Onions
• Edamame
• Green beans
• Rosemary

Week 15 Box

I neglected to pick up the box from the person I share with last week, so you might have noticed that there was no post for what was in the box.  I still had produce from the week before, though, so it was nice to use that up before getting new.  This week, though, I have the box all to myself so I'm going to have to work hard to use up all the stuff.  Fingers crossed.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Garlic
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Thyme

Week 13 Box

I didn't do a great job with using last week's box, so this week the goal is to get it gone before another box shows up. We'll see how that goes.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Onion
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Okra
• Green peppers
• Sage
• Thyme
• Tarragon
  

Week 12 Box

With all of the flooding that we have had around here, we received a notice in our box that the selection and quality of the vegetables might be effected.  I'm hoping that I'll still be able to continue to have enough each week to do the CSA portion of the blog.  Time will tell.

• Kale
• Yellow squash
• Garlic
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Red pepper
• Watermelon
• Potatoes
• Leeks
• Honey
• Basil

Week 11 Box

The city I live in flooded pretty badly this last week, so there has been a lot of distractions around here.  I was actually surprised that our box came on time and full this week.  At the moment, we have all the roads open here and have no restrictions on using water--earlier this week we were limiting to a bare minimum--but we are still boiling everything used for washing dishes and in or on food.  Hopefully it's all over soon.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Green beans (from the CSA and my mom)
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Okra
• Jalapeno pepper
• Leeks
• Savory

Week 10 Box

I've been sick the past few days, so you might notice that the entries have less of a description of what the food tastes like.  Mostly I have been tasting metallic, so I don't really feel comfortable talking about how things taste.  The vegetables in the box this week look really good, though.

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Okra
• Zucchini
• Grape tomatoes (those are from my bushes)
• Sage
• Basil

Week 9 Box

The greens were back in our box this week, so the farm must be recovering from the storm of a couple of weeks ago.  It is still really wet, though, which I have heard from others in the area is taking a real toll on root vegetables and bulb plants.  Our onions have been tasty but very small, which is also how the potatoes have been.  I was awfully excited for the okra this week.

• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Onion
• Okra
• Eggplant
• Cucumber
• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Tomatoes (these were actually from a coworker)
• Rosemary

Week 8 Box

A massive storm hit here last Saturday, which caused some tree damage in my neighborhood and apparently caused a fair amount of damage to the crops at the CSA farm.  No greens this week, but the farm people seem optimistic they will spring back.  It has, overall, been exceptionally wet here this summer.  I hear this has been hard on potatoes and onions, which have so far been appearing in my box but not in great numbers.  It's still enough to work with, though.

• Onions
• Green beans
• Cucumbers
• Yellow squash (a very particular kind called Sunburst scallopini, though it cooks like regular)
• Garlic
• Beets
• Potatoes

Week 7 Box

The root vegetables are starting to show up in my box now.  Weird thing is that a lot of the root vegetables, like beets, that were in this box showed up in June last week.  The box here might seem sort of herb-heavy, but that's because those actually came from my mom's garden.  The herbs will likely be featured in a number of recipes this week.  Pesto has already been made.

• Cabbage (purple)
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Beets
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Oregano
• Basil
• Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Rosemary

Week 6 Box

More summer vegetables are appearing now in the box, which I appreciate.  I was especially excited to see the herb of the week, since it's an easy one to use up quickly.

• Garlic
• Onions
• Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Potatoes
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Beets
• Basil

Week 5 Box

There was a warning on our box this week that all veggies should be checked for green caterpillars.  Boy were they right.  Probably because of these critters, I sense that this will be the last week for lettuce.  I had to be particularly careful about making that into salad.

• Lettuce
• Greens (chard and kale now)
• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Onions
• Radishes
• Rosemary

Week 4 Box

We are starting to get what our CSA refers to as "3D" vegetables.  Not leaves, seems to be the idea.  Either way, it is always nice to get something different.  Though, I can't lie, I do miss the spinach when it is gone.

• Broccoli
• Cabbage (green)
• Collard greens
• Garlic
• Savory

Week 3 Box

The amounts in this week's box were of a more-manageable size, which I appreciate. It has been extremely hot and humid here, so I would think the summer vegetables are growing early and the late-spring ones are probably dying early.  It also means that this week's box contained a lot of herbs.  Using those will be a special challenge.

• Spinach (smaller quantity)
• Snap peas
• Lettuce
• Collard greens
• Sage
• Dill
• Thyme
• Oregano

Week 2 Box

Second CSA box of the year has arrived!  Our CSA is delivered on Fridays, so some weeks it might take me a bit to actually post what is in the box.  The contents of the boxes follow a slow evolution, so many of these items will be repeats from last week.

• Spinach (bigger leaves this week, really only good for cooking)
• Spinach (smaller leaves, courtesy of my mom's garden, for salads)
• Turnips
• Garlic scapes
• Collard greens
• Snap peas
• Snow peas
• Mint
• Cilantro

Introduction to CSA 2010

I am a bit late posting on Week 1, but I will attempt to catch you up.  First, a note about the structure here.

Since I receive one CSA box a week (for the record, on Fridays), I plan to update on Fridays with what the box contains.  As I make meals out of the produce I receive, then,  I will post pictures and recipes.  The posts with meal pictures and recipes will be labeled with whatever I used from the CSA box.  The idea is that if you have a bunch of, say, tatsoi but have no idea what to do with it, you can find it in the labels and bring up the meal I made with tatsoi.

For the record, my mom also keeps an organic garden which she overplanted this year, so her stuff might appear on here as well.  My parents live on land that has wild black raspberries and gooseberries, as well as cultivated blueberries, so a lot of pictures and recipes for these objects might appear on here as well.  Consider yourself warned, the black raspberry images might be overwhelming; last year we picked 14 gallons of the little buggers.

I also love love love baking and making up baking recipes, so those might be thrown in.  Those will be labeled with something like baking: cookies and also be searchable.  I sometimes like to make cupcakes based on cocktails as well, which will be labeled with the term Drunken Cupcakes.

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  OK, here we go.

CSA Season has begun!

Since I live in the upper midwest, spring and it's accompanying fresh produce comes slowly. During the winter, after months of only frozen vegetables, fresh produce that has traveled about 5 miles to my door sounds pretty good. Our Community Supported Agriculture group right outside town started delivering last week and the scramble has begun to figure out new and different things to do with local organic produce.

Last week's collard greens were pretty much just chopped, boiled, and then sauteed with bacon. Spinach became a pasta dish with grilled salmon and a lemon-sour-cream-dill sauce. The radishes I never did figure out anything to do with it. Tonight is a whole new box of veggies--I am already anticipating more spinach and searching my mind for recipes--so I'll keep you posted!