CSA June 19

When my mom, Gracie and I picked up the CSA, I first took a picture of the evidence of raspberries.  I feel I must do this to remind me that we do INDEED get raspberries from Sneads.  Like I said in the last post, many don't make it past the Rt. 2 intersection...

1 dozen eggs
1 and 1/2 pints of raspberries
1 bag yellow squash
1 bag of zucchini
2 kohlrobis
2 bunches of kale
2 bunches of beets
2 bags of pickling cucumbers

Gracie ended up not eating her raspberries on the trip home (I'm questioning her maternity) so I made the sacrifice of eating them in a bowl of store brand rice chex.  Sigh.

Joe unplugged himself long enough to volunteer to make Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles

We still had the 'garlic plants' from the CSA a few weeks ago, so I opened one up for him to use - and what amazing thing did we find but not a dozen or so little garlic cloves, but SIX HUGE cloves of garlic!  Instead of crushing them he opted to cut them into bite size pieces so we can have some pickled garlic as well!

These will be ready to eat in about a week!

I relied on a coworker to give me a good, local, VA native greens recipe for the kale.

Here is DeNae's recipe for greens:  Take all the stems off, cut them or tear them, and soak them good so all the dirt goes to the bottom.  Get some smoked meat (either turkey, ham hocks, smoked jowls). Get a big pot and put the meat in the pot with about 2-2/12 cups of chicken broth.  Cook the meat for about 10 minutes then add the greens with salt, pepper, and a table spoon of sugar. Use a minimal amount of liquid and then add more chicken broth if you need to but the less liquid you use, the more flavor the greens will soak up. 

I'll tell you, I used my biggest pot and could barely get the lid on all that kale, but it did cook down fine.  I was able to find smoked jowl and ham hocks both at my local Food Lion, but I opted for the smoked turkey wing.  They were quite yummy, and made enough for me to freeze for a later date.

We got two kohlrabi this week - I needed something different to do with them because I knew no one would be terribly interested in eating them raw with dip again.  So I found this recipe:Kohlrabi and Squash Skillet

I served these veggies up with some grilled kielbasa.  Perfect.

I little side note - when my mom saw the kohlrabi she commented that her parents used to grow those in their garden in Idaho Falls, but she doesn't remember eating them much.  Apparently they make a beautiful flower similar to a sunflower.  My mom also said my grandma would sometimes call them 'call the rabbi' and then to take it further 'call the priest'!  

The eggs we got this week were enormous!

And how surprised we were to find double yolks! In fact, of the dozen eggs we got this week, all but two were double yolks!!!

Aren't they cute? Do you see the elderly couple?

CSA June 12

I had to take a picture of the raspberries right off the bat, because for some reason they don't make it past the light at Rt. 2...

Big goings-on at our house this week.  Company coming in from RI, CT and AZ to celebrate Adrienne's new baby due on July 18.  With all these people coming in I put our CSA to good use!  Mike grilled up some boneless/skinless thighs marinated in adobo seasoning and I put together a veggie smorgasbord:

I sauteed the green beans and some onion in some bacon grease.  

Enough said.

I grilled the squash and fennel with olive oil, salt and pepper and served as is.

The potatoes all got put int a marvelous potato salad with a dill dressing.  The link is here: creamy-dijon-dill-potato-salad

 I picked up some little mozzerella balls and some cherry tomatoes to use some of the basil in a caprese.  The Swiss chard got sauteed and put out, and the peas were in a dish with celery for a crunchy side.  I didn't get pictures of these dishes.

The most important guest at the table commented that everything was delicious!  

(I won't say who that VIP was!)

Once the hooplah died down and the guest bedrooms were empty, I tackled that big head of Chinese cabbage and turned it intoooo....?  KIMCHI!  

I hope.

It has been pickling/fermenting and we will eat it sometime this next week!

CSA June 5

1 pint of sugar snap peas
2 quarts of strawberries
1/2 dozen eggs
10 pints snow peas
4 pounds of zucchini
4 pounds of yellow squash
1 bunch of radishes
4 cucumbers
4 white turnips

This week we've been munching on the peas and cucumbers, and sauteing the squash in olive oil, onion, salt and pepper (our favorite!).  We can tell we're getting close to the end of strawberry season as these were a bit seedier than the last batch (but it didn't slow us down from eating them!)  I've been incorporating the turnips into our mashed potatoes which have given them a nice texture.

But TEN pints of snow peas?  That's a lot of stir fry, and that's all I've ever done with them!  Last year I blanched them and froze them and felt they were a little slimy when I was ready to use them.

This year I just washed and stringed them and measured them into two cup portions and put them in the freezer.  Shared a couple pints with the girls. I have plenty left.  Looking forward to seeing how they fare in the near future!

CSA May 29

2 quarts of strawberries

10 pints of sugar snap peas

2 bunches of beets

1 dozen eggs

2 whole garlic plants 

Again, the strawberries didn't last 24 hours, (ahem, they don't all go in my Chardonnay...), the eggs were absorbed in our breakfasts and the peas were snacked on throughout the week.  The garlic is still in my veggie basket - I'm hoping they will dry like normal garlic bulbs.

The beets though...  

I'd only had beets one other time in my life - in last year's CSA.  This year, like last year, I roasted the beets in the oven for about an hour, pulled off the outer skin, sliced them up and tossed them in butter, salt and pepper.  But this year I also sauteed the greens!  (I'm getting daring in my old age!)  I loosely followed this recipe: Roasted-Beets-and-Sauteed-Beet-Greens 

 I served this with a salad and grilled salmon. It was incredible!  Even my 19 year old son, who is a young man of very few words, commented on how much he enjoyed the beets!  I'll definitely be making this meal again, but I feel the need to pace myself.  I tend to find something new and then serve it too often.  I do believe though that I will serve this before next year's CSA!

CSA May 22

2 bunches of swiss chard

2 heads of green leaf lettuce

2 quarts of strawberries

1/2 dozen eggs

2 pounds of asparagus

4 kohlrabi

2 cucumbers 

2 pints of sugar snap peas

4 garlic scapes

This week's CSA was almost a no-brainer.  Salad with the lettuce and one of the cucumbers, strawberries eaten hand over fist before the sun set, eggs for breakfast and asparagus steamed as a side dish.

I fried some whiting fillets with some Zatarain's Fish Fry, mashed up the rest of the sweet potatoes from the CSA a few weeks ago, and served it along with both bunches of Swiss chard sauteed in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  No leftovers that night...

I peeled the kohlrabi and cut into chunks, stringed the peas and sliced the other cucumber for a pre-meal snack that my husband always seems to need before dinner.  The kohlrabi didn't make much of an impression on anyone - I liked it, but no one would see it at the farmers' market and request it.

The garlic scapes were the big mystery!  I ended up following this link The-crisper-whisperer-what-to-do-with-garlic-scapes-recipe.html to a garlic scape pesto recipe - tossed it with some spaghetti and I was set for a couple of days!