CSA Farm Share 2011: Week 1!!

[surrealestate]

Farm share started last week! Yay! This year we are back with only Parker. I think it's a much better value than Red Fire. RF sometimes has a little more variety, but the amounts are often too small to be useful, plus it's cheaper for me to just buy that stuff at the farmers market if I want it.

• 2 bunches Beets (with greens)
• 2 bunches Cilantro
• 2 bunches Swiss Chard
• 2 bunches Kohlrabi (with greens)
• 2 heads Red Leaf Lettuce
• 2 heads Romaine Lettuce
• 2 bunches (4 heads) Broccoli
• 2 bunches Collards
  = 25 lbs(!)

For some items, it's great to have enough to really do a proper dish with it, but for other items, even a little bit can be too much. (*cough*cilantro*cough*) Anyone want cilantro? Either these or in the future?

Did a nummy saute using the beet and kohlrabi greens, along with some Chinese fake-meat and barbecue sauce and it was so good. Then last night, thanks to M. being over to hold J. so that I could cook while DD finished work, we had stuffed shells! It was my first time making them and I put together a plan based on a mix of recipes I'd seen. I used all the chard, plus a quart of the roasted tomato sauce I made last season (best f'in sauce ever!), as well as basil from the porch. It was SO GOOD!

Right now we're aiming to use up everything in the freezer and get a fresh start, so have been eating a fair bit of tomato sauce since I froze it rather than canning to both avoid having to adulterate its awesomeness by acidulation as well as skip boiling any flavor out. I finally canned the strawberry mash I'd prepared last year from almost two gallons of fruit, yielding a whole bunch of Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper Jam, plus some extra mash that I'm thinking may come to Baitcon. Also canned a big batch of whole berry cranberry sauce. The ton of blackberries will be getting blended to oblivion (cuz damn, I hate those seeds) for use in something frozen at Baitcon and also roll-ups.

Other preserved items that we've used lately have included arugula walnut pesto on pizza along with rehydrated dried tomatoes and eggplant, frozen peppers in various dishes, frozen squash in greens-peanut stew, and various powders and herbs to flavor dishes.

Urban homesteading FTW!

Comments

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in dehydrating more (read: anything other than herbs) this year. Do you use a machine, an oven, a drying rack...?

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I use a machine (a nice one, even). Would be happy to dry-geek at some point. If you want to come by, I can show you an assortment of (non-herb) things I have in the pantry.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Is Wednesday (without Sylvana) or Thursday (with Sylvana) of this week good, or would you rather wait until after Baitcon?

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Good point. I have some things on Wednesday and I'm not sure yet of our end-of-week schedule in terms of getting out to Baitcon, so it might be best to wait until next week.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

We sometimes get a bunch of cilantro from our CSA as well, but if we don't have our own to contend with we'd gladly take yours.
Not this week as we'll be gone from Mon through mid-July though and have to eat all of our greens by Monday!

4 heads of broccoli sounds amazing! We usually get just one or two in September from our CSA :(

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Good to know for the future. Steve really gives us way too much cilantro, but it doesn't bug me too much since at least it's a low-volume item. :)

(He also grows the yummiest broccoli ever. The man is the vegetable whisperer.)

[noire.livejournal.com]

I will happily take any cilantro you don't want! I LOVE cilantro. And my farm share (Brookfield)gives these tiny little sprigs of cilantro that in my universe are barely enough for garnish.

And if you want some cilantro heavy recipes to use up more of it I'll be happy to oblige on that end as well. (I am not a serious Cook so all my recipes are very easy and simple...)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Will you be at the Lefton-Silbers today? We could hand off there...

The problem isn't coming up with recipes that use the cilantro, the problem is eating it. :) Little sprigs for garnish is basically my limit!

[noire.livejournal.com]

We are planning to be there around 5ish or so and I'd be THRILLED and grateful to have your cilantro. (We have spent a lot of time in New Mexico and have come to truly love New Mexican cuisine--which is different from Mexican, actually. And it uses tons of cilantro...)

Oh yum, thank you!!!!

(Also, for future, since we live nearby, if you just want to put it in a bag on your front door I can come by and get it. You'll just have to give me your new address in private email!)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know you're right up the street, but I figured we might both be in the same place at the same time. Will bring them! (And if you're someone who happens to have a stash of plastic bags you can spare, we could use some for future veggies. If not, don't worry about it. I should have asked in the original post.)

[noire.livejournal.com]

See you at the party! We have smallish bags from the Globe subscription--Will try to remember to pack some of those to hand off to you.

And, again, very grateful! We so love cilantro!

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

that is an amazing amount of urban homesteading. very worshipful of your cooking and preserving ability!!