CSA 2012 Week 8

Very darkly skinned blue potatoes. They are less shocking on the inside, though still quite distinctly blue. Assorted sweet peppers. No specific plans here, which means we are probably in trouble since peppers tend to come in landslides. Our first tomatoes of the year are these cherry tomatoes. These ones will be getting roasted along with the potatoes for a salad. Not finding the recipe online oddly, though I feel like that's where it came from in the first place. A bunch of greens, which we have declared to be mustard greens. Going with the old standby of winter green pizza, along with some of the chard from the garden. Kohlrabi got honey-buttered.

More glorious corn! Part of this will get banked, and part will get made into a side with leeks. Oh man, I go and shoot my mouth off about being done with cucumbers and what do we get a huge new batch of? That's right. These are pickle-shaped, so I will probably either do another batch of the ones we tried this year (which were fairly traditional) or attempt another batch of Science Pickles. Sweet onions Oh okra. We have found a recipe that I like for this (cut it, salt it, roast it) but Mary's still not entirely on board. Also, I need to prep it when she's not looking, because it really is a horror show inside those pods with their sticky oozing goo.

CSA 2012 Week 7

Despite the weather, the CSA carries on. Not too much exciting to report from last week. I did make a double batch of my mojito cucumber sorbet, and it came out well. I think I may fiddle with the portions a bit more, see if some extra rum smooths it out more. Still, it's not rock hard so that's a step in the right direction.

We are very excited because it's corn season! Corn and tomatoes are two clear favorites when it comes to veggies, so we are always overjoyed when they appear. We made corn and tomato pie with some and froze some for later. Onions A small head of orange cauliflower and a small head of romesco cauliflower. Both got roasted and dressed with brown butter. Garlic

We appear to be on the comedown from cucumbers at this point. We got one english (seedless) and two of the more normal variety. The assorted baby squash is very assorted this time around. Not sure what we'll do with this batch just yet. We don't love eggplant, but we've found a few recipes that we like. This got grilled with some zucchini and dressed with goat cheese and a balsamic reduction. Oh cabbage, my vegetable nemesis. We used this for a recipe that we call "Polish Grandmother Stuffed Cabbage". And, as always, potatoes.

CSA 2012 Week 6

Week six, and things are going well. We aren't feeling too terribly far behind on anything, and we're getting a nice mix. The weather continues to be insanely hot and dry, and I wonder what things will look like later in the season. It seems like everything has been pushed forward by several weeks, so what will we see come late august? Good thing we like cooking greens and winter squash, I guess.

Holy cucumbers! We are pulling out the stops and making a double batch of sorbet with these, as well as a few other dishes. I am also making pickles with the cukes from last week, so it will be a very cucumbery weekend. Four tiny little baby artichokes. No idea what we'll do with this few. We may just prep 'em and freeze 'em. Fingerling potatoes. We are actually keeping up with potatoes so well that we had to buy some last week. Madness! We think that this is a gigantic white beet and are moving forward on that assumption. Most root veggies are somewhat interchangeable, and they are all good roasted (as this guy is fated for) so if we're wrong it won't be the end of the world. This is sprigariello which is a sort of broccoli-flavored winter green.

Green beans A giant pile of zucchini. We totally remember not getting much zucchini last year, but apparently we were very wrong. No worries, we are baking up another batch of zucchini bread and have a zillion sides that take it. Red onions We get kohlrabi rarely enough that we pretty much always make the same dish with it. Eh, when you find something you like, why not stick with it? This basil will go into our chicken with basil and peaches, which is just so very much better than its name leads you to think it will be. Carrots

CSA 2012 Week 5

We missed week four due to travel, and a friend picked up the share. It's always interesting to hear other people's experiences with the CSA. We have been doing it so long that we're old pros, but talking to newer folks brings us right back to how it was to start.

Three heads of garlic including one gigantic one. Mixed baby squash, which appears to be mostly pattypan. We have a great recipe with feta and basil for this. Arugula A really oddly shaped head of green cabbage is destined to be slawed A huge bag of pickling cucumbers. I am not sure what we'll do with these suckers. I may take a stab at vaccuum pickles again, or I may make sorbet. We'll see how the week goes.

Broccoli Kale Onions These green beans are to be wed to bacon for a new dish. Lucky ducks. More new potatoes. We are already falling behind on potatoes, so we'll need to get cracking on those soon.

CSA 2012 Week 3

Broccoli These fava beans got shelled and frozen, to be dealt with later. They actually need to be shelled twice, since there is a tough membrane around the beans themselves. Last time, we did that via cooking, though in theory freezing will do the same. We'll know how that works when we get around to using them. The first new potatoes of the year. Not the last. This purple kale ended up getting sacrificed to the busy-week-before-a-week-out-of-town gods. They are mighty. Spring onions

Purple carrots We found a great hot and spicy slaw for this napa cabbage. Of course, that only used half this giant head, but baby steps. Beets with greens (which we used, this time.) Zucchini Garlic scapes will go into a garlic lover's rub for grilled chicken.

CSA 2012 Week 2

More potatoes carried over from the previous year, these were blue on the inside. Golden beets with huge greens. We've taken to using the beet greens in general, though I am pretty sure this batch got binned. Kale Spinach This is what actual baby carrots look like. I am sure we should be gaga over these and do somethin' fancy, but we always just treat them like normal carrots. I think they went into salads. There is actually a small bunch of cilantro hiding in here, like a spicy vegetal Waldo.

This green garlic was pretty much proper garlic at this point. It had very well formed cloves, and a noticeably woody stem. Crazy weather. Turnips Leeks Red spring onions These english peas got shelled, frozen, and the made into a great pasta this week. Red leaf lettuce

CSA 2012 Week 1 (finally)

Boy I had big plans to actually be on top of things this year. I was going to be get these posts out quickly, link recipes, the works! Yeah, not so much. Life has been very busy lately, so here I am five weeks in and totally behind. I am going to do a quick dump to where we are now, then hopefully be better about keeping up going forward. We are doing Nichols Farm again this year, which is the one we did last year. We did nix the fruit share, and have been buying what we want (i.e. not 100 pounds of apples) at the Farmer's Market. With the weather being so bonkers this year, it's a bit of a mystery what we'll be getting when, so it's like a whole new adventure!

Green onions Snap peas Arugula Red beets Mizuna is a fancy looking, slightly bitter salad green. We planed our own lettuce this year in a fit of madness, so we started out behind the eightball on salads. Potatoes which they store year to year (new potatoes come later.)

Kohlrabi We really don't recall them sending much Lettuce last year, but this time we got it right away. Spinach We have fully embraced the cooking of radishes. It cuts their heat a bit and makes them taste a bit more like a turnip. Green garlic