.jpg)
Our CSA has begun, and I am psyched! We got an email a week ago from Stone Soup cautioning that early shares are "light and leafy" and it is. We have a half share and this week we got a head of bok choi, a stalk of green garlic, a teensy head of broccoli, 1/2 a pound of salad greens, and a bunch of kale. I got excited about the kale and sliced it up for a raw kale salad (more on that at a later date) before I photographed the haul. Full shares got 2 stalks of green garlic, spinach and turnips, too.
I've got plans for the bok choi, broccoli and garlic tomorrow, and I'm sure we'll be eating salad all weekend.
Are you part of a CSA? Has it started yet? What did you get this week? And what are you most looking forward to this summer?
Teeny little broccoli! It all looks great, though! And the surprise is at least half the fun.
ReplyDeletehoney, what on EARTH is a CSA??? some kind of co-op community project? that being said, must tell you that we have tons of that fresh garlic in turkey, and it's much more mild than the dried variety. we eat it here several ways. raw, sliced, and sprinkled with salt. finely chopped and incorporated into a thick natural (unsweetened) yogurt which is then used as a sauce for a meat-based ravioli or accompanies steamed veggies (like broccoli, sauteed spinach, etc), and is delicious when used in other uncooked foods such as gazpacho, salsa, etc :-) broccoli is usually steamed, and then drizzled in a lemon-garlic-olive oil-salt dressing. lots of lemon. lots of garlic.
ReplyDeleteenjoy all your fresh greens! they look gorgeous :-D
Regina! Thanks for reminding me, I totally meant to link to the wiki page on CSA but it stands for Community Supported Agrigulture. In short you give a farm the money up front, then you get a weekly share of veggies for the growing season, and what's in the share depends on what's fresh and ripe that week. We did one last year, but I didnt' blog about it, and it turned out that I didn't like that farm very much, but friends have used Stone Soup in the past so I have high hopes :)
ReplyDeleteAs for fresh garlic, dude, it is so good. I made aioli last week (I bought some fresh garlic at the farmer's market before I knew we'd be getting any) and it was mild and perfect. I like the idea of adding it to gazpacho and salsa, I often find mature raw garlic to be too harsh for my tastes.
We got a quarter share meat CSA at Stillman Farms. It's starting next month. I'm really excited about it. Hopefully we'll be able to just eat those 5lbs of meat/month and not buy any more. :)
ReplyDeleteElina, I've looked into that meat share and been on the verge of getting it several times, but Adam doesn't eat pork and I worried that we'd be giving away half the share, which isn't really cost effective... Will you be documenting what you get? I'm really curious!
ReplyDeleteYay for CSA season! We had Red Fire Farms last year, which was awesome, and this season we have a small Enterprise Farms share for our fruit & veg and a Chestnut Farms meat share. If you don't do pork, you might consider their meat CSA as they do beef, chicken, pork, & lamb. They also do goats and rabbit, but they are generally last-minute pick up items. Info is here, and the meat is outstanding. http://www.chestnutfarms.org/ They often have a wait-list, too, so if you find that to be the case, get on it, but ask around? Lots of folks share out large shares among more than one family.
ReplyDeleteIf you want more detailed info what we get, etc, feel free to email to obsessiondujour at gmail dot com - making necessary edits of course.
p.s. oops. Also of note is that Chestnut also does 'no pork' shares.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in a CSA.. but I've really been considering joining one.
ReplyDeleteHmm.. you might have just convinced me :)
Obsession - wow, that Chestnut Farms meat CSA sounds great. I'd be all over it if we had a car, but none of the pickup sites are easily accessible by public transit. I'll poll some friends and see if anyone else is interested. Really, thank you so much for the tip on this one!
ReplyDeleteLaken, I find it really rewarding: we eat more veggies, we support a local farm, and the veg is usually spectacular. That said, last year was not a good growing year here in the northeast, and combined with a poorly-run farm (not the same as this year) it was pretty frustrating. If you like greens a lot and are an adventurous cook/eater, I'd go for it in a heartbeat.