This week’s veggies

The CSA veggies for this week:

• potatoes
• tomatoes
• onions
• cucumbers (4)
• zucchini (3)
• lettuce
• green peppers (3)
• watermelon

Which is almost identical to last week’s veggies, except there was eggplant instead of zucchini.  Must do something with that before it turns.

Cooking experiment last weekend:  chunky tomato sauce.  This weekend’s experiment:  something for potatoes, something I can do in the crock pot, rather than on the stove or in the oven.  And something that will use up some onions and green peppers.

Onions everywhere

I have nearly an entire crisper drawer full of onions in my fridge. Plus a bag full of chopped onions in the freezer. Anybody have any good recipes based on onions? Other than French Onion Soup, that is.

Today’s CSA pick up included: 

• onions
• fennel (need recipes for this, too)
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• squash
• kohlrabi
• green peppers
• lettuce

RWA, CSA, etc.

Next year RWA will be held in DC.  While I’m too cheap frugal to pay the insane prices of the hosting hotel, especially since I commute to DC daily, the registration fee isn’t too bad, so (assuming no conflicts) I’ll be attending next year.

Now that I’ve seen George Michael live (as an adult), I totally get popslash, a subset of fanfiction that had previously escaped me. 

Note to self:  8:45am is too late to arrive at the farmers market.  The lines become insane and there are too many people who have apparently never negotiated a crowded space before.  (Yes, please stop in the middle of the way with your stroller and just STAND there gazing around like a doofus.  The people around you love it.)   The meat potpies were gone, leaving only vegetarian ones — not bad, but I was looking forward to the pulled pork pie.  Plus the quarts of strawberry and chocolate milk at my favorite dairy were gone, leaving only half gallons of chocolate.  Not to whine too much, because it’s chocolate milk, yum, but it is hard to consume a half gallon of any kind of milk in a week in my household.  

Because of a conference at work last week, I missed the CSA pick up.  There has been a bit of a soap opera going on because some people who arrive late (including me) aren’t getting the alloted amount.  The general consensus is that outsiders are taking stuff because there’s no control or oversight.  Maybe.  But I wouldn’t assume that people in the group are above taking more than their fair share.  Cynical much, me?

The cucumber plants I planted in a window box?  Are dead.  But the peppermint is growing like crazy, along with the portulaca and yarrow.  Guess what I’ll be planting more of next year.

My cooking adventure this week?  Not really an adventure, just an oldy but goody:  crab soup.  And fruit salad with some peaches that were a little bruised, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries.  I’m back to packing my little obento box for lunch — I missed it last week, when I was eating out with colleagues for lunch and dinner every day.  Sooner or later I’ll buy a camera and start posting the prettier ones, like Lyvvie does.

CSA update

As spring has turned to summer, the produce distributed through my local CSA has changed. The strawberries have evaporated; potatoes and cabbage have become regulars, and less lettuce is included. (There were three or four types in the first bundle of produce, down to one type last week.) Chard is still a mainstay, sadly. Fresh onions, radishes and beets have appeared.

What have I been cooking with all of this produce? Well, let’s see. Vegetable lasagna. Pickled beets. Radish greens soup (very good) along side of steamed radishes (okay, better than raw radishes). Orzo & kale. Sauteed sweet potato greens. Cabbage and potatoes. Fresh cole slaw.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the beet greens – they look so pretty but bleed terribly. And red cabbage – what to do with it? I can only eat and give away so much of the stuff.

What hasn’t appeared? Well, cucumbers, which I adore. Snap peas. Squash and zucchini. So I’ve been getting them from other vendors at the farmers market.

The culinary adventure planned for this weekend: chilled blueberry soup. And attempting to make butter from local milk.

Evolution makes you acquire stuff

There’s a reason that I struggle with my pack rat tendencies, according to this article.

Yesterday’s veggie pick up included: beets, radishes, cabbage, romaine and curly lettuce. I left the chard and collards for the donation bin — still have last week’s bundles of these to cook/freeze/whatever.

Bulging at the seams

My fridge’s vegetable drawers are full to the brim. On Thursday, my CSA pick up included more of the original greens (chard, three types of lettuce, spinach and collards) plus kale. And two pints of strawberries. If I were a more organized person, I’d post a photo of it all…but I’m not, at least not when it comes to taking photos.

The FreshFarms market debuted on Saturday. It is located on Lancaster Street, between Exeter and Central, just one block long. There weren’t many vendors, since it is just getting started. Atwater bakery was there (yum to the zucchini walnut bread), along with One Straw Farm and another CSA/sustainable farm, a flower/plant/herb vendor, and a vendor of free range chicken, beef and other meat. Oh, there was a soap and honey stall, too. And Whole Foods was giving away their hemp (I think?) grocery bags.

Couldn’t resist buying some sugar snap peas, baby squash, cabbage, and little red potatoes.

What to do with this abundance of green stuff? I asked myself when I got home. Well, I made a vegetable lasagne with all of the chard and some other veggies. It’s okay, but a little bland. Needs more seasoning. Probably I’ll be freezing some of this, because even after having guests over for dinner and giving them some leftovers, there’s half a pan of the stuff left.

And I made cole slaw on Sunday.

But still the fridge’s crisper drawers are full. Squash and peas will be involved in dinner this evening, I think. And maybe spinach tomorrow.

Fresh vegetables

The One Straw Farm CSA began this week. My fridge is full of beautiful greens: chard, collards, romaine, curly lettuce, red lettuce and spinach. Dinner last night was a huge, huge salad made with a mix of the greens, seasoned by a homemade dressing. Thank you, Food Network, all of my couch potatoing has paid off, since I knew I could make a light dressing using vinegar, olive oil and mustard.

A pint of strawberries was included in the week’s produce. I haven’t had strawberries that good since I was a child, picking them out of Poppop’s garden. They were incredibly flavorful.

I’m not sure I’ll use all of the greens before next week, though, so I must hunt up some recipes that I can freeze. Anybody have any favorites for chard or collards?