For a while now, I have been interested in taking advantage of all of
the wonderful, delicious, locally grown produce that is available to us
living here in East TN. There are several local farms that over a crop
share for a fee where you are guaranteed fresh, organic fruits and
vegetables available for pick up every week. Jonathan and I did some
talking and a bit of research and decided that we would give it a try.
Doing the math, it broke down to a reasonable amount of money each week
and guaranteed us fresh, seasonal food that was also organic.
Our
first harvest from the CSA (crop share) that we joined arrived last
Thursday. We decided to take on this endeavor with some friends of
ours, the Slagers, so we are actually sharing a large "box" each week.
Mia Slager and I take the time to divide the spoils each week and also
share ideas on how to cook and prepare each thing. It's only been a bit
over a week, but we are already loving it.
Look at all of the stuff we got last week at our first pick-up:
Isn't
this a ton of food!? Now, keep in mind that this is the entire large
share that Mia and I split. But even after we split it, we had tons of
fresh produce. This first week included fresh strawberries, two heads
of cauliflower, two heads of broccoli, radishes, garlic, leafy green
lettuce, romaine lettuce, and Swiss chard.
Things
I learned from my first week: When Mia brought the food over, we
washed everything quickly and divided up the food. I found out through
the course of the week that some of the lettuce did not get washed well
enough. So, last night after we got our second week's worth of food, I
washed everything very closely. I took every piece of fresh lettuce and
washed it well, removing all dirt. This will hopefully diminish our
loss of food and will keep any little creatures from living and eating
off of our veggies before we consume them. (I did find a little
caterpillar that had fattened up on my broccoli last week).
Cauliflower:
When it came to cooking the cauliflower, I followed a recipe that my
mother-in-law suggested. It's so simple. Basically, you cut the stalks
of the cauliflower a bit shorter than usual. You want mostly the tops
off. I tossed it in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it
on a lined baking sheet at 350 until the cauliflower was pretty brown.
It wasn't just tender, it was browned. The flowerettes crisped up and
actually seemed to take on an entirely new flavor as they carmelized in
the olive oil. Delicious! Our kids tried it because Jonathan and I
were raving about how delicious it was.
These
berries were so ripe and so sweet that they made the strawberries I
typically by at the grocery seem terrible. I must confess that only I
enjoyed these berries. The kids were sleeping over at the grandparents'
house, and I couldn't stop eating them. They were gone before I went
to bed that first night!
These were the largest radishes I have ever seen!
This
is how I wash and dry the lettuce before storing them in the fridge.
This way I hope to get the longest life out of them! I wrap the
lettuces in paper towel to absorb any excess water after washing them
and store them in Ziploc bags. It seemed to work pretty well this first
week.
As far as other things I did with the produce,
we made taco salads on Memorial Day with the lettuce and I gave my
radishes to my in-laws. I am not a fan! I still have the Swiss chard
which I am going to sautee this weekend to have it wilt with some olive
oil in a skillet.
I do want to show you a picture of the produce I received yesterday for our second week.
This
is a picture off of my phone, so the quality isn't that great. This is
just my portion, but as you can see, it's a ton of food. We received a
huge head of cabbage (which I cut in half for Mia and I), another huge
head of romaine lettuce, a head of red bibb lettuce (I think), fresh
spinach, strawberries, and some squash and garlic. I hope to make some
yummy stuff this week including some chicken lettuce wraps! Also, I may
experiment with making a green smoothie with my fresh spinach, but if
not, I'll just wilt it as a side-dish for dinner one night this week.
I
am loving this food challenge! I really love to cook and having access
to these wonderful foods is not only beneficial to our health, but it
is pushing me to cook more and to cook healthfully. Our kids are open
to trying new things more than they ever have before. I hope that this
experience continues to benefit us and broadens our horizons a bit! So
far, it is really fun and really tasty!
I will do my
best to document some of our food and how things are going with the
CSA. I won't even try to plan for a weekly post because--as we all
know--I won't be able to keep up with that. We have lots of busy weeks
ahead, so I will try my hardest! Do any of you participate? If so, I'd
love to follow along on your journey and find out what you are doing
with your food. I love new recipes!
.JPG)
