I think I forgot to mention that Eric and I joined a CSA this year. For those not indoctrinated, that means we bought a share in a farm about 2 hours away in Tivoli NY and once a week we go to a local community garden to pick up our allotment of fresh veggies, fruit, eggs and flowers. We also are getting a couple of free range chickens and a half a lamb later in the year through the CSA. Today was the 4th week and the CSA is now in full swing with TONS of fantastic vegetables to choose from. Part of joining a CSA dictates that you need to volunteer for a shift at the distribution site to help the core members supervise the pickup. Today was my volunteer day and it was actually a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of the other CSA members and swap recipes, as well as get a little bit dirty hauling around crates of green, leafy things. It also helped that this is the first nice, sunny day in NYC in about 3 weeks—it was nice to have an excuse to be outside for a couple of hours getting stuff done and meeting new people. Also, as a volunteer we got a take a little bit extra if there were leftovers, which there were tons of. We took the rest and boxed it up for donation to a local church that runs a food bank. So let's break this down: great, extra veggies, doing good for the community, hanging out with cool people, getting stuff done…yeah, there's really no downside!
Another cool thing I'm finding with the CSA is it forces me out of my food comfort zone. I, like most people I assume, have a couple of dozen recipes in my repertoire that mostly rely upon a core group of vegetables that know and like. Even though I might see other veggies in the store and be intrigued, if you don't know what to do with them you usually don't buy them. Well when you join a CSA and get whatever is fresh and good that week you are forced to figure out new recipes and broaden your horizons. It's been a little challenging and takes some extra time but ultimately it's proved to be a lot of fun and has resulted in only yummy dishes thus far.
So here's a photo of my bounty for this week:
So we've got from the top right going clockwise, garlic scapes, baby carrots, mixed greens, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli rabe, sweet Japanese turnips, baby bok choy, green cabbage, farm fresh eggs and our first flower preview bouquet. I took 2 extra squashes and 1 extra bok choy but other than that this is exactly what a full share looks like for the week. Pretty sweet!
Last week I took the garlic scapes and diced them up, sautéed them for a minute with some mixed fresh herbs and then sprinkled them on top of an omelet made with a bit of truffle oil. This week I will probably use them to make a pesto which is what everyone seems to be recommending. They taste like a much milder form of garlic, without the bit, and I thought they reminded me vaguely of asparagus mixed with garlic. The bok choy I will use to make this fantastic chinese style spicy shrimp soup recipe that I found a few weeks ago. The sweet turnips and carrots I will chop up and roast in the oven with some potatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper until they caramelize to make a sort of mixed root vegetable bake. Broccoli rabe is one of my comfort vegetables so I'm sure I'll mix that into some sort of red-sauce, Italian style pasta dish. Maybe I'll try my hand at some stuffed cabbage and a zucchini and summer squash casserole. The possibilities are endless, but I gotta use them all up this week cause next week I'll get another bounty of all new stuff—yay!
Here's a better picture with just the flowers. Let's see how long they survive without the cats eating them.
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