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Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 1

Nov 032011

Today was the first winter pick up for our Fresh Fork CSA. Generally, we’ll be picking up every other week, but the first few pick ups are off schedule due to the upcoming holidays.

We are still picking up at Beachwood High School on Thursdays. The pick up times are a tighter with our pick up scheduled between 4PM and 6PM. We still have the option of picking up in Cleveland Heights later if we ever get in a jam.

Thursday is our extra busy day since Nick has a swim lesson at 4:30PM. It’s conveniently just down the street from Beachwood High School, so we just picked up our CSA on our way home.

For the winter CSA, there is not an option for small, large, vegetarian or vegan. Everyone gets the same package.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 Boston Butt Roast, 5-6 lbs.
1 bunch cylindra beets with tops
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 head cauliflower
2-3 green peppers
8 oz. mixed salad greens
2 bulbs hardneck garlic
2 ct. seasoned pizza dough balls
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese

Here’s a group shot:

We had our choice between a boneless or bone-in roast. We chose the bone-in. It came frozen and will become pulled pork in a couple of weeks. I saw an appetizer that used shredded pork in a wonton wrapper that I would like to try. I just need to find whole wheat wrappers or make my own.

We haven’t had Harvard beets for a few weeks. So, these will go into that dish.

I’m thinking we might be having delicious pizza this week. We got green peppers, spinach, fresh mozzarella, garlic (1 large bulb), and bread dough. The spinach was a “veggie choice” selection. Instead of the tomatoes, we got to pick between spinach, onions, potatoes or tomatoes. I love the spinach!

The mixed greens aren’t my favorite, but I know they are good for us. They’ll go well with the pizza. We haven’t had cauliflower lately and it’s a family favorite, so it will make a nice side dish over the next couple of days.

Extra are still available at the back of the truck. We picked up another yogurt ($5). I haven’t decided how much we really use in a week, but it’s more than one. Also, my banana bread recipe uses it and I feel like baking soon. This winter, I want to try making my own yogurt, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get away from buying it.

The winter CSA is a bit more low key than in the summer and we didn’t have any line when we arrived just before 5:30PM. I hope that trend continues as it starts to snow soon!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 22–The Final 2011 Summer Week

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Oct 282011

Yesterday, we picked up week 22 of the summer Fresh Fork CSA. It was the last pick up. I’m glad that the winter CSA starts next week. We received a few higher dollar items, so we didn’t have as many different things. That was fine with me.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

Small CSA:

1 pack of Berkshire pork chops, center cut and boneless. Approx. 1 to 1.25 lbs.
1 quart farmstead yogurt
8 oz. aged cheddar cheese, pepper Havarti ,or Havarti cheese
1 head Napa cabbage
1 quarter peck Jonagold apples
1 bag of mixed salad/braising greens
2 count butternut squash

Here’s a group shot:

The Berkshire pork chops are one of our favorite items from Fresh Fork. We’ll bake them in the oven with spices and apples for a yummy dinner.

I’ve only had Napa cabbage one other time. I’m not sure what fate it will have. Spaghetti squash was substituted for the butternut squash. I was hoping for butternut. We like spaghetti squash ok, but it’s not our favorite and it’s less versatile.

The mixed green will probably go into salad. If not, we can sauté them. We were out of yogurt and there wasn’t any on the truck last week, so we were happy to see it expected this week.

Cheese is always a bit hit in our house. This is aged cheddar and we can’t wait to try it.

We picked up an extra yogurt ($5) and a bag of honey puffed spelt ($3) while we were there.

I’m excited to have a slower week in terms of items that have to be used right away. I’m recovering from a badly bruised knee and a little less kitchen time will be a good thing for a few days.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 20–the final week

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Oct 252011

Today was our last visit to Whole Foods to pick up our 2011 summer CSA. Just about every week, we were greeted by Andrew. He usually works in the kitchen in the morning, but somehow ended up with the Tuesday afternoon CSA gig most of the summer. He was super nice to everyone, especially Nick and Sally.

The photos are dark again this week. Maybe I can figure out some evening lighting for next year. Here’s the group shot for this week.

Let’s take a closer look:

Green onions, green beans

Red Russian Kale, bell peppers

Butternut squash, lettuce

Radishes, apples

Sweet potatoes, tomatoes

Garlic

We’ve been going through a ton of apples this year. Between morning oats, snacks and applesauce, I can’t keep them in the house. We went picking for the last time this year, but I was still glad to see apples in our pick up today.

I still have some cabbage in our fridge. I’ll be making another batch of unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot Thursday. It will use the garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers, and green onion. I love having a recipe that uses many CSA ingredients and is also flexible.

My kids have been asking for sweet potatoes the last couple of days. I usually slice them, season them and bake them. They disappear quickly with a bit of ketchup for dipping.

Lettuce and some radishes will go in lunch salads. The rest of the radishes will go into turnip soup. The green beans make an easy side dish.

I’m not quite sure about the squash yet. I’m thinking about making some butternut squash soup, but I’m not sure of the timing since I need to make turnip soup first.

It’s supposed to get cold this week. I’m glad we have some hearty items that go well with ovens and soup. It’s been a fun season. I’m already excited about the winter CSA.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 21

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Oct 202011

It was 45 degrees and raining when we picked up week 21 of our Fresh Fork CSA today. The tent had blown around so much, that by the time we arrived around 5:30PM, they were just all working from the truck. I think the winter pick ups have better weather than what we had today. Robert and his crew are awesome!

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week:

Small CSA:

1 dz. pasture raised chicken eggs
1 lb. breakfast patties
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1.5 lb. bag untoasted organic oats
1 bunch beets with tops
1 lb. fingerling potatoes
3 lbs. turnips
Quarter peck Melrose Apples

Here’s a group shot:

The tomatoes are from the missing ones last week. Nick was glad to see them. I actually had to buy eggs at the store this week, so I was happy to get them. I see some pumpkin bread and waffles in our new future.

We were low on apples this week too. I actually picked some up at the store. I’m hoping to go picking one more time, but the weather has not been cooperating. Since at least 2 members of our household eat oats for breakfast everyday, these will be gone in no time.

We have a good stash of potatoes going at the moment since we’ve gotten them in both CSAs and from our garden. I want to make a couple of new dishes, but I haven’t decided what. The breakfast patties (part bacon and part sausage) look delicious. Maybe we’ll have them for dinner with pumpkin waffles soon!

We’ll probably make soup with the turnips. My first thought was 3 pounds is a large amount of turnips. But, we can work with it. It’s not as familiar because we don’t get them often.

We have beets from our other CSA this week also. We really like Harvard beets and don’t usually make them any other way.

It’s been a great season. Next week is the last pick up for the summer CSA.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 19

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Oct 182011

Today, we picked up week 19 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. It’s hard to believe that next week is the last week. This was our worst pick up ever. It really had nothing to do with the CSA. Sally decided to run from the café area all the way to the parking lot without any regard to cars or traffic. There weren’t cars and she’s ok and I’m ok, but it was rough. Nick tried to grab her hood twice. It slowed her down enough for me to catch up with her. There was another adult near her, so I think she would have intervened if necessary. But, you never know! Sally’s now in the cart or holding my hand at all times. Usually, we do that in the parking lot and approaching parking lots, but we never needed to do it leaving the café the other weeks.

Some of the photos are dark this week. I blame it on the time of year. It’s so dark early right now that we don’t have natural light. Anyway, we picked up lots of yummy looking produce, so let’s take a look:

Tomatoes, lettuce

Beets and either beets or radishes. I don’t think I’ll know about the ones on the right until we taste them or cook them. I have gotten them mixed up in the past. I thought they were beets until I dug further in the boxes and found the beets on the left. Hmmmmmm….

Bell peppers, butternut squash

Bok choy, apples

Onions, garlic

Green beans, spinach

By the end of the season, I really feel like I have the hang of this. The tomatoes will go into a cabbage dish. We’re still working on 2 heads that we got from our other CSA last week. We’ll also use some onion, bell pepper and garlic in that dish.

The green beans have been fantastic lately. They will be a plain side dish. I’ve been using the spinach in pasta dishes. It adds flavor and color.

The lettuce and possibly bok choy will go in salads. Otherwise, I’ll make a stir fry with the bok choy. We were actually out of apples, so these will go in my coleslaw and my oatmeal.

Winter squash will get baked and eaten for lunch a couple of days.

That leaves the beets and radishes or beets as the case may be. My favorite recipe for beets is to make Harvard beets. I’ve been using radishes in salads or pickling them. These will probably go in salad.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 20 (double up!)

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Oct 132011

Today, we picked up week 20 our of Fresh Fork CSA. Unlike last week, we had a great pick up. Both kids were in a good mood. The weather was great and everything was smooth. To make up for one of our vacation weeks, we did a double up this week. Basically, we picked up 2 small shares this week.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week (times two):

Small CSA:

1 lb. ground veal
1 lb. ground pork
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 large head of cabbage
1 bunch collard greens
1 head cauliflower
2 ct. bell peppers
2 ct. eggplant

Here’s a group shot (of one set, you can imagine it double):

Since we have 4 eggplant, I am planning a vegetable lasagna with mostly eggplant and whole wheat noodles. We haven’t had much cauliflower this year. We’ll be making a cauliflower au gratin dish that uses parmesan cheese and bread crumbs for a crumbly topping over the steamed cauliflower.

Both heads of cabbage are huge! We’ll be making stuffed cabbage of some sort. Usually, I end up making unstuffed cabbage since I’m not that great of actually making the rolls. We’ll also probably make some cabbage soup and some coleslaw. Last week, I made collard wraps with our collards. They turned out pretty good so maybe I’ll make them again and change up the filling. These collards and cabbage look especially good and fresh.

We put some bell pepper in our cabbage dish and freeze the rest. We also have 2 packages of ground pork and veal. I think Stephen is going to make meatloaf and the rest of the meat will go in our cabbage dish.

We also purchased 2 of the yogurts. We still had $1.50 to use from our week 17 vacation and we were out of yogurt, so I picked up two and paid the $8.50 balance.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get grape tomatoes in either share. I thought I saw some at the truck, but the weeks are starting to run together. I’ve emailed Fresh Fork about them.

We did sign up for the winter CSA and also for a Thanksgiving share. We’ll have plenty of good eats on the horizon after the summer season ends in two weeks.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 18

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Oct 112011

Today, we picked up week 18 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. That means there are 2 weeks left. Everyone is a bit off since the season started late due to all of the early rain. Andrew was back and seemed surprised that everyone missed him.

Here’s a group shot of what we received today.

Garlic, tomatoes

Apples, green beans

Turnips (mostly greens), lettuce

Broccoli, green pepper

Parsley, butternut squash

Sweet potatoes

This will be a very easy week for us to use up our items. My husband like tabouli, so we will be making a batch of that using mint from our garden along with the parsley and tomatoes from today’s pick up.

The sweet potatoes will combine with a couple we have left from previous weeks for a batch of baked sweet potato slices. We like to peel and slice the potato, drizzle with olive oil and use Ozark seasoning and cinnamon. Nick and Sally like to eat them with ketchup.

We already ate the broccoli for dinner tonight. The green beans will be an easy side dish for lunch tomorrow or dinner on Thursday. I plan to make soup with the turnips and greens along with some potatoes and kohlrabi that we already have on hand. We’ve accumulated some garlic lately and I think I’m going to chop and freeze it. The apples have been going great in my oatmeal.

I haven’t decided on a specific dish for the butternut squash. But it’s second only to acorn in my book, so we’ll have no problem eating it.

I love this time of year. The hearty dishes make for excellent comfort food.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 19

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Oct 062011

Today, we picked up week 19 of our Fresh Fork CSA. It was our worst pickup of the season. Nick, Sally and I had spent a good chunk of the day in Akron. Both kids feel asleep on our way from Akron to Beachwood High School. Sally woke up about 15 minutes from the pick up and would not stop crying. Nick was fast asleep even through the crying and was still sleeping when we arrived at the school. He would have been very upset if he couldn’t say Hi to Mr. Robert at the truck, so I woke him up. (Last time I didn’t wake him up for something, he cried for 2 hours). He was fine when I first woke him up, but then he started crying. Sally cried the whole time we were there too. Robert brought out bag over to the car to help us out, but I still took the time to get the kids out because they wanted to say hi and I wanted to buy extras with our vacation credits. We ended up cutting out losses at one bag of corn chips for $3.50 and decided to settle up next week.

Here’s the list of what we were expecting:

Small CSA:

1 half gallon apple cider
1/2 lb. leaf spinach
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch leeks
1 head broccoli
4 oz. piece brie
1 head kohlrabi
2 ct. winter squash
Quarter peck pears (4-5 depending on size)

Here’s a group shot:

I love winter squash. Spaghetti squash is not my favorite, but we’ll cook it and eat it with pasta sauce this week. My husband already opened the cider. I’m sure it will disappear easily.

This is the biggest kohlrabi that I ever saw. The leaves are edible and in great shape, so I’ll probably make a au gratin dish with it. The broccoli looks tasty and will make an easy side dish in the next day or two.

My friend Chaya mentioned honey mustard roasted leeks. We didn’t get very many, but I still might try fixing them roasted style. We have Swiss chard from both CSAs this week, so I’ll cook it together with some sausage for a meal this weekend.

I’m still working through the 2 bushels of pears that I picked up this week. This won’t be ready to eat for a few days and I’m ok with that. We’ll enjoy them early next week. The spinach and brie cheese will go into a tasty pasta dish.

Dare I say that I think I’m starting to get the hang of these CSAs. It’s a good thing because I just signed us up for both winter ones.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 17

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Oct 042011

We picked up week 17 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA today. Andrew was on vacation, so we were greeted by Sarah. The set up was a little different, but the pick up was smooth. We have a nice routine. We go into the store, get a cart, stop by for a sample of pineapple, buy anything we need (usually yogurt, cheese, bananas or the like), use a reusable bag, get two wooden nickels, let the kids color, get our veggies, and then leave. It works for us and both Nick and Sally look forward to our CSA pickup at “The Little Whole Foods”.

Today’s box was lighter than the last few. We didn’t have any melon or squash. Here’s a group shot:

You might be wondering about the dark wooden background. We didn’t get a new table. But, our kitchen table where I usually take the photos looks like this.

I picked up 2 bushels of pears from Eddy’s on Monday. They aren’t quite ripe enough to can. So, our table was out of commission. Nick and Sally had a picnic breakfast today. Nick wants to have one everyday. I don’t think that will happen. They ate raisins, graham crackers and pears. By lunch time, I had put away enough stuff from our vacations that they used the dining room table. Since that space was clean, I used it to take the CSA photos today also.

Let’s take a closer look at the veggies.

Collards, leaf lettuce

Romaine, bell peppers

Tomatoes, garlic

Poblano peppers, onions

Apples, green beans

Sweet potatoes

I was in Hawaii two weeks ago and I was also out of town most of this past week. I’m feeling a bit out of the loop on the CSA. I am glad that this is an easier week. I’m going to make some stuffed collard wraps with the collards. The lettuce, bell peppers and probably tomatoes will go in salads. If we don’t use the tomatoes up, I’ll freeze them. I have some others frozen and will make sauce or chili with them soon. I have Stayman (tart) apples from Delaware to use up and will mix these apples with them for sauce. The green beans will be an easy side dish. I’ll probably freeze the onions, other peppers and garlic. For the sweet potatoes, I’ll probably slice them for sweet potato fries. Everyone in my house likes them and with the cooler temperatures, the oven sounds more appealing these days.

It’s hard to believe that it’s October already! I’m excited for the upcoming winter CSA season.

Fresh Fork week 17 & 18 vacation

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Sep 292011

Last week and this week, we took vacation from Fresh Fork since I was in Hawaii last week and this week I’m in Maryland. We already used some of our credit from last week and next week, we’ll use the rest of our credit.

I still wanted to capture what the shares looked like.

Week 17

Small CSA:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 bulb hardneck garlic
2 lbs. concord grapes
6 ears sweet corn
1 lb. green beans
1 sleeve leaf lettuce

Week 18

Small CSA:

1 lb. ground Italian sausage
1 large pizza dough shell, rolled in a ball and frozen
1 bag of heirloom corn chips
1 16 oz. jar of Blaze Gourmet salsa
Approx. 1.5 lb. onions (about 2 medium candy onions)
Approx. 2 lbs. tomatoes for making sauce
2-3 hot banana peppers

There’s never a good week to be on vacation, but at least I’m not missing any winter squash.

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