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Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 6

Jul 102012

Today, we had pick up number 6 for our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The Whole Food pick up has been different this year. There’s not one person from Whole Foods manning the pick up. It’s more of a self serve in the back room and stop at the desk to check off your name. It’s fine in the back room, the kids and I miss seeing Andrew.

Here’s what we received this week:

cherry tomatoes, blueberries

tomato, squash (yellow squash and zucchini)

cucumber, onion

lettuce, cauliflower

green beans, basil

Stephen and Nick will probably eat all of the cherry tomatoes tomorrow. I’m glad that’s one item that I never have to worry about. We are also going to get some out of our garden this year. We’re psyched about that. The blueberries made me smile. I picked 7 pounds of blueberries today, so this container doesn’t seem like much to me. I froze most of what I picked already. These will be used on cereal at breakfast or snacks tomorrow. Nick is in camp this week and has to pack a snack and lunch. I’ve been trying to give him as many good local items as possible.

I’m going to try squash chips with the squash this week. I’ve read a few recipes on line and will create my own version of them. I hope that I can get enough moisture out of them to make them crunchy. The tomato and lettuce will go in salads. The cucumber will be chopped up for snacks.

We have quite a bit of onion at the moment. I’ll try to make fajitas this week. We still have pepper strips frozen that need used up anyway. I’m in the mood for homemade whole wheat tortillas so that will work out well.

We’ll have the cauliflower as a side dish one day this week. We had the beans with dinner tonight. They were absolutely delicious and there’s just enough left to put a few in Stephen’s lunch tomorrow.

The basil looks a bit tired, but I’m sure it will be tasty. I’m going to make a vinaigrette dressing with it.

I haven’t really tried many actual recipes lately. I’m planning to carve out some more time for cooking in the next couple of weeks. I feel like I’m still adjusting from being away on vacation. I’m already looking forward to next week’s share.

Fresh Fork Warehouse

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Jul 082012

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to see the new Fresh Fork CSA office and warehouse space. Since I used to have my own warehouse, I always enjoy checking them out.

I rang the bell. Fresh Fork occupies a small part of the office space near ISP. Here’s a photo of Robert on the phone. I think he spends most of his day answering the phones, especially at the beginning of the season.

Unlike the old space, there are plenty of docks to share with other tenants. On the right, a freezer full of chickens. These were the chickens that we received in our bag the first week.

I also visited the cooler where I saw all of this delicious Snowville Creamery milk.

Since deliveries hadn’t started yet, there wasn’t too much in the warehouse, but it was still fun to look around. Someday, I’ll visit when the trucks are in action. But for now, I’ll just keep enjoying my bag each week.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–weeks 4&5

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Jul 062012

Last week, I was still on vacation for week 4, so I didn’t do a pick up. My friend Kelly was nice enough to send me a few photos. I was jealous when I received them on my phone, even though I was at the beach. I love her photos!

Here’s the list of items for the week:

1 quart of yogurt
1 pt of black raspberries
Assorted tree fruit
1 package Italian Sausage links, 1.25 lbs.
2 ct zucchini
1 bunch radishes
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
1 head kohlrabi
1 red bulb onion
1.5 lbs hoop house tomatoes
2 ct cucumbers
1 head broccoli or cauliflower, whichever comes in
1 jar strawberry balsamic sauce made from leftover week 1 strawberries

The highlights were the fruit. She received apricots, plums as an add on, raspberries, and Clark Pope Catering’s Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Sauce. Kelly mentioned that the plum were like heaven in a paper bag. Even though I wasn’t here last week, I was able to get a bottle of the sauce. I’m excited to try it out.

Now onto this week’s bag!

It was 95 degrees when we picked up our bag. This has been one hot day! I was glad to quickly get everything home and unloaded.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

1 whole chicken or pork roast
1 bunch beets
2 bulb onions
1 bunch carrots or 1 head kohlrabi
Approx. 2# tomatoes
1 baby bok choy
2 lbs. peaches
1 bunch spinach
1 lb. garlic scape and black pepper linguini
2 lbs. apricots
2 ct. cucumbers
2 ct. zucchini

We love the spinach. It’s quite versatile. We already used some in our white sauce tonight. I’m not a big tomato person. I think they are “guishy”. I’m such a texture eater. I’m not sure if I’ll ever like them. Some other Fresh Fork CSA folks were talking about having a tomato tasting party. I might be swayed to participate if that were to occur. For now, these will be eaten by Stephen and Nick or I’ll use them in sauce.

I have a total of 4 zucchini and I am making fritters for lunch tomorrow. I’m not sure why we got extra cucumbers, but they are great for snacking and salads. Since we don’t have any lettuce at the moment, I suspect these will become snacks for the weekend. I may try my hand at a quick relish.

Some of the onion will go into our pulled pork and coleslaw recipes. The rest will be chopped and frozen for future use. We ate almost all of the carrots at dinner. The leftover ones will be gone at lunch tomorrow.

Our apricots aren’t going to last long. They are very ripe. I’m thinking of making smoothies with them tomorrow since it’s going to be another scorcher. I contemplated an apricot dessert, but I’m not sure I want to turn on the oven. Maybe, I’ll get creative. We’ve been enjoying peaches in our oatmeal each morning. With 4 of us, these won’t last long.

Bok choy always stumps me. I just don’t have a great go to recipe for it. It usually just ends up in a stir fry for Stephen. I’m going to make pulled pork with the roast tomorrow. I am going to put the crock pot in the basement so our whole house doesn’t heat up while it cooks.

We’re going to grill the beets this week. We have a kohlrabi to use as well. We didn’t get our pasta when we picked up our bag. Since I was out anyway, I stopped back to get it on our way home from the spray ground. It went straight to boiling water for dinner and had already missed it’s photo opportunity.

I’m not going to say that every CSA week is easy, but I like feeling like I finally have the hang of it. I’m looking forward to eating fresh and local this weekend.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 5

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Jul 032012

Today was the 5th pickup for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. I feel so out of the loop after being on vacation for 2 weeks. We got back Sunday night, but I still am in that not quite back to reality phase. The Whole Foods pickup has been different every week. I hope we get some consistency soon. I really miss Andrew manning the table.

Here’s what we received this week:

I think it’s a pretty easy identification week, but just in case I’ll list them.

zucchini, cucumbers

sugar snap peas, candy onion

small head of cauliflower, blueberries

tomato, kohlrabi

lettuce, cabbage

I was quite excited to pick up our share today. We picked up a few things at the store yesterday since our fridge was bare from being gone 2 weeks, but for the most part, we were still lacking in produce.

The last couple zucchini were shredded and put in the freezer. I’m going to make squash fritters tomorrow so these don’t fall victim to the freezer later in the week. The cucumber, tomato and lettuce will go into salad with tomorrow’s grilling. I’ll probably have Stephen grill the kohlrabi, too. The kids will snack on the peas. The blueberries will go on cereal for breakfast. I now have two head of cauliflower since I bought one yesterday. One head will just be steamed and served plain. I’m thinking of making a au gratin dish with the other.

I have a cole slaw recipe that I love that involves cabbage, apple, pineapple juice, onion, raisins, blue cheese and a simple dressing. I’m going to look for it since I don’t think I could quite make it from memory. It’s a great summer dish and I think I have all of the ingredients on hand. Once I find the recipe, I’ll try to get my version in a post soon. We’re sure to see cabbage again.

My goal is to use 100% of this share up before I pick up our other one on Friday.

Guest Post-Geauga Family Farms CSA-Summer Week 4

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Jun 262012

Hello Life Lyn Style readers! My name is Kelly and I am the lucky locavore girl who had the pleasure of picking up Lyn’s Geauga Family Farms CSA share today while she is on vacation. This is me-

Being a goof on my own recent vaca

I don’t currently have a blog of my own, but maybe someday soon you’ll see me sharing stories of parenting, running, and my adventures in local eating.

I know Lyn because she is a fellow Fresh Fork Market CSA customer/part-time employee. We’ve worked the Spring Fabulous Food show together, noshed on the best local breakfast in CLE at Lucky’s Cafe, and had an interesting time attempting the ~~pain-in-the-butt~~ delicate art of pierogi making.

I’ve heard wonderful things about the GFF CSA, but so far my only experience with it has been right here on Lyn’s little slice o’ internet. The pick up at Whole Foods was super easy and at first glance the produce looked terrific. Picking up my FF share always feels a bit like Christmas but this time I had no clue what was going to be in the bag! So fun:) Here is the surprise I received-

Doesn't it look amazing?!?!

Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Onions, Pickling Cukes, 1 Slicing Cuke, Leaf Lettuce, 1 Yellow Squash, Sugar Snap Peas, Cherry Tomatoes, and 1 Slicing Tomato

Everything seems to be extremely fresh and it all looks so tasty. Lyn usually shares her well thought out plans for the produce in her bags, but I am a bit of a slacker, and honestly most of this stuff is going to be eaten raw in salads and as snacks. The main exception will be the Swiss Chard. I’m going to take a recipe from my fav book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , along with local carrots and eggs from my Fresh Fork bag, and turn them into Eggs in a Nest.

Bag Highlights (In my humble opinion)-

These have no chance of becoming pickles! My little bean and I have already demolished the bag:)

More snack food. I love that the cherry tom container is #1 plastic so it can either be reused or recycled in our community.

Give peas a chance. Best. Snack. Ever.

Big thanks go out to Lyn and her family for sharing their bounty with me while they are enjoying some time off in Delaware. I hope that they have a lovely and relaxing vacation. Thanks also to the peeps in Geauga County who put together a fantastic bag of Ohio goodness that does not contain Kohlrabi:)

What?!?! Kohlrabi in next week’s FFM bag? Freecycle here I come………

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA – week 3

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Jun 232012

Normally, I would have picked up our large CSA yesterday in Mayfield. But, I’m on vacation. After a few days in Baltimore and Dover, we are all checked in at our beach house. My friend Kelly was kind enough to send me a photo of the large share. It looks amazing and I’m sad to miss it. But, I’m super happy that Fresh Fork has an awesome vacation policy.

Here’s the artistic photo from Kelly:

Here’s the list of contents that Fresh Fork sent us earlier in the week. Squash was subbed for the napa cabbage.

Small CSA Share

1 package boneless loin chops, 2 per pack
2 lbs spelt berries
1 bunch spinach
1 head white stem bok choy
1 dozen eggs
1 bunch swiss chard or 1 head baby bok choy (depending on route)
1 bunch beets with tops
1 lb snow peas
1 head chinese napa cabbage

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1 bunch carrots
1 lb shelled peas
1 head leaf lettuce
1 extra bunch spinach
2 bunches red bulb green onions

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some pork chops when I return. It’s one of the best Fresh Fork items that we’ll get all summer. If I was in town, I’d be trying out the dry container on my new Vitamix. I like spelt berries, but I’m really anxious to try out making flour. For now, I’m going to try my best to eat some good local food while I’m on vacation. I visited a local market yesterday and have 2 Farmers’ markets on the schedule for the week.

Geauga Family Farms CSA-summer week 3

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Jun 192012

Today was the third week for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. It was a crazy evening for me (husband Stephen) to pick up the CSA,but I made it to Whole Foods in time to buy a bit of dinner (sushi and tomato bisque soup – a truly international combination) before picking up the CSA. Then it was off to the day’s next event…

Here is what I found in this week’s share:

First up was some good-looking lettuce and some bunching onions.

Tomatoes and peas. Yum! I’m not sure if these are garden or sugar snap peas. I’ll have to try one or two to find out.

Garlic scapes and zucchini.

Last, but not least, some cherry tomatoes.

We also ordered a dozen eggs as an extra item.

The Grocery Store

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Jun 162012

As you know by now, we have two CSA shares, love to go to U-Pick farms, and frequently visit farmers’ markets. People always ask me if I still need to go to the grocery store. I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about our shopping trips.

A couple of years ago, I was a crazy couponer. I learned from some of the best couponers in NEO. At that time, I would go to a store 6-20 times in a given week. I frequented Giant Eagle, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS and more. I was great at saving money and spent a ton of time on it.

Over the last couple of years, my focus has changed. We eat lots of fresh, local food and those are not coupon or sale items. I still use coupons for appropriate items, but my usage is much less than it used to be. When we start getting low on an item like pasta, I’ll watch for a coupon and sale and try to stock up. It’s not uncommon for me to buy 40 boxes at a time. After I stock up, I don’t need pasta for a long time. I still have lots of toiletries in my stockpile, so I’ve been ignoring those items for a while. Thankfully, I am almost done buying diapers. There was a time where we had well over 1500 diapers in our house at one time. I was actually paid to buy some of them. In those days, all of my couponing efforts definitely paid off.

In the summer time, with our local growing season, I don’t need much at the store. I typically get butter, eggs, yogurt and sometimes milk through our CSA. At the store, we end up buying fresh fruit. We get some fruit at our CSAs, but we aren’t happy with just one fruit at a time in our house. We eat lots of the fruit that’s in season, but we still supplement with others (like bananas) even with our home-canned products.

We also buy tortillas, tofu, whole wheat lasagna and other staples that go well with a variety of our CSA items. We try to buy most of our cheese locally, but many times we will buy some kind of bread and cheese if I am out with the kids at lunch time for a quick bite.

We fill in with other items like condiments, nuts, oils and specialty items as needed. We have quite a few staple items in our pantry, so our actual trips to the grocery store are small and easy most weeks. I love eating what’s in season and planning our meals around our CSA bags is getting easier and easier now that we’ve had 3 years of practice

In July, when I return from vacation, I’m going to do a post every week or two about our shopping trips and meal planning around our CSA and pantry items. Hopefully, you will pick up some new ideas about what to stock in your pantry.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 2

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Jun 152012

Today, we had our second pick up at the new Mayfield location. Dan and Kyle were pretty busy when we arrived, so we didn’t get a chance to talk to them. Everything looked like it was running smoothly. I’m still getting used to reading the rest of the share list. Since this is our first time with a large, I keep forgetting to read past the “small CSA share” list.

Small CSA Share

2# black turtle beans
1 bag corn chips
1 # chorizo sausage
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch cilantro
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head either baby bok choy or 1 bunch swiss chard (depends on stop)
1 head jumbo white stem bok choy
1.5# red slicing tomatoes (approximately 3 tomatoes)
1 lb. snow peas

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1 head cauliflower
1 bunch red kale
1 lb. snow peas
2 ct. zucchini
1 package chicken brats

It’s hard to get a shot that shows all of the items in a large:

I’m getting ready to leave on vacation, so I’ll be prepping the lettuce for my husband to eat in salads. I’ll be cooking the cauliflower for a side dish tomorrow and/or for Stephen to eat while the kids and I are gone.

I’m going to make soup or a stir fry with the bok choy. I’ll use some of the peas and onions in that dish.

I put the meats in the freezer. I’ll probably cook up the chorizo tomorrow. I will probably make a cold salad with quinoa, chorizo, onions, cilantro, lime, etc. We’ll pack some for the road this weekend and leave the rest for Stephen to enjoy. The brats will magically disappear while I’m away with the kids or we’ll enjoy them in July. The last time I made the brats, I simmered them in beer on the stove. They were quite tasty.

I still had a couple of zucchini in the fridge, so I am making my fritters with them tomorrow.

I’m soaking the beans tonight so I can cook them tomorrow. I’ll use some of them and the cilantro in the quinoa salad and freezer the rest.

I haven’t decided on the kale yet. I just got a kale recipes book in the mail today, so maybe I’ll be inspired to cook something new with it. The beets were subbed for some of the peas. They are getting added to a few I have in the fridge for a pickled beets recipe that looked promising. I hope to make them tomorrow.

We often buy these corn chips as extras, so they will disappear quickly.

Once again, the truck didn’t have any of our favorite yogurt with them, but I was able to pick up some of our favorite granola and milk while we were at our stop.

I’m glad to be going on vacation, but I hate that I’ll miss all of the fun CSA contents for the next two weeks.

Canned Inventory Update

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Jun 132012

It’s time to start canning for 2012, so I thought I should update the current inventory.

amount canned	in inventory 12/14	in inventory 3/27	in inventory 6/13	unit	item
22	18	7	0	quarts	pear sauce
6	0	0	0	quarts	chopped pears
18	13	11	0	quarts	applesauce
2	0	0	0	quarts	chopped apples
8	7	2	1	pints	peach jam
5	5	3	3	1/2 pints	peach honey
28	25	8	0	quarts	peaches
6	3	1	0	1/2 pints	strawberry jam
9	7	6	0	1/2 pints	strawberry vanilla
4	4	4	0	1/2 pints	strawberry lemon butter
6	5	3	0	pints	apple-plum sauce
9	8.5	6	4.375	gallons	tomato sauce (packaged in quarts and pints)
3	2	1	1	pints	blueberry jam

Most of our items are gone. My canned cupboard is now full of empty jars. Strawberry season was very short this year. I didn’t manage to freeze a few berries for jam that I hope to make after vacation. By then, our other jam will be used up. In addition to our home-canned jam, I bought a few jars of concord grape jam and cherry preserves from Fresh Fork. We aren’t in any position to needed store bought jam.

Nick and Sally don’t seem to like my canned tomato sauce. I’m not sure why. We usually use Little Italy pasta sauce and they can’t get enough of it. Most of the tomato sauce that I had left isn’t seasoned, so I am thinking about making some of it into enchilada sauce since we like Mexican casseroles and they are good for using up misc. vegetables from our CSAs. I’m probably going to cook some of it down for thicker pizza sauce, too. Hopefully, Nick and Sally will like it. Since there’s still some time until tomato season, we’re in good shape, but I probably won’t can as much this year unless I can figure out how to season it so the kids like it.

I’m excited to start this year’s canning. It’s fun to see the full cupboard of local deliciousness in the fall.

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