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Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 2

Jun 122012

Today, we picked up our second week of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The table at Whole Foods wasn’t manned today, but we didn’t have any trouble getting our bag or extras and checking off our name at the customer service desk.

This time of year, the shares are a bit light since the growing season is just getting started. I think it works out well because it give people time to get used to the process and figure out their greens.

Here’s a group shot of this week’s share:

Lettuce, Swiss chard

Tomatoes (slicing), beets

Bunching onions, rhubarb

I’m going out of town this weekend and I’ll be gone for two weeks. My husband is picking up the share next week, so I want as much of this week’s share to be used before I leave. Since I have a crazy week ahead, my plan will include some preserving.

The lettuce will get used in salad. We try to have lots of salads this time of year. The Swiss chard will get added to some ground sausage with peppers and onions and put on tortillas for dinner tomorrow. Nick and Stephen like tomatoes. They’ll just eat them or have them on their salads. If they decide they don’t want them, I’ll pop them in the freezer.

To use the beets, I’ll probably make Harvard beets. Everyone likes them and I haven’t looked up pickling yet. I am pretty sure I want to pickle beets this year – especially if our garden beets take off.

Some of the onions will get used in the dish for tomorrow’s dinner. The rest I will just chop and freeze to get them out of the way. We don’t use many raw onions here, so freezing them works well.

I have a small bag of rhubarb in the freezer. I’m going to add this rhubarb to the freezer as well. I saw several recipes that look appealing. Here are some ideas:

http://www.simplebites.net/salute-spring-ten-ways-to-enjoy-rhubarb-compote/

http://nourishedkitchen.com/strawberry-rhubarb-compote-with-honey-custard/

http://fooddoodles.com/2011/06/09/rhubarb-compote/

I’ll most like be making compote and I’ll probably mix in some strawberries or blueberries depending on what’s in our freezer when I get around to it.

I love the freshness that we picked up in our bag. Everything looks great.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 1

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Jun 082012

Today was the first of our 22 weekly pickups for our Fresh Fork CSA. We decided to switch from Beachwood to Mayfield for our location this year. Mayfield is a new site for pick up and it’s close to our house. We were glad there was also some shade for the stop.

This year, we upgraded from the small to the large share. This is what we were expecting today:

Small CSA Share

1 whole chicken, approx. 5 – 6 lbs.
1 head kohlrabi
1 bunch collard greens
1 quart strawberries
1 bunch red Russian kale
1 bunch garlic scapes
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch radishes
1 quarter lb. bag pea tendrils

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

2 bunches spinach
1 lb. shelled peas
1 head broccoli
1 lb. sweet pea and black pepper linguini from Ohio City Pasta

Here’s a group shot of the items:

Our quart of strawberries was full when Dan gave them to us. The kids ate some in the parking lot before we left for home. The rest of the berries will be gone by the end of the night. We received zucchini instead of broccoli. I’ll probably use the squash in my squash fritter recipe. Everyone here likes them. The squash will be fine for a few days in the fridge, so those will probably make an appearance at lunch Monday or Tuesday.

This time of year, I use garlic scapes every chance I get. I chop them and use them in salads, casseroles, when sautéing greens, etc.. They keep well so, I don’t have to freeze them often. We haven’t had an Ohio City Pasta that we didn’t like. I’m sure this sweet pea and pepper variety will be no exception. I’ll probably make a béchamel sauce for it. I tend to like most of the pasta with a white sauce instead of red.

I’ll use some spinach with our pasta. I like to wilt it just a bit in the pasta water and then serve it together. Sometimes I also chop it and add it to the sauce first. It will depend on my mood. Our chicken is thawing in the fridge. I’ll probably cook it for lunch Sunday or dinner on Monday. Once cooked, we get a couple of meals out of it. The rest of the weeks bag will complement our chicken nicely. I’ll also make stock with the bones. I love not having to buy chicken stock.

One kohlrabi isn’t really too much. I’m either going to fix it for myself for lunch one day or roast it with some beets and radishes if we grill a meal in the next few days. I haven’t mastered kale yet. We’ve had it several ways, but I don’t have a favorite way to prepare it. I’ll probably just sauté this with garlic scapes and olive oil and serve it with a splash of lemon.

I need to verify what type of peas these are. If they are sugar snap, the kids will devour them quickly. If the are snow peas, we’ll cook them for a side dish this weekend. I’m thinking about steaming the collards and letting the leaves cool and then using them for wraps instead of tortilla. I have some taco flavored meet and peppers left over and I think it would make a good filling.

We’ll probably roast a few radishes, use a few in salad and maybe try the newsletter recipe that uses them. Pea tendrils was a brand new item to me this week. I’ve heard that they are good in salads or sautéed. There’s aren’t really very many, so I don’t think I’m going to cook them. I’d thinking of just using them in a salad.

In addition to our bag, I also picked up a couple of extras. We were out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen. I also decided to pick up a half gallon of milk. I’m hoping to switch to local milk 100% of the time soon.

It’s going to be a great week in the kitchen.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 1

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Jun 052012

Today was our first pickup for our Geauga Family Farms CSA for the summer 2012 season. We are getting the single share this year and our pick up is on Tuesday afternoon at the Whole Foods in Woodmere on Chagrin.

We arrived around 4PM and everything was very organized and well labeled. Nick checked in with April at the table. I really like the addition of the signage this year.

Here’s what we were treated with this week:

Green onions, broccoli

Beets, curly kale

Lettuce, strawberries

We’ll use some onions in our quiche muffins this week. The rest I will chop and freeze for later. Most of the time we use onions in cooking, so having them in the freezer works great for us. The broccoli will make a quick side dish one evening this week. Lately, the kids have been fighting over broccoli. Unless we decide to grill, I’ll probably make Harvard beets with the beets. The greens are also edible, so I’ll be sautéing them with some garlic scapes. The kale will either be made into kale chips (haven’t mastered them yet) or used in our quiche filling. The lettuce will go into salads. We actually didn’t open the strawberries on the way home. Since we still have some, we’re going to make strawberry lemonade spritzers with them. I picked up sparkling water.

It looks like we are off to a great start for the season!

A Fresh Fork Pizza

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May 132012

Tonight’s dinner was pizza with all of the ingredients courtesy of our Fresh Fork CSA. Many weeks our CSA bags are themed. Some weeks I just use all of the ingredients in whatever I am cooking that week and other weeks, I use many of the ingredients in one dish. This was one of those weeks.

For our pizza, I used the following:

pizza dough
Pope’s sauce (tomatoes, oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt, black pepper)

I love that the sauce doesn’t have any SUGAR!

Mayfield Creamery Gouda
spinach
ramps

I’m sad that ramp season is over. I’m going to chop and freeze my last few.

green peppers (from the freezer from last summer)
Italian sausage

We actually got smoked Gouda in our bag this week, but I didn’t want to overpower the other flavors, so I used regular Gouda from my fridge. We have quite the stock of local cheeses at the moment.

I also used my pizza stone for the first time. It was a bit challenging, but I think I just need more practice.

Here was the final result:

Since the pizza stone needed to heat in the oven for 30 minutes, I had that time to prep the other ingredients.

I browned the Italian sausage. I washed and chopped the spinach and ramps. I chopped the peppers a bit finer (they were frozen in bigger pieces than I needed for the pizza). I drained the sausage on a paper towel and used residual grease to sauté the ramps, spinach and peppers. Everything had a few minutes to cool before I put the pizza together.

Once the pizza was in the oven, I grated the cheese.

In just over 10 minutes, I took the pizza out of the oven and sprinkled on the cheese.

The end result was total deliciousness. It was really one of the best pizzas that I’ve ever had.

I’m not sure if it was the sauce, the cheese, the dough, the toppings or the combo. But, it was great.

Now, I’m off to see if I can get more of that yummy sauce!

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 15

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May 102012

Today was the last pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA winter subscription. Now, we have to wait until the week of June 4th for the summer season to begin. Meanwhile, this week’s pick up is definitely pizza themed.

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

1 8 oz. package smoked gouda
2 frozen pizza dough balls
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 lb. ground turkey or chicken
2 lbs. rolled oats
1 pint pizza sauce
1 package veggie burgers (2 burgers)
1 bunch ramps
1 veg (will likely include kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, and other spring greens)

Here’s a group shot:

I’m hoping to use the ramps and spinach on pizza this week.

We’ve never received ground duck before. We had our choice of duck or chicken. I’ve had ground chicken before, so duck was the easy choice. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but I am thinking about making wantons and using it in some kind of filling. The Italian sausage will go well on the pizzas.

I’m excited to try Clark’s sauce. I’ll be using it on pizza with this dough.

I’ve never had the Luna veggie burgers before, but they look delicious. For now, they are in my freezer. I’ll use Gouda on our pizza too.

Stephen and I eat oats for breakfast most mornings. These will be gone in no time.

With a few weeks until our next pick up, we stocked up on yogurt. We were also out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen of them as well.

It’s been a really fun winter season. I can’t wait for summer to start.

Fabulous Food Show

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May 042012

I spent most of last weekend at the Fabulous Food Show. I had been to the fall show before. The fall show has been going on for several years. This was the first year for the spring show. Compared to the fall show, I think the crowds were sparse and so was the number of vendors. Don’t get me wrong, there was still some people at the show, but no matter where I wanted to go look around, I never had to wait in any lines. In the fall, there were tons of lines and wall to wall people.

I will say that my experience this time was a bit different since I entered at the Exhibitor Entrance.

I was working at the Fresh Fork CSA booth. I’m so in love with local eats. It was a pleasure learning more about the CSA and talking to attendees about the program. I’m still amazed at how many people have no idea what a CSA is. I also met several existing customers and some folks who just signed up and are anxiously awaiting the season to start. I think the booth looked great!

Stephen had our camera on Saturday while he took the kids to the Great Lakes Science Center. So, all of these photos are from Sunday.

Crystal from Eat, Drink Cleveland stopped by to say hi. She’s a fellow blogger, friend and Fresh Fork customer.

On Sunday, I took a break do see Brian Goodman from Green House Tavern at the Farmer’s Market stage. He was quite entertaining. He grilled some veggie pizza with onion, ramps and asparagus. It was quite tasty.

I must say that my favorite booth was the Vitamix booth. Terri was great at her demos. I had been wanting to purchase one for quite some time. After discussions with Stephen Saturday evening, I was ready to purchase on Sunday.

I actually had several purchases throughout the weekend. I bought a Grill’d Per’fect! Indoor Smokeless Grill. I loved the demo and thought the price was reasonable. I haven’t opened it up yet, but I’m excited to try it soon.

I have used the Vitamix 5 times already. Maybe I’ll try to grill something this weekend.

It was interesting to see the show from an exhibitor point of view. I was amazed at how far people travel to come to the Food Show. I think the Food Network is great at marketing their stars. Many people came from more than 2 hours away to see Bobby Flay or Emeril Lagasse.

I’d probably go to the fall show again, but I think the spring show will need some work to persuade me to attend again.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 14

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Apr 262012

It’s week 14 of the Fresh Fork CSA winter subscription. It’s hard to believe that the summer season starts on June 6th. I also read this week that local strawberries are about 4 weeks out. It seems crazy that we’ll have strawberries before the CSA starts.

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

1 package chicken brats
4 oz. feta cheese
1/2 lb. mixed salad greens
1/4 lb. ramps
1 lb. fresh ramp pasta
1 bag/bunch of kale or chard, depending on what the farmers harvest
1 quart yogurt
1 quarter peck Fuji apples
2 lbs. butter, salted or unsalted

Here’s a group shot:

We’ll put the chicken brats in the freezer. They will make a good meal one day this week. I’ll use the Swiss chard to make a quick side dish.

We’ll use the feta cheese and mixed greens in salads.

Last time, we used the ramps in meatloaf that worked pretty well. I’m thinking of putting them into ham loaf or a frittata. I think the ramp pasta will go well with the leftover sauce from yesterday’s dinner.

I bought some apples yesterday to tie us over until today’s pickup. We love putting them in our oatmeal. We still have some butter frozen that I’ve been using up. Since I’d like to rotate my stock, I’ll be freezing this butter. We chose the unsalted butter. I can’t remember the last time I used salted butter.

Getting yogurt in the bag just means I buy less extra ones. It’s always welcome. I wish it came in a gallon size. The big restaurant size is something like a 3 gallon container and it won’t fit in our fridge. So, we got one in our package this week and I purchased 3 extra.

The bag this week is great, but I’m looking forward to more photogenic produce. I miss the weeks were we had so many colors of the rainbow.

Mayfield Road Creamery Cheese Class

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Apr 172012

On Saturday, Stephen and I headed out to Orwell, Ohio for a cheese making class at Mayfield Road Creamery. This is one of the farms that our Fresh Fork CSA buys from. All of the class was made up of Fresh Fork customers. When we arrived, we left our dirty shoes outside and put on “clean shoes” for the creamery. Susan was by the 180 gallon tank talking about the first cheese making steps. We spent the day making Havarti cheese.

Here, she’s checking the Ph level. In the next photo, she’s testing for coagulation.

The covered tank needs to rest before the curd is ready to be cut. I really liked the cheese cold room.

Soon, it was time for lunch. We enjoyed sampling all of the cheeses that the creamery offers. I was surprised that I liked the chipotle. It wasn’t as spicy as I suspected. I think my favorite was the blue cheese (although it’s being discontinued). I also really like the Havarti cheese. I was glad we got it in our Fresh Fork CSA bag last week. Kevin is checking the cheese to see if it’s ready to be cut.

It was really fun to watch both Susan and Kevin work together. The Morris Family farm was established in 1860 and is alive and well with a small number of cows (about 40), due to the creamery business.

Draining and washing whey.

Once the cheese curd was ready, we dug in and filled molds.

Then we moved them to the pressing table. After 15 minutes, it was time to flip.

It’s harder than it looks, but we didn’t drop any. The cheese gets flipped a few times before going to the final steps. Our class ended with the cheese in the pressing stage.

After the formal class ended, we were given a tub of ricotta cheese and had the opportunity to buy some cheese. I had came with a cooler and knew I wanted to go home with cheese.

Before we left, Kevin showed us around the dairy farm. We met a few cows, checked out the milking barn and milk room. About 60% of their milk goes into cheese. The rest is sold to Dairymens.

It was really fun to see the cheese making process and participate in the class. I have a much better appreciation for the skill and art involved in cheese making.

We made farmer’s cheese with the kids last summer. I think we’ll try a few more this year just for fun. I’ll leave the larger scale cheese making to Susan.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 13

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Apr 122012

It’s April already and we’re nearing the end of our winter CSA. In just a few short weeks, we’ll be talking about week 1 for the summer CSA season. It will be interesting to see how the early warm weather impacts the crops. Last year, we heard so much about the wet spring and how it negatively impacted the start of the CSA season. But, let’s enjoy the rest of the winter CSA first. This was definitely the week of meat!

Here’s what we were expecting today:

1 meat choice (see above)

option 1: whole chicken, approximately 5 lbs.
option 2: Meatloaf pack, 1 lb. each of ground veal, ground pork, and ground lamb
option 3: 2 packs bone-in beef short ribs and one grass-fed beef round steak
option 4: 1 pack (4 patties, 1 lb.) turkey burgers (new) and 1 pack (1.25 lbs.) chicken bratwurst

1 lb. breakfast patties
1 dozen eggs
1 piece (8 oz.) Havarti cheese
1 pint maple syrup
1 quarter peck apples
1/4 lb. ramps

(earlier in the week, there was a possibility of greens, but I’ll take apples over greens most days)

Here’s a group shot:

We decided to go with the meatloaf pack. I haven’t made meatloaf in a while and there’s a recipe for meatloaf that uses the ramps in this week’s newsletter. It’s more of a guide to meatloaf than a recipe, but I’m not a big recipe follower anyway, so I am happy to use the ideas and make my own meatloaf. I’m going to make muffin shaped loaves. I like using muffing tins for individual meatloaves.

We had the breakfast patties before. They are flavorful, but a little on the salty side. We’ll probably pair them with some homemade sauce and pasta for a meal. We don’t usually cook meat to go with breakfast.

We bought a gallon of maple syrup this year. Having another pint is always welcome. We made several recipes on a regular basis that use maple syrup instead of sugar. Lucky for me, whole grain pancake mix was on sale this week so I stocked up. My kids love to have pancakes with blueberries and real maple syrup. We don’t even use the fake stuff in our house anymore.

We haven’t had apples in a while, so they will be a nice addition for our morning oatmeal. We are nearing the end of our canned peaches and frozen blueberries. Everyone in our house loves cheese. I’m sure the Havarti will be popular. Stephen and I are signed up for the cheese class on Saturday, so I suspect we will be stocking up on local cheeses this weekend.

Eggs are never hard to get used up. We just naturally use them often in baked oatmeal, pancakes, French toast, muffins and other recipes. This week a few will go into meatloaf for sure.

Finally, I picked up 4 yogurts this week. We seem to use at least 2 a week at our house. It’s $20 well spent.

I’m having a Fresh Fork CSA week for sure. Yesterday was the monthly happy hour. Today was our pick up. Saturday is the cheese class. I love local!

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 12

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Mar 292012

We were a bit early for our pick up today. I took the opportunity to chat with Eric, who works at the back of the truck. I really enjoy meeting people who are passionate about local foods. It was a bit chilly for the pick up, but at least it wasn’t raining.

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

1 Grassfed beef steak
1 pt. concord grape jelly
1 12oz piece Swiss cheese
2 lbs. spelt flour
3 lbs. red potatoes
1 lb. spinach pasta
1 bunch kale or mustard greens
1 bag mixed salad greens
1/4 lb. ramps

Here’s a group shot:

Grape jelly is probably my favorite flavor in the jelly/jam category. I hope to hoard most of this for myself and use it on French toast and PP&J sandwiches. I’m going to try and make homemade tortillas with the spelt flour. My recipe works well with whole wheat flour, so I thought I’d try the spelt.

We’ll probably just make mashed potatoes this week. Unless my new slicer comes in, then I might try out some microwavable potato chips. I tossed the pasta into the freezer. It will make for a nice quick meal when we need it this week.

I’ve never met a local, grass-fed cheese that I didn’t like. I suspect this new Swiss will be great. So far, Swiss is the only cheese that Sally won’t eat. Maybe this variety will change her mind. I think the kale will go into a casserole dish that I’m still dreaming up in my head.

The steak is frozen, so I put it in the freezer. When we get another stretch of warm weather, we’ll grill it for dinner one night. The winter greens aren’t my favorite, but I’m going to try to make a chopped salad out of them. I’m not a big fan of the texture of the stems, but a chopped version in a roll up is sounding good to me.

The final item this week is ramps. In a nutshell, ramps grow wild this time of year and are similar to a leek. I’ll use them as an onion type of ingredient with fried potatoes or soup this week.

I bought a couple of extras this week as well. At $5 a piece, I picked up 3 yogurts and one Krispie Treat Granola. I can’t seem to keep the yogurt in stock at our house. One of the Heinen’s stores near me carries it, but I like to buy it from Fresh Fork whenever possible. These 3 containers probably won’t last until the next pick up.

I’m starting to get excited for the summer CSA. Only 2 more months away.

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