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Fresh Fork Market Winter CSA–week 4

Dec 062012

Today, we had our 4th winter pick up of our Fresh Fork Market CSA.

Here’s what we received in our bag this week:

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

Winter Week 4:

1 smoked ham hock
2 lbs. black turtle beans
1 lb. kale
2 acorn squash
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
Aprrox. 1 lb. onion
1 head broccoli (or 1 bag broccoli shoots…which are just smaller heads)
1 package chorizo or Italian sausage
1 bunch beets with tops
1 bag mixed salad or braising greens
1 stalk Brussels sprouts
1 quarter peck empire apples

I haven’t given much thought to how this week’s items would be used. I’ll probabaly cut the sausage into pieces and bake it in the oven. Although, a crock pot batch of Italian sausage with peppers and onions might be a great meal for a busy swim lesson night next week. I’ll probably make soup with the ham hock. I don’t feel the need to be extra creative in the kitchen since holiday time. We haven’t even put our tree up yet.

Last time we got beans, I cooked them in the crock pot and then froze them in 1-2 cup portions. That worked quite well and I haven’t had to buy canned black beans in ages. We were out of apples, so these will go into oatmeal as early as tomorrow.

The sweet potatoes weren’t in the best shape, I’ll probably just make mashed potatoes with them. Beets will go into Harvard beets. It will be a smaller batch, but enough for one or two of us to have them for a side.

I haven’t stuffed acorn squash yet this winter. I like to make a stuffing with squash, sausage, cheese and rice. Yum! The onions will get used in general cooking.

I can not get enough of the sprouts this year. Love them! This kale is some of the prettiest that I have seen all year. I will probably make a quiche with it.

I never know what to do with these mixed greens. They are bitter and tend to have lots of stems. The broccoli on the other hand is always fabulous and will probably get cooked tomorrow.

It was nice to stock up on milk and yogurt at the truck. Too bad I didn’t think to buy eggs. There’s always next time!

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 19

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Oct 122012

Today was a perfect autumn day for a CSA pickup. We had some logistical issues this week and at one point considered Solon, Mayfield, Beachwood, Hudson and Mentor as possible sites. We ended up making it to our normal spot at Mayfield. I was glad to visit with Kirsten and Robert for a bit during a slower time.

Here’s what we are expecting to receive:

1 dozen eggs
3# sweet potatoes
1 head cauliflower (some will be cheddar, purple, or green varieties)
1 head leaf lettuce
1 head baby Bok Choy
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 lb. chorizo sausage links
2# cornmeal
2 ct. red peppers
Red onion (s)
2 ct. zucchini
Approx. 1.5 lbs. tomatoes
2 ct. eggplant (or 1 if they are enormous)
1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
1 quarter peck Cortland apples

They were out of slicing tomatoes. I was happy since I was offered spinach as a replacement. I have too many tomatoes in the freezer already. Everything else on the list was dead on!

I’m behind on egg use a bit. I see some hardboiled ones in our future. Maybe I’ll make a small batch of deviled eggs for Sunday’s pig roast. We’ll use the peppers in eggs and salads this week.

Last year, we found that either Andouille or Chorizo could be used in this recipe. So, it’s definitely on the agenda for this week. I remember it being extremely delicious.

I tossed the pumpkin sage linguini in the freezer since we have a busy few days ahead. I’m sure it will be tasty. I’ve never met an Ohio City pasta that I didn’t like.

I’m going to make a veggie lasagna this week. I’ll use the squash and eggplant in that dish.

We haven’t picked any tomatoes from our garden lately. I’m sure these will be welcome snacks.

I’ll sauté the Bok Choy for Stephen one day. He likes the Asian flavors. The apples will be great for our oatmeal. We made all of our other apples into sauce.

The lettuce will go for salads. The cauliflower will make a great side dish with some chicken we have ready to eat in the fridge.

To make make room for our 1/2 lamb, I’m making a pot of chili. Some cornbread will make a nice side to go with it.

I’m glad it’s cooler out and love cooking this time of year.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 19

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Oct 092012

Next week will be our last pick up. The summer season has flown by.

Here’s what we received today:

apples, butternut squash

huge kohlrabi, garlic

bell peppers, broccoli

lettuce

Stephen and the kids picked 49 pounds of apples on Saturday. I’m in the process of making applesauce. I’ll probably add some of the apples from the share to it for variety. I’m going to make some puree out of the butternut squash. I’m also going to try a recipe I saw for butternut squash bean burritos. I’ll use this recipe as a base, but I won’t be making them vegan. I’ll use the garlic and peppers in them too. The broccoli was a side for dinner. All that’s left is a little bit that someone can have with lunch tomorrow. The lettuce will make a nice salad. It’s so fresh and crisp. I’m going to roast the kohlrabi with some beets and radishes that I have left in the fridge. I have a chicken thawed, so I will be turning on the over in the morning to cook a couple of meals ahead. I’m picking up 1/2 lamb this week and need to make some freezer space. There will be more to come on that purchase soon.

U-Pick Tour — Eddy’s Fruit Farm, Chesterland, OH

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Oct 062012

Today I took Nick and Sally to Eddy’s Fruit Farm in Chesterland to pick apples. We met a friend of Nick’s there, as well as his parents and grandmother. I enjoyed meeting them, and it turns out that his Dad and I have some links via my alma mater.

In any event, the purpose of the day was apples. As Lyn may have mentioned, the tree fruit crop this year was hurt badly by this spring’s weather. Some U-pick farms don’t have picking at all this year, while others, like Eddy’s, are open for picking fewer days than usual. That said, the picking was great today. The trees were laden with ripe apples. Here and there they were even bunched like grapes down a heavily-bent branch.

As usual, the picking on the low branches wasn’t very good near the entrance. There were still some to get up high (I’m over six feet tall, which helps) and, of course, the farthest corner of the orchard is always the least-picked.

We started with Golden Delicious. Nick spent some time picking with his friend, while Sally picked with me. She was full of giggles when she picked one apple and had the other one come along for the ride.

There was a chilly breeze blowing despite the sunny day, and Sally was cold. Worse, she was missing her nap, so she soon asked to ride in the stroller. A few minutes later, she asked, “Daddy, can I pick from the stroller?” I found a low-hanging branch and let her try. After she picked two of the four apples on that branch, she was done and ready to nestle under her blanket. We switched to picking some kind of red apple, and Nick decided to give one a try. It disappeared quickly, so it must be good.

We picked 49 pounds of apples, which comes to about a bushel and a quarter. I was impressed with our haul until Lyn told me it took 21 pounds of apples to can 7 quarts of applesauce. Ah, well, I can pat myself on the back for hauling all 49 pounds to the car while pushing a stroller and conversing with an inquisitive Nick. Yes, there are special skills daddies develop.

All in all, it was a good outing. We left a few apples on the trees, but if you go, be sure to call first to check hours and availability.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 18

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Oct 022012

Our CSA pick up was smooth today.

Here’s what we received:

Red Russian kale, romaine lettuce

Garlic, bell peppers

Apples, butternut squash

I feel like the share is a bit light this week. The lettuce will go into salads. We’ll use some peppers for snacking. I’ll chop the garlic and use it with the kale. The apples will be for snacking and oatmeal. I’m going to use some squash for soup and roast the rest as cubes. (I have two of them in our kitchen right now).

I’ve been extra busy the last couple of weeks. I’m anxious to get back to cooking more.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 17

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Sep 252012

The customer service booth was gone today when we arrived at Whole Foods. I guess that aren’t quite done with the remodel. Our sign out sheet for the CSA was easy to find, so the pick up was smooth.

Here’s what we received today:

Eggplant, green beans

Leaf lettuce, tomato

Bell peppers, PIE PUMPKIN!!!

Apples, basil

I’m going to roast the eggplant as a side dish. I’ll do it when I cook the pie pumpkin. We ate the green beans for dinner tonight. I’ll be using the bell peppers in fajitas tomorrow night. Some of the basil will go into salad dressing and the rest I’m going to puree with olive oil and freeze.

The lettuce will make great salads. We were almost out. I picked tomatoes at the garden today and this one will get combined with those for the freezer.

Between the apples and pie pumpkin – I’m in heaven this week.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 16

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Sep 182012

We did a little shopping at Whole Foods before picking up our share today. I’m so glad that the store remodel is complete. Everything seems like it’s in its place. Now, we just need to learn where those places are.

Here’s what we received today:

Bok choy, lettuce

Apples, slicing tomatoes

Hot peppers, red onions

Bell peppers, red Russian kale

I’m going out of town on Thursday and won’t return until Sunday night. So, I’ll be prepping items for the freezer or cooking them for the family to eat while I am gone.

I now have two heads of bok choy. I’m going to sauté them with garlic, onion and sesame oil for Stephen. The lettuce will get eaten in salad. The apples have been popular in oatmeal and for snacking. The tomatoes are going straight to the freezer with the romas that I picked from our garden today. I’ll be making a batch of sauce for canning before our lamb comes in from the butcher at the beginning of October.

I have no desire to deal with the hot peppers, so I am sending them to work with Stephen in hopes that someone there will put them to good use. I wish we had a swap table at Whole Foods where you could take and item and leave and item. One of our other CSAs used to do that and it was great.

I’ll chop and freeze any pepper and onion left before I leave on my trip. I’m just going to blanch the kale for later use in soup. We have plenty of greens out in the fridge already.

Lately, I feel like I’m preserving more than we’re eating, but some weeks are just like that.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 15

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Sep 112012

Two crabby kids and I picked up our CSA today. Nick just started preschool and has a shortened schedule for the first few days. Nick’s so excited that he’s exhausted and Sally didn’t have a nap. It was a rough day. Surprising, our pick up was smooth, but I knew better than to shop for anything at Whole Foods today.

Here’s what we received:

apples, green beans

bell peppers, onions

cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

yellow squash, bok choy

leaf lettuce

I’m so happy to see apples. We love apples in our house and I’ve been waiting for them to start showing up. Most of the local PYO is sparse this year. We’ll be enjoying them in oatmeal this week. The green beans will be a side dish for a meal tomorrow or Thursday.

I’m done with tomatoes, peppers and onions. We planted a community garden this year and our tomatoes are out of control – and I don’t like tomatoes. Actually, we’re ok on peppers since I didn’t pick them this year. We’ll be chopping and freezing them along with the onions. I love having local ones available throughout the winter. I’m mostly just freezing tomatoes right now. We have tons of sauce and I’m not sure what we’ll need next. I did make some great enchilada sauce this week. I don’t think I’ll ever buy store bought again.

One lonely squash will just get eaten in a stir fry with the bok choy and maybe some garlic and onion. Bok choy isn’t my favorite, but luckily Stephen likes the Asian flavors.

We’ll use the lettuce in salad. We might even have BLTs this week with some local bacon. I think everyone would like them as long as we hold the T for Sally and I.

I’m hoping for fewer tomatoes next week.

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 9

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Feb 162012

We had a productive day today. The kids and I went to story time at the library, cleaned two bathrooms, did the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, went to the gas station, the post office and two stores. All of this occurred before lunch! After nap time, we took Nick to his swim lesson and then picked up our Fresh Fork CSA (where I put the cold items in a cooler with ice) before returning to the J so I could take a class. Whew! No wonder I’m tired.

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

1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 pint frozen raspberries
1 quart farmstead yogurt
1 8-oz. piece gouda cheese
1 1lb bag of granola, either Krispy treat or spelt granola (vegan)
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 quarter peck gold rush apples
1 package tofu

Here’s a group shot:

The chicken is in the freezer. I had just cooked our last chicken this week and we still have stock in the fridge. We’ll probably cook it soon since it takes up quite a bit of room. The greens look really good this week, so some more salad will be in the mix.

I am always glad to see yogurt. We’ve been buying this brand at Heinen’s whenever there isn’t any on the truck. I love that my kids eat plain yogurt with a bit of homemade honey sweetened jam. We’ll use the apples in our oatmeal for breakfasts. We were down to our last one today.

My kids were happily surprised to see “more raspberries”. We haven’t been getting them in our CSA, but we have been eating frozen ones from our summer picking for the past few days at home. They have been very popular, so I don’t expect these to last long. There was a problem with a truck this week, so we were given a choice of waiting until the next pick up for the Yukon gold potatoes or taking sweet potatoes. We love sweet potatoes and already had some white potatoes at home, so we opted for the sweet potatoes.

All of the local cheese we have received has been great. Gouda is one of our favorites. The tofu is a new product for the CSA. I’ve poled several people and everyone describes it differently. The best description that I have heard so far is that it’s really firm, but crumbly. I plan to freeze it and make tofu sausage crumble with it. I also heard that I need to freeze it for two weeks. So, that’s what I’m going to try.

The granola is one of my favorites. I bought an extra bag for $5 because it’s so good.

All in all, we have another great batch of local goods to work with. I’m going to do some meal planning in the next day or two so we can use our pantry staples and new products for some tasty dishes.

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