Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 7

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Jul 202012
 

We picked up our bag in Beachwood yesterday.  Some weeks, it’s just more convenient for us.  I love the colors in this week’s bag.

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Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

  • 1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
  • 1 piece Havarti from Mayfield Road Creamery (8 oz.)
  • 2 ct. zucchini or squash
  • 1 bunch carrots or 1 bunch beets (switching from last week)
  • 1 lb. whole wheat linguini
  • 6 ears sweet corn
  • 1 lb green beans
  • 1-2 bulb onions depending on size
  • 1 lb. apricots
  • 2 lbs. peaches
  • Approx. 1.5 lbs. tomatoes
  • 1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes
  • 1 pint blueberries

We were missing our blueberries.  I’m hoping to stop by Mayfield today and pick them up.  We are a bit overstocked on eggs at the moment.  My niece and nephew are coming next week and they love eggs, so I think it will all even out.  I packed some of the tomatoes in Stephen’s lunch this morning.  I doubt any will be left by tomorrow.

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I’m actually keeping up with onions.  These are the only two that we have in our fridge.  I’m guessing they will just be used in regular cooking this week.  I’m hoping to grill zucchini for dinner tomorrow.

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These tomatoes will probably be made into tomato béchamel sauce for our pasta.  It’s convenient that we received carrots this week too.

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Peaches and apricots disappear around here quickly.  Nick likes to do a magic trick where the apricot turns into a pit.  If there are any left tomorrow, we’ll grill some with our zucchini.

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Everyone in our house loves cheese, so there’s never a need to figure out a plan.  The pasta will be an easy meal for lunch on Sunday with the sauce.

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The beans will make a good side dish for dinner tonight, along with the corn.

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I’ve also been buying yogurt and milk from the truck.  Between the CSA and the extras, our fridge is packed today.  It sure beats shopping at the grocery store.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 6

CSA 1 Response »
Jul 132012
 

Due to some other plans today, we picked up our bag yesterday.  The flexibility is awesome.

WOW, I need to get a better photo set up as I am having trouble fitting everything in one frame!  This week’s bag is great.  I’m still getting used to the vast amount of stuff in a large vs. the small that we subscribed to last year.  I’d never go back to the small.

Here’s my attempt at a group shot.

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Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 1 head leaf lettuce
  • 2 ct cucumbers
  • 2-3 zucchini/squash
  • 1 head red cabbage
  • About 3 tomatoes, depending on size
  • 1 lb. apricots
  • 1 bunch beets or 1 bunch carrots (rotating for the next two weeks, everyone will get each)
  • 2 lbs. peaches
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 1 lb. green beans
  • 1 package of ravioli
  • 1 bunch Swiss chard

Our chicken was partially thawed.  I’m guessing that was due to the excessive heat yesterday.  So, instead of putting it straight in the freezer, it’s thawing in our fridge.  That made fitting everything in the fridge a bit challenging, but we managed.  I’m hoping to cut it up and have Stephen grill it for dinner tomorrow.  We’ll see how that goes.  Usually, I roast them whole.  I’m going to cut the onions up and freeze them.

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I’m not sure about the red cabbage.  I may use some of it in a slaw, but I need to do a bit more research.  The cucumbers have been great for salads and snacking.  I keep thinking about making some pickles, but they keep disappearing.

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We’ll grill the zucchini with the chicken.  The apricots almost didn’t make it through dinner.  After packing lunches today, there’s one left.

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The peaches have been great for snacking or in our oatmeal.  These need another day or two to ripen.  With our abundance of lettuce, the tomatoes will be great in the salads (for Nick and Stephen).

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I made a simple white sauce to go with the spinach and garlic scape pasta last night.  The pasta was on the strong side, but it was definitely tasty.  You can’t really tell from this photo, but this is the biggest head of lettuce ever.

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After going to the Beet class last week, I’m excited to make puree and freeze it for future pizza!  These are the best beet greens that I’ve ever seen.  I’m going to use them tomorrow so I can enjoy them.  The four of us finished the blueberries this morning at breakfast.  It’s a good thing that I picked 15 pounds for the freezer this week.

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The green beans have been tasty this year.  These will make a great side dish with one of our chicken meals.  I’ll probably use the Swiss chard in some eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

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This weekend is all about using up the bulk.  Our fridge is overflowing with fresh goodness.  Hopefully, by Sunday night, we’ll have it a bit more under control.

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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 9

CSA No Responses »
Jul 282011
 

Today was week number 9 for our Fresh Fork CSA.  Robert who works at the truck was back today.  He seems to be going better.  It was nice and smooth to have him in his usual position.  There was only one person ahead of us and everything was smooth at pick up.

As usual, we received our list of contents on Tuesday.  It’s nice to know what we have to work with between our CSAs by Tuesday night.

Here’s what we were expecting:

Small CSA:

  • 1 package Mild Italian Sausage links, 4 to a pack
  • 1.5 lbs apricots
  • 1.5 lbs Red Haven peaches
  • 1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
  • 6 ears Mira 301 Super Sweet corn
  • 1 candy onion
  • 1 head leaf lettuce
  • 1 lb green beans
  • 1 bunch kale, either Curly or Black Tuscan

Here’s a group shot:

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Apparently, the Italian sausage is really good.  I don’t think we’ve had it yet.  Always happy to see peaches.

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We still have onions to chop and freeze and the corn is already gone.

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We were almost out of lettuce, so I see a couple of salads in our future.  I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh apricots and certainly not local ones.  I’m looking forward to having one at breakfast.

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Curly kale might make for another batch of kale chips,  The last batch was ok, but I’ve read a few other variations lately and may have to experiment again this weekend.  I’m in love with local eggs and just used our last two yesterday, so these were especially nice to get.

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Everyone in our house likes green beans.

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In addition to our small, we purchased 2 packages of chicken brats.  These were $7 each.  They were amazing when we had them in our box a few weeks back.  We’re having company next weekend and I stuck these in the freezer for grilling.  We also paid for our cream cheese ($5) that we picked up 2 weeks ago.

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I’m happy that we had a week off of squash and tomatoes.  I still have some to use up from our Tuesday CSA pickup.  Next week we are “on vacation” from Fresh Fork and I hope that gives us a little extra time to regroup and make sure we are caught up in the fridge.