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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA – week 3

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.

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.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 2

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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.

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!

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 6

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Jan 052012

Today, there was no rain for our Fresh Fork CSA pick up. There was also no line at the time we arrived. This week’s package was also easier to pack than some and I think that helped. We’d rather have snow on the ground that rain coming down for our pick ups.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 lb. carrots
1 lb. Brussels sprouts (removed from stalk)
2 lb.s beets
1/2 lb. mixed organic greens
1 dozen pasture raised eggs
2 lbs. organic black turtle beans
1 smoked pork hock
1 lb. roasted butternut squash and cracked black pepper linguini

We were also expecting 1 pound of ground beef that was missed for everyone at Beachwood last time.

Here’s a group shot:

We didn’t have many eggs left and use quite a bit in everyday cooking. So, I was glad to have these in the bag this week. I also have some frozen egg beaters that I need to work into some recipes soon. Surprise, surprise, we’ll be making Harvard Beets with the beets this week.

I was originally going to make this pasta for dinner, but we had other pasta in the fridge and opted for a quicker dinner tonight. The Ohio City pasta cooks fast, but I usually make a white sauce to go with it and the leftovers were easy tonight. We’ll save that for another day this week. Everyone in our house loves cooked carrots. Now that Stephen can eat raw ones again (since getting his braces removed), we may have to discuss how to prepare them.

We’ll have the Brussels sprouts tomorrow. Last time, we let them go too long and I think they lost some of their flavor. The greens will hopefully go into salad. I’m not the biggest fan of this variety, but I need to get better of just eating them.

With pork hock and black beans in the same week, black bean soup is in order. I’ve been looking at recipes for a couple of days and haven’t quite decided on a version for us yet.

Our chicken is 7.8 pounds! That is definitely the biggest Fresh Fork chicken we have have gotten thus far. For now it’s parked in the freezer along with our ground beef.

Lastly, the warehouse did a “blow out” sale on the ham loaf. We remembered it fondly so I stocked up. It was $2 a pound. I like to describe it to people as ham based meatloaf mix. I will be making meatballs and muffin size meatloaves with some yet to be invented rhubarb honey BBQ sauce and then freezing them for meals. I’ll serve them with potatoes, different grains, pasta, etc. I like to bake them and freeze in big batches so we can get several meals out of them.

Lastly, this is the first time that I got to take photos of my CSA pick up with my new lights. I think that I have tons to learn, but it’s a huge improvement over the dark photos of recent weeks. I’m mostly intrigued by how different the wood table looks in the photos when I think I had the same lighting and camera settings for all of my photos. I think that the angle of the camera has a big impact. I think I’ll be learning how to use a tripod next. Hopefully, I’ll have a some time to experiment over the next couple of weeks.

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 6

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Dec 172011

It’s hard to believe that this was the last Geauga Family Farms CSA pick up for the winter. Once again, Stephen and the kids went to St. Noel to pick up our share. I had a scheduled hike that began at 10AM in Ashtabula County.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Wheat bread (not 100%), Swiss chard

Radishes, very large sweet potato

Lettuce, spinach

Cabbage, turnip

Beets

We were getting pretty low on produce. Before this pick up we had a small head of cabbage and a little bit of lettuce left. Most of these items are quite welcome in our fridge.

We’ve had many meals out this week, but I’m happy to say that after tonight, I don’t have any meals planned out this entire week. Eating at home will make it very easy to use our veggies.

I’ll probably make unstuffed cabbage again. It’s easy and freezes well. Stephen sliced the bread so we could freeze it. I’ll make Harvard beets again. It’s an easy recipe and everyone likes them.

I never know what to do with the turnip, but last time I made some turnip and potato soup that turned out well, so I am guessing that will make an encore appearance.

The spinach will get used in a pasta dish or quiche this week. We’ve been cooking the chard with some onion, spice and Balsamic vinegar.

I’m looking forward to cooking a few local fresh meals at home.

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 5

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Dec 102011

The kids and Stephen went up to St. Noel’s today to pick up week 5 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. Next week is the last pickup for the winter share. Today’s pickup was particularly great.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Butternut squash, sweet potatoes

Eggs (Yeah!), garlic

Broccoli, carrots

Red cabbage, beets

Two kinds of lettuce

Wheat bread

We have quite a few squash right now. I will be baking most of them tomorrow and making squash puree for the freezer. We also have quite a few sweet potatoes. The kids really like the baked sweet potato slices, so we’ll be making them again soon.

Eggs we use in everyday cooking and they are always welcome. We have quite a bit of garlic frozen, but this is our only fresh piece. I’ll be putting it in chili this week.

The broccoli and carrots both went into Shepherd’s pie tonight. It was delicious. I used local butter, potatoes, ground beef, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

I don’t have any immediate plans for the cabbage, but something will come to me soon. The beets will be combined with some others in the fridge for Harvard beets.

We had some of the lettuce in salad today and will probably use the rest in a day or two. The wheat bread is almost 1/2 gone. It made nice peanut butter and apple butter toast for snacks today.

I’ll be sad to see this CSA end next week.

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 4

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Dec 032011

Today was the 4th pick up for the winter Geauga Family Farms CSA. Stephen took the kids for the pick up while I made a quick Kohl’s trip. We met up back at home where I quickly photographed before we headed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Ironically, I had a class about sustainable eating and supporting the local food movement!

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Leaf lettuce, apples

Loaf of pumpkin bread, potatoes

Butternut squash, red leaf lettuce

Bok choy, collard greens

Beets

Aside for some mandarin oranges from yesterday’s Whole Food sale, a few potatoes and a couple of onions, we were out of everything fresh. So, today’s pick up was welcome in our fridge.

Both of the lettuces will go into salad. I’m thinking of using some leftover chorizo and beans and making some type of Mexican inspired salad. The apples will go into oatmeal. When we have apples available, we use them in our oatmeal. The rest of the time we use frozen or home-canned fruit.

Half of the pumpkin bread is already gone. It’s extremely good. We’ll have the potatoes as part of dinner one night this week. Since butternut squash is one that can be peeled, I’ll probably roast it in chunks with cinnamon, pepper and olive oil.

I’ve been making Asian bok choy for Stephen with garlic and sesame oil. He seems to like it and it gives him an Asian dish. Sesame is not really my thing.

I haven’t decided on a collards dish yet. We’ve tried several. It’s still hit or miss on whether we like the end product. Clearly, I need a consistent go to recipe for them.

We haven’t made Harvard beets lately, so I’ll be making them this week.

Originally, we were supposed to get eggs each week. They have new chickens and the production has not been as anticipated. I was surprised that we didn’t get them this week since we didn’t have a pick up last week. But, I have more than a dozen left from our other CSA, so we aren’t out yet.

We also placed an add on order for a half gallon of local maple syrup ($25). I’ve been reading up on making maple coated pecans and some eggnog type of beverages that used maple instead of sugar, so I thought we should stock up. It’s hard to believe that new maple syrup will be available in less than 4 months.

It’s nice to be stocked back up on fresh items. It’s hard to believe that there is only 2 weeks left of this short winter CSA.

A Fresh Fork Market Thanksgiving Package

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Nov 232011

While I picked up my regular share yesterday, I also picked up a Thanksgiving package from my Fresh Fork CSA. There were 3 to pick from and I choose package number 1. I debated whether to get a package since we don’t usually cook Thanksgiving dinner. We go to my uncle’s house. I discussed it with my husband and we decided to try it out. Let’s just say we will be eating well for a couple of weeks.

Here’s a group shot of what we received. It was hard to get everything in one photo!

We were expecting the following:

Package 1 Contents:

Tom Turkey
Apple Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Beets
Carrots
Candy Onions
Sweet Potatoes
Red Norland Potatoes
Shallots
Garlic
Dinner Rolls
Turnips
Cauliflower
Lettuce
Bread for Stuffing
Eggs
Winter Squash Mix
Cornmeal
Pie Pumpkin
Frozen Ohio Sweet Corn
Bacon
Braising Greens
Apple Cider
Apples
White Spelt Flour

Let’s take a closer look.

The pies look awesome. The apple pie is made with Ohio apples and came from Humble Pie Baking. It came with instructions for a little bit of additional baking time before serving. We are taking it with us to my uncle’s house. The sweet potato pie came from Lucky’s Café. We didn’t need the pie at my uncle’s house and I didn’t need a whole pie here. So, I sent it to work with my husband this morning sans a piece. The kids and I shared a piece with lunch. It is one of the best pies that I ever tasted! I’m extra glad that it went to work with my husband today.

We hardly ever by grocery store eggs. The farm fresh ones are so good. We also like knowing where they came from. We were almost out of eggs until our delivery. We’ll use some in our waffles this weekend, my sweet potatoes for tomorrow, hard boil some and use some for regular everyday cooking. The frozen corn is a new item. This corn was frozen this summer when it was in season. I just popped it in our freezer. We probably won’t try it for a week or two as we make our way through our fresh items.

The bacon is always great. I just put it in the freezer. We’ll use some with our stuffing recipe and some with our greens. If there is any left, we’ll crumble it on our salad. We were out of apples and already have eaten some on our oatmeal for breakfast. These won’t last long in our house.

We received whole wheat flour instead of spelt. Either is fine with us. We use almost all whole wheat flour in our house, so the change was welcome. We tried a couple of rolls with dinner last night. They were very tasty and buttery. We put the rest in the freezer. My kids love bread and these will be easy to give them with lunches.

Winter squash is one of my favorite foods. It’s so versatile and delicious. These should store well and are not on my immediate radar to use up. This bread looks great. It’s intended for stuffing, but I have a feeling it may become French toast or squash inspired bread pudding instead. For now, it’s in the freezer.

The lettuce is super fresh. Some went to work for my husband’s lunch. The rest will probably be served with dinner. These heads of garlic are HUGE! We are in garlic overload this year. I’m not sure why we have so much, but if I can’t get it used soon, I’ll chop and freeze it. I mostly just need to remember to put it into dishes.

I enjoy cooking with shallots. They have a milder flavor than onions and compliment other flavors well. For now, these are being stored in our basement. Turnips will probably go into soup. I don’t have a great go to recipe for them yet.

Our local, pasture raised turkey came to us fresh from Martha’s farm. This bird weighed in at 22.8 pounds. They were just processed on Monday. Since we aren’t cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I’m interested in trying a turkey sausage recipe, we are freezing our bird in several pieces. I’ll be making some of it for dinner tonight and we’ll get many meals out of this big bird. The braising greens will get sautéed as a side in the next couple of days.

The corn meal is a great pantry item. Nick loves corn muffins and we haven’t made them much lately. They’ll be a great use for some of this corn meal, eggs and whole wheat flour. The carrots look super fresh. Everyone in our house likes carrots and we’re having them for dinner tonight.

Cauliflower is so easy for us to use. Everyone likes it. I usually do it plain, with a few seasoning or in a simple au gratin recipe. With a head here and in our regular pickup, maybe we’ll have it three different ways this week. With the beets, I’ll make a small batch of Harvard beets.

We’ll be having our fill of mashed sweet potato casserole tomorrow, so these will probably get baked into fries for lunch one day next week. The kids love them with Ozark blend and cinnamon spices.

After I got home and sorted out all of our goodies,

I realized that we were missing or short on a few items. We were missing onions, potatoes, pie pumpkin and apple cider. We were short some apples and cornmeal. A quick email to the great guys at Fresh Fork and they’ll remedy it at the next pickup. I was given an option to pick it up at another site today, but I’m in no rush. We have plenty to last us for a while.

Our pick up was not the best yesterday. It was extra busy with the regular shares, holiday packages, turkeys, pies and LOTS OF RAIN. We had to wait for a while, but everyone in line was chatting and taking it in stride. Even the kids just liked running around in the rain.

The food always tastes amazing and the people who work the truck are super nice. I already can’t wait to see what they offer for Christmas. Berkshire ham anyone?

Geauga Family Farms Winter CSA–week 2

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Nov 122011

Today was our pick up for week 2 of the winter Geauga Family Farms CSA. We had a full schedule for today and I just ran up to St. Noel without the kids to pick it up first thing this morning.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Potatoes, bok choy

Radishes, beets

Acorn squash, apples

1/2 dozen eggs, 2 small heads of lettuce

Dozen of chocolate chip cookies

We have quite a supply of potatoes at the moment. I’ll be rotating these into our storage and trying to make a couple of potato recipes this week. I’m thinking that some kind of Shepard’s pie may be in order. The last time we got bok choy, I cooked it in the crock pot with Asian spices (ginger and sesame oil) and served it to my husband with soba noodles and pork. He liked it. The rest of the family isn’t big on the sesame flavor.

We’re going to roast radishes this week. We’re also going to make Harvard beets. I think I have 2 bunches of both in the fridge right now.

Acorn squash is one of my favorite squash. I’ve been making a rue and adding squash puree and seasonings for use over whole wheat pasta. It will be lunch a couple of days this week.

We’re still using apples in our oatmeal everyday while the season is still here.

We were out of eggs and I’m cooking my dish ahead for Thanksgiving tomorrow so the eggs will disappear quickly. The lettuce will be eaten with salad.

The cookies are GONE!

Looks like another week of great, fresh, local food!

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