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.

Small CSA:

• 1 bulb onion, candy variety
• 1 head German white porcelain garlic
• 1 lb green beans or sugar snap peas
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 2 ct zucchini
• 2 ct squash
• Approx 2 lbs sweet cherries
• 1 pint black raspberries
• Approx 1.5 lbs slicing tomatoes
• 1 lb garlic chive linguini
• 1 cucumber

Here is what we received:

We were able to request beans instead of peas.  That worked out well for us since we got peas on Tueday.  We didn’t receive cilantro or zucchini, but we have an extra cucumber.  I don’t usually know if these are packing errors or if the order was shorted.  So, I’ll email to ask about it.  I am surprised that we didn’t get lettuce this week, but it’s also starting to get hot, so we can expect a few weeks without it at some point until the weather cools off again.  We’ll see what next week brings.  We still have lettuce from our other CSA this week and plenty of other veggies to eat.

In addition to the above, we bought another bag of corn chips ($3) to have with our taco dinner this weekend.

Menu Planning for upcoming meals:

• taco filling with local ground beef, onions, tomatoes, garlic, carrots
• roast from earlier week (freezer) with roasted carrots, beets, onion, kohlrabi
• zucchini and yellow squash fritters or baked fries
• more coleslaw
• chicken with green beans
• quiche with collards or maybe a sauté of collards
• salad with cucumbers, radishes
• tofu marinated stir fry with peas, cabbage, onions

Except for milk and bananas, we haven’t needed anything at the grocery store lately.  We love our fresh produce.

Small CSA:

• 1 bunch beets with tops
• 1 bunch carrots with tops
• 1 head cabbage
• 2 ct zucchini
• 2 ct squash
• 1-2 cucumbers depending on size
• 1 quart yogurt
• 1 head bibb lettuce
• Approx 1.5 lbs tomatoes
• Approx 2 lbs sweet black cherries
• 1 lb grassfed ground beef

Here is what we received:

So, it looks like the black raspberries were an unexpected bonus this week.  Everything looks fabulous.  We’ll be feasting well for the holiday weekend.

In addition to the above, I had placed an order for extras via the Fresh Fork website.  It worked well.  I ordered maple syrup, oats, 2 wheat flour, chorizo sausage, whole wheat linguini and 2 bunches of spinach.  It was just under $30.  I probably wouldn’t order the flour again since I didn’t realize they were one pound packages.  The oats are just to try in a granola recipe.  The spinach was the most delicious spinach that I ever had last week and I have the perfect recipe for it (along with the pasta), and we weren’t expecting any this week.   We also really enjoyed the chorizo two weeks ago and I was glad that it was in stock this week.

Between two CSA pick ups and the field night this week, our fridge is well stocked with veggies.  I’ve put together a simple lists of dishes to prepare this weekend in hopes to use many of the items up.

Menu Planning for CSA items this week:

• Camembert / brie herbed cheese over spinach and linguini
• Kolhrabi/radish au gratin
• Salad with quinoa, beans, chorizo, etc.
• Harvard beets
• Summer squash fritters or baked squash fries
• Carrots
• Cole slaw (with apples, onion, cabbage, etc.)
• Salads (with cucumber, radishes, red pepper)
• Stuffed cousa squash (with quinoa or rice and ground beef, onion, etc.)
• Beet greens
• Foil pack glazed carrots

It will be a weekend full of cooking and eating local!