Geauga Family Farms Winter CSA–week 1

CSA 2 Responses »
Nov 052011
 

Today was our first pickup for our winter Geauga Family Farms CSA.  For the 6 week winter program, our pick up is on Saturday at St. Noel church in Willoughby.  For the most part, this works well for us although there is the occasional time when we have other plans on Saturday and would prefer not to bother.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

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2 types of lettuce

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Sweet potatoes, green onions

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Lacinato blue kale, wheat bread

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Daikon radish, green bell pepper

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Cabbage, acorn squash

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We’ll enjoy the lettuce in salads this week.  We have some other salad greens as well and they will mix nicely together.  We can’t get enough sweet potatoes.  Lately, I’ve just been slicing and baking them.  We have been using the onions and pepper in unstuffed cabbage and will make that again this week.

By the way, I had no idea we had lacinato blue kale.  I was able to check with the farm reps and get a speedy reply!  I’ll probably cook it like my other greens.  I usually saute them with garlic, onions, peppers and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

The Daikon radish always stumps me.  We’ve made “chips” and soup before.  I’ll have to see what strikes me this week.

I was surprised that we didn’t get eggs.  I thought we were going to get a dozen eggs and a baked good each week.  I’m guessing that with the abundance of other items still available that we will get eggs some of the future weeks.  I’ve been enjoying the local eggs, but I wasn’t out yet.

It looks like a great week!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 20 (double up!)

CSA No Responses »
Oct 132011
 

Today, we picked up week 20 our of Fresh Fork CSA.  Unlike last week, we had a great pick up.  Both kids were in a good mood.  The weather was great and everything was smooth.  To make up for one of our vacation weeks, we did a double up this week.  Basically, we picked up 2 small shares this week.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive this week (times two):

Small CSA:

  • 1 lb. ground veal
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes
  • 1 large head of cabbage
  • 1 bunch collard greens
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 2 ct. bell peppers
  • 2 ct. eggplant

Here’s a group shot (of one set, you can imagine it double):

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Since we have 4 eggplant, I am planning a vegetable lasagna with mostly eggplant and whole wheat noodles.  We haven’t had much cauliflower this year.  We’ll be making a cauliflower au gratin dish that uses parmesan cheese and bread crumbs for a crumbly topping over the steamed cauliflower.

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Both heads of cabbage are huge!  We’ll be making stuffed cabbage of some sort.  Usually, I end up making unstuffed cabbage since I’m not that great of actually making the rolls.  We’ll also probably make some cabbage soup and some coleslaw.  Last week, I made collard wraps with our collards.  They turned out pretty good so maybe I’ll make them again and change up the filling.  These collards and cabbage look especially good and fresh.

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We put some bell pepper in our cabbage dish and freeze the rest.  We also have 2 packages of ground pork and veal.  I think Stephen is going to make meatloaf and the rest of the meat will go in our cabbage dish.

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We also purchased 2 of the yogurts.  We still had $1.50 to use from our week 17 vacation and we were out of yogurt, so I picked up two and paid the $8.50 balance.

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I was disappointed that we didn’t get grape tomatoes in either share.  I thought I saw some at the truck, but the weeks are starting to run together.  I’ve emailed Fresh Fork about them.

We did sign up for the winter CSA and also for a Thanksgiving share.  We’ll have plenty of good eats on the horizon after the summer season ends in two weeks.

Geauga Family Farms–week 13

CSA No Responses »
Sep 062011
 

Today, we picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA.  I was glad that we remembered it was Tuesday.  It feels like a Monday since yesterday was the Labor Day Holiday.  It’s week 13 already.  I think we have 20 weeks total.

Here’s what we received:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Cabbage, sweet corn

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Potatoes, yummy SWEET oranges peppers

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Swiss chard, watermelon!

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2 varieties of leaf lettuce

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Tomatoes, yellow squash

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Carrots, green peppers

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This week looks superb!  Everything was vibrant, fresh, and we had a rainbow of colors in our box.

I’m hoping that we get apples from our other CSA this week and I can make my coleslaw recipe with the cabbage.  I have all of the other ingredients on hand.  I’ll be cooking the sweet corn tomorrow or Thursday.

After juicing 100 pounds of Roma tomatoes for sauce over the weekend, this amount of tomatoes doesn’t seem like very many to me.  I’ll probably just use a couple in salad and juice the rest for some ketchup or BBQ sauce.

I don’t really have specific plans for the other items, but we’ll be eating well this week!

PS – Yes, we got another watermelon.  Yes, I am HAPPY about it!

Geauga Family Farms–week 11

CSA No Responses »
Aug 232011
 

Wow, we had pick up #11 today for the Geauga Family Farms CSA.  We had 14 different items!

Here’s what we received:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Green bell peppers, onions

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Hot pepper, yellow squash

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Pickling cucumbers, peaches

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Yellow beans, basil

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Beets, watermelon

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Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes

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Eggplant, cabbage

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We didn’t do too badly last week, but we had company this weekend and I feel a little bit behind.  It’s really because of peach and tomato picking, not the CSA items.  I finally canned the tomatoes yesterday and I’m finishing the peaches now.

With this week’s CSA items, I see some coleslaw in our future since we got cabbage today and we are getting apples on Thursday.  I’ll make some pasta sauce with the tomatoes, basil, eggplant and squash and we’ll have that with pasta for a meal.  I’ll probably add that hot pepper too.

I’ll also be making some more pickles.  I think we ate all of the ones from the last batch, so that’s timely.

I think this week is easy, especially since we don’t have any meals out planned.

Geauga Family Farms–week 8

CSA 2 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

Today was the 8th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA.

Here’s what we received:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Zucchini, cucumber

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Eggplant, cabbage

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Onion, yellow squash

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Tomatoes, cauliflower

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Blackberries, cherry tomatoes

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Hot peppers, Roma tomatoes

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Basil, lettuce

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Lettuce

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I’m thinking that a gluten free chili mac dish might be in order when my in laws visit this weekend.  I saw all of the tomatoes and immediately thought chili or sauce.  With the chili route, I could use the onion, peppers and tomatoes in one shot.  The basil will be dried or frozen for use in sauce in the upcoming weeks.  We were almost out of lettuce, so it’s nice to be stocked up for salads.  The cabbage will go into cole slaw along with the head I have from our other CSA.  The cauliflower will get eaten for lunch tomorrow.  I’m not sure about the other ingredients.  We will make an effort to use or preserve everything by Friday night as we have company for the weekend and we don’t want anything to go bad!

Geauga Family Farms–week 6

CSA 2 Responses »
Jul 192011
 

Today we had another pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA.  It’s week 6 already.  The amount of produce has really picked up the last couple of weeks.

Here’s what we received in our family share:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Black cherry tomatoes, cucumber

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Pickling cucumbers, potatoes

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Blueberries, green onions

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Onions, peppers (probably hot!)

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Cabbage, red raspberries

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Lettuce, Swiss chard

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Tomatoes, zucchini

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Yellow squash

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Personally, I’m not much of a tomato fan (unless they are in BBQ sauce, ketchup or pasta sauce), but the black cherry tomatoes were my husband’s favorite last year, so I was happy to see them today.  The pickles we made a couple of weeks back should be ready, so we’ll eat them this week and make some more with today’s share.  I bought some whole wheat lasagna noodles at the beginning of the season.  I think this is the week for veggie lasagna with squash as the highlight.

Some of our raspberries were moldy,  I sorted them and used the good ones in raspberry lemonade this evening.  It’s so refreshing on a hot day like today.  The blueberries probably won’t make it past breakfast in the morning.

I’m going to assume the peppers are hot.  Last year, almost all of the peppers that we received were hot.  I had a tough time using them since my kids and I don’t really like HOT.  For the most part, I ended up chopping and freezing them and then putting them in crockpot recipes like chili a bit at a time.

Have a great week!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 5

CSA No Responses »
Jun 302011
 

Today was the 5th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA.  We were expecting the following items.

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:

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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.

 

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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!

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