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Geauga Family Farms–summer week 8

Jul 242012

Today, I took 4 kids with me to pick up the Geauga Family Farms CSA at Whole Foods. Since my niece and nephew are here, we had two extra with us. It was not our smoothest pick up because Aunt Lyn / mommy camp is really wearing out the kids. Everyone was tired and grumpy.

Here’s what we received in our single share:

lettuce, patty pan squash

green pepper, onion

cherry tomatoes, potatoes

green beans, fennel

I was quite happy to see lettuce in the share this week. We’ve been out since Saturday. We’ll roast the patty pan squash and stuff it for lunch one day soon. I like to use some sausage, rice or egg and veggies in a stuffing.

The green pepper will go into our salad and also be used for snacking. I’m going to probably just chop up the onion and freeze it. The cherry tomatoes will go to lunch with Stephen the next couple of days. I’ll probably make some mashed potatoes and green beans for dinner tomorrow.

In 4 years of doing different CSA programs, I received fennel for the first time today. I’m anxious to read a little about it and pick out a good recipe or two. I’m hoping that I can find something with ingredients that I already have on hand so I can use it tomorrow!

Other than the fennel, this is a pretty straight forward week. I’m hoping for fruit next week!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 7

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Jul 172012

It’s week 7 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. We made our pick up at Whole Foods and headed home as quickly as possible since it’s 97 degrees outside.

Here’s what we received in our small share this week:

tomatoes, pickling cucumbers

onions, cucumbers

zucchini, cherry tomatoes

beets, lettuce

green beans

I think we’ve passed the heavy greens part of the season with all of the heat lately. I suspect, we’ll see more greens when the weather cools toward the end of the CSA season. The tomatoes will be great for salads. Stephen and Nick like them. Sally and I do not. If anyone has any tips on learning to like the texture of tomatoes, please let me know.

I’m going to make refrigerator pickles with both types of cucumbers this week. I need to slice the onion for a cabbage dish that I am going to make. I used the reserved onions in tonight’s dinner, so I need to replenish. I had some squash grilled at an event this past weekend, so I decided to just make zucchini straight up tonight. I’m not sure what I don’t eat it like that more often. This week’s zucchini will be eaten with minimal preparation.

I’m going to venture out of my comfort zone on the beets and try to use one raw on some salad. I may also use some on a quesadilla of sorts. I’ll let you know how it turns out. The beet greens weren’t worth keeping this week.

The lettuce will go to salad and the beans will be a great side dish in the next day or two. I was sad that we didn’t receive any fruit this week. I was expecting blueberries. The ones we received the last couple of weeks were so good. I have plans to go picking on Thursday, so I’ll be able to replenish our supply then.

With all of my preparations over the weekend, I feel very caught up in the kitchen and ready to tackle this week’s share.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 6

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Jul 102012

Today, we had pick up number 6 for our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The Whole Food pick up has been different this year. There’s not one person from Whole Foods manning the pick up. It’s more of a self serve in the back room and stop at the desk to check off your name. It’s fine in the back room, the kids and I miss seeing Andrew.

Here’s what we received this week:

cherry tomatoes, blueberries

tomato, squash (yellow squash and zucchini)

cucumber, onion

lettuce, cauliflower

green beans, basil

Stephen and Nick will probably eat all of the cherry tomatoes tomorrow. I’m glad that’s one item that I never have to worry about. We are also going to get some out of our garden this year. We’re psyched about that. The blueberries made me smile. I picked 7 pounds of blueberries today, so this container doesn’t seem like much to me. I froze most of what I picked already. These will be used on cereal at breakfast or snacks tomorrow. Nick is in camp this week and has to pack a snack and lunch. I’ve been trying to give him as many good local items as possible.

I’m going to try squash chips with the squash this week. I’ve read a few recipes on line and will create my own version of them. I hope that I can get enough moisture out of them to make them crunchy. The tomato and lettuce will go in salads. The cucumber will be chopped up for snacks.

We have quite a bit of onion at the moment. I’ll try to make fajitas this week. We still have pepper strips frozen that need used up anyway. I’m in the mood for homemade whole wheat tortillas so that will work out well.

We’ll have the cauliflower as a side dish one day this week. We had the beans with dinner tonight. They were absolutely delicious and there’s just enough left to put a few in Stephen’s lunch tomorrow.

The basil looks a bit tired, but I’m sure it will be tasty. I’m going to make a vinaigrette dressing with it.

I haven’t really tried many actual recipes lately. I’m planning to carve out some more time for cooking in the next couple of weeks. I feel like I’m still adjusting from being away on vacation. I’m already looking forward to next week’s share.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 14

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Sep 012011

We picked up our Fresh Fork CSA today.

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

Small CSA:

6 ears super sweet Miria 301 corn
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 lb. grass fed ground beef
2 ct. green bell peppers
1 lb. green beans
Approx. 1.5 lbs. Flaming Fury Lucky 13 and John Boy peaches (freestone peaches)
2 ct. cucumbers
2 ct. yellow summer squash (probably last of the summer already)
8 oz. bag or bunch of kale
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes

Here’s a group shot:

Our beef was partially thawed by the time we got home, so I am going to cook it tomorrow. We’ll probably make potato salad for the holiday weekend with the potatoes.

We have these 6 ears of corn, plus a few left from our Tuesday pick up, so we will be having corn tomorrow. I have a local steak to cook also. The peaches are still firm, but will be quite nice in my oats.

The tomatoes will disappear into Stephen’s lunch. I’m in the process of cutting and freezing lots of peppers since we went picking yesterday. I’ll add these to the bag.

Looks like we received zucchini instead of yellow squash. It’s very similar and doesn’t make a difference in my uses. I think we’ll make squash fritters. I haven’t had them in a couple of weeks. We’ll use the cucumbers in salads.

I may try the kale in vegetable lasagna this weekend. I’ve enjoyed making a lasagna and having it for a few meals during the week to help with planning and cooking. We’ll enjoy the green beans when we grill out on Sunday.

The yogurt ($5) was an add on for us this week. We like this yogurt and are trying to stay away from the high sugar varieties. For this yogurt, we’ve been adding homemade jam sweetened with honey to taste.

I think we’ll do ok this week. I need to prep some items in our fridge and keep close tabs on our produce use since we have a few meals planned away with the holiday this weekend.

Geauga Family Farms–week 12

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Aug 302011

Pick up #12 for the Geauga Family Farms CSA was today. We pick up at our local Whole Foods. Nick calls it the little Whole Foods because it’s so much smaller than the Cedar Location and doesn’t have a waterfall.

Today’s box was overflowing!

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Green beans, watermelon (hmmm.. these photos are not to scale)

Lettuce, eggplant

Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, bell peppers

Cantaloupe, dozen sweet corn

Hot peppers, patty pan squash

We got 3 fruits again this week. In our house that is a good thing. I actually used frozen peaches in today’s oatmeal, so I am excited for the peaches. We have lots of melon since we got extras in our other CSA on Thursday, but we are eating it at a good clip so I don’t think we’ll have a problem. Our biggest challenge is having to take the seeds out of the watermelon for our 22 month old daughter.

We ate 1/2 the corn for dinner tonight and we are getting another 1/2 dozen on Thursday. I’ll probably cook and take the rest of this batch off of the cobs for a wheat berry, corn, bean salad of sorts. We need to pack dinner for our Wednesday outing at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

I’m going to chop and freeze the peppers. I’m assuming the non-bell peppers are hot. They seem to always be hot and I’m not taking chances with them. The bell peppers will go into tomato sauce. I’ll save the hot ones for chili and salsa.

I just read a blog post about mini lasagnas that were made in muffin tins. I may use the eggplant and squash for my own version of that.

The remaining few items will easily be eaten as part of our meals. We need to stay on top of our game this week since we have several meals planned out over the holiday weekend. Friday, I need to blanch/chop/freeze anything that we haven’t used so we don’t have waste.

Geauga Family Farms–week 11

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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:

Let’s take a closer look.

Green bell peppers, onions

Hot pepper, yellow squash

Pickling cucumbers, peaches

Yellow beans, basil

Beets, watermelon

Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes

Eggplant, cabbage

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.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 12

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Aug 182011

Originally, we were going to be “on vacation” from week 12 of our Fresh Fork CSA. But, our plans changed and we were able to cancel our vacation and pick up our share. Next, I’ll need to place an extra order to use the funds from our week 10 vacation.

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

Small CSA:

1 pint blackberries
1 quart yogurt
1 lb. nitrate free bacon from Berkshire hogs
Approx. 1.5 lbs.slicing tomatoes
1 head leaf lettuce
3 lbs. new potatoes, red norland or yukon gold variety
1 bunch swiss chard or 1 bunch chiogga beets (candy cane striped beets)
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes
Approx. 1.5 lbs. peaches

Here’s a group shot:

We picked 1 bushel of tomatoes today, so these will get added to that bounty for canning. This is a “fluffy” variety of lettuce and looks extra fresh. I can’t wait to have it on a salad tomorrow.

When I left for Mom’s Night Out, Nick was asking for more blackberries. I haven’t checked the fridge to see if they made it past dinner. This yogurt is turning into a family favorite. And, we had been having cottage cheese this week, so it’s nice to have more yogurt in the house. We’ve been sweetening it up with a bit of homemade jam. I also use it in my overnight oats.

I just finished processing my peaches from the peck that we picked on Saturday. I still have to make the jam with the peaches that I skinned this morning. These peaches will soften up in a day or two and be great as a snack or in my oatmeal. We are stocked with cherry tomatoes at the moment. We got a pint at our pick up on Tuesday and it’s one of the items that has survived in our garden. I’m not a fan of the texture of raw tomatoes, but Nick and my husband both like them. I just need to remember to serve them!

We haven’t really had potatoes much lately. I can’t decide between mashed potatoes to go with some Fresh Fork pork that is thawing in the fridge or German Potato Salad. We have some other beets in the fridge, so I will combine them and probably make our standard Harvard Beets. I think there was a choice between beets and Swiss Chard and I asked for beets so we could make a decent amount for a dinner side one night.

Lastly, we got bacon. So, this week was themed BLTs, but I’m not sure if they will appear on our menu or not. I did recently read about cooking bacon in the over on a rack and I just might have to try that with this bacon.

I think this is an easy week for us and that the items are easy to use and store. It’s a good thing because we have a few other items from Tuesday to use up and have a busy weekend coming up.

Geauga Family Farms–week 10

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Aug 162011

Today was the 10th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. This week’s share was similar to last week’s share.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cherry tomatoes, carrots

Lettuce and more lettuce

Watermelon, cantaloupe

Green bell peppers, broccli

Yellow squash, eggplant

Cucumber, zucchini (yes it looks funny, but it is a variety of zucchini)

HOT peppers, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, green beans

We got 3 different types of fruit. That is pretty odd for our CSA, but we love fruit. Most of the items this week will be easy to use. The fruit will disappear in a couple of days.

One pepper and the cucumber will go into salad along with the lettuce. We ate the broccoli for dinner tonight. The beans will make a great side dish to our meal tomorrow. Carrots, eggplant and squash feel like staples in our house, so we’ll be making a quiche or lasagna to use them up soon.

Then, there are the hot peppers. If there is one item that I wish we didn’t get, it would be the hot peppers. I just haven’t found a good use for them yet. But, I am determined. I’ll keep you all posted!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 10 and 11

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Aug 112011

Last week, we took a vacation from our Fresh Fork CSA. There is a generous vacation plan. In a nutshell, you can miss up to 4 weeks as long as you give advance notice. When you return, you can double up a week or place a la carte orders for the dollar value.

Here’s what we would have received last week:

Small CSA:

1 lb mild Italian sausage, ground
8 oz grassfed Gouda cheese from Mayfield Road Creamery
1 bunch of leeks
1 pint cherry tomatoes
Approx a quart of hot hungarian peppers (6-8)
2 Patty Pan Squash
1.5 lbs slicing tomatoes
1 pint blueberries
1.5 lb peaches

In my opinion, it wasn’t a bad week to miss. We love the sausage and cheese, but can easily get that on a special order or buy it from the back of the truck. This time of year, we get tons of tomatoes, and our freezer is well stocked with blueberries. I picked up some local peaches at Whole Foods over the weekend. I have a hard time using hot peppers. I’ve successfully used leeks before, but I’m fine without them. I really liked the Patty Pan squash a couple of weeks ago. It made the best veggie lasagna.

Now for this week:

Small CSA:

1 4-oz. package goat chevre cheese from Lucky Penny Farm
1 watermelon or 1 pint of blackberries
6 ears corn
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes (multi-color)
2 ct. zucchini (dark green, light green, or golden…we have a good mix this week)
2 ct. yellow summer squash
Approx. 1.5 lbs red slicing tomatoes
Quarter-lb. basil
2 green bell peppers
1 large black opal eggplant
1 large candy onion

Here’s a group shot:

We bought 3 watermelons on sale this past Sunday. We also got a watermelon on Tuesday in our CSA pick up. We’ve eaten almost 2 watermelons so far. We may end up freezing some for a watermelon frosty or two.

I think I’m going to use the tomatoes (along with the ones from Tuesday) and make some sauce to use in some eggplant/squash lasagna. I think we have everything we need except cottage cheese.

I love the color on the golden zucchini. I’m not sure I’ve ever had this variety. I’m excited to try it.

I saw a recipe for corn fritters this week. I think I’m going to combine that idea with my squash fritter recipe for a new fritter this week.

I’m sure the Cheve cheese will be tasty. We enjoyed the corn for dinner.

Usually, I end up freezing herbs like basil. But, this week I wished I had some fresh more than once. I currently have it in water on our kitchen table and I’m hoping it lasts for Peach Vinaigrette salad dressing and Lemon Basil Egg Salad. I’m hoping to make both this week.

Due to more company next week, we have week 12 as a vacation day. Then, I need to figure out the best way to spend our credits. They are worth the full value for 4 weeks.

Meanwhile, our fridge is well stocked and we have plenty of watermelon!

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