Fresh Fork Market » Life Lyn Style

Fresh Fork Market Canning Class

Jul 252012

Last night, I had the opportunity to take a canning class. I’ve been doing some simple water canning for a year or so, but I always think there is something new to learn.

Here a shot of the set up:

The class was quickly put to work shucking corn, dicing peppers and chopping onions. The goal was to make some relish.

Clark and Robert taught the class and it was really well presented. There were lots of questions and good discussion throughout the class. I met the person in blue at the end of the evening. She had the best knife skills ever. Maybe she’ll teach me one day soon.

Here’s an action shot of Robert and Clark teaching and demoing.

I had a good time, tasted some awesome “slightly sweet” pickles and picked up a few tips. Despite the construction issues in getting to the Beachwood Community Center, the facility was really conducive to a class. I’d love to have a canning party soon. I wish there were commercial places to can in the area. My little kitchen just isn’t suitable for what I dream about.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 6

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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 Winter CSA–week 7

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Jan 192012

Today, since I was in Akron spending time with family, Stephen and the kids picked up our Fresh Fork CSA. Again, there wasn’t any rain, but there was lots of snow this week. It sounds like the pick up was smooth. Thanks to Stephen for taking the photos for this week.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 slab Berkshire spare ribs, approx. 2.5 lbs.
1 pint homemade BBQ sauce
1 lb. stew beef
1 8-oz. portion mixed salad greens
3 lbs. roasting potatoes
2 lbs. organic spelt flour (substitute for your all purpose flour)
2 lbs. organic sweet corn, frozen
1 package Italian Sausage links, approx. 1.25 lbs.

Here’s a group shot:

We had some of this frozen corn at Thanksgiving time. It was so tasty. For now, this corn is in the freezer. We’ll eat the greens in the next couple of days. They look very fresh and tasty.

We put the ribs and sausage in the freezer also. With my grandpa’s funeral this week, we aren’t eating many meals at home.

Eventually, we’ll use the stew meat in some stew. The flour is easy to use in our everyday cooking.

This BBQ sauce was a hit this past summer. We didn’t get it in our share, so I’m glad we have the opportunity to try it. We were out of potatoes, so it will be easy to make a meal with this early next week.

Winter has arrived, so we have many shelf stable/freezer items this week. I’m glad that it will be easy to use everything without any waste. I plan to get back into the home eating cooking groove by Monday.

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.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 5

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Dec 212011

Today, we had another soggy Fresh Fork CSA pick up. I think Trevor should invest in Gortex running gear for the crew, and maybe some sand bags for the tent. It was really a smooth pick up. The kids wanted to wait with me, so they ran around in the rain while I waited in line for our goodies.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 tub (4 oz.) goat milk feta
8 oz. jar of brandied cherry preserves
8 oz. mixed baby greens
1 sleeve of leaf lettuce
1 head of cabbage
1 bag of Mrs. Miller’s dried egg noodles
1.25 lb.s Andouille
2 lbs. ground beef
8 oz. pak choi
2 lbs. onions
1 lb. Brussels sprouts
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1 24 oz. loaf of apple pound bread

Here’s a group shot:

I don’t have any immediate plans for the sweet potatoes, but I’m glad that everyone in our house likes them. I’m thinking of using the ground beef in a crock pot unstuffed cabbage tomorrow. I only got one pack of beef and I’m checking on that.

I’ve never used Andouille sausage in anything before. For now, it’s in the freezer and I’ll think of something later. My husband just found a sweet potato and Andouille recipe that sounds promising. The goat cheese will disappear on crackers and toast. Cheese never lasts long in our house.

Greens disappear without much effort and these will be no exception. We need to keep our veggie intake up to balance the cookies this week.

I have all of the ingredients for French onion soup and will make it in the next day or two.

The Brussels sprouts and pak choi will make good sides this weekend.

Apple pound cake is a new one for us. I’m sure it will be eaten quickly once we taste it. The noodles will be in the cupboard for a few weeks since they aren’t perishable. We still have turkey in the freezer, so some soup may be in order.

We aren’t cooking a ham for Christmas, but I’m sure these preserves will be tasty no matter how we enjoy them. I’m considering making homemade jelly doughnuts for Christmas. Maybe they will have cherry filling.

I also splurged on extras this week. We were out of eggs and still wanting to do some baking this week. The breakfast patties were so good when we had them before, so I couldn’t turn them down. I wanted to try some local eggnog. The bacon will be in the freezer for as needed in recipes. The spinach pasta was dinner tonight. I can’t remember the individual prices, but our total was $28.

I’m excited for the holidays this week and hope to enjoy cooking a few meals at home. Eating out really does get old, but sometimes it’s definitely the easy way out.

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?

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 2

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Nov 102011

Today was our second winter Fresh Fork CSA pickup. It was our first in the dark! It’s hard to get used to the time change.

I was super excited for today’s offerings.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
3 lbs. sweet potatoes
1/2 lb. baby leaf lettuce
Quarter peck Winesap apples
Choice of collards, Swiss chard, kale, or watermelon radishes
1 lb. krispy treat granola
1 lb. grassfed ground beef
Approx. 1.25 lb. chorizo sausage links
1 pie pumpkin (for making your own pumpkin pie)

Here’s a group shot:

We got the braising greens for our “choice of”. Apples are always welcome in our house. I tried freezing chunks for use in oatmeal today. I’m anxious to see how they turn out in the morning.

We love freezing pumpkin puree for use in pancakes and other dishes throughout the year. You can never have too many pie pumpkins. We’ll have salad with our mixed baby greens.

These sweet potatoes are good size and will probably end up in sweet potatoes fries for the kids for lunch one day soon. They can’t get enough of them when I make them. I just put the chicken in the freezer, but due to space, I’ll probably thaw it to cook on Sunday to make for a few easy meals to start the week.

The ground beef was starting to thaw, so I put it in the fridge. I think we’ll make some fajita flavored for tortillas this weekend. The chorizo is one of my favorite Fresh Fork products. It’s frozen, but it won’t last long. I will probably take it out of the casing and cook it ground for use in salad with quinoa, black beans and olives, etc.

In addition was bought 2 more yogurts ($5 each) since there isn’t a pick up next week. Also, we were gifted a few watermelon radishes to try. We’ve never had them before.

We didn’t get our granola and I’m not sure if it was on the truck, but we are checking on it. It’s shelf stable, so we can get it later. We’re actually out of granola, so I make make a batch this weekend since I’m in the mood for it.

I love that many items this week don’t have to be used right away. It’s nice to have an easy week once in a while.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 22–The Final 2011 Summer Week

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Oct 282011

Yesterday, we picked up week 22 of the summer Fresh Fork CSA. It was the last pick up. I’m glad that the winter CSA starts next week. We received a few higher dollar items, so we didn’t have as many different things. That was fine with me.

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

Small CSA:

1 pack of Berkshire pork chops, center cut and boneless. Approx. 1 to 1.25 lbs.
1 quart farmstead yogurt
8 oz. aged cheddar cheese, pepper Havarti ,or Havarti cheese
1 head Napa cabbage
1 quarter peck Jonagold apples
1 bag of mixed salad/braising greens
2 count butternut squash

Here’s a group shot:

The Berkshire pork chops are one of our favorite items from Fresh Fork. We’ll bake them in the oven with spices and apples for a yummy dinner.

I’ve only had Napa cabbage one other time. I’m not sure what fate it will have. Spaghetti squash was substituted for the butternut squash. I was hoping for butternut. We like spaghetti squash ok, but it’s not our favorite and it’s less versatile.

The mixed green will probably go into salad. If not, we can sauté them. We were out of yogurt and there wasn’t any on the truck last week, so we were happy to see it expected this week.

Cheese is always a bit hit in our house. This is aged cheddar and we can’t wait to try it.

We picked up an extra yogurt ($5) and a bag of honey puffed spelt ($3) while we were there.

I’m excited to have a slower week in terms of items that have to be used right away. I’m recovering from a badly bruised knee and a little less kitchen time will be a good thing for a few days.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 21

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Oct 202011

It was 45 degrees and raining when we picked up week 21 of our Fresh Fork CSA today. The tent had blown around so much, that by the time we arrived around 5:30PM, they were just all working from the truck. I think the winter pick ups have better weather than what we had today. Robert and his crew are awesome!

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

Small CSA:

1 dz. pasture raised chicken eggs
1 lb. breakfast patties
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1.5 lb. bag untoasted organic oats
1 bunch beets with tops
1 lb. fingerling potatoes
3 lbs. turnips
Quarter peck Melrose Apples

Here’s a group shot:

The tomatoes are from the missing ones last week. Nick was glad to see them. I actually had to buy eggs at the store this week, so I was happy to get them. I see some pumpkin bread and waffles in our new future.

We were low on apples this week too. I actually picked some up at the store. I’m hoping to go picking one more time, but the weather has not been cooperating. Since at least 2 members of our household eat oats for breakfast everyday, these will be gone in no time.

We have a good stash of potatoes going at the moment since we’ve gotten them in both CSAs and from our garden. I want to make a couple of new dishes, but I haven’t decided what. The breakfast patties (part bacon and part sausage) look delicious. Maybe we’ll have them for dinner with pumpkin waffles soon!

We’ll probably make soup with the turnips. My first thought was 3 pounds is a large amount of turnips. But, we can work with it. It’s not as familiar because we don’t get them often.

We have beets from our other CSA this week also. We really like Harvard beets and don’t usually make them any other way.

It’s been a great season. Next week is the last pick up for the summer CSA.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 15

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Sep 082011

Today, we picked up week 15 of our Fresh Fork CSA.

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

Small CSA:

1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
2 lb. log of butter made from grass-grazed, organic milk
2 ct. eggplant
2 red peppers
2 ct. winter squash (varieties include butternut, acorn, spaghetti, honey bear, heart of gold, and a few more)
Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
1 lb. yellow wax beans
Quarter peck Gala apples
1 head leaf lettuce

We received notice via our weekly newsletter that the heirloom tomatoes were not in and we could expect slicing tomatoes as a substitute.

Here’s a group shot:

The lettuce will be easily eaten in salads. We got two heads on Tuesday too. I’ll miss lettuce season when it ends. I’m not a big fan of yellow wax beans. I think they might go in our vegetable soup. I used to make vegetable soup often during the summer, but now that I know what items are and how to cook them, I hardly ever make it. Since I’m going on vacation soon, I thought a batch of veggie soup would be good to leave in the freezer for my husband and father in law.

I’m super excited that it’s winter squash season. These acorn squash are beautiful! I never got sick of winter squash. I haven’t decided for sure about the eggplant. I’m either going to make eggplant pizzas (sliced eggplant baked and then topped with spice, tomato sauce and cheese and baked until the eggplant is cooked and the cheese is melted) or another veggie lasagna. The lasagna might be nice to have in the freezer for Stephen’s lunches while I’m away.

We ate the pasta for dinner. I made a basic white sauce (butter, whole wheat flour, pepper, milk, cheese), country sausage crumbles and red peppers to go with it. It was delicious. We’ve had this butter before. It’s good and will last us awhile.

I was glad to see apples. We got cabbage from our other CSA and I like a coleslaw recipe that uses apples. I already had the dressing ingredients, raisins and almonds that I needed for the recipe. The rest of the apples will be eaten as snacks or my oatmeal. The red peppers were used in tonight’s pasta dish.

The tomatoes look terrible. Two of them are moldy and I’ll ask for replacements next week. I’m not sure if these are heirloom, slicing or what. Either way, two of them are bad tomatoes.

The object of the game this week is to stay ahead. I’m leaving for vacation on the 19th and need to focus more on packing and prepping the household and less on veggies and the CSAs. But, I still want to do my best not to waste anything.

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