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Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 19

Oct 182011

Today, we picked up week 19 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. It’s hard to believe that next week is the last week. This was our worst pick up ever. It really had nothing to do with the CSA. Sally decided to run from the café area all the way to the parking lot without any regard to cars or traffic. There weren’t cars and she’s ok and I’m ok, but it was rough. Nick tried to grab her hood twice. It slowed her down enough for me to catch up with her. There was another adult near her, so I think she would have intervened if necessary. But, you never know! Sally’s now in the cart or holding my hand at all times. Usually, we do that in the parking lot and approaching parking lots, but we never needed to do it leaving the café the other weeks.

Some of the photos are dark this week. I blame it on the time of year. It’s so dark early right now that we don’t have natural light. Anyway, we picked up lots of yummy looking produce, so let’s take a look:

Tomatoes, lettuce

Beets and either beets or radishes. I don’t think I’ll know about the ones on the right until we taste them or cook them. I have gotten them mixed up in the past. I thought they were beets until I dug further in the boxes and found the beets on the left. Hmmmmmm….

Bell peppers, butternut squash

Bok choy, apples

Onions, garlic

Green beans, spinach

By the end of the season, I really feel like I have the hang of this. The tomatoes will go into a cabbage dish. We’re still working on 2 heads that we got from our other CSA last week. We’ll also use some onion, bell pepper and garlic in that dish.

The green beans have been fantastic lately. They will be a plain side dish. I’ve been using the spinach in pasta dishes. It adds flavor and color.

The lettuce and possibly bok choy will go in salads. Otherwise, I’ll make a stir fry with the bok choy. We were actually out of apples, so these will go in my coleslaw and my oatmeal.

Winter squash will get baked and eaten for lunch a couple of days.

That leaves the beets and radishes or beets as the case may be. My favorite recipe for beets is to make Harvard beets. I’ve been using radishes in salads or pickling them. These will probably go in salad.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 18

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Oct 112011

Today, we picked up week 18 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. That means there are 2 weeks left. Everyone is a bit off since the season started late due to all of the early rain. Andrew was back and seemed surprised that everyone missed him.

Here’s a group shot of what we received today.

Garlic, tomatoes

Apples, green beans

Turnips (mostly greens), lettuce

Broccoli, green pepper

Parsley, butternut squash

Sweet potatoes

This will be a very easy week for us to use up our items. My husband like tabouli, so we will be making a batch of that using mint from our garden along with the parsley and tomatoes from today’s pick up.

The sweet potatoes will combine with a couple we have left from previous weeks for a batch of baked sweet potato slices. We like to peel and slice the potato, drizzle with olive oil and use Ozark seasoning and cinnamon. Nick and Sally like to eat them with ketchup.

We already ate the broccoli for dinner tonight. The green beans will be an easy side dish for lunch tomorrow or dinner on Thursday. I plan to make soup with the turnips and greens along with some potatoes and kohlrabi that we already have on hand. We’ve accumulated some garlic lately and I think I’m going to chop and freeze it. The apples have been going great in my oatmeal.

I haven’t decided on a specific dish for the butternut squash. But it’s second only to acorn in my book, so we’ll have no problem eating it.

I love this time of year. The hearty dishes make for excellent comfort food.

Geauga Family Farms–week 14

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Sep 132011

Today, we went to the “little” Whole Foods and picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The kids totally know our routine. We usually need to buy something. Today, we bought yogurt. At the checkout, Nick and Sally each get a wooden nickel to donate to a charity since we bring a bag. They love putting a nickel in the slot to pick their charity. Then, they go straight to the CSA area which also is the children’s coloring area. They are also very interested in whatever we get in our box.

Here’s what we received today:

Let’s take a closer look. I couldn’t really fit everything in the photo.

Green beans, sweet corn

Potatoes, apples (Honeygold variety)

Bell peppers, dill

Poblano peppers, zucchini

Onions, hot peppers

Leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce

Eggplant, basil

Tomatoes

I’m leaving for Hawaii on Monday, so this week is all about food preservation. I’m cooking some meals for my family to enjoy while I am gone, but most of that work is done or planned. In addition to my trip, my husband is out of town tomorrow through Friday.

I’m going to blanch and freeze the green beans. I have others to freeze as well, so it’s worth the effort.

I plan to have some corn with the kids tomorrow and freeze the rest. There’s only 6 ears so that should be simple.

Unless I get ambitious, I’m going to store the potatoes. A few of the apples are already mixed in with the sauce that I was making tonight. The rest will be going into apple-plum sauce tomorrow. We picked plums yesterday, so I need to make something with them.

I’ll going to make fajitas and use some peppers and onions this week. I’ll freeze the rest.

I’m going to make some basil/olive oil cubes for the freezer with the basil. It will be handy for winter soup and tomato sauce dishes.

I already froze the tomatoes. I just washed them, cored, and quartered them. I’ll make a saucy dish with them in a couple of week.

The lettuce will get eaten in salads. I’ll either blanch and freezer the eggplant or make mini eggplant pizzas. It all depends on the rest of the items are going.

I’ll need to research the dill. Usually, I use it in pickles, but I don’t have any cucumbers.

It’s going to be a busy week here. I have a to do list that’s a mile long before my trip.

Geauga Family Farms–week 13

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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:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cabbage, sweet corn

Potatoes, yummy SWEET oranges peppers

Swiss chard, watermelon!

2 varieties of leaf lettuce

Tomatoes, yellow squash

Carrots, green peppers

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 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.

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!

Geauga Family Farms–week 9

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Aug 092011

Today was the 9th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. It’s hard to believe that we are almost half way through the season. Today’s bounty was heavy! The season’s first watermelons have arrived.

Here’s a group photo of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, beets

Green peppers, hot peppers

Eggplant, yellow squash

Cucumber, lettuce

Lettuce, yellow wax beans

Parsley, watermelon

I think we have entered my favorite part of the season. I love melons! I was glad to see lettuce since we were almost out. I’ve put my parsley in water. I think some parsley potatoes or salad dressing may be in order. The squash, cucumber and peppers will probably go into a wheat or rye berry cold salad for dinner tomorrow night. We eat at Wade Oval near the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and it’s challenging to make cold CSA food. I’m getting better as the season progresses.

I’m going to remove the skins from the peaches, slice and freeze them for oatmeal. One of my favorite ways to have oatmeal is with peaches. I’ll be sure to save a couple of peaches for Thursday. I’m expecting basil in my CSA pick on Thursday and I want to try my version of this dressing recipe from The Chubby Cook. I’m going to make the same recipe, but use an extra peach. I sampled it at Whole Foods on Sunday and it was tasty.

I haven’t found any great ways to use hot peppers since I don’t care for spicy dishes and I like the kids to be able to eat anything that I prepare. Usually, they get chopped and frozen and I use them sparingly as I make taco meat, pulled pork and chili throughout the winter.

I usually make Harvard beets whenever we get beets. At dinner tonight, my son was content to eat beets and watermelon for dinner. That made me very happy!

All in all, it should be a great week!

Geauga Family Farms–week 8

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Aug 022011

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

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Zucchini, cucumber

Eggplant, cabbage

Onion, yellow squash

Tomatoes, cauliflower

Blackberries, cherry tomatoes

Hot peppers, Roma tomatoes

Basil, lettuce

Lettuce

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 7

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Jul 262011

Today, we had the week 7 pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. Since it was the 4th Tuesday and there was a farm visit this evening, my husband picked up our share. Even though we had the list of what could be in our share earlier today, it’s really a surprise when you actually see it.

Here’s what we received today:

Let’s take a closer look.

Tomatoes, beets

Lettuce, kohlrabi

Swiss chard, onion

Green beans, cherry tomatoes

Radishes, cucumbers

Yellow squash, patty pan squash (Most of the patty pan squash that I have seen before is more flat and scalloped, but I am pretty sure this is patty pan squash.)

Zucchini, honey (add on order)

New this year, we can place orders though the website for some additional items. There are things available like honey, maple syrup, eggs, etc. I ordered some honey for this week. We didn’t really need honey at the moment, but I wanted to try out the ordering system. Pay with paypal and pick up with the share. It was easy!

I’m still thinking about the bounty that we received and haven’t made any specific plans for it, but we’ll be busy eating our veggies this week for sure!

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