Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 11

CSA No Responses »
Mar 152012
 

It’s hard to believe that it’s week 11 already.  It’s also the middle of March.  It won’t be long until we are picking strawberries!  We arrived at Beachwood High School to find Trevor manning the truck this week.  Also, due to baseball practice, the truck was in a different part of the parking lot.  I had that strange feeling that I was there on the wrong day for just a second.  Once we circled around the lot, Nick noticed the green bags and all was well.

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

  • 1 pack pork loin chops
  • 1 bag corn crackers
  • 2 lb. black turtle beans
  • 1 pint salsa
  • 1 bag mixed salad greens
  • 1 pint sorghum syrup
  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 1 lb. assorted sausage
  • 1 lb. sweet corn
  • 1 lb. kale, bunched

Here’s a group shot:

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We’ll use the beans in a combination of a Mexican casserole and also black bean burgers.  The ground pork will also go in our casserole.

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The pork chops are the best.  We’ll probably just season them and bake them in the oven.  The corn was frozen last summer and it’s been delicious.  We’ll add it to our Mexican dish or use it as a side.

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The sorghum syrup was a head scratcher last year.  We ended up using it in a bbq glaze type of sauce that we put over ham loaf.  It was delicious.  I have no idea how we made the sauce, so we’ll be experimenting once again.  I’m thinking of using it as the main sweetener in some homemade sauce.  So far, tomato sauce, vinegar, spices, onion, peppers and syrup come to mind.  I’m not a huge fan of this type of greens, but we do our best to eat it in salads.

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I’ll be putting the kale and salsa in our casserole as well.

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Everyone in our house loves these chips.  If they don’t get eaten first, they’d be a nice addition to our Mexican meal.  Eggs are so easy for us to use.  I just saw a recipe for some muffin casserole bites that are egg based.  I think I’ll try it this week.

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We picked up a few extras as well.  Krispie treat granola ($5) and 2 yogurts ($5 each).

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I’m excited for this week because I can do just a little cooking and have several meals.  Sometimes I like being a lazy cook.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 9

CSA No Responses »
Feb 162012
 

We had a productive day today.  The kids and I went to story time at the library, cleaned two bathrooms, did the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, went to the gas station, the post office and two stores.  All of this occurred before lunch!  After nap time, we took Nick to his swim lesson and then picked up our Fresh Fork CSA (where I put the cold items in a cooler with ice) before returning to the J so I could take a class.  Whew!  No wonder I’m tired.

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

  • 1 whole pasture raised chicken
  • 1 pint frozen raspberries
  • 1 quart farmstead yogurt
  • 1 8-oz. piece gouda cheese
  • 1 1lb bag of granola, either Krispy treat or spelt granola (vegan)
  • 3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
  • 1 bag mixed salad greens
  • 1 quarter peck gold rush apples
  • 1 package tofu

Here’s a group shot:

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The chicken is in the freezer.   I had just cooked our last chicken this week and we still have stock in the fridge.  We’ll probably cook it soon since it takes up quite a bit of room.  The greens look really good this week, so some more salad will be in the mix.

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I am always glad to see yogurt.  We’ve been buying this brand at Heinen’s whenever there isn’t any on the truck.  I love that my kids eat plain yogurt with a bit of homemade honey sweetened jam.  We’ll use the apples in our oatmeal for breakfasts.  We were down to our last one today.

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My kids were happily surprised to see “more raspberries”.  We haven’t been getting them in our CSA, but we have been eating frozen ones from our summer picking for the past few days at home.  They have been very popular, so I don’t expect these to last long.  There was a problem with a truck this week, so we were given a choice of waiting until the next pick up for the Yukon gold potatoes or taking sweet potatoes.  We love sweet potatoes and already had some white potatoes at home, so we opted for the sweet potatoes.

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All of the local cheese we have received has been great.  Gouda is one of our favorites.  The tofu is a new product for the CSA.  I’ve poled several people and everyone describes it differently.  The best description that I have heard so far is that it’s really firm, but crumbly.  I plan to freeze it and make tofu sausage crumble with it.  I also heard that I need to freeze it for two weeks.  So, that’s what I’m going to try.

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The granola is one of my favorites.  I bought an extra bag for $5 because it’s so good.

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All in all, we have another great batch of local goods to work with.  I’m going to do some meal planning in the next day or two so we can use our pantry staples and new products for some tasty dishes.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 3

CSA No Responses »
Nov 222011
 

Today, we had a rough Fresh Fork CSA pickup.  It was extra busy because people were picking up Thanksgiving packages, regular shares, turkeys and a variety of other holiday items.  It was also raining!

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

  • 1 half gallon apple cider
  • 1 quarter peck of Mutsu apples (very large, tart apples)
  • 1 lb. nitrate free bacon
  • 1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
  • 1.5 lbs. white spelt flour
  • 1 large white stem bok choy
  • 1 bunch medium leeks
  • 1 bag, half lb., of young mustard green mix
  • 2 lbs. butter, salted or unsalted
  • 1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
  • 1 head cabbage
  • 1 head cauliflower

Here’s a group shot:

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We ate the pumpkin sage linguini for dinner tonight.  There’s one serving left and I’m hoping to have it for lunch tomorrow.  We’ve been out of fresh apples for oatmeal the last few days, so these are welcome.

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I put the bacon in the freezer.  Soon, I’ll make a version of my uncle’s stuffing and it will use the bacon.  The spelt flour came as whole wheat.  This is fine with us since we use whole wheat flour all of the time.

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I was happy to get unsalted butter this time.  We don’t usually buy salted butter.  I’m looking forward to trying it.  I never know what to do with leeks.  I’ll probably chop them up in an Asian stir fry for Stephen along with the bok choy.

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We’ll have our standard sautéed greens with balsamic, garlic, salt and pepper with these greens.

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Personally, apple cider is too sweet, but my husband and kids love it, so it’s always welcome.  Behind all of these leaves is a head of cauliflower.  Everyone in our house likes cauliflower, so it will go quickly.

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Cabbage is used in the stuffing recipe that I’d like to make in the next few days.  I may freeze the cabbage by blanching it just to give me time to use some of our other items up.  We were almost out of eggs.  I need them for my sweet potato recipe and for waffles this weekend.

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We got the granola that was owed to use from the last pickup and purchased some more yogurt ($10).

We also picked up a Thanksgiving package.  I’ll show it to you tomorrow!  It’s late and there are still dishes left in the kitchen.