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Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 18

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 CSA–week 17

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Oct 042011

We picked up week 17 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA today. Andrew was on vacation, so we were greeted by Sarah. The set up was a little different, but the pick up was smooth. We have a nice routine. We go into the store, get a cart, stop by for a sample of pineapple, buy anything we need (usually yogurt, cheese, bananas or the like), use a reusable bag, get two wooden nickels, let the kids color, get our veggies, and then leave. It works for us and both Nick and Sally look forward to our CSA pickup at “The Little Whole Foods”.

Today’s box was lighter than the last few. We didn’t have any melon or squash. Here’s a group shot:

You might be wondering about the dark wooden background. We didn’t get a new table. But, our kitchen table where I usually take the photos looks like this.

I picked up 2 bushels of pears from Eddy’s on Monday. They aren’t quite ripe enough to can. So, our table was out of commission. Nick and Sally had a picnic breakfast today. Nick wants to have one everyday. I don’t think that will happen. They ate raisins, graham crackers and pears. By lunch time, I had put away enough stuff from our vacations that they used the dining room table. Since that space was clean, I used it to take the CSA photos today also.

Let’s take a closer look at the veggies.

Collards, leaf lettuce

Romaine, bell peppers

Tomatoes, garlic

Poblano peppers, onions

Apples, green beans

Sweet potatoes

I was in Hawaii two weeks ago and I was also out of town most of this past week. I’m feeling a bit out of the loop on the CSA. I am glad that this is an easier week. I’m going to make some stuffed collard wraps with the collards. The lettuce, bell peppers and probably tomatoes will go in salads. If we don’t use the tomatoes up, I’ll freeze them. I have some others frozen and will make sauce or chili with them soon. I have Stayman (tart) apples from Delaware to use up and will mix these apples with them for sauce. The green beans will be an easy side dish. I’ll probably freeze the onions, other peppers and garlic. For the sweet potatoes, I’ll probably slice them for sweet potato fries. Everyone in my house likes them and with the cooler temperatures, the oven sounds more appealing these days.

It’s hard to believe that it’s October already! I’m excited for the upcoming winter CSA season.

Geauga Family Farms–week 15

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Sep 202011

Hi, there! My role here at Life Lyn Style is usually limited to the background, but with Lyn enjoying herself in a tropical paradise, it is up to me (her loving husband) to share what we found in our Geauga Family Farms CSA today. The harvest season is upon us, with the bountiful crop we found in the box today.

First off, here is the group shot. I’ll bet we could measure how big the week’s harvest is by how high we have to hold the camera to take this picture. The camera was pretty close to the ceiling today.

“I’m ready for my closeup,” cried the kale, and I was happy to oblige.

Red Russian kale, bok choy

Garlic, sweet potatoes

Apples (mixed varieties), carrots

Parsley (mix of flat leaf and curly), green beans

Red leaf lettuce, onions

Bell peppers, little peppers (I don’t know yet if they are hot)

Eggplant, yellow squash

Tomatoes

Using this up with Lyn away is going to be a challenge. My cooking skills have rusted a bit in recent years, with the grill more my specialty than the stove is. The parsley says “tabouli”, which could use some tomato and onion as well. The kale and bok choy I will saute, with some balsamic vinegar for the kale and some sesame oil for the bok choy. We will surely have some delicious salads as well.

Thanks for visiting! Lyn will be back tomorrow.

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.

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 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 9

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Jul 282011

Today was week number 9 for our Fresh Fork CSA. Robert who works at the truck was back today. He seems to be going better. It was nice and smooth to have him in his usual position. There was only one person ahead of us and everything was smooth at pick up.

As usual, we received our list of contents on Tuesday. It’s nice to know what we have to work with between our CSAs by Tuesday night.

Here’s what we were expecting:

Small CSA:

1 package Mild Italian Sausage links, 4 to a pack
1.5 lbs apricots
1.5 lbs Red Haven peaches
1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
6 ears Mira 301 Super Sweet corn
1 candy onion
1 head leaf lettuce
1 lb green beans
1 bunch kale, either Curly or Black Tuscan

Here’s a group shot:

Apparently, the Italian sausage is really good. I don’t think we’ve had it yet. Always happy to see peaches.

We still have onions to chop and freeze and the corn is already gone.

We were almost out of lettuce, so I see a couple of salads in our future. I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh apricots and certainly not local ones. I’m looking forward to having one at breakfast.

Curly kale might make for another batch of kale chips, The last batch was ok, but I’ve read a few other variations lately and may have to experiment again this weekend. I’m in love with local eggs and just used our last two yesterday, so these were especially nice to get.

Everyone in our house likes green beans.

In addition to our small, we purchased 2 packages of chicken brats. These were $7 each. They were amazing when we had them in our box a few weeks back. We’re having company next weekend and I stuck these in the freezer for grilling. We also paid for our cream cheese ($5) that we picked up 2 weeks ago.

I’m happy that we had a week off of squash and tomatoes. I still have some to use up from our Tuesday CSA pickup. Next week we are “on vacation” from Fresh Fork and I hope that gives us a little extra time to regroup and make sure we are caught up in the fridge.

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!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 7

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Jul 142011

Today was the 7th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. It’s hard to believe we’re 1/3 through the season already. As far as CSAs go, we’ve been receiving many familiar and easy to use items this year. Here’s the list of what we were expecting today.

Small CSA:

1 lb green beans
1 bunch cilantro (last week we substituted green onions, this week it will be cilantro)
2 ct zucchini
2 ct squash
1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 head leaf lettuce
1 pint blueberries
Approx 1.5 lbs cling peaches
Approx 1.5 lbs slicing tomatoes

Here’s what we received:

There was a problem with the chicken order this week. Apparently, they don’t fair well with thunderstorms. One of the farms lost a bunch of them this week. So, we had the option of a whole chicken or a roast. We had a chicken thawing in the fridge already, so we opted for the roast. Also, last week, we were shorted our zucchini, so we have 4 this week to make up for it.

The pint of blueberries seems really small to us. Lately, we’ve been picking them by the quart or even gallon. Everyone in our house loves blueberries, so these will probably make it until breakfast tomorrow before they are gone.

I read a recipe for zucchini pizza dough the other day. I’m going to try it out this weekend. I’ll write it up if it turns out well.

We picked up a container of local cream cheese while we were at the truck. I don’t know how much it is, but I’ll let you know when I pay for it next week. It was offered as part of the large package this week and will be for sale regularly when we pick up. Robert wasn’t sure of the price, so we’ll settle up next week.

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