Fresh Fork Market 2012–Summer CSA–week 22

CSA No Responses »
Nov 012012
 

Because of Sandy, our Trick or Treat was moved to tomorrow, so we decided to pick up our share today.  I didn’t want to be in a rush to put it away, have dinner and have the kids ready.  This is our last pick up for the summer season and also the coldest/wettest pick up.  I planned a nice butternut squash soup for dinner from the freezer today.  It’s a great day for soup.

Here’s a group shot of today’s pickup:

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

  • 1 bunch carrots with tops
  • 1 head jumbo white stem bok choy
  • 1 lb. ground pork
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 head broccoli
  • 1 butternut squash
  • 2# turnips
  • 1 bag salad mix, lettuce
  • 2# bag of sauerkraut
  • 1 quarter peck Empire apples
  • 2 frozen pizza dough balls
  • 1 package goat feta cheese
  • Baby Peppers (came in last week’s package)

The carrots will make a nice simple side dish.  Everyone likes them in our house, so these won’t last long.  The pork and beef is intended for meatloaf.  Maybe Stephen will make his famous meatloaf this weekend.  That would be delicious.

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I’ve started looking at lamb recipes and found a Lamb and Feta Stuffed Cabbage recipe.  I think the feta will go into that recipe soon.

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We were almost out of apples again.  Those will go into oatmeal.  I can’t get enough winter squash.  I’ll be roasting this along with pie pumpkins that I picked up today.  Uses are endless.

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For the first time, we received fresh sauerkraut.  I’m excited to try it, but I am also glad that it will keep a while in the fridge, so there’s no hurry.  This broccoli looks outstanding.

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We’ll have it as a side along with pizza for dinner tomorrow.  With Trick or Treat, we’ll need an easy to clean up meal.  The lettuce will go into salads tomorrow or Saturday.

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I’m not sure about the bok choy, but I am thinking a stir fry like we made with the Napa cabbage last week.

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I don’t have any current plans for the turnips, but I am glad they will last a while.  Maybe we’ll make soup later in the week.

I’ve enjoyed trying out the large package this year.  I’d never go back to the small.  I love the bag size for us.  It worked really well.  I’m not interested in the full access package.  I like getting the variety in the large and then supplementing with extras as needed.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 11

CSA No Responses »
Aug 172012
 

This marks week 11 of our Fresh Fork Market CSA.  It’s hard to believe that we are 1/2 way through the season.

Since I was in Utah earlier in the week, I opted to take a vacation week this week.  Occasionally, I take a vacation week when we are having busy week or if I feel behind on veggies even if I am actually in town on pick up day..  Then, I usually hold my breath and hope that Trevor doesn’t send out the “best bag of the season” list two days later since vacation requests are due on Saturday and the list usually comes out on Monday.

Here’s what folks received in their bags this week:

  • 3# bag red Norland potatoes
  • 1/2 dozen sweet corn
  • 1 bunch leeks (may be 1 leek depending on size)
  • 1 bulb fennel
  • Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
  • 2 oz basil
  • Approx. 2 lbs. slicing tomatoes
  • 1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
  • Approx. 2 lbs. peaches
  • 1-2 eggplant, depending on size
  • 2 zucchini or squash
  • 1-2 onions
  • 2-3 “Italian frier” peppers (red sweet stuffing peppers)
  • 1 melon – choice of cantaloupe or watermelon
  • 1/2 lb. Swiss chard
  • 1 bulb garlic
  • 1 piece Havarti cheese

I’ve been hearing from other people who do CSAs that they have too much food or are too busy to get it all used.  I can’t say that we are perfect in our house, but we are pretty good at blanching, chopping and freezing items to make sure we don’t waste food when we are particular busy or have an over abundance.

Almost all of the above items could be froze with little effort.  I love pulling items out of the freezer in the middle of winter and getting a taste of fresh local food.

I think every bag is outstanding, but this is a bag that has lots of items that we get on a fairly regular basis.  I am happy with my decision to be on vacation.  With a little luck, I’ll get a photo of a large share tomorrow and add a photo to my post.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 9

CSA No Responses »
Aug 032012
 

We picked up our bag in Mayfield this week without issue.  I was glad to make it a quick trip and didn’t even get the kids out of the car.  I’ve decided that the large is really hard to take a photo of since it’s so large.  This is all of the items except the meat.  I had already popped them into the freezer.

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Here’s what we were expecting this week:

  • 1 whole cantaloupe
  • Either 1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes or approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
  • 2 ct. zucchini/squash
  • 2 ct. eggplant
  • 1 bulb garlic
  • 1 large candy onion
  • 2 oz. basil
  • 1 bunch curly kale
  • Approx. 1.5 lbs. slicing tomatoes
  • 1 lb. bulk Italian sausage (ground)
  • 1 pint blackberries or approx. 1.5 lbs. peaches
  • 1 small yellow watermelon
  • 1 lb. yellow wax beans or green filet beans
  • 1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
  • 1 head lettuce
  • 1 bunch radishes
  • 1-2 cucumbers depending on size

These melons are really small.  I think I’ll call them personal size.  We’ll eat them quickly.

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The guys of the house will snack on the cherry tomatoes.  The rest are going into some salsa (hopefully tonight).

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We’ll eat the lettuce in salad and use the basil for some dressing.   I need to pick up some more balsamic vinegar, but we’ll make due until then.

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I haven’t decided on a dish for the kale yet.  It may just get sautéed.  The cucumbers will be great for salads and snacking.

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I have lots of garlic frozen from last year.  I’ll have to remember to use it more often.  We had the onion with our dinner tonight.

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I’m not a huge fan of ratatouille, so we’ll probably make a veggie lasagna this week and use the eggplant.  I’m hoping to try a bread and butter zucchini pickle recipe with the zucchini (and a few others we have).

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We’ll have the blackberries for breakfast tomorrow.  Our fridge is too full to keep them around.  We’ll either roast or pickle the radishes.

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The beans will be a side dish for Sunday.  I put the Italian sausage and ground beef in the freezer.

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I really need to get some preserving done, my fridge is over flowing.  A little canning and freezing and we’ll be all set.  It’s easy for us to use our items when we eat at home, but we’ve had a strange schedule lately and we’re a bit behind on consumption.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 6

CSA No Responses »
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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

CSA 1 Response »
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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 2

CSA 2 Responses »
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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.