Fresh Fork CSA–week 14

CSA No Responses »
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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 9

CSA No Responses »
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:

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

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

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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.

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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.

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Everyone in our house likes green beans.

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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.

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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.

Food Log for Sunday

Food Log No Responses »
Jul 032011
 
Breakfast
kodiak cakes with blueberries
Morning Snack
handful of almonds
Lunch
chicken, quinoa, lettuce, honey mustard, red pepper salad
yellow squash fritters
Dinner
kale chips
bison hot dog
kohlrabi augratin surprise
Harvard beets
Late Snack
maple ice cream with pecans and banana
 Posted by at 8:26 PM  Tagged with:

Countryside Farmers’ Market–Howe Meadow

Farmer's Market 1 Response »
Jul 022011
 

Today, we ventured to Peninsula, Ohio to visit the Countryside Farmers’ Market.  This market is located on Riverview Road at Howe Meadow, which is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It’s about a 40 minute drive from our house in Mayfield Heights.
It’s a beautiful location for the market.  They had plenty of parking, attendants and traffic control.   We arrived just before the 9 AM opening bell.

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We didn’t really need anything, but we thought it would be fun to go since we used to go to a farmers’ market in the valley after marathon training runs and we had an errand to run in the area.  Nick and Sally were excited to see all of the tents.

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Nick was fascinated by knife and tool sharpening.  The produce was breathtakingly beautiful.

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Of course, we made a few purchases as well.

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We bought Melrose apples ($3).  There was one more, but it became a snack on our way home.  We also bought whole wheat pastry flour ($6 for 4 pounds), 5 pounds of honey ($22), 8 oz. of honey ($5), gouda and chive/onion grass fed cheese ($10), bison hot dogs and bison country sausage ($19.68) and curly kale ($3).  So, we spent quite a bit today.  It was so much fun and something that we wouldn’t do very often.  We haven’t been eating out much since I quit eating white flour and most sweeteners, but we sure eat well.

We also considered buying a mushroom kit, but decided we wanted to research it a bit more first.  I see a kit in our future.

Recipe: Kale Pesto

CSA, Recipe No Responses »
Jun 252011
 

In one of my CSAs this week, we received kale.  I polled a few people and decided to make pesto.

[print_this]

Recipe: Kale Pesto

Summary: As usual, the measurements are approximate. Feel free to adjust to your taste.

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch kale, chopped with stems removed (I used Red Russian Kale)
  • 3 garlic scapes, chopped
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 2T olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, grated
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Prep and measure out all of the above ingredients.
  2. Add kale, scapes and green onion to food processor.
  3. Process until a paste starts to form.
  4. Add nuts.
  5. Add olive oil.
  6. Process until smooth and check for desired consistency. Product will thicken a little when the cheese is added. If product is not thin enough, add more oil or some water.
  7. Add cheese.
  8. Process until smooth.
  9. Salt and pepper to taste.

Quick notes

If you are freezing the pesto for later use, wait until you thaw before adding the cheese. Pesto can be made with most greens and nuts. The variations are limitless.  Serve over pasta or as a spread with crackers.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

 

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Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 2

CSA 2 Responses »
Jun 212011
 

Today was the second pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA.  As usual, we had no idea what we would receive.  A newsletter comes out that gives us an idea of what we may receive, but I usually don’t see it before our pickup.  Today was the second pick up and also the second time the truck was late.  Both times, it arrived before we did, so we haven’t had to wait for them.  I’m not sure what will happen next week since we want to come to the farm visit.  Maybe I’ll enlist some assistance from my husband.  Even with an on-time truck arriving at Whole Foods by 4pm, it will be tough to pick up, store and get to the farm by 6pm.

Here’s what we received:

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Let’s take a closer look.

1 bunch of kale, 2 containers of strawberries

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2 tomatoes, 1 dozen eggs

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garlic scapes, green onions

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pickling cucumbers, lots of lettuce (3 bags with 4 heads total)

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Here’s our plan of attack:

This week, we plan to have several salads with the lettuce.  I’ve been making spelt and quinoa and also using beans in some salads.  I’ll pickle the cucumbers.  I’m glad I stocked up on the spices for them.  I’ll need to double check our vinegar stock.  Some of the onions and garlic scape will be used in a batch of taco filling and the rest will be used in a sauté with mushrooms for the top of burgers or chopped and frozen.  There aren’t too many of them, so that might all got in the taco filling.  The tomatoes will go in the taco filling also.  I’ve been making baked oatmeal, scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs so the eggs have been easy to use in a timely fashion.  Also, they have a long shelf life.  We just picked some strawberries and made jam today, so these will most likely get eaten.  If we feel like we have too many, we’ll make some strawberry ice cream or freeze them for later.

So, I’m left without a plan for kale.  It’s an item that we only received twice last year, and I don’t have a “go to” dish in mind.  Some quick searching in Google gave me lots of ideas.  Now, I have to think about it.  We have plans to eat dinner away from home Wednesday and Thursday , so kale will have to be lunch for us one day or for dinner on Friday.  I’m leaning toward steaming it with vinegar, garlic scapes and green onion.

Update on last week:

Since the bread was opened for a snack on the way home, Nick, Sally and my husband had no trouble making sure it was eaten.  The bok choy went into an Asian tofu stir fry along with some of the garlic scapes and green onions.  The eggs were used in regular cooking and the cucumber and lettuce were used in salads.  Some of the strawberries were eaten and the rest went with some others we had to make jam.  The rest of the green onions and garlic scapes went into a Mexican filling for salad.

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