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Geauga Family Farms–week 6

Jul 192011

Today we had another pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. It’s week 6 already. The amount of produce has really picked up the last couple of weeks.

Here’s what we received in our family share:

Let’s take a closer look.

Black cherry tomatoes, cucumber

Pickling cucumbers, potatoes

Blueberries, green onions

Onions, peppers (probably hot!)

Cabbage, red raspberries

Lettuce, Swiss chard

Tomatoes, zucchini

Yellow squash

Personally, I’m not much of a tomato fan (unless they are in BBQ sauce, ketchup or pasta sauce), but the black cherry tomatoes were my husband’s favorite last year, so I was happy to see them today. The pickles we made a couple of weeks back should be ready, so we’ll eat them this week and make some more with today’s share. I bought some whole wheat lasagna noodles at the beginning of the season. I think this is the week for veggie lasagna with squash as the highlight.

Some of our raspberries were moldy, I sorted them and used the good ones in raspberry lemonade this evening. It’s so refreshing on a hot day like today. The blueberries probably won’t make it past breakfast in the morning.

I’m going to assume the peppers are hot. Last year, almost all of the peppers that we received were hot. I had a tough time using them since my kids and I don’t really like HOT. For the most part, I ended up chopping and freezing them and then putting them in crockpot recipes like chili a bit at a time.

Have a great week!

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 5

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Jul 122011

Today was our 5th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. I think we have entered the heart of the growing season. Based on what we received today, it looks like the crops are doing well despite such a wet spring.

Here’s what we received in our family share (not pictured are raspberries):

Let’s take a closer look.

Red raspberries, green leaf lettuce

Red leaf lettuce, large onion

Yellow squash, zucchini

Tomatoes, broccoli

Pickling cucumbers, beets

Green onions, kohlrabi

Potatoes, sugar snap peas

Cucumbers

This looks like a pretty easy week to use everything. I may freeze the onions, but I suspect everything else will be used as we prepare meals this week.

Geauga Family Farms–week 4

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Jul 052011

Today was our 4th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. As usual, our pick up items were a surprise. I was happy that we received lettuce since we were out. Between our two CSAs we are getting tons of lettuce and not letting it go to waste. The bounty did not disappoint and we received two types of lettuce.

They are taking applications for partial season shares that will start in a couple of weeks. If you are interested in getting a CSA, let me know and I can send you the application.

Here’s what we received in our family share:

Let’s take a closer look.

One large onion with greens, bunch of radishes.

green onions, cherry tomatoes

tomato, yellow squash

zucchini, rhubarb

kohlrabi, collard greens

2 types of lettuce

beets, snow peas (eat whole in the pod, usually used in stir fry recipes)

We did well with our shares last week. I can say that I had summer squash fritters 3 times for lunch and I’ll probably be having more of them this week. Today, before I picked up our GFF share, I only had some cabbage and cucumber left from last week’s shares.

This week, I’ll be making a tofu stir fry to use the peas along with some of the cabbage from my other share last week. We’ll probably try roasting the kohlrabi, radishes and beets this time. I’ll have to think about the collards. I’m guessing I’ll probably sauté them for lunch one day. I froze some rhubarb last week, so I’ll add this to that bag. I think I’ll end up making a rhubarb dessert soon. The cherry tomatoes are already half gone thanks to Stephen and Nick.

It should be a great week!

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 3

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Jun 282011

Today was the third pick up for Geauga Family Farms CSA. Since it was also the first farm field night, my husband picked up our share for us and I took the kids to the farm. I’ll have more on the farm visit tomorrow!

We had received our newsletter and knew we would be getting items like lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green onions, zucchini, yellow squash, kohlrabi, carrots, radishes, peas, kale and pickling cucumbers. Our actual items received vary depending on mother nature, which size share and which pick up day – so we always have an element of surprise.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

3 tomatoes, 1 container of strawberries

2 small bunches of green onions (pictured together), container of cherry tomatoes

2 heads of romaine lettuce, 1 head of red leaf lettuce

2 yellow squash, 2 zucchini

2 kohlrabi, small bunch of carrots

bunch of radishes

Here’s our plan of attack:

We’ll have more salads with the lettuce. I’ll probably make squash fritters again with the onions and squash, since everyone liked them this week. I just pickled some radishes, so I think these will go in salads and in our kohlrabi au gratin dish. The carrots and cherry tomatoes will get eaten (with our without salads). The strawberries will either get eaten at breakfast in the morning, or may make their way into a strawberry rhubarb dish. I’m almost hesitant to say this is a pretty easy week.

Update on last week:

I ended up making kale pesto with the kale. Most of the other items were used as planned. I did freeze a few tomatoes, some garlic scapes and some onions for future use.

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:

Let’s take a closer look.

1 bunch of kale, 2 containers of strawberries

2 tomatoes, 1 dozen eggs

garlic scapes, green onions

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

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.

Recipe: Taco Salad

CSA, Recipe No Responses »

Jun 192011

This week in our CSA, we received many items that fit into a Mexican theme. It seemed appropriate to create a taco salad.

[print_this]

Recipe: Taco Salad

Summary: All ingredients are approximate as I don’t really measure much.

Ingredients

1 T olive oil
3 garlic scapes, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 pound local grass fed ground beef
1 cup black beans (already cooked or canned)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup water
4 T Penzeys taco seasoning
2 cups quinoa with cilantro, prepared
handful of corn chips per person
bed of lettuce per person

Instructions

Heat olive oil in skillet.
Add garlic scapes and onion and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add ground beef and cook until beef is almost done.
Drain off grease and return to pan.
Add tomatoes, beans, water and taco seasoning.
Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, simmer until tomatoes are done and sauce is thickened.
Assemble 1/3 cup quinoa and 1/6 of the filling on top of the lettuce.
Add a handful of corn chips to each plate.

Quick notes

To make the quinoa, use a rice cooker. You need 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. I used previously frozen chopped cilantro that was frozen into ice cubes with water to make up some of the water. Add the cubes to a measuring cup and fill with water to desired level. You can always add fresh cilantro or leave it out.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 6

[/print_this]

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 1

CSA 2 Responses »

Jun 142011

Today was our first pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. Sometimes we get a “what’s in season this week list”, but usually surprised when we pick up our items for the week.

Here is what we received.

Let’s take a closer look.

2 containers of strawberries (approximately 2 quarts), 3 tomatoes

loaf of wheat bread (that was sampled on the way home), 1/2 dz. eggs

small head of green leaf lettuce, 2 small heads of another variety of leaf lettuce

bok choy, 2 different views

garlic scapes, cucumber

green onions

I’ll be back tomorrow to share our plan of attack for consumption.

Fresh Fork CSA –week 1

CSA 3 Responses »

Jun 022011

Today was the first pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. We were expecting the following items.

Small CSA:

1 whole pasture raised chicken, 4-5 lbs
2 lbs organic cornmeal
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch radishes with tops
1 head assorted leaf lettuce (approx .5 lbs)
2 hydroponic cucumbers
1 quart farmstead yogurt

Farming is never an exact science, here’s what we received:

So, I think we have tomatoes instead of radishes and one cucumber instead of two. Update: the tomatoes were in place of one cucumber and we were shorted radishes. We’ll get our radishes next week.

Here’s our current plan of attack:

The chicken is frozen and we put it in our freezer. I cleaned the lettuce so it’s ready for salad. Nick is excited to make corn muffins with the corn meal. I chopped and froze the cilantro in ice cube trays. The yogurt will be useful in overnight oats. We already ate our cucumber at dinner. It was small (think pickling cucumber), but delicious! The only thing I’m not sure about is the tomatoes. I’m sure I’ll figure out a good use for them or I’ll freeze them for later in the season.

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