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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 20

Oct 192012

Today, I had a rare pick up without the kids. I had been at a doctor appointment and headed up to the high school from there. It was strange. I havemixed feelings about today’s bag. I have “go to” uses for so many of our CSA items, but mustard greens, mixed greens (braising?) and Napa cabbage are not included. But, there are many items like cider, beans, squash, cheese, apples, etc. that I am excited to see.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

1 head Napa cabbage
1 8 oz. chunk pepper Havarti
1 bunch mustard greens
1 lb. black beans
1 half lb. mixed greens
1 head broccoli
1 acorn squash
1 half gallon apple cider
1 quarter peck Empire Red apples
1 bunch collard greens
1 butternut squash
2 ct. red peppers
1 head cauliflower
1 head leaf lettuce
1 package, 1.25 lb., Andouille sausage (Smokey, Spanish sausage)

I roasted lots of butternut squash this week. I think I’ll save this one for a few days and then try the squash/bean burritos that I read about last week.

The local broccoli is always delicious. I’ll use it for a side dish soon. I love that we received purple cauliflower. It is really bright and fun!

Pepper cheese is not usually my favorite, but this cheese is really good. I’m probably going to have it with eggs. The lettuce is very crisp looking and also a really small head. It will make one individual salad.

I haven’t made my stuff acorn squash yet this season. This might just be the week for it. The peppers will get chopped for salads.

Apples tend to disappear without any work. We put the sausage in the freezer. I see some more of the sweet potato hash in our future. The kids thought it was too spicy, but Stephen and I can eat it for lunches.

I’m too tired to think much about the greens. I read up on mustard greens, so I am a little less afraid of them. But, I still don’t know what my plan will be. We get these bagged mixed greens often, so I need to figure out a way to use them. I just think they are bitter.

I’ll probably chop the collards and cook them with taco meat. I have no idea about the Napa cabbage, so I need to look at that one on line.

I’m surprised that the cider has been here for several hours and is still unopened. Nick, Sally and Stephen will love it. It’s too sweet for me.

Weeks like this leave me in awe with the huge variety of items that we can obtain locally.

I have a full day tomorrow and then Sunday will be “use the greens day”.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 17

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Sep 282012

We picked up our bag in Mayfield today. Tonight’s the Homecoming Football Game, so the hours are shortened and they are expecting full parking lots for the game. We got there early and quickly picked up our bag.

What a pretty bag!

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 piece Mayfield Road Creamery “Bloomfield,” a brie style cheese
1 lb. raw honey
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch carrots with tops
1 bunch radishes
1 bag mixed greens, can be used for braising or salad greens
1 head speckled romaine lettuce (it will have brown spots…that is how it should be)
1/2 dz. ears sweet corn
1 quarter peck gala apples
1 butternut squash (2 if they are small…but that’s doubtful based on what I’ve seen)
1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes
2.5 lbs. Roma tomatoes
2 zucchini/squash
Approx. 1 lb. onions
1 head broccoli
A handful Croatian sweet peppers

We received everything exactly as listed. I’ll probably just use the Swiss chard in a quiche. We haven’t had it in a while and I plan to be home on Sunday, so it’s a good day to make it. I’ll probably use some other veggies in it as well. The kids are excited to see the carrots, so they’ll make an easy side dish for lunch one day this week. I usually just cook them and sprinkle a bit of cinnamon on them.

I have plenty of eggs and think some zucchini muffins are in order. The corn is going to need cooked today, so I’ll be adding it to tonight’s dinner.

I haven’t decided on a specific use for the Brie, but I’m sure it will disappear. We use honey as our regular sweetener. This will mostly go into tea and muffins.

I’m going to make some sauce this week and use the onion, peppers and tomatoes. We also picked tomatoes from our garden, so we have plenty.

We’ve been eating the apples as they come. I’m going to try to source some additional ones for sauce this week. Winter squash is my favorite. I’ll probably make soup with this butternut squash.

The speckled lettuce and radishes will go into salads. The broccoli is part of tonight’s dinner.

I’m determined to tackle braising greens this winter. We’ll see these often and I never can get away from the bitterness. I am going to conquer them. I’m open to ideas.

Hopefully, our schedule will start to calm down this week and I’ll be able to cook a bit more in the kitchen soon. Lately, our meals have been thrown together based on what’s handy. It works, but I miss some of the more complex dishes.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 15

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Sep 132012

We have plans tomorrow evening, so we picked up our CSA in Beachwood today. There was quite a line when we arrived, but it moved quickly.

I love the colors this week!

Here’s what we were expecting:

1 bunch golden beets
Approx. 2.5 lbs. San Marzano Roma Tomatoes
Either heirloom tomatoes or 1 pint grape tomatoes
1 pint yummy pepper mix (all sweet peppers)
1 lb. Berkshire bacon
1/2 lb. mixed baby greens (chard, kale, arugula, mizuna, and more)
1 head cabbage
1 quarter peck Gala apples
1 head broccoli
8 oz. grass-fed smoked cheddar cheese
1 half pint of either Pappy’s pepper butter (like a sweet and tangy homemade mustard) or 1 half pint of Pappy’s Candied Jalapeños (semi-hot jalapeños in a honey syrup)
A handful of colored peppers (red long peppers probably early week and purple peppers later week)

I’m not sure what happened, but we ended up with eggs and spaghetti squash. We didn’t get broccoli. I can see the switch with broccoli and squash – but eggs? We also got lettuce, but I think that was a deliberate attempt at BLT ingredients.

I have two spaghetti squashes. I’m thinking about making it Italian style and serving it like spaghetti. I think everyone in the house will eat it like that (especially with cheese on it). The head of cabbage is pretty small. I think I’ll keep it a few days and then make some of my coleslaw.

We’ll be eating apples in our oatmeal. Also, I ordered a new dehydrator and I’m anxious to try fruit rolls, so some puree might be in order. These are really good paste tomatoes, so they’ll end up in sauce at some point. For now, the freezer will be their home, along with the heirloom tomatoes. We have an over abundance of tomatoes this year, but we aren’t getting them all at once, so it’s harder to make and can sauce.

The Pappy’s Pepper Butter is medium hot. I’m not a fan of hot things, but I’m determined to try this and a few other things that are on our shelf soon. My goal is to eat from our house as much as possible.

Delicious bacon never goes to waste around here. I didn’t get it in the freezer right away, so it’s thawing in the fridge. We’ll probably have it on Saturday or Sunday. I wasn’t expecting eggs and we have an overabundance. I’m going to gift a dozen to my mom since she’s helping with the kids tomorrow.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried this cheese, but there are very few that I don’t like. All of the peppers this week should be sweet (not hot!) and I’m happy about that.

We also got some mixed greens. This batch looks pretty good to me, so I’m going to have a big salad for lunch tomorrow. I’ve gotten away from lunch salads and need to get back to them since they are delicious.

We still have some beets from the other week, so I am going cook all of them all of them tonight or tomorrow. I’ll probably make a big batch of Harvard beets since we haven’t had them for a while. The lettuce looks very tasty and will be good in salads or maybe a BLT.

There’s 7 weeks left and I’m already getting sad that the season will be ending soon. It’s a good think there’s a winter program starting sometime in November.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 12

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Mar 292012

We were a bit early for our pick up today. I took the opportunity to chat with Eric, who works at the back of the truck. I really enjoy meeting people who are passionate about local foods. It was a bit chilly for the pick up, but at least it wasn’t raining.

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

1 Grassfed beef steak
1 pt. concord grape jelly
1 12oz piece Swiss cheese
2 lbs. spelt flour
3 lbs. red potatoes
1 lb. spinach pasta
1 bunch kale or mustard greens
1 bag mixed salad greens
1/4 lb. ramps

Here’s a group shot:

Grape jelly is probably my favorite flavor in the jelly/jam category. I hope to hoard most of this for myself and use it on French toast and PP&J sandwiches. I’m going to try and make homemade tortillas with the spelt flour. My recipe works well with whole wheat flour, so I thought I’d try the spelt.

We’ll probably just make mashed potatoes this week. Unless my new slicer comes in, then I might try out some microwavable potato chips. I tossed the pasta into the freezer. It will make for a nice quick meal when we need it this week.

I’ve never met a local, grass-fed cheese that I didn’t like. I suspect this new Swiss will be great. So far, Swiss is the only cheese that Sally won’t eat. Maybe this variety will change her mind. I think the kale will go into a casserole dish that I’m still dreaming up in my head.

The steak is frozen, so I put it in the freezer. When we get another stretch of warm weather, we’ll grill it for dinner one night. The winter greens aren’t my favorite, but I’m going to try to make a chopped salad out of them. I’m not a big fan of the texture of the stems, but a chopped version in a roll up is sounding good to me.

The final item this week is ramps. In a nutshell, ramps grow wild this time of year and are similar to a leek. I’ll use them as an onion type of ingredient with fried potatoes or soup this week.

I bought a couple of extras this week as well. At $5 a piece, I picked up 3 yogurts and one Krispie Treat Granola. I can’t seem to keep the yogurt in stock at our house. One of the Heinen’s stores near me carries it, but I like to buy it from Fresh Fork whenever possible. These 3 containers probably won’t last until the next pick up.

I’m starting to get excited for the summer CSA. Only 2 more months away.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 22–The Final 2011 Summer Week

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Oct 282011

Yesterday, we picked up week 22 of the summer Fresh Fork CSA. It was the last pick up. I’m glad that the winter CSA starts next week. We received a few higher dollar items, so we didn’t have as many different things. That was fine with me.

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

Small CSA:

1 pack of Berkshire pork chops, center cut and boneless. Approx. 1 to 1.25 lbs.
1 quart farmstead yogurt
8 oz. aged cheddar cheese, pepper Havarti ,or Havarti cheese
1 head Napa cabbage
1 quarter peck Jonagold apples
1 bag of mixed salad/braising greens
2 count butternut squash

Here’s a group shot:

The Berkshire pork chops are one of our favorite items from Fresh Fork. We’ll bake them in the oven with spices and apples for a yummy dinner.

I’ve only had Napa cabbage one other time. I’m not sure what fate it will have. Spaghetti squash was substituted for the butternut squash. I was hoping for butternut. We like spaghetti squash ok, but it’s not our favorite and it’s less versatile.

The mixed green will probably go into salad. If not, we can sauté them. We were out of yogurt and there wasn’t any on the truck last week, so we were happy to see it expected this week.

Cheese is always a bit hit in our house. This is aged cheddar and we can’t wait to try it.

We picked up an extra yogurt ($5) and a bag of honey puffed spelt ($3) while we were there.

I’m excited to have a slower week in terms of items that have to be used right away. I’m recovering from a badly bruised knee and a little less kitchen time will be a good thing for a few days.

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