Here’s what we received in our bag this week:

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

Winter Week 4:

• 1 smoked ham hock
• 2 lbs. black turtle beans
• 1 lb. kale
• 2 acorn squash
• 3 lbs. sweet potatoes
• Aprrox. 1 lb. onion
• 1 head broccoli (or 1 bag broccoli shoots…which are just smaller heads)
• 1 package chorizo or Italian sausage
• 1 bunch beets with tops
• 1 bag mixed salad or braising greens
• 1 stalk Brussels sprouts
• 1 quarter peck empire apples

I haven’t given much thought to how this week’s items would be used.  I’ll probabaly cut the sausage into pieces and bake it in the oven.  Although, a crock pot batch of Italian sausage with peppers and onions might be a great meal for a busy swim lesson night next week.  I’ll probably make soup with the ham hock.  I don’t feel the need to be extra creative in the kitchen since holiday time.  We haven’t even put our tree up yet.

Last time we got beans, I cooked them in the crock pot and then froze them in 1-2 cup portions.  That worked quite well and I haven’t had to buy canned black beans in ages.  We were out of apples, so these will go into oatmeal as early as tomorrow.

The sweet potatoes weren’t in the best shape, I’ll probably just make mashed potatoes with them.  Beets will go into Harvard beets.  It will be a smaller batch, but enough for one or two of us to have them for a side.

I haven’t stuffed acorn squash yet this winter.  I like to make a stuffing with squash, sausage, cheese and rice.  Yum!  The onions will get used in general cooking.

I can not get enough of the sprouts this year.  Love them!  This kale is some of the prettiest that I have seen all year.  I will probably make a quiche with it.

I never know what to do with these mixed greens.  They are bitter and tend to have lots of stems.  The broccoli on the other hand is always fabulous and will probably get cooked tomorrow.

It was nice to stock up on milk and yogurt at the truck.  Too bad I didn’t think to buy eggs.  There’s always next time!

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

• 1 lb. city chicken (cubed Berkshire pork)
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 bunch turnips
• 1 spaghetti squash
• A handful Croatian peppers
• 1 bunch beets
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 1 head cabbage
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1 lb. bulk Italian Sausage
• Approx. 1 lb. onions
• 8 oz. piece smoked cheddar cheese

We actually had our choice of the city chicken or a pork tenderloin.  We haven’t had tenderloin in ages and I had never had city chicken.  I ended up buying one as an extra.  The Italian sausage I cooked up to go with some pasta for dinner tonight.

Turnips are hard for me, but I’ve been perusing some new recipes.  Cabbage is always welcome in our house.  I’ll probably make unstuffed cabbage this week.

Local broccoli is one of my favorites.  It will probably be part of tomorrow’s dinner.  I’ll use the peppers in quiche or chili this week.

I’m going to prep the greens by sautéing all of them in the morning.  That way they will be easy to add to quiche, eggs or other dishes throughout the week.

I’ll probably include the onion when I sauté.

The smoked cheddar will go into quiche or perhaps some butternut squash burritos that I was just reading about.  We ate most of the cauliflower at dinner tonight.  The left over will be part of lunch tomorrow.

I love winter squash, but spaghetti squash is not my favorite.  I must research a new way to prepare it.  We are still finishing up our last two.

I missed apples this week.  Hopefully, Stephen will be taking the kids picking tomorrow and we can make some applesauce this week.  Last year, we canned many quarts and still didn’t have enough to get through the winter months.

Here’s what we received:

apples, green beans

bell peppers, onions

cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

yellow squash, bok choy

leaf lettuce

I’m so happy to see apples.  We love apples in our house and I’ve been waiting for them to start showing up.  Most of the local PYO is sparse this year.  We’ll be enjoying them in oatmeal this week.  The green beans will be a side dish for a meal tomorrow or Thursday.

I’m done with tomatoes, peppers and onions.  We planted a community garden this year and our tomatoes are out of control – and I don’t like tomatoes.  Actually, we’re ok on peppers since I didn’t pick them this year.  We’ll be chopping and freezing them along with the onions.  I love having local ones available throughout the winter.  I’m mostly just freezing tomatoes right now.  We have tons of sauce and I’m not sure what we’ll need next.  I did make some great enchilada sauce this week.  I don’t think I’ll ever buy store bought again.

One lonely squash will just get eaten in a stir fry with the bok choy and maybe some garlic and onion.  Bok choy isn’t my favorite, but luckily Stephen likes the Asian flavors.

We’ll use the lettuce in salad.  We might even have BLTs this week with some local bacon.  I think everyone would like them as long as we hold the T for Sally and I.

I’m hoping for fewer tomatoes next week.

Here’s a shot of what we received this week:

Mixed cherry tomatoes, onions

Lettuce, mixed bell peppers

Green beans, yummy orange snacking peppers

Slicing tomatoes, patty pan squash

Beets with lovely green tops

With the holiday weekend approaching and Nick starting preschool soon, we are taking a trip this weekend.  So, all of our food needs to be packed, preserved or eaten.  We used two peppers, one tomato and one onion in tonight’s dinner.  I sautéed them to go with some Italian sausages that I had thawed today.  The other pepper was rotten and needed to be pitched.  I haven’t received anything bad in a while, but it happens occasionally.

I’m going to just freeze the slicing tomatoes.  The cherry tomatoes will be good snacking for Stephen and Nick.  We’ll have salad using the lettuce for the next couple of days.  The snacking peppers probably will be eaten tomorrow.  They look delicious.  The green beans will make a nice side dish for lunch tomorrow.  I have some beets in the fridge already, and I’m expecting some more tomorrow.  I suspect they’ll all be made into Harvard beets tomorrow night.  Efficiency this week is especially important.  I’ll cook the greens with some eggs for breakfast or lunch tomorrow or Thursday.  I’ll probably just shred and freeze the squash.

I’m feeling lazy in the cooking department.  Some weeks, there is just too much going on to cook lots of recipes.  Lately, dinners have been quickly thrown together without much of a plan.  I am looking forward to more of a routine in upcoming weeks and the opportunity to spend a bit more quality time in the kitchen.

Peppers, green beans

Zucchini, onions

Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

Sweet corn, green pepper

Lettuce

I took a dehydrating class last night.  I’m hoping to try out my new skills with the peppers and slicing tomatoes.  We’ll have the corn and beans for dinner.  This lettuce will go into salads for Stephen.  It’s not my favorite variety (leathery romaine), but it won’t go to waste.  I’ll pair it with some feta and cherry tomatoes an add a bit of basil balsamic vinaigrette.  I currently have a mound of onions that need chopped and froze so these will get added to that project.  I was hoping for zucchini since I found a recipe for cornbread that uses it.  I think I’ll be making it this week.

I’m glad I get a small share early in the week.  It tends to pair well with my large share that I get on Fridays.  It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over.

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.

Here’s a shot of what we picked up today:

onions, lettuce

bell peppers (one in our share and one gifted from another member)

slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes

peaches, blackberries

watermelon

Since we picked 60 pounds of peaches on Sunday, I’m in clean the kitchen and canning mode.  So, this needs to be an easy CSA week.  The peppers, onions and slicing tomatoes are going to be frozen.  The blackberries will be great with breakfast tomorrow.  The lettuce will go into a salad with a cucumber from last weekend.  We’ll eat the peaches in oatmeal as they ripen.  The watermelon can get in melon line.  We have a cantaloupe cut up in the fridge, plus two other melons that we picked up over the weekend.  Since everyone in our house loves melon season, we’ll have no problem consuming it.  We made two quiches today and have some local pasta in the freezer.  We’ll be having easy to throw together meals the next few days.

Here’s what we received in our small share this week:

tomatoes, pickling cucumbers

onions, cucumbers

zucchini, cherry tomatoes

beets, lettuce

green beans

I think we’ve passed the heavy greens part of the season with all of the heat lately.  I suspect, we’ll see more greens when the weather cools toward the end of the CSA season.  The tomatoes will be great for salads.  Stephen and Nick like them.  Sally and I do not.  If anyone has any tips on learning to like the texture of tomatoes, please let me know.

I’m going to make refrigerator pickles with both types of cucumbers this week.  I need to slice the onion for a cabbage dish that I am going to make.  I used the reserved onions in tonight’s dinner, so I need to replenish.  I had some squash grilled at an event this past weekend, so I decided to just make zucchini straight up tonight.  I’m not sure what I don’t eat it like that more often.  This week’s zucchini will be eaten with minimal preparation.

I’m going to venture out of my comfort zone on the beets and try to use one raw on some salad.  I may also use some on a quesadilla of sorts.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  The beet greens weren’t worth keeping this week.

The lettuce will go to salad and the beans will be a great side dish in the next day or two.  I was sad that we didn’t receive any fruit this week.  I was expecting blueberries.  The ones we received the last couple of weeks were so good.  I have plans to go picking on Thursday, so I’ll be able to replenish our supply then.

With all of my preparations over the weekend, I feel very caught up in the kitchen and ready to tackle this week’s share.

Here’s the list of items for the week:

• 1 quart of yogurt
• 1 pt of black raspberries
• Assorted tree fruit
• 1 package Italian Sausage links, 1.25 lbs.
• 2 ct zucchini
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1 head green leaf lettuce
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 head kohlrabi
• 1 red bulb onion
• 1.5 lbs hoop house tomatoes
• 2 ct cucumbers
• 1 head broccoli or cauliflower, whichever comes in
• 1 jar strawberry balsamic sauce made from leftover week 1 strawberries

The highlights were the fruit.  She received apricots, plums as an add on, raspberries, and Clark Pope Catering’s Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Sauce.  Kelly mentioned that the plum were like heaven in a paper bag.  Even though I wasn’t here last week, I was able to get a bottle of the sauce.  I’m excited to try it out.

Now onto this week’s bag!

It was 95 degrees when we picked up our bag.  This has been one hot day!  I was glad to quickly get everything home and unloaded.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

• 1 whole chicken or pork roast
• 1 bunch beets
• 2 bulb onions
• 1 bunch carrots or 1 head kohlrabi
• Approx. 2# tomatoes
• 1 baby bok choy
• 2 lbs. peaches
• 1 bunch spinach
• 1 lb. garlic scape and black pepper linguini
• 2 lbs. apricots
• 2 ct. cucumbers
• 2 ct. zucchini

We love the spinach.  It’s quite versatile.  We already used some in our white sauce tonight.  I’m not a big tomato person.  I think they are “guishy”.  I’m such a texture eater.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever like them.  Some other Fresh Fork CSA folks were talking about having a tomato tasting party.  I might be swayed to participate if that were to occur.  For now, these will be eaten by Stephen and Nick or I’ll use them in sauce.

I have a total of 4 zucchini and I am making fritters for lunch tomorrow.  I’m not sure why we got extra cucumbers, but they are great for snacking and salads.  Since we don’t have any lettuce at the moment, I suspect these will become snacks for the weekend.  I may try my hand at a quick relish.

Some of the onion will go into our pulled pork and coleslaw recipes.  The rest will be chopped and frozen for future use.  We ate almost all of the carrots at dinner.  The leftover ones will be gone at lunch tomorrow.

Our apricots aren’t going to last long.  They are very ripe.  I’m thinking of making smoothies with them tomorrow since it’s going to be another scorcher.  I contemplated an apricot dessert, but I’m not sure I want to turn on the oven.  Maybe, I’ll get creative.  We’ve been enjoying peaches in our oatmeal each morning.  With 4 of us, these won’t last long.

Bok choy always stumps me.  I just don’t have a great go to recipe for it.  It usually just ends up in a stir fry for Stephen.  I’m going to make pulled pork with the roast tomorrow.  I am going to put the crock pot in the basement so our whole house doesn’t heat up while it cooks.

We’re going to grill the beets this week.  We have a kohlrabi to use as well.  We didn’t get our pasta when we picked up our bag.  Since I was out anyway, I stopped back to get it on our way home from the spray ground.  It went straight to boiling water for dinner and had already missed it’s photo opportunity.

I’m not going to say that every CSA week is easy, but I like feeling like I finally have the hang of it.  I’m looking forward to eating fresh and local this weekend.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.