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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 10

Aug 102012

We picked up our bag at Mayfield this week. It was the heaviest bag ever. I had to split it into two bags to carry it to the car.

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

1 dz. eggs
1 piece gouda cheese
A handful of hot Hungarian peppers
Approx. 2 to 3 green peppers, depending on size
1 head cabbage (most will be green)
Either 1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes or about 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
1 lb. green filet beans
2 ct. cucumbers
1 pint blackberries or approx. 1.5 lbs. peaches
1.5 lbs. spelt berries
1 bunch beets
1 lb. chorizo
1 head broccoli
2 ct. patty pan squash
6 ears sweet corn

I’m going to be preserving peppers and squash tonight. We have enough of both to can or freeze. I’m also going to make a small batch of pickles with my cucumbers since I have a few.

We ate the sweet corn for dinner. This is one of the weeks when dinner was determined bulkiness.

We’ll be having beans with lunch tomorrow. I’m not sure about the tomatoes, but they might just get pureed and frozen for later.

The cheese will keep a few days. The peaches won’t be ready to eat for a couple of days, but will go great in our oatmeal.

The carrots will make a side dish for dinner tomorrow. These peppers are hot and that is my least favorite Fresh Fork item. I’ll probably just freeze them for chili this winter.

We have an abundance of eggs and I’m going to make some custard tomorrow. I’m also going to hard boil some to have for snacks. The chorizo was partially thawed, so it will become part of lunch tomorrow.

The spelt berries are in the pantry. The beets will get used tomorrow. I’ll probably make Harvard beets again. It’s a household favorite.

The cauliflower was dinner. I made it “mac and cheese” style. I used the cauliflower (received instead of broccoli) as the pasta and made a white cheese sauce that used Mayfield Road creamery Smoked Gouda. It was delicious. I don’t have plans for the cabbage yet.

I’m leaving town on Sunday and will be back late on Wednesday. I should have taken a vacation week with Fresh Fork, but I wasn’t really thinking. I’m going to prepare and preserve as much as possible before I leave. My goal is for Stephen to have food for while the kids and I are gone, but not be overwhelmed when he tries to find something in the fridge. I did sign up for vacation next week. That will give me a few days of recovery when I get back. Our freezer is pretty full right now. I just need a couple of days to make some jam and get a bit organized. I’m hoping to make time for that next weekend.

U-Pick Tour–Burnham Orchards–Berlin Heights – peaches

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Aug 012012

On Sunday, I contacted Patterson Fruit Farm and inquired about U-Pick peaches for this year. I was informed that there was not enough peaches for pick your own this year. I was sad since I had such a good time picking them there last year. So, I went through my list of farms and remembered that Burnham Orchards was having U-Pick peaches. The kids and I had plans to meet friends at a west side farmers’ market, so we decided the extra 50 minute drive wouldn’t be bad to head over to the orchard. Usually, we drive about 45 minutes or less for U-Pick. I’ve wanted to visit Burnham for a while now. They are one of the few farms in the area that usually have U-Pick sweet cherries.

We stopped at the market to get the picking location. It turns out that our friends approached the orchard from a different direction, so it took a few minutes for all of us to meet up at the right picking location. We ended up picking off Wright Rd and 113. We were there right before picking was supposed to start for the day. The hours were 12-4 and it was about 5 til when we arrived. The staff was a bit disorganized, but everything was quickly remedied. It wasn’t fun to find out that we’d have to load the peaches in our car and drive back to the market to have them weighed. I’m used to paying in the field where I pick.

Soon enough, we were surrounded by peach trees.

Sally loved carrying her own basket. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention and she would pick a peach, take a bite and then put it in her basket. She did this 8 times before I caught her. I bought the peaches.

Nick and Sally both taste tested. The peaches weren’t quite ripe, but it didn’t stop them from eating one.

It was a rare picking day. We had all three of us and a friend to take a photo.

Nick loved pulling the wagon. We ended up with 3 big baskets full. All together, we picked about 60 pounds of peaches. They were 90 cents a pound when you bought 24 pounds or more.

I canned our first of them today. I ended up with 5 quarts. The rest didn’t seem quite ripe enough. I’m hopefully that I can do another batch tomorrow and then the last of them on Friday. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to pick more this year, but we still may procure some additional peaches for canning.

Geauga Family Farms–summer week 9

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Jul 312012

The kids and I had a crazy busy day today. So, when Sally was still sleeping at 4:30PM, I called Stephen and asked him to pick up our share. I should send him more often! He came home with 3 fruits. We like to eat our veggies, but LOVE to eat fruit.

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.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 7

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Jul 202012

We picked up our bag in Beachwood yesterday. Some weeks, it’s just more convenient for us. I love the colors in this week’s bag.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
1 piece Havarti from Mayfield Road Creamery (8 oz.)
2 ct. zucchini or squash
1 bunch carrots or 1 bunch beets (switching from last week)
1 lb. whole wheat linguini
6 ears sweet corn
1 lb green beans
1-2 bulb onions depending on size
1 lb. apricots
2 lbs. peaches
Approx. 1.5 lbs. tomatoes
1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes
1 pint blueberries

We were missing our blueberries. I’m hoping to stop by Mayfield today and pick them up. We are a bit overstocked on eggs at the moment. My niece and nephew are coming next week and they love eggs, so I think it will all even out. I packed some of the tomatoes in Stephen’s lunch this morning. I doubt any will be left by tomorrow.

I’m actually keeping up with onions. These are the only two that we have in our fridge. I’m guessing they will just be used in regular cooking this week. I’m hoping to grill zucchini for dinner tomorrow.

These tomatoes will probably be made into tomato béchamel sauce for our pasta. It’s convenient that we received carrots this week too.

Peaches and apricots disappear around here quickly. Nick likes to do a magic trick where the apricot turns into a pit. If there are any left tomorrow, we’ll grill some with our zucchini.

Everyone in our house loves cheese, so there’s never a need to figure out a plan. The pasta will be an easy meal for lunch on Sunday with the sauce.

The beans will make a good side dish for dinner tonight, along with the corn.

I’ve also been buying yogurt and milk from the truck. Between the CSA and the extras, our fridge is packed today. It sure beats shopping at the grocery store.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 6

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Jul 132012

Due to some other plans today, we picked up our bag yesterday. The flexibility is awesome.

WOW, I need to get a better photo set up as I am having trouble fitting everything in one frame! This week’s bag is great. I’m still getting used to the vast amount of stuff in a large vs. the small that we subscribed to last year. I’d never go back to the small.

Here’s my attempt at a group shot.

Here’s what we were expecting to receive:

1 whole chicken
1 pint blueberries
1 head leaf lettuce
2 ct cucumbers
2-3 zucchini/squash
1 head red cabbage
About 3 tomatoes, depending on size
1 lb. apricots
1 bunch beets or 1 bunch carrots (rotating for the next two weeks, everyone will get each)
2 lbs. peaches
1 bunch green onions
1 lb. green beans
1 package of ravioli
1 bunch Swiss chard

Our chicken was partially thawed. I’m guessing that was due to the excessive heat yesterday. So, instead of putting it straight in the freezer, it’s thawing in our fridge. That made fitting everything in the fridge a bit challenging, but we managed. I’m hoping to cut it up and have Stephen grill it for dinner tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes. Usually, I roast them whole. I’m going to cut the onions up and freeze them.

I’m not sure about the red cabbage. I may use some of it in a slaw, but I need to do a bit more research. The cucumbers have been great for salads and snacking. I keep thinking about making some pickles, but they keep disappearing.

We’ll grill the zucchini with the chicken. The apricots almost didn’t make it through dinner. After packing lunches today, there’s one left.

The peaches have been great for snacking or in our oatmeal. These need another day or two to ripen. With our abundance of lettuce, the tomatoes will be great in the salads (for Nick and Stephen).

I made a simple white sauce to go with the spinach and garlic scape pasta last night. The pasta was on the strong side, but it was definitely tasty. You can’t really tell from this photo, but this is the biggest head of lettuce ever.

After going to the Beet class last week, I’m excited to make puree and freeze it for future pizza! These are the best beet greens that I’ve ever seen. I’m going to use them tomorrow so I can enjoy them. The four of us finished the blueberries this morning at breakfast. It’s a good thing that I picked 15 pounds for the freezer this week.

The green beans have been tasty this year. These will make a great side dish with one of our chicken meals. I’ll probably use the Swiss chard in some eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

This weekend is all about using up the bulk. Our fridge is overflowing with fresh goodness. Hopefully, by Sunday night, we’ll have it a bit more under control.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–weeks 4&5

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Jul 062012

Last week, I was still on vacation for week 4, so I didn’t do a pick up. My friend Kelly was nice enough to send me a few photos. I was jealous when I received them on my phone, even though I was at the beach. I love her photos!

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.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 14

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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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Geauga Family Farms–week 12

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Aug 302011

Pick up #12 for the Geauga Family Farms CSA was today. We pick up at our local Whole Foods. Nick calls it the little Whole Foods because it’s so much smaller than the Cedar Location and doesn’t have a waterfall.

Today’s box was overflowing!

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Green beans, watermelon (hmmm.. these photos are not to scale)

Lettuce, eggplant

Cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, bell peppers

Cantaloupe, dozen sweet corn

Hot peppers, patty pan squash

We got 3 fruits again this week. In our house that is a good thing. I actually used frozen peaches in today’s oatmeal, so I am excited for the peaches. We have lots of melon since we got extras in our other CSA on Thursday, but we are eating it at a good clip so I don’t think we’ll have a problem. Our biggest challenge is having to take the seeds out of the watermelon for our 22 month old daughter.

We ate 1/2 the corn for dinner tonight and we are getting another 1/2 dozen on Thursday. I’ll probably cook and take the rest of this batch off of the cobs for a wheat berry, corn, bean salad of sorts. We need to pack dinner for our Wednesday outing at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

I’m going to chop and freeze the peppers. I’m assuming the non-bell peppers are hot. They seem to always be hot and I’m not taking chances with them. The bell peppers will go into tomato sauce. I’ll save the hot ones for chili and salsa.

I just read a blog post about mini lasagnas that were made in muffin tins. I may use the eggplant and squash for my own version of that.

The remaining few items will easily be eaten as part of our meals. We need to stay on top of our game this week since we have several meals planned out over the holiday weekend. Friday, I need to blanch/chop/freeze anything that we haven’t used so we don’t have waste.

Geauga Family Farms–week 11

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Aug 232011

Wow, we had pick up #11 today for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. We had 14 different items!

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Green bell peppers, onions

Hot pepper, yellow squash

Pickling cucumbers, peaches

Yellow beans, basil

Beets, watermelon

Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes

Eggplant, cabbage

We didn’t do too badly last week, but we had company this weekend and I feel a little bit behind. It’s really because of peach and tomato picking, not the CSA items. I finally canned the tomatoes yesterday and I’m finishing the peaches now.

With this week’s CSA items, I see some coleslaw in our future since we got cabbage today and we are getting apples on Thursday. I’ll make some pasta sauce with the tomatoes, basil, eggplant and squash and we’ll have that with pasta for a meal. I’ll probably add that hot pepper too.

I’ll also be making some more pickles. I think we ate all of the ones from the last batch, so that’s timely.

I think this week is easy, especially since we don’t have any meals out planned.

U-Pick Tour–Patterson Fruit Farm, Chesterland Ohio–Peaches Take Two!

Adventures with Nick and Sally, U-Pick No Responses »

Aug 212011

Yesterday morning, we went back to Patterson’s Fruit Farm to pick more peaches. It was the same set up as last week.

Nick really wanted to wear this long sleeved shirt. I didn’t think it was worth arguing about it, but I packed a short sleeve shirt just in case he decided he was hot. Both Sally and Nick enjoyed a couple of peaches right off the trees.

We ran into some friends and they took a group shot of us.

Here’s Maria, Paula and Mandi. Today was the first day that I met Mandy and Maria, but Paula and I went picking raspberries a few weeks back. We ended up picking another full bushel of peaches.

I wish that peach season was longer, but I’m so glad that we have pick your own available near by. Peaches are super easy to pick and Patterson’s is only 20 minutes from our house in Mayfield Heights. Since I canned some and made jam last week, I think I’ll be able to can this week’s bounty. I have a peach post planned for this week to help document what I’ve learned about processing my crop.

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