Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 7

CSA 2 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

It’s week 7 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA.  We made our pick up at Whole Foods and headed home as quickly as possible since it’s 97 degrees outside.

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

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tomatoes, pickling cucumbers

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onions, cucumbers

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zucchini, cherry tomatoes

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beets, lettuce

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green beans

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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.

Geauga Family Farms–week 11

CSA No Responses »
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:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Green bell peppers, onions

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Hot pepper, yellow squash

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Pickling cucumbers, peaches

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Yellow beans, basil

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Beets, watermelon

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Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes

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Eggplant, cabbage

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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.

Geauga Family Farms–week 6

CSA 2 Responses »
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:

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Let’s take a closer look.

Black cherry tomatoes, cucumber

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Pickling cucumbers, potatoes

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Blueberries, green onions

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Onions, peppers (probably hot!)

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Cabbage, red raspberries

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Lettuce, Swiss chard

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Tomatoes, zucchini

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Yellow squash

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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

CSA 2 Responses »
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):

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Let’s take a closer look.

Red raspberries, green leaf lettuce

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Red leaf lettuce, large onion

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Yellow squash, zucchini

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Tomatoes, broccoli

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Pickling cucumbers, beets

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Green onions, kohlrabi

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Potatoes, sugar snap peas

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Cucumbers

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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 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.