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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 19

Oct 122012

Today was a perfect autumn day for a CSA pickup. We had some logistical issues this week and at one point considered Solon, Mayfield, Beachwood, Hudson and Mentor as possible sites. We ended up making it to our normal spot at Mayfield. I was glad to visit with Kirsten and Robert for a bit during a slower time.

Here’s what we are expecting to receive:

1 dozen eggs
3# sweet potatoes
1 head cauliflower (some will be cheddar, purple, or green varieties)
1 head leaf lettuce
1 head baby Bok Choy
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 lb. chorizo sausage links
2# cornmeal
2 ct. red peppers
Red onion (s)
2 ct. zucchini
Approx. 1.5 lbs. tomatoes
2 ct. eggplant (or 1 if they are enormous)
1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
1 quarter peck Cortland apples

They were out of slicing tomatoes. I was happy since I was offered spinach as a replacement. I have too many tomatoes in the freezer already. Everything else on the list was dead on!

I’m behind on egg use a bit. I see some hardboiled ones in our future. Maybe I’ll make a small batch of deviled eggs for Sunday’s pig roast. We’ll use the peppers in eggs and salads this week.

Last year, we found that either Andouille or Chorizo could be used in this recipe. So, it’s definitely on the agenda for this week. I remember it being extremely delicious.

I tossed the pumpkin sage linguini in the freezer since we have a busy few days ahead. I’m sure it will be tasty. I’ve never met an Ohio City pasta that I didn’t like.

I’m going to make a veggie lasagna this week. I’ll use the squash and eggplant in that dish.

We haven’t picked any tomatoes from our garden lately. I’m sure these will be welcome snacks.

I’ll sauté the Bok Choy for Stephen one day. He likes the Asian flavors. The apples will be great for our oatmeal. We made all of our other apples into sauce.

The lettuce will go for salads. The cauliflower will make a great side dish with some chicken we have ready to eat in the fridge.

To make make room for our 1/2 lamb, I’m making a pot of chili. Some cornbread will make a nice side to go with it.

I’m glad it’s cooler out and love cooking this time of year.

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 Market 2012 Summer CSA – week 3

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Jun 232012

Normally, I would have picked up our large CSA yesterday in Mayfield. But, I’m on vacation. After a few days in Baltimore and Dover, we are all checked in at our beach house. My friend Kelly was kind enough to send me a photo of the large share. It looks amazing and I’m sad to miss it. But, I’m super happy that Fresh Fork has an awesome vacation policy.

Here’s the artistic photo from Kelly:

Here’s the list of contents that Fresh Fork sent us earlier in the week. Squash was subbed for the napa cabbage.

Small CSA Share

1 package boneless loin chops, 2 per pack
2 lbs spelt berries
1 bunch spinach
1 head white stem bok choy
1 dozen eggs
1 bunch swiss chard or 1 head baby bok choy (depending on route)
1 bunch beets with tops
1 lb snow peas
1 head chinese napa cabbage

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1 bunch carrots
1 lb shelled peas
1 head leaf lettuce
1 extra bunch spinach
2 bunches red bulb green onions

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some pork chops when I return. It’s one of the best Fresh Fork items that we’ll get all summer. If I was in town, I’d be trying out the dry container on my new Vitamix. I like spelt berries, but I’m really anxious to try out making flour. For now, I’m going to try my best to eat some good local food while I’m on vacation. I visited a local market yesterday and have 2 Farmers’ markets on the schedule for the week.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 1

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Jun 082012

Today was the first of our 22 weekly pickups for our Fresh Fork CSA. We decided to switch from Beachwood to Mayfield for our location this year. Mayfield is a new site for pick up and it’s close to our house. We were glad there was also some shade for the stop.

This year, we upgraded from the small to the large share. This is what we were expecting today:

Small CSA Share

1 whole chicken, approx. 5 – 6 lbs.
1 head kohlrabi
1 bunch collard greens
1 quart strawberries
1 bunch red Russian kale
1 bunch garlic scapes
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch radishes
1 quarter lb. bag pea tendrils

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

2 bunches spinach
1 lb. shelled peas
1 head broccoli
1 lb. sweet pea and black pepper linguini from Ohio City Pasta

Here’s a group shot of the items:

Our quart of strawberries was full when Dan gave them to us. The kids ate some in the parking lot before we left for home. The rest of the berries will be gone by the end of the night. We received zucchini instead of broccoli. I’ll probably use the squash in my squash fritter recipe. Everyone here likes them. The squash will be fine for a few days in the fridge, so those will probably make an appearance at lunch Monday or Tuesday.

This time of year, I use garlic scapes every chance I get. I chop them and use them in salads, casseroles, when sautéing greens, etc.. They keep well so, I don’t have to freeze them often. We haven’t had an Ohio City Pasta that we didn’t like. I’m sure this sweet pea and pepper variety will be no exception. I’ll probably make a béchamel sauce for it. I tend to like most of the pasta with a white sauce instead of red.

I’ll use some spinach with our pasta. I like to wilt it just a bit in the pasta water and then serve it together. Sometimes I also chop it and add it to the sauce first. It will depend on my mood. Our chicken is thawing in the fridge. I’ll probably cook it for lunch Sunday or dinner on Monday. Once cooked, we get a couple of meals out of it. The rest of the weeks bag will complement our chicken nicely. I’ll also make stock with the bones. I love not having to buy chicken stock.

One kohlrabi isn’t really too much. I’m either going to fix it for myself for lunch one day or roast it with some beets and radishes if we grill a meal in the next few days. I haven’t mastered kale yet. We’ve had it several ways, but I don’t have a favorite way to prepare it. I’ll probably just sauté this with garlic scapes and olive oil and serve it with a splash of lemon.

I need to verify what type of peas these are. If they are sugar snap, the kids will devour them quickly. If the are snow peas, we’ll cook them for a side dish this weekend. I’m thinking about steaming the collards and letting the leaves cool and then using them for wraps instead of tortilla. I have some taco flavored meet and peppers left over and I think it would make a good filling.

We’ll probably roast a few radishes, use a few in salad and maybe try the newsletter recipe that uses them. Pea tendrils was a brand new item to me this week. I’ve heard that they are good in salads or sautéed. There’s aren’t really very many, so I don’t think I’m going to cook them. I’d thinking of just using them in a salad.

In addition to our bag, I also picked up a couple of extras. We were out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen. I also decided to pick up a half gallon of milk. I’m hoping to switch to local milk 100% of the time soon.

It’s going to be a great week in the kitchen.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 15

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May 102012

Today was the last pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA winter subscription. Now, we have to wait until the week of June 4th for the summer season to begin. Meanwhile, this week’s pick up is definitely pizza themed.

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

1 8 oz. package smoked gouda
2 frozen pizza dough balls
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 lb. ground turkey or chicken
2 lbs. rolled oats
1 pint pizza sauce
1 package veggie burgers (2 burgers)
1 bunch ramps
1 veg (will likely include kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, and other spring greens)

Here’s a group shot:

I’m hoping to use the ramps and spinach on pizza this week.

We’ve never received ground duck before. We had our choice of duck or chicken. I’ve had ground chicken before, so duck was the easy choice. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but I am thinking about making wantons and using it in some kind of filling. The Italian sausage will go well on the pizzas.

I’m excited to try Clark’s sauce. I’ll be using it on pizza with this dough.

I’ve never had the Luna veggie burgers before, but they look delicious. For now, they are in my freezer. I’ll use Gouda on our pizza too.

Stephen and I eat oats for breakfast most mornings. These will be gone in no time.

With a few weeks until our next pick up, we stocked up on yogurt. We were also out of eggs, so I picked up a dozen of them as well.

It’s been a really fun winter season. I can’t wait for summer to start.

Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 6

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Dec 172011

It’s hard to believe that this was the last Geauga Family Farms CSA pick up for the winter. Once again, Stephen and the kids went to St. Noel to pick up our share. I had a scheduled hike that began at 10AM in Ashtabula County.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Wheat bread (not 100%), Swiss chard

Radishes, very large sweet potato

Lettuce, spinach

Cabbage, turnip

Beets

We were getting pretty low on produce. Before this pick up we had a small head of cabbage and a little bit of lettuce left. Most of these items are quite welcome in our fridge.

We’ve had many meals out this week, but I’m happy to say that after tonight, I don’t have any meals planned out this entire week. Eating at home will make it very easy to use our veggies.

I’ll probably make unstuffed cabbage again. It’s easy and freezes well. Stephen sliced the bread so we could freeze it. I’ll make Harvard beets again. It’s an easy recipe and everyone likes them.

I never know what to do with the turnip, but last time I made some turnip and potato soup that turned out well, so I am guessing that will make an encore appearance.

The spinach will get used in a pasta dish or quiche this week. We’ve been cooking the chard with some onion, spice and Balsamic vinegar.

I’m looking forward to cooking a few local fresh meals at home.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 19

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Oct 182011

Today, we picked up week 19 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. It’s hard to believe that next week is the last week. This was our worst pick up ever. It really had nothing to do with the CSA. Sally decided to run from the café area all the way to the parking lot without any regard to cars or traffic. There weren’t cars and she’s ok and I’m ok, but it was rough. Nick tried to grab her hood twice. It slowed her down enough for me to catch up with her. There was another adult near her, so I think she would have intervened if necessary. But, you never know! Sally’s now in the cart or holding my hand at all times. Usually, we do that in the parking lot and approaching parking lots, but we never needed to do it leaving the café the other weeks.

Some of the photos are dark this week. I blame it on the time of year. It’s so dark early right now that we don’t have natural light. Anyway, we picked up lots of yummy looking produce, so let’s take a look:

Tomatoes, lettuce

Beets and either beets or radishes. I don’t think I’ll know about the ones on the right until we taste them or cook them. I have gotten them mixed up in the past. I thought they were beets until I dug further in the boxes and found the beets on the left. Hmmmmmm….

Bell peppers, butternut squash

Bok choy, apples

Onions, garlic

Green beans, spinach

By the end of the season, I really feel like I have the hang of this. The tomatoes will go into a cabbage dish. We’re still working on 2 heads that we got from our other CSA last week. We’ll also use some onion, bell pepper and garlic in that dish.

The green beans have been fantastic lately. They will be a plain side dish. I’ve been using the spinach in pasta dishes. It adds flavor and color.

The lettuce and possibly bok choy will go in salads. Otherwise, I’ll make a stir fry with the bok choy. We were actually out of apples, so these will go in my coleslaw and my oatmeal.

Winter squash will get baked and eaten for lunch a couple of days.

That leaves the beets and radishes or beets as the case may be. My favorite recipe for beets is to make Harvard beets. I’ve been using radishes in salads or pickling them. These will probably go in salad.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 19

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Oct 062011

Today, we picked up week 19 of our Fresh Fork CSA. It was our worst pickup of the season. Nick, Sally and I had spent a good chunk of the day in Akron. Both kids feel asleep on our way from Akron to Beachwood High School. Sally woke up about 15 minutes from the pick up and would not stop crying. Nick was fast asleep even through the crying and was still sleeping when we arrived at the school. He would have been very upset if he couldn’t say Hi to Mr. Robert at the truck, so I woke him up. (Last time I didn’t wake him up for something, he cried for 2 hours). He was fine when I first woke him up, but then he started crying. Sally cried the whole time we were there too. Robert brought out bag over to the car to help us out, but I still took the time to get the kids out because they wanted to say hi and I wanted to buy extras with our vacation credits. We ended up cutting out losses at one bag of corn chips for $3.50 and decided to settle up next week.

Here’s the list of what we were expecting:

Small CSA:

1 half gallon apple cider
1/2 lb. leaf spinach
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch leeks
1 head broccoli
4 oz. piece brie
1 head kohlrabi
2 ct. winter squash
Quarter peck pears (4-5 depending on size)

Here’s a group shot:

I love winter squash. Spaghetti squash is not my favorite, but we’ll cook it and eat it with pasta sauce this week. My husband already opened the cider. I’m sure it will disappear easily.

This is the biggest kohlrabi that I ever saw. The leaves are edible and in great shape, so I’ll probably make a au gratin dish with it. The broccoli looks tasty and will make an easy side dish in the next day or two.

My friend Chaya mentioned honey mustard roasted leeks. We didn’t get very many, but I still might try fixing them roasted style. We have Swiss chard from both CSAs this week, so I’ll cook it together with some sausage for a meal this weekend.

I’m still working through the 2 bushels of pears that I picked up this week. This won’t be ready to eat for a few days and I’m ok with that. We’ll enjoy them early next week. The spinach and brie cheese will go into a tasty pasta dish.

Dare I say that I think I’m starting to get the hang of these CSAs. It’s a good thing because I just signed us up for both winter ones.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 5

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Jun 302011

Today was the 5th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. We were expecting the following items.

Small CSA:

1 bunch beets with tops
1 bunch carrots with tops
1 head cabbage
2 ct zucchini
2 ct squash
1-2 cucumbers depending on size
1 quart yogurt
1 head bibb lettuce
Approx 1.5 lbs tomatoes
Approx 2 lbs sweet black cherries
1 lb grassfed ground beef

Here is what we received:

So, it looks like the black raspberries were an unexpected bonus this week. Everything looks fabulous. We’ll be feasting well for the holiday weekend.

In addition to the above, I had placed an order for extras via the Fresh Fork website. It worked well. I ordered maple syrup, oats, 2 wheat flour, chorizo sausage, whole wheat linguini and 2 bunches of spinach. It was just under $30. I probably wouldn’t order the flour again since I didn’t realize they were one pound packages. The oats are just to try in a granola recipe. The spinach was the most delicious spinach that I ever had last week and I have the perfect recipe for it (along with the pasta), and we weren’t expecting any this week. We also really enjoyed the chorizo two weeks ago and I was glad that it was in stock this week.

Between two CSA pick ups and the field night this week, our fridge is well stocked with veggies. I’ve put together a simple lists of dishes to prepare this weekend in hopes to use many of the items up.

Menu Planning for CSA items this week:

Camembert / brie herbed cheese over spinach and linguini
Kolhrabi/radish au gratin
Salad with quinoa, beans, chorizo, etc.
Harvard beets
Summer squash fritters or baked squash fries
Carrots
Cole slaw (with apples, onion, cabbage, etc.)
Salads (with cucumber, radishes, red pepper)
Stuffed cousa squash (with quinoa or rice and ground beef, onion, etc.)
Beet greens
Foil pack glazed carrots

It will be a weekend full of cooking and eating local!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 4

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Jun 232011

Today was the 4th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. We were expecting the following items.

Small CSA:

1 package chicken bratwursts (1.25 lb)
1 bunch garlic scapes
Approx 1.5 lb tomatoes
1 quart strawberries
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch spinach
1 head leaf lettuce
2 ct zucchini or yellow squash
4 oz tub fresh chevre goat cheese

Here is what we received.

So, our cheese was different, but it should be tasty. And we ended up with one of each for the squash. I could tell that strawberry season was ending as they aren’t in the best shape. It’s another yummy week.

Also, we bought 2 bags of the corn chips that were included a couple of weeks ago. I have taco salad on the menu and these are delicious. They were $3 each – $6.

We did pretty good with last week’s items. I haven’t really thought about the new batch.

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