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Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 2

Jun 122012

Today, we picked up our second week of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The table at Whole Foods wasn’t manned today, but we didn’t have any trouble getting our bag or extras and checking off our name at the customer service desk.

This time of year, the shares are a bit light since the growing season is just getting started. I think it works out well because it give people time to get used to the process and figure out their greens.

Here’s a group shot of this week’s share:

Lettuce, Swiss chard

Tomatoes (slicing), beets

Bunching onions, rhubarb

I’m going out of town this weekend and I’ll be gone for two weeks. My husband is picking up the share next week, so I want as much of this week’s share to be used before I leave. Since I have a crazy week ahead, my plan will include some preserving.

The lettuce will get used in salad. We try to have lots of salads this time of year. The Swiss chard will get added to some ground sausage with peppers and onions and put on tortillas for dinner tomorrow. Nick and Stephen like tomatoes. They’ll just eat them or have them on their salads. If they decide they don’t want them, I’ll pop them in the freezer.

To use the beets, I’ll probably make Harvard beets. Everyone likes them and I haven’t looked up pickling yet. I am pretty sure I want to pickle beets this year – especially if our garden beets take off.

Some of the onions will get used in the dish for tomorrow’s dinner. The rest I will just chop and freeze to get them out of the way. We don’t use many raw onions here, so freezing them works well.

I have a small bag of rhubarb in the freezer. I’m going to add this rhubarb to the freezer as well. I saw several recipes that look appealing. Here are some ideas:

http://www.simplebites.net/salute-spring-ten-ways-to-enjoy-rhubarb-compote/

http://nourishedkitchen.com/strawberry-rhubarb-compote-with-honey-custard/

http://fooddoodles.com/2011/06/09/rhubarb-compote/

I’ll most like be making compote and I’ll probably mix in some strawberries or blueberries depending on what’s in our freezer when I get around to it.

I love the freshness that we picked up in our bag. Everything looks great.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 1

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Nov 032011

Today was the first winter pick up for our Fresh Fork CSA. Generally, we’ll be picking up every other week, but the first few pick ups are off schedule due to the upcoming holidays.

We are still picking up at Beachwood High School on Thursdays. The pick up times are a tighter with our pick up scheduled between 4PM and 6PM. We still have the option of picking up in Cleveland Heights later if we ever get in a jam.

Thursday is our extra busy day since Nick has a swim lesson at 4:30PM. It’s conveniently just down the street from Beachwood High School, so we just picked up our CSA on our way home.

For the winter CSA, there is not an option for small, large, vegetarian or vegan. Everyone gets the same package.

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 Boston Butt Roast, 5-6 lbs.
1 bunch cylindra beets with tops
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 head cauliflower
2-3 green peppers
8 oz. mixed salad greens
2 bulbs hardneck garlic
2 ct. seasoned pizza dough balls
8 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese

Here’s a group shot:

We had our choice between a boneless or bone-in roast. We chose the bone-in. It came frozen and will become pulled pork in a couple of weeks. I saw an appetizer that used shredded pork in a wonton wrapper that I would like to try. I just need to find whole wheat wrappers or make my own.

We haven’t had Harvard beets for a few weeks. So, these will go into that dish.

I’m thinking we might be having delicious pizza this week. We got green peppers, spinach, fresh mozzarella, garlic (1 large bulb), and bread dough. The spinach was a “veggie choice” selection. Instead of the tomatoes, we got to pick between spinach, onions, potatoes or tomatoes. I love the spinach!

The mixed greens aren’t my favorite, but I know they are good for us. They’ll go well with the pizza. We haven’t had cauliflower lately and it’s a family favorite, so it will make a nice side dish over the next couple of days.

Extra are still available at the back of the truck. We picked up another yogurt ($5). I haven’t decided how much we really use in a week, but it’s more than one. Also, my banana bread recipe uses it and I feel like baking soon. This winter, I want to try making my own yogurt, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get away from buying it.

The winter CSA is a bit more low key than in the summer and we didn’t have any line when we arrived just before 5:30PM. I hope that trend continues as it starts to snow soon!

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 20–the final week

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Oct 252011

Today was our last visit to Whole Foods to pick up our 2011 summer CSA. Just about every week, we were greeted by Andrew. He usually works in the kitchen in the morning, but somehow ended up with the Tuesday afternoon CSA gig most of the summer. He was super nice to everyone, especially Nick and Sally.

The photos are dark again this week. Maybe I can figure out some evening lighting for next year. Here’s the group shot for this week.

Let’s take a closer look:

Green onions, green beans

Red Russian Kale, bell peppers

Butternut squash, lettuce

Radishes, apples

Sweet potatoes, tomatoes

Garlic

We’ve been going through a ton of apples this year. Between morning oats, snacks and applesauce, I can’t keep them in the house. We went picking for the last time this year, but I was still glad to see apples in our pick up today.

I still have some cabbage in our fridge. I’ll be making another batch of unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot Thursday. It will use the garlic, tomatoes, bell peppers, and green onion. I love having a recipe that uses many CSA ingredients and is also flexible.

My kids have been asking for sweet potatoes the last couple of days. I usually slice them, season them and bake them. They disappear quickly with a bit of ketchup for dipping.

Lettuce and some radishes will go in lunch salads. The rest of the radishes will go into turnip soup. The green beans make an easy side dish.

I’m not quite sure about the squash yet. I’m thinking about making some butternut squash soup, but I’m not sure of the timing since I need to make turnip soup first.

It’s supposed to get cold this week. I’m glad we have some hearty items that go well with ovens and soup. It’s been a fun season. I’m already excited about the winter CSA.

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.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 18

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Oct 112011

Today, we picked up week 18 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. That means there are 2 weeks left. Everyone is a bit off since the season started late due to all of the early rain. Andrew was back and seemed surprised that everyone missed him.

Here’s a group shot of what we received today.

Garlic, tomatoes

Apples, green beans

Turnips (mostly greens), lettuce

Broccoli, green pepper

Parsley, butternut squash

Sweet potatoes

This will be a very easy week for us to use up our items. My husband like tabouli, so we will be making a batch of that using mint from our garden along with the parsley and tomatoes from today’s pick up.

The sweet potatoes will combine with a couple we have left from previous weeks for a batch of baked sweet potato slices. We like to peel and slice the potato, drizzle with olive oil and use Ozark seasoning and cinnamon. Nick and Sally like to eat them with ketchup.

We already ate the broccoli for dinner tonight. The green beans will be an easy side dish for lunch tomorrow or dinner on Thursday. I plan to make soup with the turnips and greens along with some potatoes and kohlrabi that we already have on hand. We’ve accumulated some garlic lately and I think I’m going to chop and freeze it. The apples have been going great in my oatmeal.

I haven’t decided on a specific dish for the butternut squash. But it’s second only to acorn in my book, so we’ll have no problem eating it.

I love this time of year. The hearty dishes make for excellent comfort food.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 17

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Oct 042011

We picked up week 17 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA today. Andrew was on vacation, so we were greeted by Sarah. The set up was a little different, but the pick up was smooth. We have a nice routine. We go into the store, get a cart, stop by for a sample of pineapple, buy anything we need (usually yogurt, cheese, bananas or the like), use a reusable bag, get two wooden nickels, let the kids color, get our veggies, and then leave. It works for us and both Nick and Sally look forward to our CSA pickup at “The Little Whole Foods”.

Today’s box was lighter than the last few. We didn’t have any melon or squash. Here’s a group shot:

You might be wondering about the dark wooden background. We didn’t get a new table. But, our kitchen table where I usually take the photos looks like this.

I picked up 2 bushels of pears from Eddy’s on Monday. They aren’t quite ripe enough to can. So, our table was out of commission. Nick and Sally had a picnic breakfast today. Nick wants to have one everyday. I don’t think that will happen. They ate raisins, graham crackers and pears. By lunch time, I had put away enough stuff from our vacations that they used the dining room table. Since that space was clean, I used it to take the CSA photos today also.

Let’s take a closer look at the veggies.

Collards, leaf lettuce

Romaine, bell peppers

Tomatoes, garlic

Poblano peppers, onions

Apples, green beans

Sweet potatoes

I was in Hawaii two weeks ago and I was also out of town most of this past week. I’m feeling a bit out of the loop on the CSA. I am glad that this is an easier week. I’m going to make some stuffed collard wraps with the collards. The lettuce, bell peppers and probably tomatoes will go in salads. If we don’t use the tomatoes up, I’ll freeze them. I have some others frozen and will make sauce or chili with them soon. I have Stayman (tart) apples from Delaware to use up and will mix these apples with them for sauce. The green beans will be an easy side dish. I’ll probably freeze the onions, other peppers and garlic. For the sweet potatoes, I’ll probably slice them for sweet potato fries. Everyone in my house likes them and with the cooler temperatures, the oven sounds more appealing these days.

It’s hard to believe that it’s October already! I’m excited for the upcoming winter CSA season.

Geauga Family Farms–week 15

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Sep 202011

Hi, there! My role here at Life Lyn Style is usually limited to the background, but with Lyn enjoying herself in a tropical paradise, it is up to me (her loving husband) to share what we found in our Geauga Family Farms CSA today. The harvest season is upon us, with the bountiful crop we found in the box today.

First off, here is the group shot. I’ll bet we could measure how big the week’s harvest is by how high we have to hold the camera to take this picture. The camera was pretty close to the ceiling today.

“I’m ready for my closeup,” cried the kale, and I was happy to oblige.

Red Russian kale, bok choy

Garlic, sweet potatoes

Apples (mixed varieties), carrots

Parsley (mix of flat leaf and curly), green beans

Red leaf lettuce, onions

Bell peppers, little peppers (I don’t know yet if they are hot)

Eggplant, yellow squash

Tomatoes

Using this up with Lyn away is going to be a challenge. My cooking skills have rusted a bit in recent years, with the grill more my specialty than the stove is. The parsley says “tabouli”, which could use some tomato and onion as well. The kale and bok choy I will saute, with some balsamic vinegar for the kale and some sesame oil for the bok choy. We will surely have some delicious salads as well.

Thanks for visiting! Lyn will be back tomorrow.

Geauga Family Farms–week 14

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Sep 132011

Today, we went to the “little” Whole Foods and picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA. The kids totally know our routine. We usually need to buy something. Today, we bought yogurt. At the checkout, Nick and Sally each get a wooden nickel to donate to a charity since we bring a bag. They love putting a nickel in the slot to pick their charity. Then, they go straight to the CSA area which also is the children’s coloring area. They are also very interested in whatever we get in our box.

Here’s what we received today:

Let’s take a closer look. I couldn’t really fit everything in the photo.

Green beans, sweet corn

Potatoes, apples (Honeygold variety)

Bell peppers, dill

Poblano peppers, zucchini

Onions, hot peppers

Leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce

Eggplant, basil

Tomatoes

I’m leaving for Hawaii on Monday, so this week is all about food preservation. I’m cooking some meals for my family to enjoy while I am gone, but most of that work is done or planned. In addition to my trip, my husband is out of town tomorrow through Friday.

I’m going to blanch and freeze the green beans. I have others to freeze as well, so it’s worth the effort.

I plan to have some corn with the kids tomorrow and freeze the rest. There’s only 6 ears so that should be simple.

Unless I get ambitious, I’m going to store the potatoes. A few of the apples are already mixed in with the sauce that I was making tonight. The rest will be going into apple-plum sauce tomorrow. We picked plums yesterday, so I need to make something with them.

I’ll going to make fajitas and use some peppers and onions this week. I’ll freeze the rest.

I’m going to make some basil/olive oil cubes for the freezer with the basil. It will be handy for winter soup and tomato sauce dishes.

I already froze the tomatoes. I just washed them, cored, and quartered them. I’ll make a saucy dish with them in a couple of week.

The lettuce will get eaten in salads. I’ll either blanch and freezer the eggplant or make mini eggplant pizzas. It all depends on the rest of the items are going.

I’ll need to research the dill. Usually, I use it in pickles, but I don’t have any cucumbers.

It’s going to be a busy week here. I have a to do list that’s a mile long before my trip.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 15

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Sep 082011

Today, we picked up week 15 of our Fresh Fork CSA.

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

Small CSA:

1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
2 lb. log of butter made from grass-grazed, organic milk
2 ct. eggplant
2 red peppers
2 ct. winter squash (varieties include butternut, acorn, spaghetti, honey bear, heart of gold, and a few more)
Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
1 lb. yellow wax beans
Quarter peck Gala apples
1 head leaf lettuce

We received notice via our weekly newsletter that the heirloom tomatoes were not in and we could expect slicing tomatoes as a substitute.

Here’s a group shot:

The lettuce will be easily eaten in salads. We got two heads on Tuesday too. I’ll miss lettuce season when it ends. I’m not a big fan of yellow wax beans. I think they might go in our vegetable soup. I used to make vegetable soup often during the summer, but now that I know what items are and how to cook them, I hardly ever make it. Since I’m going on vacation soon, I thought a batch of veggie soup would be good to leave in the freezer for my husband and father in law.

I’m super excited that it’s winter squash season. These acorn squash are beautiful! I never got sick of winter squash. I haven’t decided for sure about the eggplant. I’m either going to make eggplant pizzas (sliced eggplant baked and then topped with spice, tomato sauce and cheese and baked until the eggplant is cooked and the cheese is melted) or another veggie lasagna. The lasagna might be nice to have in the freezer for Stephen’s lunches while I’m away.

We ate the pasta for dinner. I made a basic white sauce (butter, whole wheat flour, pepper, milk, cheese), country sausage crumbles and red peppers to go with it. It was delicious. We’ve had this butter before. It’s good and will last us awhile.

I was glad to see apples. We got cabbage from our other CSA and I like a coleslaw recipe that uses apples. I already had the dressing ingredients, raisins and almonds that I needed for the recipe. The rest of the apples will be eaten as snacks or my oatmeal. The red peppers were used in tonight’s pasta dish.

The tomatoes look terrible. Two of them are moldy and I’ll ask for replacements next week. I’m not sure if these are heirloom, slicing or what. Either way, two of them are bad tomatoes.

The object of the game this week is to stay ahead. I’m leaving for vacation on the 19th and need to focus more on packing and prepping the household and less on veggies and the CSAs. But, I still want to do my best not to waste anything.

Geauga Family Farms–week 13

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Sep 062011

Today, we picked up our Geauga Family Farms CSA. I was glad that we remembered it was Tuesday. It feels like a Monday since yesterday was the Labor Day Holiday. It’s week 13 already. I think we have 20 weeks total.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cabbage, sweet corn

Potatoes, yummy SWEET oranges peppers

Swiss chard, watermelon!

2 varieties of leaf lettuce

Tomatoes, yellow squash

Carrots, green peppers

This week looks superb! Everything was vibrant, fresh, and we had a rainbow of colors in our box.

I’m hoping that we get apples from our other CSA this week and I can make my coleslaw recipe with the cabbage. I have all of the other ingredients on hand. I’ll be cooking the sweet corn tomorrow or Thursday.

After juicing 100 pounds of Roma tomatoes for sauce over the weekend, this amount of tomatoes doesn’t seem like very many to me. I’ll probably just use a couple in salad and juice the rest for some ketchup or BBQ sauce.

I don’t really have specific plans for the other items, but we’ll be eating well this week!

PS – Yes, we got another watermelon. Yes, I am HAPPY about it!

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