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Geauga Family Farms–Winter CSA week 6

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–Winter CSA week 5

CSA No Responses »

Dec 102011

The kids and Stephen went up to St. Noel’s today to pick up week 5 of our Geauga Family Farms CSA. Next week is the last pickup for the winter share. Today’s pickup was particularly great.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

Let’s take a closer look:

Butternut squash, sweet potatoes

Eggs (Yeah!), garlic

Broccoli, carrots

Red cabbage, beets

Two kinds of lettuce

Wheat bread

We have quite a few squash right now. I will be baking most of them tomorrow and making squash puree for the freezer. We also have quite a few sweet potatoes. The kids really like the baked sweet potato slices, so we’ll be making them again soon.

Eggs we use in everyday cooking and they are always welcome. We have quite a bit of garlic frozen, but this is our only fresh piece. I’ll be putting it in chili this week.

The broccoli and carrots both went into Shepherd’s pie tonight. It was delicious. I used local butter, potatoes, ground beef, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

I don’t have any immediate plans for the cabbage, but something will come to me soon. The beets will be combined with some others in the fridge for Harvard beets.

We had some of the lettuce in salad today and will probably use the rest in a day or two. The wheat bread is almost 1/2 gone. It made nice peanut butter and apple butter toast for snacks today.

I’ll be sad to see this CSA end next week.

Geauga Family Farms Winter CSA–week 1

CSA 2 Responses »

Nov 052011

Today was our first pickup for our winter Geauga Family Farms CSA. For the 6 week winter program, our pick up is on Saturday at St. Noel church in Willoughby. For the most part, this works well for us although there is the occasional time when we have other plans on Saturday and would prefer not to bother.

Here’s a group shot of what we received:

2 types of lettuce

Sweet potatoes, green onions

Lacinato blue kale, wheat bread

Daikon radish, green bell pepper

Cabbage, acorn squash

We’ll enjoy the lettuce in salads this week. We have some other salad greens as well and they will mix nicely together. We can’t get enough sweet potatoes. Lately, I’ve just been slicing and baking them. We have been using the onions and pepper in unstuffed cabbage and will make that again this week.

By the way, I had no idea we had lacinato blue kale. I was able to check with the farm reps and get a speedy reply! I’ll probably cook it like my other greens. I usually saute them with garlic, onions, peppers and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

The Daikon radish always stumps me. We’ve made “chips” and soup before. I’ll have to see what strikes me this week.

I was surprised that we didn’t get eggs. I thought we were going to get a dozen eggs and a baked good each week. I’m guessing that with the abundance of other items still available that we will get eggs some of the future weeks. I’ve been enjoying the local eggs, but I wasn’t out yet.

It looks like a great week!

Geauga Family Farms June Field Night

Adventures with Nick and Sally, CSA 2 Responses »

Jun 292011

Last night, the kids and I attended the first field night of the season. It was at the farm of Noah and Kathy Yutzy in Middlefield. We had been to this farm last year, and we were happy to return again.

It took about 50 minutes from our house in Mayfield Heights to get out to the farm. This included rush hour traffic through Mayfield and slowing down for the buggy traffic once we were in the Middlefield area. The kids loved the ride, especially seeing the horse and buggies.

We went on several visits last year, but this one had the most people of any that I had been to. I’m guessing that there were about 30 people there including kids, but I didn’t really think to count.

There was a GFF welcome sign a the end of the drive. This made the farm very easy to spot. Nick and Sally held hands as they walked to the barn where everyone was meeting. Noah led us on an informative tour and it was fabulous to see the farm in action.

We saw pigs and horses.

We also saw the greenhouse and lots of healthy crops.

This spiked wheel is a device for spacing the plants. It puts holes in the plastic at a certain distance so the crops are evenly spaced. This dog was the biggest hit with all of the kids.

There was also a ton of mud. I kept telling Nick that if he kept playing in it, he was going to fall and be covered in mud. At least he didn’t mind posing for photos. Mental note to self: bring extra clothes and shoes to the next field night.

Here’s Nick as cleaned up as possible. Sally chilled in the rocking chair. That was great until she flipped it backwards. Luckily, the chair and her were fine.

At the conclusion of the tour, Kathy had refreshments out for everyone to enjoy. There was also a table of items that people could buy. I purchased the items pictured below. I paid $9.75 total for 3 bunches of rhubarb ($6), 2 cousa squashes ($1) (a type of zucchini that is often served stuffed with meat and rice), and a loaf of fresh wheat bread ($2.75). I had never had rhubarb before, so I am excited to try it out in a few recipes. I was just looking for cousa squash this week since I ran across an article about it. We love stuffed winter squash and I had never thought about stuffing any summer squash. The bread is always delicious and my husband and kids really enjoy it when we have it in the house. (I no longer partake since it’s not 100% whole wheat, but I know from past experience that it’s quite tasty.) I wouldn’t usually buy extras on a Tuesday since we pick up on Tuesday and I hadn’t seen our share yet, but I was already on the lookout for 2 out of 3 of these items, so I splurged.

Even though Nick and Sally are usually in bed by 7:30 PM, it’s totally worth a late night out with them for the farm visit experiences. We can’t wait for July!

Geauga Family Farms CSA–week 1

CSA 2 Responses »

Jun 142011

Today was our first pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. Sometimes we get a “what’s in season this week list”, but usually surprised when we pick up our items for the week.

Here is what we received.