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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 13

Aug 292012

Due to some last minute travel plans for the weekend, we picked up our CSA share today. It was our first time picking up on a Wednesday in Solon. The pick up spot at a church was very nice. The lot was shady and newly resurfaced. With a busy evening that included preschool parent orientation, it was very dark when I attempted photos. So, I’m just using one tonight. Yes, I have nice lights, but I don’t have the energy for that tonight.

Dark overview photo:

I think the only thing the photo really shows is how big a large share is. I’m continually impressed with a what we receive for our value each week.

Here’s what we received:

1 bunch Cylindra beets
1 quart whole milk yogurt
1 acorn squash
1 pint blackberries
1 bag mixed peppers
1 lb. red fortune plums
2 lbs. Roma tomatoes
1 kohlrabi
1 bunch collards
6 ears sweet corn
1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese
2 frozen pizza dough balls
1 pint heirloom tomato sauce
A handful hot Hungarian peppers
Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
concord grapes

Originally, we were going to get a spaghetti squash and not have grapes. You can’t argue with mother nature. We’ll see squash soon.

This is a crazy week for us as we are leaving town for a few days tomorrow. So, all of our food needs to be cooked, eaten, froze, or packed so that we don’t lose any of our items.

I have some beets already in the fridge. I’m going to make Harvard beets and freeze them. I’ve never frozen that recipe before, but a quick Google search tells me that it’s possible.

We love the yogurt and are fully stocked. I’m glad it has good dates. I’ll be taking one container with us in our cooler.

I love winter squash season as much as melon season. I’ll roast this acorn squash, make puree and freeze it. It would probably last if I just waited until we got home from our trip, but I’d rather just take care of it now.

The plums and blackberries will come with us on our trip if they last that long. I’m going to freeze the peppers, tomatoes, collards and corn. I’ll blanch and chop as needed. I’m hoping to make the grapes into a usable concentrate for sorbet. Then, I’ll freeze it.

I’ll use the pizza dough, sauce and cheese to make some pizza for lunch tomorrow and maybe dinner on the road. The dough was already thawing before I got to it, so I need to use it up.

Whew! I need to get busy. We’re leaving at 12:30pm tomorrow and I still need to pack too.

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 Winter CSA–week 14

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Apr 262012

It’s week 14 of the Fresh Fork CSA winter subscription. It’s hard to believe that the summer season starts on June 6th. I also read this week that local strawberries are about 4 weeks out. It seems crazy that we’ll have strawberries before the CSA starts.

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

1 package chicken brats
4 oz. feta cheese
1/2 lb. mixed salad greens
1/4 lb. ramps
1 lb. fresh ramp pasta
1 bag/bunch of kale or chard, depending on what the farmers harvest
1 quart yogurt
1 quarter peck Fuji apples
2 lbs. butter, salted or unsalted

Here’s a group shot:

We’ll put the chicken brats in the freezer. They will make a good meal one day this week. I’ll use the Swiss chard to make a quick side dish.

We’ll use the feta cheese and mixed greens in salads.

Last time, we used the ramps in meatloaf that worked pretty well. I’m thinking of putting them into ham loaf or a frittata. I think the ramp pasta will go well with the leftover sauce from yesterday’s dinner.

I bought some apples yesterday to tie us over until today’s pickup. We love putting them in our oatmeal. We still have some butter frozen that I’ve been using up. Since I’d like to rotate my stock, I’ll be freezing this butter. We chose the unsalted butter. I can’t remember the last time I used salted butter.

Getting yogurt in the bag just means I buy less extra ones. It’s always welcome. I wish it came in a gallon size. The big restaurant size is something like a 3 gallon container and it won’t fit in our fridge. So, we got one in our package this week and I purchased 3 extra.

The bag this week is great, but I’m looking forward to more photogenic produce. I miss the weeks were we had so many colors of the rainbow.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 11

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Mar 152012

It’s hard to believe that it’s week 11 already. It’s also the middle of March. It won’t be long until we are picking strawberries! We arrived at Beachwood High School to find Trevor manning the truck this week. Also, due to baseball practice, the truck was in a different part of the parking lot. I had that strange feeling that I was there on the wrong day for just a second. Once we circled around the lot, Nick noticed the green bags and all was well.

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

1 pack pork loin chops
1 bag corn crackers
2 lb. black turtle beans
1 pint salsa
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 pint sorghum syrup
1 dozen eggs
1 lb. assorted sausage
1 lb. sweet corn
1 lb. kale, bunched

Here’s a group shot:

We’ll use the beans in a combination of a Mexican casserole and also black bean burgers. The ground pork will also go in our casserole.

The pork chops are the best. We’ll probably just season them and bake them in the oven. The corn was frozen last summer and it’s been delicious. We’ll add it to our Mexican dish or use it as a side.

The sorghum syrup was a head scratcher last year. We ended up using it in a bbq glaze type of sauce that we put over ham loaf. It was delicious. I have no idea how we made the sauce, so we’ll be experimenting once again. I’m thinking of using it as the main sweetener in some homemade sauce. So far, tomato sauce, vinegar, spices, onion, peppers and syrup come to mind. I’m not a huge fan of this type of greens, but we do our best to eat it in salads.

I’ll be putting the kale and salsa in our casserole as well.

Everyone in our house loves these chips. If they don’t get eaten first, they’d be a nice addition to our Mexican meal. Eggs are so easy for us to use. I just saw a recipe for some muffin casserole bites that are egg based. I think I’ll try it this week.

We picked up a few extras as well. Krispie treat granola ($5) and 2 yogurts ($5 each).

I’m excited for this week because I can do just a little cooking and have several meals. Sometimes I like being a lazy cook.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 9

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Feb 162012

We had a productive day today. The kids and I went to story time at the library, cleaned two bathrooms, did the dishes, did 2 loads of laundry, went to the gas station, the post office and two stores. All of this occurred before lunch! After nap time, we took Nick to his swim lesson and then picked up our Fresh Fork CSA (where I put the cold items in a cooler with ice) before returning to the J so I could take a class. Whew! No wonder I’m tired.

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

1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 pint frozen raspberries
1 quart farmstead yogurt
1 8-oz. piece gouda cheese
1 1lb bag of granola, either Krispy treat or spelt granola (vegan)
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 quarter peck gold rush apples
1 package tofu

Here’s a group shot:

The chicken is in the freezer. I had just cooked our last chicken this week and we still have stock in the fridge. We’ll probably cook it soon since it takes up quite a bit of room. The greens look really good this week, so some more salad will be in the mix.

I am always glad to see yogurt. We’ve been buying this brand at Heinen’s whenever there isn’t any on the truck. I love that my kids eat plain yogurt with a bit of homemade honey sweetened jam. We’ll use the apples in our oatmeal for breakfasts. We were down to our last one today.

My kids were happily surprised to see “more raspberries”. We haven’t been getting them in our CSA, but we have been eating frozen ones from our summer picking for the past few days at home. They have been very popular, so I don’t expect these to last long. There was a problem with a truck this week, so we were given a choice of waiting until the next pick up for the Yukon gold potatoes or taking sweet potatoes. We love sweet potatoes and already had some white potatoes at home, so we opted for the sweet potatoes.

All of the local cheese we have received has been great. Gouda is one of our favorites. The tofu is a new product for the CSA. I’ve poled several people and everyone describes it differently. The best description that I have heard so far is that it’s really firm, but crumbly. I plan to freeze it and make tofu sausage crumble with it. I also heard that I need to freeze it for two weeks. So, that’s what I’m going to try.

The granola is one of my favorites. I bought an extra bag for $5 because it’s so good.

All in all, we have another great batch of local goods to work with. I’m going to do some meal planning in the next day or two so we can use our pantry staples and new products for some tasty dishes.

Fresh Fork Winter CSA–week 3

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Nov 222011

Today, we had a rough Fresh Fork CSA pickup. It was extra busy because people were picking up Thanksgiving packages, regular shares, turkeys and a variety of other holiday items. It was also raining!

Here’s what we were expecting this week:

1 half gallon apple cider
1 quarter peck of Mutsu apples (very large, tart apples)
1 lb. nitrate free bacon
1 dozen pasture raised chicken eggs
1.5 lbs. white spelt flour
1 large white stem bok choy
1 bunch medium leeks
1 bag, half lb., of young mustard green mix
2 lbs. butter, salted or unsalted
1 lb. pumpkin sage linguini
1 head cabbage
1 head cauliflower

Here’s a group shot:

We ate the pumpkin sage linguini for dinner tonight. There’s one serving left and I’m hoping to have it for lunch tomorrow. We’ve been out of fresh apples for oatmeal the last few days, so these are welcome.

I put the bacon in the freezer. Soon, I’ll make a version of my uncle’s stuffing and it will use the bacon. The spelt flour came as whole wheat. This is fine with us since we use whole wheat flour all of the time.

I was happy to get unsalted butter this time. We don’t usually buy salted butter. I’m looking forward to trying it. I never know what to do with leeks. I’ll probably chop them up in an Asian stir fry for Stephen along with the bok choy.

We’ll have our standard sautéed greens with balsamic, garlic, salt and pepper with these greens.

Personally, apple cider is too sweet, but my husband and kids love it, so it’s always welcome. Behind all of these leaves is a head of cauliflower. Everyone in our house likes cauliflower, so it will go quickly.

Cabbage is used in the stuffing recipe that I’d like to make in the next few days. I may freeze the cabbage by blanching it just to give me time to use some of our other items up. We were almost out of eggs. I need them for my sweet potato recipe and for waffles this weekend.

We got the granola that was owed to use from the last pickup and purchased some more yogurt ($10).

We also picked up a Thanksgiving package. I’ll show it to you tomorrow! It’s late and there are still dishes left in the kitchen.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 22–The Final 2011 Summer Week

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Oct 282011

Yesterday, we picked up week 22 of the summer Fresh Fork CSA. It was the last pick up. I’m glad that the winter CSA starts next week. We received a few higher dollar items, so we didn’t have as many different things. That was fine with me.

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

Small CSA:

1 pack of Berkshire pork chops, center cut and boneless. Approx. 1 to 1.25 lbs.
1 quart farmstead yogurt
8 oz. aged cheddar cheese, pepper Havarti ,or Havarti cheese
1 head Napa cabbage
1 quarter peck Jonagold apples
1 bag of mixed salad/braising greens
2 count butternut squash

Here’s a group shot:

The Berkshire pork chops are one of our favorite items from Fresh Fork. We’ll bake them in the oven with spices and apples for a yummy dinner.

I’ve only had Napa cabbage one other time. I’m not sure what fate it will have. Spaghetti squash was substituted for the butternut squash. I was hoping for butternut. We like spaghetti squash ok, but it’s not our favorite and it’s less versatile.

The mixed green will probably go into salad. If not, we can sauté them. We were out of yogurt and there wasn’t any on the truck last week, so we were happy to see it expected this week.

Cheese is always a bit hit in our house. This is aged cheddar and we can’t wait to try it.

We picked up an extra yogurt ($5) and a bag of honey puffed spelt ($3) while we were there.

I’m excited to have a slower week in terms of items that have to be used right away. I’m recovering from a badly bruised knee and a little less kitchen time will be a good thing for a few days.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 16

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Sep 152011

Today, we once again headed to Beachwood High School to pick up our Fresh Fork CSA share.

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

Small CSA:

1 pint mixed color cherry tomatoes
1 package chicken sausage (4 links, 1.25 lbs.)
1 dz. pastured chicken eggs
1 bunch carrots with tops
1 bunch turnip greens
2 ct. green bell peppers
2 ct. poblano chili peppers
1.5 lbs. Stanley plums
Either 1 hd. broccoli or 1 stalk of celery

Here’s a group shot of share:

We were down to 1 egg in our fridge, so we were glad to see these. We went plum picking this week and the plum-apple sauce turned out great, so I am making another batch.

We were gifted a bunch of peppers this week, so I am chopping and freezing away.

The chicken sausage went straight to the freezer. Trevor included several ideas for the turnip greens in the newsletter. Basically, I’ll make them like my Swiss chard and they should be tasty. I’ll probably have them for lunch tomorrow since they are taking up room in the fridge.

The broccoli looks delicious. Nick and Sally and I will enjoy it with dinner tomorrow. We got Heirloom tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. I got a couple of extra since mine were bad last week. I’m going to clean/chop and freeze them with some other tomatoes for a later sauce.

My kids couldn’t get enough carrots last week, so they eat these at lunch for a couple of days. I’m not sure they will even last through 2 meals.

Since I am on vacation next week and the week after, I spent a few of my credit dollars today. I put them on my account and it will be a wash over time. I picked up yogurt ($5), corn chips (2 @ $3.50) and a Camembert cheese ($8). So, I “spent” $20.

I bought yogurt at the grocery store earlier this week since we were out. I screwed up and bought vanilla. Yuck, it’s full of sugar and I can’t use it for cooking. I really like my newly found whole wheat dough recipe and it calls for yogurt. I like to keep the ingredients on hand. I was super excited to see the corn chips back. The truck hasn’t had them for sale lately. They are the best corn chips I’ve ever had. One bag was opened in the car. I bought 2 bags so there would still be some with Stephen gets back from his trip.

Today and tomorrow I am preserving food and packing for my trip. I’m trying to avoid too much last minute craziness on Sunday.

Fresh Fork CSA–week 12

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Aug 182011

Originally, we were going to be “on vacation” from week 12 of our Fresh Fork CSA. But, our plans changed and we were able to cancel our vacation and pick up our share. Next, I’ll need to place an extra order to use the funds from our week 10 vacation.

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

Small CSA:

1 pint blackberries
1 quart yogurt
1 lb. nitrate free bacon from Berkshire hogs
Approx. 1.5 lbs.slicing tomatoes
1 head leaf lettuce
3 lbs. new potatoes, red norland or yukon gold variety
1 bunch swiss chard or 1 bunch chiogga beets (candy cane striped beets)
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes
Approx. 1.5 lbs. peaches

Here’s a group shot:

We picked 1 bushel of tomatoes today, so these will get added to that bounty for canning. This is a “fluffy” variety of lettuce and looks extra fresh. I can’t wait to have it on a salad tomorrow.

When I left for Mom’s Night Out, Nick was asking for more blackberries. I haven’t checked the fridge to see if they made it past dinner. This yogurt is turning into a family favorite. And, we had been having cottage cheese this week, so it’s nice to have more yogurt in the house. We’ve been sweetening it up with a bit of homemade jam. I also use it in my overnight oats.

I just finished processing my peaches from the peck that we picked on Saturday. I still have to make the jam with the peaches that I skinned this morning. These peaches will soften up in a day or two and be great as a snack or in my oatmeal. We are stocked with cherry tomatoes at the moment. We got a pint at our pick up on Tuesday and it’s one of the items that has survived in our garden. I’m not a fan of the texture of raw tomatoes, but Nick and my husband both like them. I just need to remember to serve them!

We haven’t really had potatoes much lately. I can’t decide between mashed potatoes to go with some Fresh Fork pork that is thawing in the fridge or German Potato Salad. We have some other beets in the fridge, so I will combine them and probably make our standard Harvard Beets. I think there was a choice between beets and Swiss Chard and I asked for beets so we could make a decent amount for a dinner side one night.

Lastly, we got bacon. So, this week was themed BLTs, but I’m not sure if they will appear on our menu or not. I did recently read about cooking bacon in the over on a rack and I just might have to try that with this bacon.

I think this is an easy week for us and that the items are easy to use and store. It’s a good thing because we have a few other items from Tuesday to use up and have a busy weekend coming up.

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!

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