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Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 2

Jun 152012

Today, we had our second pick up at the new Mayfield location. Dan and Kyle were pretty busy when we arrived, so we didn’t get a chance to talk to them. Everything looked like it was running smoothly. I’m still getting used to reading the rest of the share list. Since this is our first time with a large, I keep forgetting to read past the “small CSA share” list.

Small CSA Share

2# black turtle beans
1 bag corn chips
1 # chorizo sausage
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch cilantro
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head either baby bok choy or 1 bunch swiss chard (depends on stop)
1 head jumbo white stem bok choy
1.5# red slicing tomatoes (approximately 3 tomatoes)
1 lb. snow peas

Large CSA Share Small contents above plus:

1 head cauliflower
1 bunch red kale
1 lb. snow peas
2 ct. zucchini
1 package chicken brats

It’s hard to get a shot that shows all of the items in a large:

I’m getting ready to leave on vacation, so I’ll be prepping the lettuce for my husband to eat in salads. I’ll be cooking the cauliflower for a side dish tomorrow and/or for Stephen to eat while the kids and I are gone.

I’m going to make soup or a stir fry with the bok choy. I’ll use some of the peas and onions in that dish.

I put the meats in the freezer. I’ll probably cook up the chorizo tomorrow. I will probably make a cold salad with quinoa, chorizo, onions, cilantro, lime, etc. We’ll pack some for the road this weekend and leave the rest for Stephen to enjoy. The brats will magically disappear while I’m away with the kids or we’ll enjoy them in July. The last time I made the brats, I simmered them in beer on the stove. They were quite tasty.

I still had a couple of zucchini in the fridge, so I am making my fritters with them tomorrow.

I’m soaking the beans tonight so I can cook them tomorrow. I’ll use some of them and the cilantro in the quinoa salad and freezer the rest.

I haven’t decided on the kale yet. I just got a kale recipes book in the mail today, so maybe I’ll be inspired to cook something new with it. The beets were subbed for some of the peas. They are getting added to a few I have in the fridge for a pickled beets recipe that looked promising. I hope to make them tomorrow.

We often buy these corn chips as extras, so they will disappear quickly.

Once again, the truck didn’t have any of our favorite yogurt with them, but I was able to pick up some of our favorite granola and milk while we were at our stop.

I’m glad to be going on vacation, but I hate that I’ll miss all of the fun CSA contents for the next two weeks.

Geauga Family Farms–week 14

CSA 1 Response »

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 14

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Sep 012011

We picked up our Fresh Fork CSA today.

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

Small CSA:

6 ears super sweet Miria 301 corn
3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes
1 lb. grass fed ground beef
2 ct. green bell peppers
1 lb. green beans
Approx. 1.5 lbs. Flaming Fury Lucky 13 and John Boy peaches (freestone peaches)
2 ct. cucumbers
2 ct. yellow summer squash (probably last of the summer already)
8 oz. bag or bunch of kale
1 pint heirloom cherry tomatoes

Here’s a group shot:

Our beef was partially thawed by the time we got home, so I am going to cook it tomorrow. We’ll probably make potato salad for the holiday weekend with the potatoes.

We have these 6 ears of corn, plus a few left from our Tuesday pick up, so we will be having corn tomorrow. I have a local steak to cook also. The peaches are still firm, but will be quite nice in my oats.

The tomatoes will disappear into Stephen’s lunch. I’m in the process of cutting and freezing lots of peppers since we went picking yesterday. I’ll add these to the bag.

Looks like we received zucchini instead of yellow squash. It’s very similar and doesn’t make a difference in my uses. I think we’ll make squash fritters. I haven’t had them in a couple of weeks. We’ll use the cucumbers in salads.

I may try the kale in vegetable lasagna this weekend. I’ve enjoyed making a lasagna and having it for a few meals during the week to help with planning and cooking. We’ll enjoy the green beans when we grill out on Sunday.

The yogurt ($5) was an add on for us this week. We like this yogurt and are trying to stay away from the high sugar varieties. For this yogurt, we’ve been adding homemade jam sweetened with honey to taste.

I think we’ll do ok this week. I need to prep some items in our fridge and keep close tabs on our produce use since we have a few meals planned away with the holiday this weekend.

Geauga Family Farms–week 10

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Aug 162011

Today was the 10th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. This week’s share was similar to last week’s share.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Cherry tomatoes, carrots

Lettuce and more lettuce

Watermelon, cantaloupe

Green bell peppers, broccli

Yellow squash, eggplant

Cucumber, zucchini (yes it looks funny, but it is a variety of zucchini)

HOT peppers, slicing tomatoes

Peaches, green beans

We got 3 different types of fruit. That is pretty odd for our CSA, but we love fruit. Most of the items this week will be easy to use. The fruit will disappear in a couple of days.

One pepper and the cucumber will go into salad along with the lettuce. We ate the broccoli for dinner tonight. The beans will make a great side dish to our meal tomorrow. Carrots, eggplant and squash feel like staples in our house, so we’ll be making a quiche or lasagna to use them up soon.

Then, there are the hot peppers. If there is one item that I wish we didn’t get, it would be the hot peppers. I just haven’t found a good use for them yet. But, I am determined. I’ll keep you all posted!

Geauga Family Farms–week 8

CSA 2 Responses »

Aug 022011

Today was the 8th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA.

Here’s what we received:

Let’s take a closer look.

Zucchini, cucumber

Eggplant, cabbage

Onion, yellow squash

Tomatoes, cauliflower

Blackberries, cherry tomatoes

Hot peppers, Roma tomatoes

Basil, lettuce

Lettuce

I’m thinking that a gluten free chili mac dish might be in order when my in laws visit this weekend. I saw all of the tomatoes and immediately thought chili or sauce. With the chili route, I could use the onion, peppers and tomatoes in one shot. The basil will be dried or frozen for use in sauce in the upcoming weeks. We were almost out of lettuce, so it’s nice to be stocked up for salads. The cabbage will go into cole slaw along with the head I have from our other CSA. The cauliflower will get eaten for lunch tomorrow. I’m not sure about the other ingredients. We will make an effort to use or preserve everything by Friday night as we have company for the weekend and we don’t want anything to go bad!

Geauga Family Farms–week 7

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Jul 262011

Today, we had the week 7 pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. Since it was the 4th Tuesday and there was a farm visit this evening, my husband picked up our share. Even though we had the list of what could be in our share earlier today, it’s really a surprise when you actually see it.

Here’s what we received today:

Let’s take a closer look.

Tomatoes, beets

Lettuce, kohlrabi

Swiss chard, onion

Green beans, cherry tomatoes

Radishes, cucumbers

Yellow squash, patty pan squash (Most of the patty pan squash that I have seen before is more flat and scalloped, but I am pretty sure this is patty pan squash.)

Zucchini, honey (add on order)

New this year, we can place orders though the website for some additional items. There are things available like honey, maple syrup, eggs, etc. I ordered some honey for this week. We didn’t really need honey at the moment, but I wanted to try out the ordering system. Pay with paypal and pick up with the share. It was easy!

I’m still thinking about the bounty that we received and haven’t made any specific plans for it, but we’ll be busy eating our veggies this week for sure!

Geauga Family Farms–week 6

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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:

Let’s take a closer look.

Black cherry tomatoes, cucumber

Pickling cucumbers, potatoes

Blueberries, green onions

Onions, peppers (probably hot!)

Cabbage, red raspberries

Lettuce, Swiss chard

Tomatoes, zucchini

Yellow squash

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!

Fresh Fork CSA–week 7

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Jul 142011

Today was the 7th pick up for the Fresh Fork CSA. It’s hard to believe we’re 1/3 through the season already. As far as CSAs go, we’ve been receiving many familiar and easy to use items this year. Here’s the list of what we were expecting today.

Small CSA:

1 lb green beans
1 bunch cilantro (last week we substituted green onions, this week it will be cilantro)
2 ct zucchini
2 ct squash
1 whole pasture raised chicken
1 head leaf lettuce
1 pint blueberries
Approx 1.5 lbs cling peaches
Approx 1.5 lbs slicing tomatoes

Here’s what we received:

There was a problem with the chicken order this week. Apparently, they don’t fair well with thunderstorms. One of the farms lost a bunch of them this week. So, we had the option of a whole chicken or a roast. We had a chicken thawing in the fridge already, so we opted for the roast. Also, last week, we were shorted our zucchini, so we have 4 this week to make up for it.

The pint of blueberries seems really small to us. Lately, we’ve been picking them by the quart or even gallon. Everyone in our house loves blueberries, so these will probably make it until breakfast tomorrow before they are gone.

I read a recipe for zucchini pizza dough the other day. I’m going to try it out this weekend. I’ll write it up if it turns out well.

We picked up a container of local cream cheese while we were at the truck. I don’t know how much it is, but I’ll let you know when I pay for it next week. It was offered as part of the large package this week and will be for sale regularly when we pick up. Robert wasn’t sure of the price, so we’ll settle up next 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):

Let’s take a closer look.

Red raspberries, green leaf lettuce

Red leaf lettuce, large onion

Yellow squash, zucchini

Tomatoes, broccoli

Pickling cucumbers, beets

Green onions, kohlrabi

Potatoes, sugar snap peas

Cucumbers

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–week 4

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Jul 052011

Today was our 4th pick up for the Geauga Family Farms CSA. As usual, our pick up items were a surprise. I was happy that we received lettuce since we were out. Between our two CSAs we are getting tons of lettuce and not letting it go to waste. The bounty did not disappoint and we received two types of lettuce.

They are taking applications for partial season shares that will start in a couple of weeks. If you are interested in getting a CSA, let me know and I can send you the application.

Here’s what we received in our family share:

Let’s take a closer look.

One large onion with greens, bunch of radishes.

green onions, cherry tomatoes

tomato, yellow squash

zucchini, rhubarb

kohlrabi, collard greens

2 types of lettuce

beets, snow peas (eat whole in the pod, usually used in stir fry recipes)

We did well with our shares last week. I can say that I had summer squash fritters 3 times for lunch and I’ll probably be having more of them this week. Today, before I picked up our GFF share, I only had some cabbage and cucumber left from last week’s shares.

This week, I’ll be making a tofu stir fry to use the peas along with some of the cabbage from my other share last week. We’ll probably try roasting the kohlrabi, radishes and beets this time. I’ll have to think about the collards. I’m guessing I’ll probably sauté them for lunch one day. I froze some rhubarb last week, so I’ll add this to that bag. I think I’ll end up making a rhubarb dessert soon. The cherry tomatoes are already half gone thanks to Stephen and Nick.

It should be a great week!

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