Saturday, June 4, 2011

CSA: Week 1

School is out for the summer! And now that I have some time to myself again, I'll report on life here in Dayton.

Dan and I, along with our friends Mike and Mary, joined a CSA this summer. A CSA, for those of you who don't know, stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We sent a farm a check before the growing season began, and they use those funds to operate their farm. Then, every week from May to September, we get a crate of fruits and veggies, which we split between the two of us. It's a great way to support local farmers without the hassle of winding my way through the Second Street Market every week. It also forces us to get creative with veggies that I wouldn't usually buy.

So this Wednesday, I stopped by the pick-up location and met George, a guy with dreads who I assume to be the farmer. He handed me a crate filled with this stuff, which we split, as best as possible with M&M:

A bunch of garlic greens
Green onions
Swiss chard
Chinese cabbage (all ours)
Boston Lettuce (all theirs)
Strawberries (mostly theirs)
Granola (all ours)
1 dozen eggs

He assured me that the crate will fill up with additional veggies as the season goes on, but after all the rain we've been having, they are still light on produce. That's why we got the homemade organic granola and the farm-fresh eggs.

So, how am I doing on using things this week? Well, so far I really haven't (oops!). Dan ate the granola for breakfast, so that's gone. I used one green onion in my quesadilla yesterday. But here are my plans for the rest of it.

Sunday: Eggs & Bacon for breakfast. (I love farm fresh eggs. They are infinitely better than store bought.)
Garlic greens pesto (They had some on the table when I picked up the crate, and their newsletter provided the recipe. It was delicious and a very vibrant green.)
Monday: Stir fry with the Chinese Cabbage and Green Onions
Tuesday: Something with the chard! Maybe this, although sometimes the texture of sauteed spinach grosses me out and it's kind of the same sort of things. And by that time, our chard is 1 week old. But we've to eat it. I'll let you know how we use it up.

3 comments:

Joanna said...

i think it's funny the way you wrote "we've to eat it." it sounds like either a very refined way of saying "we have to" or a very hick way. i can't decide.

the veggies sounds yummy--wish you had gotten more strawberries for strawberry jam! also, one of my housemates made swiss chard soup...maybe it'd be less slimy? it's also pretty hot for soup...anyways, good luck with your interesting vegetables! here i am, just starting to cook with asparagus...:)

Joshua and Sarah said...

Toss the swiss chard in a casserole...that's what I do with veggies! Like lasagna, or spaghetti sauce.

Unknown said...

Chard holds up better than Spinach when you cook it. You have to really overcook it to make it slimy vs spinach. We had the same problem with our CSA last year though, kept getting greens with no recourse. Some people put them in smoothies but I never got the hang of that.