I signed up for a CSA share (community supported agriculture) for the summer. I've been interested in the "produce box" veggie delivery concept for several years, but I had never found anything I could afford with our grocery budget. A couple weeks ago I learned that it's called CSA, so I was able to properly google and do some research. I learned that many of the pricy (for me) produce delivery people are more like distributors. Which I'm sure is great for many farmers, to have a middle man to handle the orders, money, deliveries, work with other farmers, etc; and great for many customers to know exactly what they'll get and have it delivered to their door. But I found several true CSA farmers in my area, including one just down the road from me. I'm using Double T Farm this summer. No middle man, no buying produce from other farms; I get what's growing local in the season. And I pick it up at the farmers' house.
We'll see if I want to keep this up all summer; I'm going to share my fruit and veggies for the week and how I used them. This was technically week 2 for my farmers, but I signed up one week late, so it's my week 1.
Top to bottom: romaine, kale, bok choy, rainbow swiss chard, broccoli, spinach (that was less than half), and salad turnips.
I was so impressed with these beautiful greens! I was also determined not to cook them all in a ham or chicken stock, chop, and serve with chow chow like New Year's Day, or Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other winter dinner. So here is what I did,
Wednesday supper (and my birthday)
Roasted turnips and sweet potatoes, quinoa cooked in chicken broth, spinach salad, and homemade whole wheat bread. The bread looks completely mangled because I give the toddler with six molars and still learning to chew, some of the softer inside part of the bread. This homemade bread gets a crunchy crust, and he can't quite handle it yet. I enjoy it though.
Thursday supper, I forgot to take a photo. We had sautéed onion, garic, kale, and tomatoes, with sausage. I served it with that same quinoa from Wednesday. It grows. I cook it once and we eat the leftovers for a week. The sausage made this delicious.
Friday supper with family.
Saturday supper
Pasta with swiss chard pesto**. Spinach and romaine salad with broccoli and carrots. I made the whole recipe of the pesto; I left out the Parmesan cheese so half of it could freeze well. I obviously loaded my macaroni with cheese when it was time to eat. Recipe link at the bottom.
Pesto cubes!!
There it is. The recipe called for sunflower seeds, which Jonathan and I both thought was a strong flavor for this pesto. If I make this again, I'll try it with walnuts or pecans instead.
Sunday snack, with lots of leftovers.
Kale and spinach yogurt. I like how mine looks nothing like the photo accompanying the recipe. I skipped the mayo and added some olive oil and maybe a drop of apple cider vinegar. It is garlicky and delicious.
Kale and coconut milk cubes.
I had a little more kale than I needed so after I chopped it in the food processor, I mixed it with some canned coconut cream and froze it in cubes for smoothies.
Monday supper with family.
Tuesday supper
Leftover quinoa, roasted broccoli, turnips, and bok choy.
I still have the turnip greens and some romaine. That was a lot of salad last week, so we couldn't eat it all. If Jonathan and I had both had salads for lunch every single day, then maybe, but no. Actually, Jonathan took leftovers for lunch about everyday. I have used the romaine several days for lunch to wrap my ham and cheese, but we got bibb lettuce this week, so I used that yesterday for lunch. Maybe I'll blanche or sauté the turnip greens to freeze and throw them on some pizzas this summer.
**I know I need to add the link for the swiss chard pesto. Blogger is hard to work with from a phone; I'm pleased to get those few links I did. If you follow my good eats board on Pinterest, you can find it there until I get to my computer and add the recipe link. Or I bet I can stick it here on the bottom. Swiss Chard Pesto. Done!
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