CSA

We are splitting a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) with my sister and brother in law this year. We've been getting farm fresh produce for 3 weeks now. Megan picks up the produce every Wednesday- we get a huge shipment of whatever seasonal varieties the farmers have grown.

The first week, Scott and I were in Florida, and missed the first shipment. Megan and Ben were so sweet though and brought over our produce and stocked our fridge with it while we were gone, so when we got back it was all here waiting for us!

The first week, our shipment contained:

lettuce, mesculin, kale, radishes, havarti cheese, hen of the woods mushrooms, strawberries, lamb, and fresh milk.

Since the 4 of us are splitting the order, Megan and Ben ordered the milk, and we ordered the lamb. Megan doesn't like "uncommon meats" (her words), and I don't like milk that much, so we got to pick and choose those aspects of our order. Here are some dishes that I made from our super fresh delivery:

Salad with spinach, lettuce, mesculin, strawberries, feta cheese, walnuts, and a homemade vinaigrette.

Hen of the Woods mushrooms. I sautéed these in butter, garlic, and grated Parmesan cheese on them. They actually weren't that good- they tasted bitter, and some were really soggy while others were really rubbery. I'm not too excited that these are the types of mushrooms in the CSA. Maybe I just need a new way to prepare them....

The next week's shipment came with this:

turnip greens, green garlic scapes (these were a weird garlic/onion root vegetable, but smelled too much like onions for any of us to cook because we all hate onions!), strawberries, mesculin, broccoli, bok choy, kale, and dill.

See that weird rooty vegetable with the gigantic green stalk, second to left in the picture? That's the garlic scape. I gave them to an onion loving friend of mine, and she said they were definitely a cross between a green onion and garlic, but tasted more oniony than garlicy. Yuck!

I grilled some of the lamb chops from the shipment from the week before, and made a fresh basil/mint pesto sauce. It was FABULOUS, if I do say so myself!

I made a spinach and mesculin salad with Parmesan cheese, and a homemade basil pesto vinaigrette. I also made kale greens which I cooked in chicken broth, white wine vinegar, and turkey bacon. They were so good! I've always been a big fan of soft, vinegary kale greens. There only 2 vegetables that absolutely must be prepared country style (aka soggy and salty), kale greens being #1, and green beans being #2. My grandma used to grow kale greens in her garden and then slow cook them in a pressure cooker until they were soft and delicious. Her and my grandpa moved from the house with the garden when I was 12, so I've been craving them ever since! Mmm, mmm!

My in-laws also have a garden, and have been bringing us fresh broccoli. Since I've had an abundant amount of broccoli, I decided to try to replicate my favorite dish from Yankee Noodle, which is called Firecracker Chicken. I sautéed the broccoli in sesame oil and garlic, and made an Asian hot sauce (red curry paste, soy sauce, honey, red chili flakes, sriracha hot sauce, ginger, tumeric, and garlic powder). I made a box of Udon noodles, baked a chicken and then cut it up into pieces, and added all of it into the broccoli mixture. I also added chopped walnuts, and then poured the Asian hot sauce mixture into the pot, and let it all sauté for about 10 minutes. It turned out to be surprisingly good!

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but the dish turned out to be creamy and noodley (I LOVE Udon noodles! So chewy!), with a good combo of spiciness and sweetness.

This CSA experience so far has turned out to be really fun! I love to try new recipes and eat fresh produce. More to come on tonights shipment in a new post- I've had enough for one night!

Till next time!