CSA Week 7

I used up a lot of the week 6 squash by making 2 batches of zucchini bread – one as little cakes which I have been enjoying for breakfast.

I also used the week 5 bunch of carrots to make a carrot cake. I didn’t make icing for the cake – so it will work for breakfast as well. Needless to say, with only my husband and I around more than half the baked goods are now in the freezer! Otherwise I did well eating up the veggies from week 6 – only some carrots and cucumbers were left when I went to pick up the next share.

The medium share at our CSA this week was ‘heavy’ both in terms of size (two bags again) and weight (included 6 pounds of squash and 3 pound of cucumbers). Starting up at the upper left corner and working around the picture below clockwise: cucumbers, onions, carrots, summer squash, chard, basil, lettuce, and kohlrabi. The hotter days will reduce the greens in a few weeks but now we have plenty for salad stuff: lettuce, carrot tops, basil, and chard.

I’ve already decided to shred the squash and freeze it in 2 cup portions. 6 pounds is a lot of squash! It will take up less space to freeze in that form than baking it already into zucchini bread to freeze. I might do something similar with the carrots although I haven’t gotten tired of carrot raisin salad yet.

CSA Week 5

It was another two bag week at the Gorman Farm CSA this week….another good week of eating skewed toward the veggie side. Starting in the upper left of the picture below there are: 2 kohlrabi (roots and leaves), 2 pounds of summer squash (I got 3 yellow and one green), cone head cabbage, scallions, 1 pound of cucumbers, 1 pound of broccoli, arugula, beets (roots and leaves), carrots with tops, and kale. The scallions were from the overage table where I could have gotten more greens (collard greens or chard) but I still have both left from last week.

Not the variety of leaf shapes and sizes between the kohlrabi leaves (large), the beet (red veins) and the arugula (convoluted margins). The beet leaves and arugula will be eaten with the carrot tops in salads. I am still trying to decide whether to make the kohlrabi leaves into chips just like I intend to do with the kale.

After I had cleaned up from the first round of prep of the veggies into plastic bins, I found this tiny leaf. I think it might have been from the kohlrabi. It was only about an inch long....very delicate.

I have been eating a lot of the stems but decided to start freezing more of them so that I will skew what I eat now to leaves that will not survive freezing. The stems have to be cooked (steamed, stir fried, or put into soups) because they are so tough – they work well coming from the freezer. In fact, freezing may reduce the cooking required.

CSA Week 3

Wow – week 3 of our Community Supported Agriculture share was a very full bag! Starting at the far left and moving clockwise around the image: Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, lavender, oregano, pac choi, red leaf lettuce, broccoli, spinach and parsley. The pac choi was from the ‘overage’ table but I like it so much I couldn’t resist. The ¾ pound of spinach was a stuffed bag…several salads for sure (and I plan to use as least part of it in one of my favorite salads: spinach, strawberries, almonds with marmalade dressing). It will take some heavy veggie meals to finish off most of this before next Wednesday. I still have some of the romaine, chard, and garlic scapes from the week 2 share.

One of the things I have learned from the CSA over the past few years is how to end up with relatively little waste from the veggies. For example – when I process collards, chard, kohlrabi, beet, or kale leaves, I cut out the tougher stem first (example below is a collard leaf) and then save it for use in soup or stir fry.

This past week, I made a stem soup: cut the stems into ½ inch lengths, cooked at a slow boil in beef bouillon and seasonings with dry roasted peanuts added for the last few minutes of cooking for protein. It was an excellent lunch.

Before I started getting veggies via a CSA, I didn’t buy large leaved veggies. I have become better at handling them over the last few years. Now I roll the halves of the leaves together,

Cut the roll lengthwise and then across. It makes small bite sized pieces! I have discovered that I like using collard leaves in salads when they are cut this small. My plan is to add some of the last of the collards from week 2 to the spinach salad with strawberries!