Loving the CSA, the Garden, and Cheese
June 1st, 2010 Posted in Gardening, Recipes/Cooking | No Comments »I haven’t updated at all on our CSA adventure and thought it was about time that I should! We just picked up our fresh veggies from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for the second time this past Wednesday. We only purchased a half share, so we get our goodies every other week. And for us, it’s plenty!
Week One we picked up: Eggs, Collard Greens, Strawberries, Arugula, Red Russian Kale, Turnip Greens (we think), Endive (?), Spinach, Radishes, and Rosemary. And we made Strawberry Shortcake, stir-fried collards, stir-fried kale, a spinach and cheese quiche with rosemary, sauteed shrimp with Arugala, tomatoes and feta cheese, and Orange and Radish Salad with Arugula (a recipe that our CSA provided from Cook’s Illustrated). This salad left David and I with serious doubts, but I have to tell you… it was delicious! And if David will eat it, you know it’s good. The only items that ended up in the compost pile from week 1 were a couple of radishes and what we think was the endive… we weren’t sure because the CSA had our email wrong and we missed the email that explained (and I don’t know what endive looks like).
Week Two we picked up: Flash Collard Greens, Arcadia Broccoli, Hakurei Turnips, either Beet Greens or Bright Lights Swiss Chard (not sure which), Dinosaur Kale, Easter Egg Radishes (which looked bad when we got them), Mesculin Mix, Savoy Cabbage, Rosemary, and Lovage. So far we’ve made stir-fried collards with white rice, turnip soup using this weeks turnips and last week’s turnip greens (a dapted from the recipe “A Rough and Ready Turnip Potage” by Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors), and Moo Shu Pork from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh Flavor Fast using the cabbage (pictured below). The recipe the CSA provided (that we have yet to try) is Chicken, Lentil & Chard soup. I hope my Chard makes it until I can try this recipe because it has been looking rather lousy. I’ve soaked it in water for a full day and it’s looking a little better, but if I don’t cook it tomorrow, it may end up in the compost.
Needless to say, we are pretty happy lately with all the fresh veg. It has been so rewarding to try new veggies and put them to good work. We have enjoyed everything we’ve tasted so far (EVEN DAVID!). PLUS, we have also been harvesting our own veggies from the garden!
We made Jaime Oliver’s Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry yesterday using our own broccoli and peas from the garden, and I sprouted my own bean sprouts. We already have a squash that’s almost ready, as well as some hot peppers and baby green maters… so it won’t be long now! Our garden has been so rewarding this year… probably due to the fact that I paid attention to when things grow this time. It was about this time last year that I put in my garden (way too late) and we only had tomatoes and basil (no wonder… duh?!).
One other note of interest: WE MADE OUR OWN MOZZ CHEESE! That’s right… fresh and tasty mozzarella cheese from this kit: 30-Minute Mozzarella (which comes with enough to make over 30 batches). It was fun, rewarding and we plan to continue making it. Even David loved it, and he had his doubts. He couldn’t stop talking about how we made our own cheese… LOL! But of course, I didn’t get any pictures of any of this to show you… sorry (next time).











I have decided to learn the tricks of the coupon trade… which is going very slowly. This started because I have a few friends who buy over $100 in groceries and pay less than $10… I’m totally serious (they showed me the receipts). We’ve been getting the Sunday paper for a while now and I clip a few here and there, but I decided to take it more seriously. I took a few hours and went through the Harris Teeter sale flier and my coupons, and then David and I went to the store Monday night. We are not very efficient at this yet and may have gotten a few items we didn’t necessarily need (we got 2 sets of some plastic cups for .50 a piece), but we got some free sour cream and other great deals… check it out: