Thursday, June 26, 2014

Real Life CSA: week 11

More new stuff this week, including probably my favorite produce item on the planet...strawberries.


It's a widely known fact that I'm obsessed with local strawberries. I grew up eating my grandma's strawberry shortcake as a meal (hello, it's too good to be just a dessert) with berries from their garden. Nothing beats the tiny berries that grow in western PA in the month of June. (Full disclosure, these guys were super ripe bordering on spoiled when we got them today, so we ate them right away. Which I did not mind in the least. But I have no plans for them this week because they're already gone!)


Still not sick of the delicious lettuces we get each week. We never have problems eating it up, and it tastes so much better than grocery store lettuce. Definitely one of those produce items that has a taste difference when it's fresh and local.

Happy to get some spinach, it being my favorite green (or at least tied with chard for my favorite). Not sure how we'll use it this week, but perhaps on a homemade pizza with some feta. (Right now I'm having dreams of the amazing spinach and feta pizza Mark made for us about a month ago and I'm salivating.)

Mark and I are also big broccoli fans, so we were happy to see this guy. I was putting the broccoli in my bag while I was picking up and a little boy standing nearby looked at me with wide eyes. Yeah, kid, it's pretty cool. You should eat some!


Green onions will supplement our stash. So far this week we've eaten them on salads and in a sesame tofu stir fry I made (yum). Garlic scapes are one of the cool vegetables that I discovered from being a CSA subscriber a few years ago. Scapes are the stalks of young garlic plants, and as I understand it, we get to enjoy them because they are cut off to allow the plant to not divert energy to growing more stalk. They taste like garlic (duh), but they're mild. I might make a pasta with these because somehow in my head garlic and pasta go together. Am I the only one who thinks that?

Last but not least, though certainly exciting, is the first pepper of the season. I adore peppers - all kinds - and this one looks firm and crisp. Can't wait to eat this guy on a bed of fresh lettuce!


Get anything good in your CSA this week? (You know the answer is yes, so share!)

4 comments:

  1. In our CSA this week we received eggs, cucumbers, hot house tomatoes, kale, swiss chard, beets, 1 plant of green leaf basil and 1 plant of purple leaf basil. We tried beet greens yesterday. The farm gave us a recipe, seasoned with canola oil, fresh ginger and garlic. We were surprised that they tasted so good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I actually like beet greens better than beets! I also love purple leaf basil because it's so pretty.

      Delete
  2. We got strawberries that will go on a salad with goat cheese and grilled chicken. We also got some kale, zucchini (can't wait to eat this because we didn't grow any this year), green onions, garlic scapes (can't wait to put them in mashed potatoes), chard, and cabbage. We're also growing kale for the first time this year, so I'm excited to see how harvesting that goes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't had any zucchini yet this year, but I'm hoping for some soon or to get some at the farmers' market. I'm also obsessed with chard and feel like I want to eat it as a side with every meal.

      Delete