Blowing Through Your Box: Week #1

 In CSA Newsletter

Welcome & Thank you!

€œI just couldn’t use it all!€

This is a comment we hear from folks who tend to leave CSA.

It’s a bummer hearing this; both because it’s sad to lose members and because we feel we failed in trying to help this member incorporate seasonal vegetables into their lives.

Our family, which consists of Mike and I and three girls ages 6 and under, blow through vegetables with abandon€¦ almost recklessly. Being the farmers, we have access to as many veggies as we want, and we take full advantage of it.

Being able to cook with such high vegetable density is definitely something we’ve learned how to do over time. We want to help you learn how too!

While we give you recipes each week, I thought maybe it would be helpful to share with you what we eat in our household ” just to give you perhaps more practical ideas on how to use what you have in no time.

Here’s how we used a box-worth of veggies in just 3 days. (This included: ¼ lb. arugula; 1 head bok choi; 1 small head broccoli; a bunch of kale; mustard greens ” mizuna; green garlic; red butterhead lettuce; 1 bunch radish; ½ lb. spinach; 6 oz. salad mix; 1 bunch salad turnip).

Friday

  • Dinner: Arugula/Mizuna/Green Garlic pesto with noodles; Side Salad with radish & salad turnip

Saturday

  • Breakfast: Toast; Cherry, Kale, Coconut, Mint smoothie
  • Lunch: leftover pesto with chips, leftover pork from Thursday, side salad
  • Dinner: Spinach Moorish Stew, Side Salad with radish and raw bok choy chopped ” with cheddar blue cheese yum.

Sunday

  • Lunch: Salad with radishes & chopped bok choi; steamed broccoli; bagels with cream cheese
  • Dinner:  Porkchops, braised spinach, salad turnips cooked in bacon fat; mashed potatoes with green garlic (the entire bunch)

So maybe your household won’t eat all the veggies in 3 days. But, with a little planning you can make it happen in 7 or 14.

Learning how to cook with veggie abandon has a learning curve€¦ but that curve isn’t one of skill so much as one of ideas. Who says pesto always has to made from basil?  Kale in a smoothie? Yes. Bok choi stalk are kind of crunchy like celery, and I like celery in salad€¦ why not try bok choi thinly cut in salad?

I will continue to try and share what we are doing for dinner at our house, just to help give you ideas to increase the vegetable density of your menu. Things we make might not always be listed on our website (as I like to try cooking new things all the time), but I will try to share direct links if I have them. And if I don’t, a quick google search with the basic ingredients and concept will usually do the trick.

From our kitchen (and fields) to yours, here’s wishing you a great summer of fresh, seasonal, delicious cooking!

Cheers,

Farmer Cassie

In the Box:

  • Arugula OR Mizuna
  • Bok Choi
  • Butterhead Lettuce
  • Cilantro
  • Green Garlic
  • Kale, Red Russian
  • Kohlrabi
  • Red Radish
  • Spinach, .75 lb
  • Salad Mix, .55 lb
  • Salad Turnip

Recipes:

  1. Stir-Fried Chicken with Bok Choi
  2. Sauteed Radishes with Hard-Cooked Eggs
  3. Moorish Chickpea and Spinach Stew
  4. Beef, Orange, Veggie Stir-Fry
  5. Salad Mix with Salad Turnips
  6. Savory Kale
  7. Lasagna with Sausage and Kale
  8. Arugula or Mizuna Salad with Kohlrabi and Pomegranate
  9. Kale and Walnut Pesto

 

Summer 2016: Wednesday, June 8th – EO Group A