Tuesday Lunches: CSA Summer ’14 ” Week #7
Lunch is an awesome part of the farm work day – especially in the high season. After a morning of bending, lifting, and carrying, a calorie recharge is divine. So too is the shade.
Back before we owned this land and had two kids, Mike and I always ate lunch with the crew. Even when Zea was a baby, we all ate together. Once we transferred the operation to our home farm at J, Mike and I would still plate up a meal and go back to the shed and join our crew. Zea was generally quite entertaining.
Then we built a porch and had a second kid. Last year we bought a nice new patio table with the intention that our crew feel welcome to come up on the porch and eat with us… but two kids demanding attention isn’t exactly the kind of break the crew was looking for. So last season, for the first time, we began to eat separately.
Lunch is now more about having some family time in the middle of the day. And while that is a wonderful blessing, it has also meant the end of sharing meals with our crew. Mike and I miss that. Different types of relationships can form through meal sharing that don’t form in the field only. When we share a meal with our crew it blurs hierarchal lines a bit and enables Mike and I to have a better feel for how our crew is doing and feeling as regular people.
But family first.
Mike and I talked a lot about this last season, trying to figure out how to have the best of both worlds. We couldn’t very well force our crew to eat with us on the porch, nor was it practical or timely to convoy our whole family into the shed to eat with the crew every day.
At last we decided to have Jen Gaber, from Nutshell Catering, come out and cook for our whole crew once a week. That way, at least on Tuesdays, we eat with our crew, sans kiddos.
These meals have been wonderful! I text Jen with what I have leftover from Saturday farmer’s market. She texts me back with a list of veggies to gather for her. I put them in a bin on the counter every Tuesday morning, and then around 10 am she comes in with her bag of knives, starches, and fats and begins her kitchen alchemy.
As we speak I can smell wonderfulness coming from my own kitchen… today’s menu:
- Roman Beans & Rice with yellow zucchini, parsley, spring onions, kale and cheese
- Chilled Borscht with beets, cucumbers, and spring onions
- Egg Strata with cheese, zucchini, broccoli, onions, and scallions
- Fresh cut peppers and kohlrabi with an avocado peppercorn dip
- Cucumber Lemon water
YUM! Thanks to Jen at Nutshell Catering for deliciousness and a wonderful way to bring owners and crew together.
Enjoy your veggies!
Cassie, Mike, and kiddos
In the Box:
- Bell Pepper
- Broccoli
- Cabbage, Red
- Cucumbers
- Dill Head
- Eggplant (either Jap or Globe)
- Garlic
- Green Beans
- Onions (either Sweet White or Bottle)
- Snow Peas
- Zucchini
EOs only:
- Carrots
- Head Lettuce
- Sugar Snap Peas
Recipes:
Summer Week #7: Wednesday, July 23rd” Group A EOs
