Never fails. Buy something at the farmers market and you get it in the box. Strawberries. Weren’t listed in the preview post, but we always know there are substitutions and often additions. This was a pleasant addition.
And yes, we are officially drowning in greens. But, I did swap cilantro for mushrooms. Better to make mushroom pate. We are allowed one swap a week. I swap herbs usually, since I grow so many of them. Cilantro without tomatoes to make salsa, not my thing. I also have more than enough greens to do pesto, which I will make since I stopped at Costco today and got pine nuts and pistachios. I do some interesting pestos. Like the garlic scape pesto in this often posted pic of mushroom pate and garlic scape pesto I took to a party.
Ok, I never knew what vitamin greens were until we got them. Now I know. They are interesting and can be made many ways. Learn something new every week. Don’t have any clue what they would cost if we bought them, but suppose they are as expensive as microgreens.
This week we got:
14 ounces vitamin greens
one bunch red scallions
one head green romaine
one head red leaf lettuce
one box cremini
one box white mushrooms
one bunch cilantro (I swapped this to get another box of white mushrooms)
one large bunch of green kale
one pint strawberries
All organic. The estimated cost came to somewhere between $32-$35 depending on where you source it. Finding all this is difficult as a source for vitamin greens means a trip to DC to a market there.
After two weeks, paying $29.75 a week for our CSA we have $38 and $34, which means we are up $12.50 for cost. If I used the cheaper cost for the mushrooms, which can be found at Frank’s Produce in Waterloo behind Costco for $1.99 for the white mushrooms, it would have been $2 less. But, the gas mileage to get there just for mushrooms would have negated the savings.
What am I going to make?
Kale Chips. I love them and make them once every spring.
Mushroom Pate
Lots and lots of salads.
Strawberries with ice cream from South Mountain, or buttermilk cake from Stone House Bakery (I will be buying both this Saturday at the Glenwood market.)
Two weeks in. Loving the surprises, and the quality of the veggies.
hocofood@@@
AnnieRie Unplugged 
I have not heard of “vitamin green” either. Interesting! All the stuff you got in your box looks wonderful! Enjoy!
So, are those mushrooms really local for you?
Hi Tammy, yes, they are about 90 miles away as the crow flies.
They are in the same area where most of this area’s mushrooms are grown, west of Philly.
The Yeatman Farm is in the LFFC coop area.
Mother Earth is widely available here. They sell at the Baltimore and Tacoma Park farmers markets. They are in most of our organic stores, and a few chains like Weis.
What a beautiful bounty! Thanks for the lesson on vitamin greens…never heard of them either 🙂
Come link up to my CSA link party! http://inherchucks.com/2012/05/16/whats-in-the-box-26/. Hope to see you there!
Hi Annie,
I am splitting the share with another local family, but I had to share with you what we did/are doing with ours:
-Sautéed vitamin greens with pinenuts on top of Mahi and couscous. No recipe.
-Chicken Marsala with the mushrooms. From Cook’s Illustrated.
-Caprese salad with organic tomatoes from David’s (still have leftover basil). From the Pioneer Woman blog.
-homemade strawberry sorbet. Recipe found via Pinterest from Whole Living Daily (wholeliving.com)
All your ideas are great too! Thanks for some inspiration.
I just made soup today with many of the greens. Post is coming soon, along with posting about garlic scape pesto made from the Love Dove scapes, and mushroom pâté with all the mushrooms.
Made a killer strawberry rhubarb crisp too, with Larriland strawberries and Falcon Ridge rhubarb.
Salads for lunch with the lettuces. Still have kale to use, and one romaine left.
Looking at the list for the Tuesday pick up in Montgomery County, I see scapes on their lists. Looking good for the week to come. Can’t wait to see what we may get.
Going to the picnic Saturday?
Annie
Unfortunately we can’t make it to the picnic this coming Saturday. We have someone coming to inspect the fireplace. I’m hoping that the one in June works out for us. How about you?