We have crossed over the hump. Week 13 of the CSA. Twelve left until the fall season. It must be a great summer in PA, as we are getting slammed with pounds of vegetables. The haul:
Week 13 Sandy Spring CSA Full Share
1 Bag Green Beans
1 Bag Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes
1 Italian Eggplant
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Pint Blackberries
4 White Bell Peppers
2 White Garlic
1 Bag Mixed Specialty Squash
1 Bag Mixed Tomatoes
1 Young Fennel Bulb
1 Bag Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes
1 Bunch Rhubarb
Twelve items again. And, yes, we got blackberries and we got rhubarb. Some baking and some fruit salads are in the planning stages with these goodies.
As for the financial aspect, this is getting difficult as depending on where you look, the prices are all over the place. How do you reconcile heirloom tomatoes. I have seen them for $5 a pound at MOM’s, and $4 a pound at Roots, and $2.50 each for large ones at the farmer’s markets. I could get them cheapest at the market, and by running all over town find the other items. I know I was $100 ahead two weeks ago.
What it would cost me in gasoline to chase down organic veggies would negate savings by buying at one place. But, try finding rhubarb at the markets right now. Difficult.
I know the cheapest that I could buy organically grown (but maybe not always certified) veggies would be at Love Dove on Fridays and Breezy Willow on Saturdays. Add Zahradka to the mix, or go to Olney for Our House Farms and I could get most of what is in the CSA. Again, lots of driving. I do go to the markets, but it is convenient to get the bulk of my veggies all together with the advance email of what seasonal goodies are coming home with me.
As for some of these heirlooms, they are incredible. The peach tomatoes have a taste that is fantastic, and so different. I couldn’t stop eating them when I got home.
Garden Peach Heirloom Tomatoes
The red flesh potatoes were this amazing pink color inside, so now between the purple, white and pink potatoes I can make an extremely colorful potato salad, and use some of the green beans in it as well.
Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes
There were three pounds of potatoes and four pounds of heirloom tomatoes this week. Using a rough cost estimate for the tomatoes gives me $20 and the potatoes $6. The eggplant at Roots would have cost me $4. So, not worrying about finding out the rest, like rhubarb, I already came out ahead again this week, way ahead considering what you can pay for organic blackberries, if you can find them. The eggplant weighed over a pound and a half. It looks like another eggplant parmesan will be made next week. I made one last week with the eggplants and some of my tomatoes.
Eggplant Parmesan
Off to do menu planning and get ready to take the veggies to the fair for registration tonight. Hope the weather stays clear.
hocofood@@@
AnnieRie Unplugged 
that eggplant parmesan looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing and linking up 🙂
Have you posted your eggplant parm recipe yet?
All the vegetables are beautiful. I am catching up on blog reading and enjoyed reading about the local challenge you did. What a great thing to do in your area. Have a good day and your eggplant parm looks great!
Welcome back Emily! Loving your posts about England, one of my favorite places.
The buy local challenge happens here every July. Lots of farm to table dinners and lunches at restaurants. The challenge is a little hard because you are supposed to be eating MD grown foods, and some of the farmers markets have vendors from PA, VA and WV.
Our CSA is from PA so all my CSA veggies can’t count. At least we only need to find one MD item each day so I don’t go a week losing ground with the CSA items.
I ended up using lots of eggs, cheese, fruit and meat that was MD grown.
Lots of delicious produce! My dad was commenting today about how a drive out to the mountains of VA would be full of dried out cornfields and I had to remind him that we have been relatively spared the drought – and that our CSA has been full of delicious produce – including plenty of corn. I would love the eggplant parm recipe too!
For Tammy and Liz, I need to reconstruct what I did.
I ended up not following a recipe even though I started with one. Let me look up where I started and I will create a post about my crazy cooking habits. The post will walk through how I made the eggplant.