Tag Archives: CSA

Making the Most of a Full Share CSA …

Posted on August 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

… along with my large garden of tomatoes. How am I doing at using up a full CSA share and using my tomatoes? I have been in the kitchen quite a bit this summer.

Processed veggies and fruit

From left to right, there are refrigerator dill pickles, made from CSA and garden cucumbers. Rhubar-b-q sauce, made with CSA rhubarb a few weeks back. Blackberry puree, made with Larriland berries picked last week, which becomes blackberry vinaigrette every couple of nights. The first jar is gone already. The last of the parsley and pine nut pesto, made a few weeks ago also.

On the lower shelf is a container of oven roasted garden peach tomatoes. They were roasted for an hour at 300 degrees, with salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil, and were used in a risotto last night. These are the second half of the batch, which will become part of dinner this weekend.

Today I also made salsa to use my glut of pineapple tomatoes. Here are two of them. They ripened Sunday through Tuesday, too late for the fair.

Heirloom Pineapple Tomatoes

The large one weighed a pound and a half. I sliced them up. Let them drain and took out the seeds. Mixed them with sweet onion, cilantro, garlic paste, salt, pepper, key lime juice, jalapeno and chipotle Tabasco sauce.

Salsa before blending

The finished product is in the refrigerator waiting for dinner tonight. The rest of the tomatoes and the onion are being roasted in the oven and will become another freezer container of ingredients to be used in sauces this winter.

Pineapple tomato salsa

The best investment we made this year was the freezer. It is slowly filling up with fruits, veggies and pestos made with garlic scapes.

We have been pretty diligent about eating those items in the CSA that don’t freeze well, or in the case of getting a huge amount of potatoes, I took some of them to my mom’s last week.

Mixed organic potatoes from the CSA

Haven’t seen this week’s CSA list yet, but from the other sites it looks like there will be corn and tomatoes again this week. Now I need to get the canning equipment out. Come winter, I will be glad I did. I need to process the newest haul of little tomatoes before they get overripe. This is three days worth of my miniature tomatoes.

They will be oven dried and made into small bags for use in sauces and vinaigrettes. Can’t let these beauties go to waste.

hocofood@@@

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Recipes, and Why I am Bad at Them

Posted on August 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

Many times for my SSFC posts I have posted pictures of dinners made to use local foods for the food challenge. Since our current challenge to use local foods for one meal is heading into the season of tons of squashes, I have been trying to find ways to use them creatively.

Last week I made two dinners using almost completely local items, with a few additions. One was my eggplant parm, and another a baked chicken dinner.

Eggplant Parm

Baked chicken thighs with Amish egg noodles and roasted veggies

If I needed to document what exactly went into these two dinners, I would be in deep trouble, because when I cook, I don’t measure. When I bake, yes, when I cook, it is just whatever seems to look and taste good, and whatever I have around the kitchen.

These dinners were from Monday and Wednesday last week, mainly using up CSA items before I got my Thursday pick up. The eggplant Parmesan recipe started out from a web search that went into a half dozen places, including Martha Stewart. I think I used parts of hers but improvised because I had no mozzarella in the house.

The eggplants were a mix of Italian and Japanese. Sliced, salted and allowed to drain out moisture. The sauce was made by mixing all my overripe tomatoes with half a jar of Wegmans organic sauce and a squeeze of tomato paste from the tube in my fridge. See what I mean about measuring? I have no idea how much went into that base.

I didn’t have mozzarella so I mixed grated domestic parmesan from Roots with all the Firefly Farm chevre I had left in the fridge and the last of the Bowling Green Feta, grated. Added a little milk to make it creamier.

Dredged the eggplant in beaten egg, Panko bread crumbs and Parm, added a little salt and lots of pepper.

Coated the bottom of the baking dish (a small deep dish) with olive oil, added sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce and topped with the last of the Parm. Baked it for over two hours on a slow cook setting on my oven until it was dinner time.

As for the chicken thighs, same sort of thing. Put olive oil, tomatoes, onions, peppers and chicken in a casserole, Covered the chicken in herbs, salt and pepper. Put it all in the oven on slow cook setting for three hours while doing chores around the house.

Served it with Amish egg noodles. The noodles were homemade by a vendor that sells at the Briggs Chaney farmers market. The chicken came from them also. The egg noodles were quickly boiled at the last minute.

Accompanied this SSFC meal with a local wine. We belong to a cellar club at Breaux. This wine is wonderful with chicken and with seafood. I love the blend.

Breaux Wine served with Chicken

Getting back to recipes. We got a huge eggplant this week. Along with lots of lovely tomatoes, garlic, white peppers. This week’s eggplant dish may actually be a stacked version using the tomatoes and mozzarella I bought at Roots.

Veggies inspiring a variation on Eggplant Parm

Who knows what I will cook next? And, if I will remember what I did put in it? That’s the fun of being in a CSA, getting creative with What’s in the Box.

hocofood@@@

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CSA Week 13, The Second Half of the Season

Posted on August 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

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@@@

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CSA Week 12, Tomato and Corn Season

Posted on July 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

My favorite time of year. The CSA starts sending us multiple varieties of tomatoes and we get sweet corn.

Sandy Spring CSA Week 12 Full Share

I had to take the picture on the island as the counter by the window is full of my heirloom tomatoes. Between them and the CSA I am officially in canning and freezing mode. What did we get today? Eleven items this week, all certified organic

6 Ears Bicolor Sweet Corn
1 Bag Purple Majesty Potatoes, 3 pounds
1 Bag Red Tomatoes, 2 pounds
1 Italian Eggplant
3 Green Zucchini
1 Bunch Fresh Red Onions
1 Pint Jumbo Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Bunch Italian Parsley
1 Bag Heirloom Mixed Tomatoes, 1 pound
2 heads Garlic

The heirloom tomatoes were particularly beautiful this week.

Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes

They are destined for a salad with some chevre, just like the one I made the other night. As for tomatoes, the 2 pounds of red tomatoes went into the pot to be blanched and are already peeled and sliced in half and in the freezer.

I also blanched and froze the last of the green beans left from an earlier delivery, and oven roasted some of my yellow plum, yellow pear and green grape tomatoes to make an oven dried sauce that is bagged and frozen for use this winter.

Mixed tomatoes in oil, salt, pepper and sugar, prior to roasting

Tomatoes after roasting, at a low temperature for two hours

And, it wouldn’t be summer without gazpacho. I made gazpacho yesterday with my orange blossom tomatoes, augmented by a few from the Catonsville farmers market, a white bell pepper, scallions, shallot, lemon cucumbers and eight pieces of Wegmans Italian bread soaked in water. It all goes into the blender with white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. A cup for dinner last night.

Doesn’t get any fresher than that.

hocofood@@@

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CSA’s, MOM’s, Wegmans, Roots, David’s or Farmer’s Markets

Posted on July 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

As I continue my value of CSA posts to record what we spend on organic veggies in a CSA, I find myself looking at prices around the area. Lots of choices these days in Howard County to eat fresh organic foods. I wonder in the future are there too many, and what may be the fallout? Will some of them fail? Will the surge in interest in eating organic whole foods sustain all these choices?

Yesterday we needed to go to Elkridge library to pick up a book not on the shelves anywhere else in the county. So, I requested two detours on this trip. Tacos at R&R. And, a visit to MOM’S. MOM’s carries a crispbread that I love to take on picnics and spread some good Bowling Green Farms Chesapeake cheese on top of them.

Crispbreads bought at MOM’s organic

I got prices of organic veggies while in the market to compare to what we saw at Wegmans, what we pay for Love Dove Farm, or Breezy Willow at the county farmers markets, and the value of our Sandy Spring CSA veggies that we have prepaid a year’s worth with a set fee.

My value of CSA posts go all over the place to try and compare my savings, but since pricing changes weekly and the sources have vastly different pricing, it is pretty tough to stay on top of what organic veggies cost week to week.

This week I used the pricing from MOM’s to compare. It was a huge savings to belong to a CSA. If one lived in Eastern HoCo, MOM’s and Wegmans are the closest sources of organic foods, and most Wegmans prices were cheaper for produce than MOM’s. Will that difference drive people to shop at Wegmans? Only time will tell.

As for CSA value this week, here is the breakout. I decided to round up by a penny for all the items ending in 99 cents to simplify my accounting. I did not include the holy basil (tulsi) as I have no idea what to use to compare it. So, my total is for eleven of the twelve items in the previous post I wrote Thursday when I picked up the box. The one difficult item in the box is lemon cucumbers, not something you find in stores often.

lemon cucumbers from CSA box

Potatoes $2 a pound. We got 3 pounds, total $6. This is more than they cost at Wegmans for organic.
Red Onion $3 a pound. We received a pound bag, total $3.
Mixed specialty squashes, use zucchini price of $3 a pound and we had one and a half pound, total $4.50.
Cucumbers, $2 a pound, we got 1 1/2 pounds, so $3.
Beets $3 a bunch, total $3.
Italian eggplant, $3 a pound, ours was 12 ounces, so $2.25 total.
Japanese eggplant, these were $4 a pound, and our three totaled a pound, $4.
Heirloom tomatoes were $6 a pound there, I know we find them for $5 at markets, but to use MOM’s, they totaled $6.
White Bell Peppers, MOM’s only had purple for $4 a pound, we got a pound so $4.
Pint of grape tomatoes, $4.
Heirloom carrots $3 a bunch.

Total cost at MOM’s to buy approximately what I received in the CSA box minus the holy basil was $42.75. We pay $29.75 a week. This week’s difference would be $13.00 more if I went to MOM’s to shop.

Cumulative total value saved by joining the CSA is now at $102.80 after eleven weeks, with fourteen to go.

The important question is whether we are actually eating all the things we get, and the answer is yes, for about 90-95% of the items, we either process them for freezing, eat them in two weeks or less, or can them. This week I will be blanching and freezing the remains of the green beans from last week, and making bread and butter pickles from the last of the cucumbers.

I also learned that I can grate, then blanch, then freeze little zucchini packages to use in the winter for chocolate zucchini muffins, or for zucchini fritters. The rest of the zucchini will meet this fate.

The tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and two of the white peppers will make a gazpacho. The other peppers will be blanched and frozen. I know this is time consuming, but definitely cheaper, and healthier than buying ready made processed foods. And cheaper than shopping at the organic markets.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Community, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Holy Basil, Batman!

Posted on July 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Tulsi. Never heard of it until it showed up in our CSA box. Smells interesting.

tulsi aka holy basil

It was one of twelve items in this week’s Sandy Spring CSA box, which was a bit late since the fruit share this week included watermelons. The drivers get way behind the weeks they have to deal with dozens of watermelons that take up lots of space and also take more time to unload. That meant about ten of us were at the pick up point waiting for the truck, and we got to meet one another and talk. Nice to meet our fellow CSAers. Here’s the list, all certified organic with the exception of the onions, which are transitional.

1 Bunch Holy Basil (Tulsi) Lancaster Farmacy
1 Bag Lemon Cucumbers De-Glae Organic Farm
1 Pint Red Grape Tomatoes Freedom Acres Farm
1 Bunch Thumbelina French Heirloom Carrots Farmdale Organics
1 Bag Heirloom Tomatoes Freedom Acres Farm
1 Bag White Bell Peppers Friends Road Organics
1 Bunch Red Beets Sunny Slope Organics
1 Bag Red Onions Sweetaire Farm
1 Bag Japanese Eggplant Maple Lawn Organics
1 Bag Mixed Squash Maple Lawn Organics
1 Bag Red Gold Potatoes Millwood Springs Organics
1 Italian Eggplant Echo Valley Organics

The value post will come this weekend. I need to research the value of lemon cucumbers, and a few other things. The picture.

Week 11 CSA box contents

I am loving the yellow tomatoes, the lemon cucumbers and the white peppers. This looks like definite gazpacho material here.

Additionally, today we stopped at Boarman’s to pick up a few items. Some basic feta for a watermelon, feta and mint salad I want to take to a picnic Tuesday. Some crab cakes and filets. Ice cream. Between Wegmans and Boarman’s, I think I can eliminate Giant Food and Safeway from my life entirely. That would probably not be a bad thing to do, as I am doing well in avoiding those stores.

Now, to decide to do with squash and eggplant, besides ratatouille. Off to look at the linky party at In Her Chucks. There is a huge source of recipes and info from dozens of people who receive CSAs, every week the list grows. It is a great resource. I need to link up my CSA post, once it is published.

hocofood@@@

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Eating Locally: The Fruits of the Vines

Posted on July 16, 2012 by AnnieRie

This week is a fruit themed week in the challenge ten of us are taking to cook seasonally and locally all summer and fall. For me, fruit has to include grapes. At least, the liquid, fermented version of grapes.

Hardscrabble Chardonnay grapes

My Challenge Page with all the SSFC links. We have been blogging since the beginning of June about our experiences with cooking locally. This past week, it was warm and muggy and the summer fruits have been coming into many markets.

Last night after going to Linden to visit, we decided to make a simple fruit related dinner. Fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe and tart cherries was the main component. On the side, olive bread with herb butter. The herb butter would also be used on the fresh corn on the cob. A light wine from Glen Manor.

My tomatoes. After all, tomatoes are also a fruit. This plate included orange blossom, red fig, yellow plum, sweet olive and green grape tomatoes, all from my garden. Served with homemade tzatziki using cucumbers and mint from the garden. The yogurt was organic Greek, my free container from the last visit to Wegmans. With South Mountain not at Glenwood Market, I have lost my local source for dairy.

Heirloom tomatoes

Sometimes the simplest freshest meals are the best. Summer fruit and vegetables need little more than salt, pepper, fresh herbs and maybe a drizzle of oil.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, heirloom tomatoes, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA Value Assessment

Posted on July 14, 2012 by AnnieRie

I didn’t post my savings until I got some updated numbers from local markets and vendors. Week Ten CSA was delivered Thursday. It looked like this

Sandy Spring CSA Delivery Week Ten

and I wrote about it here.

With this week’s savings, of $9.65 over weekly cost of $29.75, I am now $89.80 ahead in total for being 40% through the 25 week season. If anyone doubts the value of joining an organic CSA, they just need to look at what organic foods cost in stores, markets and at farm stands.

The breakout from week ten is this:

Corn, 5 ears, 50 cents an ear, $2.50
Carrots, $3.50 a bunch for heirloom varieties
Fennel $1.69 each for 2 of them, rounded to $3.40
Pickling cukes, white variety, a bargain at 2/$1, there were 8 of them, so $4
Slicing cukes, 3 large ones, $4.50 total
Garlic, two heads, $2 each at market, so $4 total
Heirloom red radishes, $2.50 a bunch
Blue Viking potatoes, 3 lbs at $1.50 a pound, $4.50
Zucchini, one very large, over a pound, so $2
Green beans and Rattlesnake beans, $3 each basket, so $6 total
Jalapenos, 5 medium to large size, $.50 each, so $2.50

What is missing in all this number crunching is that intrinsic value. That freshness of taste. That discovery of a new and interesting variety of vegetable not encountered before. For me this week, rattlesnake beans are a new addition. I read up on them and found that young and tender, treat them like green beans, older with heavily developed beans, take them out of their pods and cook them.

Young rattlesnake beans

As for the garlic, I love getting organic garlic, and later this year, I will put aside a few heads in order to plant them this fall. Victoria over at The Soffrito planted hers in pots and heavily mulched them over the winter and got lovely garlic, including scapes prior to digging up the garlic to cure. Supermarket garlic won’t sprout; it is treated with an anti-sprouting agent.

Organic garlic, perfect for planting in October

This week with my other CSA goodies, I will be making potato salad, pickling some cukes, and also making tzatziki using some of Wegmans Greek yogurt and their organic lemons and mint from my garden. And, yes, I will be grilling some corn. I love it when corn season arrives.

Oh, and if I get a few more large tomatoes in the next two or three days, there will be gazpacho on the menu. Maybe on one of those hundred degree days that might come next week.

hocofood@@@

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Summer CSA Week Ten, The Greens are Gone!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, we seem to have survived greens season, and even though our email said FIVE MORE zucchini, thankfully, they lied.

There was only one.

What did we get? The list is below. I swapped cilantro for what looks like white wonder cucumbers, ten of them to use in salads and to pickle.

1 Bag Rattlesnake Beans
1 Bag Green Beans
1 Bag Jalapeno Peppers
1 Green Zucchini
1 Bag Purple Viking Potatoes
1 Bag Fennel Bulbs
1 Bag White Garlic
3 Slicing Cucumbers
1 Bunch Thumbelina French Heirloom Carrots
1 Bunch Red Radishes
1 Bunch Cilantro
5 Ears Sweet Corn

We also got our first five ears of corn for the year. One big one, and four smaller ears, that will be grilled tomorrow night. The rattlesnake beans are new to me, as are purple viking potatoes. The carrots are getting bigger, too.

This week I know with twelve items we will be far ahead again on value. I really need to hit the market tomorrow before deciding what the savings are, as some of these items are new.

As for what I did to use up most of last week’s haul, I made Use Up the CSA Stew the other night, and also made couscous salad, and a potato salad. The salads are going with me to the Conservancy tonight.

There are potatoes, onions, carrots, kale, chard, beet greens, carrot tops, garlic and a couple of farmer’s market tomatoes in the pot. A little chicken stock for liquid. Herbs from my garden. Topped it off with some Boarman’s short ribs. Let it cook for eight hours. It ended up looking like this.

The short ribs fell off the bone. No need for a knife. Served with an Allegro Merlot.

hocofood@@@

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The YEMMies are Coming!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

What’s a YEMMie? A new term I found reading Barron’s last week. It seems many younger mothers are becoming selective about buying unprocessed and natural foods, instead of highly refined or processed items to serve their families. Barron’s calls them Young Educated Millennial Mothers, or YEMMies.

Updating to say that clicking on Barron’s takes you to a preview page. The article is from July 7th, so you have to click again on the correct date to get it to open.

From Barron’s perspective, it is a reason to seek out investments in areas like Whole Foods and Hain Celestials.

From the healthy living perspective, I know I have seen this attitude in those who belong to the CSA with us. Many mothers making their own baby foods from the organic veggies we get every week. Trading for things like squash and sweet potatoes, to puree for strained foods.

The popularity of smoothies. It is another reason people join CSAs. Organic produce, without waxes or sprays, chemical free, allow you to use the entire vegetable and not lose the nutrients found in the skins. When I make cucumber salad, for example, with my own cucumbers, or those from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, I can leave all or part of the skin on them, without having to eat waxed cucumber skins.

Organic oranges, lemons and limes give me wax free and chemical free zest.

Later this summer I will be pickling watermelon rinds, and I will also be making preserved lemons. In both instances, I search out organic. Now that Wegmans has arrived, with over 100,000 organic items, they will be my source for what I need to cook and preserve.

Those of us who have changed our habits to buy more raw ingredients, and cook more from scratch, are finding lots of company among the younger adults. Add to that the resurgence in young farmers and the explosion of farmers markets, and it seems maybe better food and more choice for organic is the result.

If you attend Miller Library or Howard General’s markets on Wednesday and Friday, say Hi to John Dove, of Love Dove Farms, who was profiled in the Howard Magazine lately. He is just one of the local farmers growing things without chemicals. The article mentions TLV and Breezy Willow, two other good sources for veggies, meat and eggs.

It is almost Buy Local Week here. the last week of July. Are you supporting the Buy Local challenge? I am. Make at least one local meal or item in a meal from foods bought from a Howard County Farmer!