Tag Archives: real food

CSA’d Out

I can understand it. Our first year we were overwhelmed at the end of the CSA season. But, we hung in there and learned from it, and drastically changed how we approached the weekly deluge of veggies.

I say this because at our first pick up last Thursday for our fall CSA, we heard that about 5 of our summer CSA members never picked up their last week of veggies, or fruit, or meat, or eggs. The food bank did well, as did our site host’s friends, who benefited from things the food bank doesn’t want. Like all that chicken and meat.

We are down to 30 members, from close to 50 in the summer. Enough to keep us going. Those fortunate enough to join us got new and exciting things, like these.

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Watermelon radishes. I roasted mine.

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Salanova lettuce. A red multileaf variety. So sweet. So flavorful. Devoured in a lunch mix with some poached chicken breast on top.

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Baby Hakurei turnips. Thanks to Elizabeth at Three Beans on a String these will be honey glazed with Larriland apples and served for dinner in a few days.

The whole haul.

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Napa cabbage. Will be a slaw soon, with apples. The beets. Already roasted and eaten. The potatoes. Made their way into a potato leek soup today, thanks to Friends and Farms having extra leeks for me to pick up this morning. Sweet peppers. Sliced in salad. Put into a frittata for tonight’s dinner. A couple of them are left.

As for that glorious cheese share.

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Biweekly in the fall. That stinky funky six year aged cheddar. The “Lanchego”, which is simply awesome. A Colby. New to us, from this supplier. Creamy and delicate.

I can honestly say I am not CSA’d out. I am really enjoying the variety, and of course, the freshness. You don’t have to rush and eat it all in one week. With food this fresh, in two weeks, I swear it is still better than grocery store produce.

Tomorrow is my husband’s 64th birthday. Stand by to see what I put together to celebrate. Will I still need him? Will I still feed him?

Surf and Turf

Friends and Farms style. When you get an individual basket, sometimes your protein is a bit small. So, you improvise.

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Like with a small New York strip steak. And a couple of strips of cod. The cod isn’t pictured above. I had already put it away to guarantee freshness. I baked the cod with mustard and breadcrumbs. Sautéed the steak with garlic powder and pepper. Made a couple of potatoes. And, got rid of the spinach from two weeks ago.

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The spinach was from October 30th, and yes, it still looked like what I put away then. The great thing about really fresh produce is the fact that it keeps much longer than store bought stuff.

I did a simple creamed spinach. Using sour cream, spinach, grapeseed oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

No, I didn’t take pictures tonight. It wasn’t particularly picture worthy, but it was tasty.

As for the rest of the Friends and Farms basket this week, here it is.

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A couple carrots, turnips, apples, some rosemary, a cabbage, spring mix, a leek, and pea shoots. I love these pea shoots. Put them on top a frittata. On a salad. Just munched on them after I got them. A good mix this week.

Gleaning

By definition, gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest.

It’s what we were doing last Tuesday on our food bank gardens. Almost everything is gone. Except for some greens. There was still enough out there to do one more harvest.

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I called what we got from the collards, baby collard greens on the label on the bag. We still got a large blue recycling bag full of collards from these long producing plants.

As for the rainbow chard,

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you could still find lovely baby chard nestled between the stems of the past harvests.

And, that Russian kale.

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Before we pulled the plants out of the ground, we found quite a bit of it to harvest.

Beets and carrots.

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What we couldn’t get for the food bank, like bundles of carrot tops, we used to feed the goats at the Conservancy. It seems they love carrot tops. We did get a good harvest of baby beets and beet greens.

Last act before leaving, pulling those immature cabbages, for anyone who wanted to make cabbage soup. Not big enough to use, but yet edible, these little morsels would make a tasty treat.

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We have learned much from our food bank harvesting. We know what can be used, and what is just too messed up, or tiny, or “weird” to use. I get it. People in our CSA won’t take strange vegetables that are harder to cook. A handful of cabbage leaves isn’t enough to donate, so they either go to waste, or we find a volunteer willing to use them.

Next year, our plots will be planted with varieties that are easily cooked or processed. Exotic vegetables aren’t the way to go, nor are plants that don’t provide a prolific harvest. A handful of something isn’t useful. We need to be harvesting bags full.

Twas the Night Before Pick Up

Thursdays are CSA and Friends and Farms pick up day. The night before pick up is usually when we get serious about finishing off what we got the previous week. I blogged earlier in the week about the last week of our summer CSA, but held off talking about last week’s Friends and Farms basket so I could talk about what I did with it.

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Like these proteins found in our individual share. All gone. Eggs. Frittata. Egg salad. Sunday breakfast over easy. Chicken thighs. Baked and served with rice and tomatoes. It made two dinners. We finished the leftovers tonight. Ribs. Slow cooked with a dry rub, for five hours Thursday when I got home. Bacon. Baked. Used with greens. And in the frittata, and on the egg salad sandwich one day. There’s a few pieces left to be used with the last of the greens tomorrow night.

The rest of the basket.

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Raw Virginia peanuts. Spread on a baking sheet and roasted. Half went into granola I made. The other half used in a few salads and as a snack while watching football. Apples and pears. Eaten with lunches. Sweet potatoes. Baked to serve with a lamb stew last weekend.

Spaghetti squash. Baked and served with Parmesan and butter. Tomatoes. Used on egg salad, and in the lamb stew the other day.

Bok choy and collards. Still hanging around the fridge. Thankfully, greens keep well when they are this fresh. I am making a stir fry Friday to use the bok choy. The collards? Will be a side dish with the cod we are getting tomorrow.

If you ever wanted to test a food service, this individual basket is a good beginning. It shows you the quality of the food, without drowning you in quantity.

One Pot Wonders

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It’s that time of year. When thoughts turn to soups, stews and one pot comfort foods.

Fairly easy to accommodate with a little advance planning. How about revved up pork and beans.

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Or maybe chicken chili.

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And, from leftovers, a Sunday luncheon of stuffed peppers.

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All because of this in the pantry.

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A few cans of beans, all sorts of flavors, can make meal planning and execution easy.

The pork and beans. Compliments of those beans, the pork butt from Friends and Farms. All those green peppers which I steamed in the oven last Friday. A little onion, and a little of the butternut squash, also baked while the peppers were steaming.

The leftovers from that dish were spooned into a couple of nice looking peppers and heated up Sunday for a late luncheon.

As for that chicken chili, this was the inspiration.

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That pound of additive free ground chicken from our CSA delivery. Browned, than added some crushed tomatoes, some peppers and onions from the freezer, a can of beans, some spice (I used cumin, cinnamon, salt, guajillo chili powder, cilantro and garlic powder). Left to simmer for an hour on the stove.

With the CSA deliveries, the well stocked pantry and freezer, I can heat up meals by dumping ingredients and “kicking it up” with spice.

Perfect meals now that the weather is blustery.

Mama Needs a Brand New Wok

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Courtesy of the modern day equivalent of the Sears catalog. It’s greens season and my wok started chipping. Not good for a non stick surface.

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Out here Amazon seems to be the new Sears or Spiegel. When I can’t easily get something locally or from a small business, Amazon is the simplest. Better than that 35 mile round trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Especially if I can cobble together enough to get free shipping.

A simple stainless steel wok. To deal with all the greens coming from the CSA. This week and last week.

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Today I picked up eight items in our next to last week of our summer CSA. Looking quite a bit like fall in that basket. Greens galore. Broccoli. Spinach. Tatsoi. Arugula. Add to that some large Beauregard sweet potatoes. A red butterhead lettuce. Butternut squash. Green and yellow peppers.

Last week’s basket was pretty fall like also. I never got around to posting about it. Here is what we got then.

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Red bok choy. Spinach. Radishes with greens (I did a swap to get two of them). Eggplant. Green beans. Celery root. Tuscan kale and broccoli.

So many of these items make perfect stir fry ingredients, so I am glad my wok arrived this morning.

Customer Appreciation

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How many of us have our food suppliers throw us a party. With craft beers, burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, and bratwurst. All served using The Breadery’s rolls. And, give us pumpkins to carve while socializing.

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Friends and Farms did that Monday night. With grilling. Corn hole. Pumpkin carving. A chance to meet new people who love regional foods. A chance to see what is behind that warehouse door. And, to break bread with the owners. Phil and Tim.

Phil manned the grill. Tim made sure everything else was running smoothly.

How many of you can say you know the owners of your food sources? You know, those Royal Ahold people who run Giant Food.

We met lots of friendly Howard Countians. Had a good time. Took a salad as the pot luck side dish. Using my arugula. Larriland beets. Firefly farms chevre.

It’s times like these that make me happy I live here. Where there are committed people who provide us with awesome baskets of food every week.

Like last week’s basket.

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That individual basket. Perfect for an active retired couple. Acorn squash. Carrots. Kale. Sweet potatoes. Garlic. Bay leaves. Jalapenos. Asian pears.

Plus,the perishables.

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Yogurt and eggs this week for us. With an extra request. Those amazing ravioli, from La Pasta.

Proteins were pork butt and chicken wings. Want a picture of a perfect dinner?

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Chicken legs. Ravioli. My garlic scape pesto. Fresh. Tasty. Easy.

Change who supplies your food. To one of the best local suppliers.

Soup People

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Some are. Some aren’t. We obviously are. Considering the number of times I have blogged about soup.

Particularly, a good quick soup.

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Like bean soup, without all the preparations I used for the one above.

This one was simple. Because. It is cold and rainy. I didn’t feel like roasting a chicken today as I was out of the house too much.

But, I have my trusty pantry.

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You know. You can pull a couple of cans of beans. Today I used the cannellini beans. Two cans. I had chicken breasts cooked.

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I always have chicken in the freezer, from my two sources. Every week I find a day to bake or poach chicken breasts. To have them ready for lunches or dinners. They get eaten quickly.

Then, a little flavor. Today it came from a box of Pacific condensed cream of mushroom soup. And, a couple of cubes of my latest pesto. Right out of the freezer.

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Dump it all in a crockpot. With a little bit of water. Dinner in a few hours, with no stirring or pot watching. I did tonight’s batch on a high setting. It was perfect after two hours in the pot. Served with some naan. And a salad. And, of course, a glass of Linden chardonnay.

Test Drives

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Fall. Winter. Spring. The seasons where there aren’t as many options to get local, regional, seasonal, fresh foods. The farmer’s markets, one by one, shut down in early November.

There are options out there, though. Here in Howard County, there are year round choices. Like Friends and Farms, who uses Individual Quick Frozen (IQF) foods from a New York farm to supplement those winter root veggies, and who contracts for citrus from the Southeast.

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Foods like these. Or their tomato puree. I started with Friends and Farms in January last year. Bought a four week subscription, a small basket. Now I am buying a 13 week subscription and using an individual basket to supplement my garden and my CSA.

My CSA, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, has a seven week fall extension. The individual share is only $20 a week, for fresh organic vegetables.

Like these from last week.

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Fennel, radishes, leeks, cauliflower (white and green, the green was in the swap box), romaine, green beans, sweet peppers and red beets. Seriously. Nine organic vegetables averaging $2.20 each. You can’t come close to this pricing in any natural food store.

Other options around here. Some we tried and liked. Some we haven’t. Love Dove Farms offers an eight week fall CSA. Breezy Willow, a spring option from March until May. Zahradka Farm, delivers a winter option to your doorstep from January through April.

If you ever considered one of these for the winter, check out the links on my Local Resources page.

Or, keep your local food sources alive by hitting the weekend farm stands, or the weekend markets that are year round. The Howard County farmer’s markets may be closing soon for the season, but you still can find small farms and businesses to supply you with the best vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy.

Tromboncino

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Quite a prolific producer and one that I will be putting in our garden next year.

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These little wonders, which can grow really long, are very hardy, and can produce far into the fall. I have had the pleasure of getting them from a friend’s garden, while they are away, and yes, even when they are here. They are such a high yield plant, they can’t keep up with the production from just a few seedlings.

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And, they love to hide in the center of the vines, where you can’t find them until they get quite large. I missed this one last week while we were food bank harvesting, and another one even bigger, at the top of one of the trellises. Thankfully, they came home and could get the latest monsters out of the vines.

This Italian heirloom is not the same as a zucchini, but is closer to the butternut squash. It is a cucurbita moschata.

What is interesting to me was finding a picture from a trip to Italy years ago.

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I never noticed the tromboncino hanging to the left of the door in the above picture. They obviously can grow to great lengths.

I have been making fritters with them. Freezing the fritters. Also freezing the shredded vegetable in two cup bags. Perfect to pull out to make bread all winter. They are a little more like yellow squash in taste, and definitely not as water logged as zucchini.

Thanks to a fellow gardener, I have a new vegetable to try. I am currently drying out some of the seeds from the last one I harvested. Next spring, I will be planting my own.