First Week

I am a little behind, since this idea just came to me. I want to make a record of our first summer with a CSA so I can remember what it was like, in truth, when next year comes around and I think about doing it again. I don't mince words, so I think I will leave an accurate impression here.

I am going to back-date the first post just so it is chronological.

I picked up my vegetables Sunday at 3:30pm. Stillman's Farm delivers to Brookline Village, on a Sunday, which I thought was perfect. 1) it is close to where I live, 2) there is a parking lot in case the haul is bigger than what I can carry 3) it is a Sunday, so I can go shopping after I know what I am working with and plan for the week 4) I will have time when I get home to wash everything as needed.

They gave me my veggies, a reusable grocery bag, $20 punch card to buy more veggies as needed, newsletter with a recipe, and a friendly greeting. The items in the box fit almost perfectly in the bag, so I left the box with them!  We then made a quick trip to the Bevy (is that a VT or SMC thing? Did I spell that right?) and picked up some cold beer, Sierra Nevada Summer Ale. Pretty good stuff.

The box:
1 bunch beets with greens (5 of them)
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 summer squash
2 zucchini
1 pint strawberries
1 large bag of spinach
1 small bag of shell peas (my dad had to identify them for me. I wasn't sure if they had to be shelled or not, plus if I ask my dad he can feel useful)

The first recipe they provided was for a spinach and roasted beet salad with goat cheese! I didn't have goat cheese, but I had just about everything else so we went to the store and picked up some goat cheese. Well, I thought I had Dijon Mustard for the dressing, but that was expired and I realized that after we returned from the store, so we used Ken's Light Caesar dressing instead, which Bert preferred.

I had never prepared beets before, so appreciated the details in the recipe. Cleaned the beets (keep skins on), trimmed the greens about 1-2 inches from the top of the beet, then boiled (in my brand new, never been used before, Dutch Oven!) in water for like an hour. While the beets boiled, I washed the beet greens. Spinning then all dry with my salad spinner. Best investment EVER. I also washed and dried the Swiss chard since it took up a huge amount of room in the fridge and squeezed the leaves into a gallon size plastic bag with two paper towels. (Then I read this week you aren't supposed to clean the Swiss Chard so far in advance, oh well.). Cleaned the spinach I needed for dinner. Since Bert refuses to have a meal without a "meat" he cut up a chicken breast and stir-fried that. Since I refuse to have a meal without a starch, we microwaved potatoes. I know, we used the microwave. Took like 7minutes. If I had planned better, we could have roasted the potatoes while the beets were boiling. Oh well.

When the beets were tender, I pulled them out of the water and cooled them in a bowl in the fridge. After maybe 10minutes? Or less? I could easily peel the skin off. I sliced one beet for each of us. Crumbled the goat cheese, tossed the chicken and potato on top, and dressed with Caesar. Yummy!
Recipe from here: http://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/spinach-salad-with-goat-cheese-and-beets/

This was the first time Bert remembers having beets. He didn't think they tasted like much. I thought they tasted earthy, which I liked. We ate that salad for three nights (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday)

I realized Sunday that we were not going to get through all of the vegetables unless I started bringing my lunch to work, so we also picked up lunch stuff at the store. If you are going to eat tomatoes out of season, then you have to choose Compar(i). (The out-correct wants to write compare). I bought cottage cheese for my protein, melon for my fruit, and Kashi 7 grain crackers for some extra carb.

Wednesday I boiled/sautéed the Swiss Chard. Looked fine coming out of the bag, so maybe the early prep/wash was okay. I added some lemon juice as it cooked. The leaves turned kind of brown, so not sure if that was because of the lemon juice or what happens when it cooks. And, maybe I put too much water in the pan (used one cup) since they were kind of soggy too. I was trying to cook them like I cook kale, but maybe that doesn't work for them. I had never prepared Swiss chard before. We also had that with chicken and roasted potatoes.

Thursday night we had events after work, so we didn't eat at home. Friday I followed a recipe from my Cooking Light book: Mediterranean Pasta. Zuke with chickpeas, olives and (canned) diced tomato over pasta. I added goat cheese, which made it better, and seasoned with Trader Joes Everyday Seasoning, which works well on everything. The recipe itself, meh. I think the Zuke needed to be stir-fried a little, rather than boiled in the tomato juice. Maybe I should have used fresh tomatoes.  We saved half the recipe for Sunday since we were going to be away and it is nice to have something ready for dinner after a long trip.

The head of lettuce was getting soft and wilted by Friday. I kept the leaves on the head, and washed a few as needed for lunch. Maybe I should have washed it all at once and stored in a plastic bag in the fridge.

I brought beet greens, one summer squash, one Zuke, and the bag of peas to my parents since I wanted to get rid of the veggies before I had to pick up my new box on Sunday!

I ate the berries quickly early in the week for breakfast since they were expiring in the fridge.  The berries tasted like fresh, real, strawberries. They weren't sweet and perfect like the Driscoll variety, but that's what you get when the berries come from a small farm instead of a giant production in California. I ate, and still eat, berries with Greek vanilla yogurt, walnuts and Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, with a little cinnamon on top. Yummy! My favorite breakfast!

Week One: Success!