Friday, May 21, 2010

CSA Booty - Week 1

I have struggled with whether or not to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group. I have grown a fair number of my own vegetables, and usually supplemented with a local farm stand. But since starting my own business two years, commercial enterprise has supplanted my personal agricultural efforts. So I was thrilled when fate intervened and I WON A CSA MEMBERSHIP! Hell yeah. The Newburyport Choral Society ran a raffle and gave away a [generously donated] membership to the Arrowhead Farm CSA. I never win anything, so I was even more excited to win such a useful prize.

Today I made my first pickup. Arrowhead offers an early spring add-on to their regular (summer) CSA shares. Today's bounty included:
  • 2 bunches of broccoli rabe
  • 2 bunches of arugula
  • 2 heads of bok choy
  • 2 heads of lettuce
  • 2 bunches of rhubarb
  • 1 bunch Swiss chard
  • 1 bunch beets
  • sprigs of basil and Thai basil
  • a ton of chive blossoms
I realized as soon as I got the great news, that I need to do a menu plan each week when I pick up my vegetables. Otherwise, I am confident that a large portion of each pickup will end up in the compost pile. So here's my plan for this week:
  • The rabe and arugula are little bolted and flowering, so I'm probably going to cook them down to use as side dish or to stir in to a soup.
  • The beets and beet greens are going into a quiche with some goat cheese.
  • The Swiss chard leaves will be blanched and then stuffed with a bulgur wheat salad made with tomato, feta, scallions and parsley.
  • Bok choy goes into a noodle stir fry with broccoli, celery and carrots. The stir fry will be topped with a fried egg.
  • The lettuce will become salads.
  • The chive blossoms went into right into rice vinegar and will be chive blossom vinegar in two or three days.
  • and, I think, the rhubarb will put in a tart and turned into juice for rhubarbaritas.

This Summer, I am chronicling my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) experience. My CSA share is from Arrowhead Farm, a farm based in Newburyport, MA. Each week, I am posting about what was in my share and what I'm doing with it. By way of full disclosure, I won my share through a raffle and am not paying for it. However, Arrowhead did not know I was entered int he raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog.

4 comments:

Kitt said...

ice! Lucky you. What do you do with the chive blossom vinegar? I have a surfeit of blossoms. You can only garnish so much.

Sunday Cook said...

Hi Kitt - I like to use my chive blossom vinegar in salad dressings, as a sprinkle over fried fish or a little drizzle on cooked beans and/or greens. It retains its "chiveishness" for quite some time, I load up a big bottle - like a wine bottle - with it. I just keep shoving in blooms and adding vinegar to cover.

Kitt said...

Thanks! Do you keep it refrigerated?

Sunday Cook said...

No, I don't bother, the vinegar kills off any nasties hanging out on the blossoms. I do give the blossoms a rinse before throwing them in the vinegar.

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