CSA Booty - Week 13

Be sure to check out Use Your Booty: Show Your CSA Box Who's Boss for ideas about how to manage your CSA vegetables.

In this week's share I picked up:

• 6 ears of corn
• 2 pattypan squash, 2 yellow squash
• 1 head of cabbage
• Cherry and plum tomatoes
• 4 Anaheim chile peppers
• 1 bunch of broccoli
• A whole pile of kale - picked my own!
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard
• A bunch of basil
• A whole mess of purslane (more to come on this!)

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• I think I'm going to make a pudding with the corn.
• The cabbage is going most likely become another slaw, maybe with the broccoli.
• The plum tomatoes will get roasted and eaten either on pasta or perhaps on bruschetta.
• I have two avocados ripening on the counter, so I'll like make chile rellenos with the peppers and spiced greens with some of the kale.
• The cherry tomatoes have already gone into tomato pie.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• Half the corn was steamed and eaten hot with butter. Yum. The other half went into a salad with a few other vegetables.
• I stuffed the Anaheims with Monterey jack and some thinly sliced onions. They went into a skillet and got all silky soft.
• The cabbage made a slaw with a few other vegetables.
• I fried some of the zucchini and the rest went into the corn salad.
• I made this gorgeous tomato rarebit to test for Food52 with great tomatoes I had.
• The plum tomatoes went into a pasta sauce with Swiss chard, onions and bacon.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 12

Be sure to check out Use Your Booty: Show Your CSA Box Who's Boss for ideas about how to manage your CSA vegetables.

In this week's share I picked up:

• 9 ears of corn
• 3 zucchini
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 cucumber
• A lotta tomatoes
• A whole mess of Anaheim chile peppers (I used three of my choices to make sure I got enough for us for dinner)
• 5 jalapenos
• I had more options in "pick your own" but didn't have time, so I had to pass on some flowers and greens. Boo.

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• We've already eaten half the corn - steamed with butter. Yum.
• I stuffed the Anaheims with Monterey jack and some thinly sliced onions. We ate them last night with the corn.
• The cabbage could become sauerkraut but is more likely to become a slaw.
• I think I'll make fritters with the zucchini and pickle some of the rest.
• I'm have to make this tomato rarebit to test for Food52 and plan on using the great heirlooms I picked up.
• I'll turn the plum tomatoes I got into a simple pasta sauce.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• I made a green lasagna with the amaranth, kale and onions
• We made a super delicious stack of BLTs - my bacon comes from North Country Smokehouse, it's amazingly smoky and really makes the dish.
• We enjoyed a lovely plate of green pasta with tomato sauce and burrata.
• I am confident that I have a stash of leftover vegetables waiting in the fridge that I'll need to address later today.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

Use Your Booty: Lasagna Verde

I admit it, I had blog envy. I saw this gorgeous post on radicchio lasagna over at AuthorJane's Cooking from the Farms series and got lasagna on the brain. She had gotten her radicchio through one of her CSA memberships. I didn't have radicchio, but have a lot of greens so I decided to use my bunch of amaranth and half of my kale.

I'm going to give this recipe to you in several steps (pasta, filling, bechamel, assembly) because each component can be made ahead and/or used as its own dish. Make sure each component is well-seasoned and delicious on its own before layering it into the lasagna.

This looks like a lot of steps and components, but from start to finish I pulled this dish together in 45 fast-paced minutes (not counting baking time). It would have been even easier had I had a stash of cooked greens in the fridge like I usually do.

Pasta Verde

I made a green pasta for my lasagna. If you don't want to make your own pasta, skip this step and use Barilla No-Boil lasagna noodles.

Makes about 1 pound of pasta

• 4 cups tender greens (amaranth, spinach, chard leaves, etc.)
• 2 eggs
• pinch salt
• approximately 2 1/4 cups (about 10 ounces) flour

In a saucepan of boiling water, cook the greens until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the greens and run cool water over them to cool them off. Squeeze as much water out of the greens as you can.

Put the greens into the bowl of a food processor with the eggs and salt. Process until the greens are very finely chopped. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour into the processor bowl and process, pulsing, to pull the eggs, greens and flour into a dough. The dough will come up onto the blade of the processor and roll around. Feel the dough and it will likely be sticky, add about 1/4 cup into the bowl and process a little more.

Pull the dough out of the bowl and knead the dough, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the countertop. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple. Wrap the dough in plastic and set aside until you're ready to roll it out.

After the dough has rested for 20 minutes, it's ready to roll.

Sautéed Greens

Makes about 3-4 cups of greens

• olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 10-12 cups of greens leaves, coarsely chopped (kale, amaranth, chard, spinach, collards, etc.)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• salt

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat sauté the onion in olive oil until softened. Add the greens and a pinch of salt to the skillet and continue to cook, stirring and tossing the greens to wilt them down - this will take about 10 minutes. If the skillet seems too dry, add a 1/2 cup of water and keep cooking. After the greens are wilted, add the garlic and vinegar to the pan and sauté for another 5 minutes.

Set aside to let the greens cool.

Bechamel Sauce

Makes 4 cups

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups milk
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt & pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and then add the flour. Using a heatproof rubber spatula, stir in the flour making sure it's well blended. When the flour has started to turn golden, add a splash of milk. Stir the milk in well with the spatula. Whisk in the rest of the milk in 1 cup increments.

Bring the bechamel to a gentle boil, whisking frequently. Season well with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Set aside. If making aside, cover the surface of the bechamel with a piece of waxed paper.

Lasagna Verde

Note that I don't pre-boil my fresh pasta noodles in this dish, the pasta stays much softer this way. For more firm pasta layers, parboil the noodles for 1-2 minutes before layering them into the dish.

• 1 recipe green pasta or 1 pound Barilla no-boil noodles
• 3-4 cups cooked greens
• 8 oz mozzarella, shredded (I used the little mozzarella balls called perlini)
• 3 ounces parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375.

Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish and cover the bottom of the pan with a few spoonfuls of bechamel.

Roll the pasta in a pasta roller (I like to roll as I assemble because it's so much easier to just put the sheets straight into the pan), rolling each new layer of pasta as you need it.

Stack ingredients up in the pan to make three layers in the lasagna. Each layer contains: 1 layer pasta, 1 layer greens, mozzarella, grated parmesan and about 1/2 cup of bechamel. The final and top layer is pasta, bechamel and parmesan. Make sure the entire surface is covered with bechamel.

Cover the dish loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Take off the foil and broil the top to brown the cheese.

Let the lasagna sit for 5 minutes before serving.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share. A full set of all the photos I've taken of this share is here.

CSA Booty - Week 11

If you're just stopping by - be sure to check out Use Your Booty: Show Your CSA Box Who's Boss for ideas about how to manage your CSA vegetables.

This week's share was made up of:

• 1 bunch Swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch amaranth
• 1 bunch of broccoli
• 2 boxes of onions (one yellow, one red)
• Lots of tomatoes: big red beefsteak types, plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes
• I cut a big bunch of parsley
• I cut 6 beautiful zinnias

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• The Swiss chard will be sautéed down and dressed with olive oil, lemon and chili flakes and served on bruschetta and/or wrapped in prosciutto (thank you, Alice Waters for the prosciutto idea)
• I am in a pasta-making mood, and this gorgeous lasagna on my friend Jane's blog has spurred me to act: lasagna verde, made with amaranth (in the pasta and filling) and kale (filling)
• BLTs are in my future, methinks
• I think I'll make a batch of oven-roasted tomato sauce with some more of the tomatoes
• The parsley is the main ingredient in salsa verde and I think I'll make a batch to sauce something grilled
• The broccoli is probably going into a pasta salad with some tomatoes and herbs

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• I've put the zucchini and squash in a sauté with some fresh corn
• The kale's was sautéed with a lot of garlic
• The broccoli was paired with more kale and some Israeli couscous and topped with a fried egg and some tomatoes
• We ate the tomatoes in a panzanella with last week's bok choy and lettuce and some of the onions and green beans
• Some of the chard became a ricotta-sauced dish of pasta and sausage

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

Use Your Booty: Show Your CSA Box Who's Boss

What a well-fed and inspiring summer I've been having! I've been getting produce from my CSA for nearly three months now. I have made some gorgeous meals, like this dish of seared gnocchi and pea tendrils. I have also made some rather pedestrian dishes: sautéed kale anyone?

In the last few weeks I've also been dealing with a lot of stress about how to use all these vegetables. I'm really busy these days. I have a number of great clients who keep me busy during the week and then on weekends, I'm a baked goods vendor at my local farmers' market.

No matter how tired I am though, the idea of wasting any of this gorgeous produce is really distasteful to me. So here are a number of tips I've developed to help me get through the remainder of my CSA's growing season with a relatively clear conscience (at least with respect to wasting food!).

Make your CSA part of your weekly routine: Make a date with yourself to do your pickup and put things away when you get home. When my pickup's been a rushed affair I enjoy it less and am more likely to put things away in a slapdash manner.

Pack your booty up properly: To me, there's litte that's more depressing than pulling out a bag of produce only to find it's wilted, soggy, slimy, etc. I have made the process packaging my produce part of my CSA pickup experience. This really saves time when I'm searching for dinner ingredients. When I get home from the farm, everything gets wrapped up in a way that makes things easier for me later:

• Bunches of greens are loosened up (if there's a rubber band holding a bunch together I cut it off) and wrapped in a dish towel and then bagged in an open plastic bag (like in that picture there, see?). This also makes the greens take up less space.
• Any non-edible parts of the vegetable are cut off - for instance carrots tops are tossed directly into the compost bin.
• I put similar items together: scallions and herbs go into one bag, carrots join beets and turnips in one bag, lettuces are all bagged up together.

Put together a recipe box: It's handy to have a collection of meal ideas to use as inspiration for your cooking. You don't need to be working directly from recipes; I use a list of go-to meals (frittata, tart, pasta with vegetables) in combination with recipes I pick up on the internet and in magazines. I use my computer to keep track of my meal ideas, but a binder or notepad might be just fine.

Make a meal plan: Make meal planning part of your CSA pickup process. Use your collection of recipes to put together a list of what you're making in the next few days. It doesn't have to be super detailed, but I find it very comforting to know that I'm planning on a frittata, a tart, a pasta dish, sides for a grilled chicken, etc. I also use this meal planning time to note any holes in my pantry so that I can pick up additional vegetables and ingredients at the farmers' market or supermarket.

Cook down your greens ASAP: We've gotten pie after pile of greens this summer, so I've made pan after pan of sautéed greens.

Greens with garlic, greens with ginger, greens with chilies, greens with spices, etc. Cooked greens can go into pasta, a frittata, on a sandwich, on bruschetta. Cooking greens down is easy and it can be done ahead of time. Plus cooked greens take way less space in the fridge than raw greens.

Soup is your best friend: I agree that when it's 90 degrees outside, the last thing you want is a hot, steaming bowl of soup.

There are some nice chilled soups you can try (like lettuce soup, gazpacho or vichyssoise). I also make soups and put them into the freezer for use on colder summer nights or in the fall. Soups are great sponges for a 1/4 cup of this and a handful of that.

The freezer is your other best friend: Don't get me wrong, pickling and canning are great, but on a hot day, and when you're in a hurry, there is nothing simpler than throwing something into a Ziploc and then into the freezer. Most vegetables do need to be cooked prior to freezing, so I'll usually blanch or sauté my vegetables and then put them into LABELED and DATED Ziploc bags and squeeze all the air out. Tomatoes don't need to be pre-cooked: I core them and throw them right into bags. When they thaw later, the skins will slip right off. Most important: keep a list of what you've put into the freezer so you don't forget what's in there.

Don't take it if you don't want it: CSAs are a great way to try new things, but if you know you aren't going to use those tomatoes or that Swiss chard don't bring it home. Most CSAs give their uncollected produce to shelters or soup kitchens, so the produce won't go to waste. That said, if a vegetable is new to you, try it at least once before you give up on it.

What are your tips for managing your CSA share? I'd love to hear from you.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share. A full set of all the photos I've taken of this share is here.

CSA Booty - Week 10

This week's share was made up of:

• Beefsteak tomatoes
• 1 bunch of bright lights chard
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 quart of green beans of amaranth
• Summer squash and zucchini
• Sun gold and red cherry tomatoes
• Broccoli
• Onions

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• I've already used the zucchini and squash in a sauté with some fresh corn
• The kale's been sautéed with a lot of garlic
• The broccoli's going into a simple salad like this one again
• We ate the tomatoes in a panzanella with last week's bok choy and lettuce and some of the onions and green beans
• I'll use the chard in a pasta dish with last week's amaranth and some more onions

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• I made a Genoese green bean and potato salad with pesto (beans, pesto made with Week 8's basil)
• We enjoyed a version of fattoush made "BLT style"
• We made a gorgeous tart with tomatoes and chard
• I have absolutely no idea what I did with the rest, but I do think a fair amount of it is still in the fridge and being cooked this week!

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 9

This week's share was made up of:

• Tomatoes
• 1 bunch of bright lights chard
• 1 bunch of kale
• lots of green and yellow beans
• 1 bunch of amaranth
• 1 small box of onions
• 2 small boxes of sun gold cherry tomatoes
• 2 heads of bok choy

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• I think I'm going to make this kale pasta again - it was really good and super easy to put together. I'm out of pancetta, so I'll make it with bacon. (Wanted to do this last week but didn't.)
• I'm going to try a Mexican recipe of chicken in amaranth sauce (it uses both the green and the grain which is sorta neat) with the amaranth greens. (Wanted to do this last week but didn't.)
• Some of the tomatoes already went into a fattoush salad (post to come).
• The onions are going to be added into many dishes: they are super thinly sliced and raw in various dishes.
• I'm going to pickle some of the beans.
• Some of the beans are going to be a Thai-style green bean salad.
• The chard. Hmm again. Maybe a greens pie again - that 'twas delicious.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• And another busy week. We ate the callaloo I made and froze last week.
• I made pesto from the basil.
• The kale went into kale pesto.
• I started getting desperate toward the end of the week and sauteed up the kale and amaranth to use in dishes.
• I made a broccoli stirfry with carrots to have alongside a Vietnamese-caramel marinated grilled chicken.
• I know I made more than this, but I have no idea what!

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 8

This week's share was made up of:

• Plum tomatoes
• 2 bunches of bright lights chard
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 bunch of amaranth
• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 bunch of basil
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 2 bunches of broccoli
• Parsley, chives and rosemary
• a lovely lily stem - so fragrant

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• I think I'm going to make this kale pasta again - it was really good and super easy to put together. I'm out of pancetta, so I'll make it with bacon.
• I'm going to try a Mexican recipe of chicken in amaranth sauce (it uses both the green and the grain which is sorta neat) with the amaranth greens
• The lettuce is either going to be a salad (maybe), but I didn't make lettuce wraps last week and I think I might want to this week.
• The basil is going into pesto to sauce some trofie pasta I bought last week. Hello Genoa!
• The onions are going to be added into many dishes: they are super thinly sliced and raw in various dishes.
• I think I'll make a quiche with the broccoli and some of the chard.
• The rest of the chard ... hmm ... maybe Swiss chard tacos? I might take some of the larger leaves and use them as a wrapper for fresh fish on the grill.
• I'll just slip those tomatoes in here and there for color and flavor.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate from the CSA last week:

• This past week was super busy, so I decided to stock the freezer with a few soups to tide us over for future weeks: the lettuces all went into lettuce soup and the amaranth into callaloo. Each batch yielded 3-4 servings of soup.

• The kale went into pasta with kale and pancetta - make this pasta (pictured left), it's a great use for kale and because you slice the leaves thin, the kale isn't as assertive as it can be sometimes.
• The tomatoes went alongside a burger (with some grilled lettuce and chard pickles), into breakfast hash and a tomato salad we served with grilled mackerel.
• The broccoli was turned into a salad along the lines of this one from the NY Times.
• The spring onions were sliced thin and shredded over and it various dishes, like the pasta dish, the burger and the tomato salad.
• The chard went into a frittata with some leftover pasta, peas and goat cheese.
• I have to confess that I didn't get to the bok choy in time and it went into the compost bin. Made me sad to waste it, but it's the first vegetable from the CSA I haven't used, so I think that's pretty good.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 7

This week's share (week SEVEN? Wow Summer is starting to fly isn't it?) included:

• 1 bunch Swiss chard
• 1 bunch amaranth
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 small box of tomatoes - yay!
• 2 lettuces
• 2 bunches of broccoli
• 2 bunches of spring onions
• 1 bunch of bok choy

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• The lettuces are going to be used as wraps for pork larb (a salad of ground pork and herbs).
• The tomatoes are going into either a salad or a quick tomato sauce for fresh pasta.
• I have a bushel of lettuce that I'll turn into lettuce soup.
• I'm pickling the spring onions and using the long scallion-like leaves as scallions.
• The kale will be turned into a white bean and kale pesto spread.
• I'm going to use the amaranth to make callaloo again.
• The broccoli will be steamed and sauced with lots of garlic, anchovy and parsley.
• Bok choy becomes a stir fry (with last week's still unused bok choy).
• I'll probably make some sort of tabouli-ish salad with the chard.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• Kale-wrapped lamb patties (ugly, but delicious) (kale, lamb)
• Beet carpaccio (beets, onions from CSA share and beets from Farmer Bob)
• Sri Lankan amaranth (finally!) (amaranth), curried cauliflower (cauliflower from Farmer Bob) and radish pickle (radishes from Farmer Bob, onion from CSA share)
• Pea risotto (peas, pea greens) with bacon & egg
• Pickled Swiss chard stems (Swiss chard) - that's them over there
• Beet green, tomato and bacon sauté with seared gnocchi
• Salads

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 6

Sorry for the delay in posting, this weekend has been nutso.

Week six's CSA share was:

• 1 bunch amaranth
• 1 head of lettuce
• a pint of peas (we were supposed to PYO, but there wasn't a whole lot out there to P)
• a bunch each of green (curly) and red kale
• 1 bunch of Swiss chard
• a bundle of bok choy (2 heads)
• 2 bunches of beets
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• I clipped some basil and parsley
• a dozen eggs (this was an add-on not included in the share)
  
• I also got more beets (Chioggia - also known as candy cane beets because they have concentric red and white circles in them when you cut 'em through), a cauliflower, a cabbage and some radishes from my neighbor at the farmers' market.

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• An Indian-type dinner with Ceylonese-style amaranth (steamed with onion, coconut and turmeric), curried cauliflower and a quick radish pickle, all served over steamed rice.
• Bok choy stir fry with glass noodles
• Pea and pea greens (still have some from a few weeks back) risotto
• Beet "carpaccio" with the Chioggia and red beets
• Pickled chard stems (really looking forward to this one)
• I'm going to stuff the chard leaves with something and bake or steam them (not sure yet)
• Borscht (again, it's been on my list to make and keeps getting pushed out) with beet greens
• I think the kales will become a savory pie of some type - with herbs and garlic and cheese

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• Chickpea, butternut squash and kale salad (kale)
• Steamed amaranth greens served over steamed amaranth grains (amaranth)
• Grilled romaine salad (romaine)
• Lettuce soup with peas (lettuce, peas)
• Sautéed mizuna served with a pork chop from my livestock share, brown rice, mozzarella and garlic scape pesto (mizuna)

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 5

Week five's CSA share was:

• 1 bunch amaranth
• 2 quarts of peas (pick your own) - I only got 1 quart because no time to pick and they took pity on me and handed me a pre-picked quart - I have to remember to make time for Pick Your Own when I go for my pickup so I can take advantage of this benefit.
• 1 head red lettuce
• 1 head green lettuce
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch mizuna
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 bunch onion scapes
• 1 bunch red mustard
• I clipped some basil, Thai basil and parsley
• and my share also included that gorgeous pot of flowers ( I will not be eating that)
  

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• Lettuce soup topped with fresh spring peas and pea tendrils (the tendrils are from last week's box). Yup soup made with lettuce. I have SO MUCH lettuce in the fridge that I have to find a method of mass utilization for the bushel of lettuce I have on hand (I also have lettuce from a few other farms too - LOTS of lettuce)
• Mustard greens tabouli
• Ceylonese-style amaranth (steamed with onion, coconut and turmeric) served over steamed amaranth grains (clever huh?) with a fresh onion chutney
• Butternut squash and chickpea salad with kale
• The mizuna will go into a quiche with some goat cheese and many herbs.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• I made this amazing dish with gnocchi and vegetables (pea tendrils)
• We had a wilted mustard green salad alongside some great grilled steak from my livestock share and topped my shoestring fries with parsley and thyme (mustard greens, beef, herbs)
• I used greens and onion scapes and mustard greens in a lunchtime rice noodle stir fry (greens, onion scapes, mustard greens, herbs)
• Bruschetta! With kale and white beans. (kale)
• I made my first callaloo soup. Yum. (amaranth)
• Prepared a really pink pasta dish with my beets. (beets and beet greens)

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 4

Week four's CSA share was:

• 1 bunch of amaranth
• 1 pot of pea shoots
• 1 bunch of onion scapes
• 1 bunch of mustard greens
• 2 bunches of beets
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 bundle of rhubarb

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• The amaranth is going into callaloo, a Trinidadian soup traditionally made with amaranth (callaloo) leaves, chilies and coconut milk
• The beets are for borscht, hot or cold, depending on the weather
• The rhubarb will become a chutney to be served with some pork chops (see below)
• The kale will go alongside those chops
• The mustard greens are getting sliced thin and are to be served as a salad
• Not sure yet on those pea shoots - maybe in a stirfry, maybe over some poached eggs ... hmmm. They're in a pot, so I can cut what I want and let the rest keep growing.

Also this week I picked up my livestock share. This is a one time pickup and as it is a "mixed" share, I got beef, lamb and pork cuts. For those who are curious, my share totaled 13.5 pounds and contained:

• a huge rib steak (ribeye-ish)
• a beef short rib section (1 3/4 lbs.)
• pork chops
• pork kebabs
• bacon
• ground beef
• ground lamb
• bulk pork sausage
• breakfast sausage
• lamb sausage

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• I made kale pesto (kale)
• I stuffed squid tubes with mustard greens and chickpeas (mustard, onions)
• We dined on a luxurious Swiss chard gratin (chard, beet greens)
• I quick pickled the beets and sautéed the amaranth and used them on a Niçoise-style salad (beets, amaranth, chive blossoms, lettuce)
• The herbs and chive blossoms were sprinkled over salads and dishes as garnishes.
• The lettuces went into a lot of green salads.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share.

CSA Booty - Week 3

Week three's CSA share was:

• 1 bunch of beets
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 wee bunch o' onions
• 2 heads of heads of lettuce: romaine and green leaf
• 1 bunch of amaranth (woo hoo!)
• 2 bunches of chard
• 1 bunch of mustard greens

I am super-excited to see the amaranth. That's it over there <--- . If you're familiar with amaranth at all, it's probably the grain. The flowers of amaranth produce little, little, little seeds that can be cooked like quinoa: steamed is traditional. The greens can be eaten be raw but are best treated as a cooked green - think spinach. It's not a vegetable we ever see in supermarkets and rarely at farmers' market [in this neck of the woods anyway].

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items:

• I'm going to use the amaranth on its own, in a simple sauté, to make sure we can appreciate the flavor of it.
• I'm going to cook the chard leaves and beet greens with chickpeas and Indian spices. We'll eat it with rice and a fresh onion (from the wee bunch o') chutney.
• The beets will be steamed and served with hard boiled eggs, olives, chunks of Mrs. Wheelbarrow's home-preserved tuna and lettuce in a Niçoise-esque salad
• The mustard will be stir-fried with some smoky bacon, garlic and ginger and served with brown rice.
• I'm going to make white bean and chard stem soup that will be topped with a kale & parsley pesto.
• The lettuce wil be salads, yet again - still not tired of fresh salad.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's what we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• Orzo pasta with arugula and chive blossoms (arugula, chive blossoms)
• Panzanella verde (bok choy, lettuce, baby shallots)
• Kimchi (Chinese cabbage)
• Iron skillet pizza (from this great recipe at Food52) topped with arugula and sausage (arugula)
• Pork sandwich with broccoli rabe (broccoli rabe)
• The herbs and chive blossoms were sprinkled over salads and dishes as garnishes.
• The lettuces went into a lot of green salads.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog.

CSA Booty - Week 2

Week two's CSA pickup included some repeats from last week (not surprising) and a few new items.

This week's share was:

• 2 heads arugula
• 2 heads broccoli rabe
• 2 heads bok choy
• 1 head Chinese cabbage
• 2 heads lettuce
• bunched baby shallots
• cutting herbs: basil, Thai basil, parsley, thyme, chives (I took mostly the blossoms)
• Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I'm missing an item in my list. I got distracted taking pictures and didn't realize I'd shorted myself until I got home. Ah well.

So here's what I think I'm doing with these items this week:

• Arugula is going to get sautéed with some of the shallots and served on a pizza tonight along with some homemade sausage.
• The broccoli rabe will be sautéed down with a ton of garlic and served on a roast pork sandwich.
• The bok choy will be a side dish for some kind of brown rice-bedded stir fry, most likely with carrots, celery and more of those shallots.
• I'm going to make kimchi out of the cabbage - I love kimchi and it's super easy to make.
• ... and the lettuce goes into salads.

So how'd I do with last week's haul? Here's we ate (and what CSA items were used) last week:

• Greens soup (broccoli rabe, arugula)
• Bok choy stir fry (bok choy)
• Swiss chard tabouli (Swiss chard) - this was going to be chard leaves stuffed with tabouli, but the dinnertime showed up much sooner than expected.
• Beet quiche (beets, Swiss chard)
• Rhubarb caramels, rhubarb syrup
• The herbs and chive blossoms were sprinkled over salads and dishes as garnishes.
• The lettuces went into green salads.

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 in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog.