Spring CSA Week 11

 

What a week! I was really surprised to find tomatoes and chives with flowers in my share. My son had to carry one bag of spinach because I should have brought two bags this week. We ended up with three bags of spinach, kale, tatsoi, nasturtiums, lettuce mix, carrots and a lovely bunch of oregano. No swaps this week for me, but I really had a hard time deciding between cherry tomatoes and a big, ripe whole tomato.

I've mostly been making things that I've made before as I tend to do when I am busy. I made a whopping bowl of spinach dip last week and will probably make another this week. I like spinach almost every way so it isn't hard to use up three bags. It looks like salad with the lettuce this week and I might have all the ingredients for a nice dressing. The tatsoi will be for an Asian dish one night and I am thinking about making a kale and feta pie. I feel like the carrots don't get attention but I can't make enough of them when we have a roast, so they are always great to have on hand. The oregano is enough for some herb butter, and then some, probably two batches for the freezer. The tomatoes and the chives might be components of a salad dressing or just part of a salad with edible flowers. If we're grilling, I might even throw the tomatoes on the grill.

Spring CSA Week 8

Lettuce, nasturtiums, oregano, chives, carrots, cucumbers, braising mix, and spinach! We're leaving for a trip and I've already planned to take part of my share on the go. I'm going to make a spinach dip to spread on sliced cucumber, pepper strips, and crackers for the road. We'll be taking a salad, as well as eating one for our last meal here at home. The carrots will keep until we get back. I've chopped the oregano and frozen it in a cube of ice for a future sauce. The chives are chopped and stored in the freezer for another day as well. I traded my joi choi for an extra bunch of chives in the swap box because they freeze so well and I didn't want anything to go to waste. There were a lot of chives in the swap box, I can't even imagine not wanting them! I'm sure that other people feel the same way about the beets, kohlrabi, and extra cukes that I exchange in the regular season.

Spring CSA Week 7

 Herbs are never a bad thing. I was so happy when I opened my box this week to find cilantro, chives, and basil. I even traded my joi choi for more cilantro. We go through cilantro pretty fast these days. Tonight, we're having taco salad again and I was thinking about making more chimichurri sauce for a mixed grill dinner that we're having on Wednesday. It makes a great marinade, too. I'm hoping to use the basil in a sauce, possibly for eggplant on Thursday. It looks like I have plenty of carrots and greens for salads and braising. The cucumber always goes great in salad but it isn't bad for dressings and appetizers, either. I'll probably end up freezing the chives for another day and I'm not sure if the what the greens are in the share, they look like arugula, but they might be from a root vegetable or a mustard green.

Spring CSA Week 6

Week 6 brought three bags of storage potatoes, actually two, but I traded my joi choi in the swap box. We also received a bunch of radishes, a cucumber, storage carrots, tatsoi, mixed lettuce, and cilantro. There is always a surprise each week, this week it was a nasturtium in the salad mix and a small bunch of mint.  I wish there would have been more nasturtiums so I could try a few of the recipes I have been saving, but the mint really threw me a curve. I don't cook with mint much but I do know of a wonderful salad dressing that is made with mint and I can always make Greek food with mint and a cucumber. Perhaps I might even end up infusing it into a tea? All in all, I'm very pleased with the Spring share, it is better than I thought it would be.