The Turnip

Friday will be our third trip to Chubby Bunny Farm to pick up our CSA share.  We have had mixed results; there is clearly a learning curve, but I'm prepared to stick with it until I figure it all out because the CSA is good for us (organic, locally grown produce), good for the farmers (they're such nice people, with two young kids, one about 6 months old), and good for the environment, which needs our help.  And, to be perfectly candid, Chubby Bunny Farm already has my money and so I must take receipt of their vegetables.

Karl and I went together for our first pick-up.  We took a few wrong turns here and there, even with a GPS.  Karl is wont to get lost; I'm wont to distract him by babbling endlessly; together, we are wont to ignore the GPS.  So we took a few wrong turns here and there in the middle of Who-Knows-Where, CT on our way to Falls Village.  We wondered aloud how it was possible there was so much land neither of us had seen in our collective 39 years of living in Dutchess County.  It took us an hour to get there, and we had no idea where we were.  For our second trip, Karl, Jamie, and I caravaned in two cars.  Karl used the GPS; Jamie used a good, old-fashioned map.  We stayed right on course until we reached the Route 7 Detour, and Route 7 was THE ONLY way we knew to get to the farm.  We experimented by going to Cornwall Bridge and seeing how the GPS would send us from there.  We did eventually get there, after driving on a road that I'm not really sure was a road.  It was more of a hiking trail, really, that connected two other roads.  We have since figured out that as long as there is construction on the bridge, we'll have to go all the way to Canaan and then double back to the farm.  I realize that none of this means anything to any of you except locals except to demonstrate that it is taking us a LONG TIME to get to the farm, which appears to be 30 minutes away as the crow flies.  It is only 5 minutes from Stop and Shop so when we work out the kinks, one is on the way to the other, which makes the trip more efficient.  We are certain that this Friday will be the day we get it right.

It has also been difficult for me to get the hang of actually USING the produce.  Now, mind you, we are splitting a share with Karl so when I talk about not knowing what to do with all this stuff, we only have HALF of it.  The first week came as a surprise, and we had already planned our meals for that week.  We ate a lot of salads but wasted some things, like broccoli rabe.  This week, I actually sat down with the list of what was in our share and planned our meals around that.  It was a challenge; a meat-eater of 44 years, I've grown accustomed to planning my meals around the meat (or pasta, or other protein) product and then planning side dishes.  Now, my meals are revolving around the vegetables.  It's a very different way of thinking; I'm sure it's ultimately healthier for us, but it's taking a bit of research.  Thank you Internet.  Thank you Cooking Light.  Thank you Epicurious.  One community-building side effect of this project is that Karl and I are sharing recipes and talking about what we're cooking; it's nice to have that collective focus on our food.

The food has also been hit or miss for Jamie and me.  Everyone who knows us thinks we eat everything.  We do actually eat a wide variety of vegetables that many other people don't eat - asparagus, brussels sprouts, broccoli.  There are things coming in these shares, however, that are totally foreign to me.  I had only eaten broccoli rabe once, and hadn't liked it.  I had no idea how to prepare it.  Last week, I (gasp) threw it away.  In fact, I don't even think I composted it. This week, I braved it and really enjoyed it with garlic, olive oil, crushed red pepper, and parmesan over some gnocchi.  Tonight we ate our first swiss chard, which was not as popular. It was even less popular with Jamie, who spent the two hours in the kitchen preparing swiss chard with polenta, and then hated it.  I thought it was okay; it was not my favorite, but I could eat it again.  We've always liked arugula, but other than throwing it into a salad or on top of pizza, what do you do with it?  We made arugula pesto that was pretty tasty (though it ended up being 11 Weight Watchers points per serving, and that was without the pasta).  Garlic scapes...who knew?  These are the flowers of garlic that are removed to help the bulbs grow bigger.  You dice them and use them like garlic; they have all the flavor of garlic but no aftertaste.  They were lovely in the broccoli rabe.  My favorite new vegetable, however, was the turnip.  These were not just any turnips; there were some kind of fancy schmancy turnips.  We got about 5 in our share, so I kept 2 (in case I didn't like them) and let Karl have the "lion's share."  What can you do with 2 turnips?  So I diced them and threw them into the salad, and they were like heaven; creamy, sweet, peppery, crunchy.  I was so thrilled that day to have discovered a new vegetable.  

I know that we'll eventually figure out how to get to the corner of Undermountain Rd. and Cobble Hill Rd. in Falls Village, CT.  I know we won't like everything we try, and I'll even give the swiss chard another chance.  I do feel good about having a reason to try new things, and I feel great about eating locally grown, organic food.  I'm enjoying sharing recipes with Karl.  This Friday, we'll take Duncan, and I am excited to show him that food comes from a farm, rather than a sterile, sprinkled cooler in the grocery story.  That's really what it's about, isn't it? Teaching the next generation how to live with the earth we've been given?  And if I uncover the name of those turnips, I'll let you know.  Trust me:  you've gotta get you some of those.

P.S.  My friend Courtney is fond of photographing her restaurant meals and posting them on Facebook.  I was so thrilled with how this salad looked that I decided the entire meal warranted being photographed.  So Courtney, this one's for you.  The dinosaur has nothing to do with anything except that Toll House cookies were Monday's baking project with Duncan, and he asked if I could make a dinosaur cookie.  They made a nice dessert after all the greens.