Our CSA pickup starts this weekend, at long last. I'm looking forward to it because of the fresh organic vegetables, adventures in cooking, opportunities to pick some of our own food, and ready supply of local beef, goat cheese, maple syrup, and pork. I'm also a little nervous. I remember how it sometimes felt like the CSA ate up all our free time in the summer, between the pickups, the meal planning, and learning to cook new things. I remember how there were vegetables and dirt everywhere, and the tide of lettuce was unstoppable. This year, Karl shared a share with us again, but he'll be out for the count until August, recovering from back surgery and spending time with family so we'll not only bear the sole burden of food pickup but also have ALL the produce for the next month and a half. This year, I'm determined to try even more things (I conveniently neglected the dandelion greens and collards until they went bad last summer), to try preserve a bit more, and to do a better job of planning our grocery shopping around our farm haul.
With that in mind, I spent a good hour or two this week planning next week's menu. This week's harvest: radishes, komatsuna (a very leafy variety of bok choy), spinach, lettuce, arugula, dandelion greens. I combed my CSA cookbooks as well as a few online resources and planned menus that will (hopefully) use all the vegetables without me having to buy too many at the grocery store to complement them.
Based on that research, here's what I'm doing with what we're getting as well as the week's menus.
radishes - Sauteed Radishes with Radish Greens or Arugula - Farmer John’s Cookbook - p. 131
komatsuna (a very leafy variety of bok choy) - stir fried chicken with bok choy (Culinate How to Cook Everything)
spinach - Cheesy Spinach (From Asparagus to Zucchini, p. 186) (easy but needs precooked brown rice/spinach steamed)
lettuce - salad
arugula - sauteed radishes and/or arugula pesto (Farmer John's cookbook)
dandelion greens - dandelion greens with double garlic (Culinate How to Cook Everythings)
Sunday - out
Monday - pork chops, sauteed radishes, cous cous
Tuesday - cheesy spinach, sausage, bread
Wednesday - pasta with arugula pesto, salad
Thursday - stir fried chicken with bok choy, rice, dandelion greens
Friday - pizza
And there you have it. My plans for the first week's harvest are complete. I spared you the accompanying grocery list, but I'll try to remember to take pictures so I can show you how it comes out!
And there you have it. My plans for the first week's harvest are complete. I spared you the accompanying grocery list, but I'll try to remember to take pictures so I can show you how it comes out!
2 comments:
This sounds great. Matt and I sauteed our radishes last week, and I did not like it. They tasted like turnip and had no spunk like a radish should. This week, Matt made a spinach and radish salad with avocado and lemon vinaigrette - that was good. We haven't gotten any arugula yet, but we made a mixed herb pesto that came out pretty good: rosemary, cilantro, basil, dill, spinach, walnuts, and garlic.
Good luck!! I'm so grateful for the smaller loads this early in the season so we can ease into it...
Hmm. Maybe I should change the radishes while I still can. I guess I'll try them sauteed once and see what happens.
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