Thursday, August 16, 2007

CSA

Every Saturday morning we pick up fresh organic produce from a local farm. We are a part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we've bought a share. This is our way of supporting a small local family farm while enjoying very fresh (picked that week!) organic fruits and vegetables.

One thing that intrigued me about sharing in a farm was the idea of cooking seasonally. Since I'm not personally picking out the produce, I am at their mercy every week. I have to come up with recipes to fit the vegetables instead of the other way around. I've been able to try things I normally steered clear of in the grocery store . I've found I really enjoy swiss chard but don't really care for collard greens. I found you can cook and eat the greens of radishes and beets, and that for a very short period each summer, garlic scapes are available and let me tell you, they make a delicious pesto.

Our farm seems to specialize in unique vegetables. Purple potatoes, purple beans, and lemon cucumbers which taste exactly like normal potatoes, beans, and cucumbers only now adding a little flair. Purple mashed potatoes anyone? I plan on making purple potato salad this weekend so I'll take a picture to share.

This past week we got tomatillos... little green husk tomatoes mostly used in verde sauces/salsas in Mexican food. I made a salsa with them that turned out pretty good. It went really well with the Black Bean and Zucchini Chilaquiles dish I made for dinner tonight.

Our weekly share goes through November so I'm sure I'll have more fun foods to share with you. If you are interested in CSA's yourself, here is the link to find a local farm in your area.

***Ian helped me take the husks off the tomatillos and then he placed each sliced tomatillo face down on a cookie sheet to broil. It was such a sweet time , just the two of us because Sawyer was sleeping and Ian had my full attention. It struck me how few moments we've had like that since Sawyer was born and how much I missed them. I think we'll plan on making dinner together every night.

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5 comments:

tonia said...

Gorgeous photos! and I love the part about working with Ian...so sweet.

How were the recipes?

Jeremy said...

Thanks :-).

The chilaquiles were delicious! We loved them. We'll definitely make them again. The verde salsa was good. It's not the kind of salsa you eat just with chips but it's nice to have to add to dishes.

A

Adam and Raechell said...

How lovely. Purple potatoes...now I've seen it all! :D Very cool.

Merredith and Bruce said...

I am very intrigued with the purple potatoes myself... Never heard of them before.... Not sure I'd eat them though.... I'm really impressed with how you make all this organic living sound so easy and interesting....

Karli Del Biondo said...

I love that you have Ian in the kitchen helping you, Andrea! If I haven't told you before, you're a great Mom!