The Bounty of Spring
Today I made my first pick-up from the Park Slope CSA, and lordy had I forgotten how many veggies that a full share entails. I took one canvas tote bag, and a big one at that, and it was bursting at the seams when I finished taking my portion. But how beautiful it was!
I purchased an every-other-week share, which means every other Thursday, I go to the site and pick up my veggies, fruit and fresh flowers and have a glorious week of eating fresh, organic produce that our lovely farm grew.
I've had a bit of a crazy month or so, and I've fallen behind on cooking and general healthy eating, but now that I have a fridge full of fresh produce, it looks like I'm going to have to change my decadent, restaurant-going ways.
The flowers this week are beautiful snap dragons, and I now have about a gallon of strawberries that are so ripe and so fresh that you can smell them when you walk into the kitchen. Tonight for dinner I'm having a salad of fresh lettuce and ripe strawberries with a dijon vinegarette and a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, whose tart, crisp green apple taste perfectly compliments the delicate sweetness of the berries and the tang of the mustard dressing.
I'm not even having meat, which is like, blasphemy almost. To myself.
But even though its not sweltering like it had been for the past week, the air still has the slightly sticky warmth of East Coast summer to it, so it feels like the right decision.
The veggies this week are going to challenge my ingenuity, so any suggestions via e-mail or comment are welcome.
I have:
5 big turnips with greens
1 lb. russian kale
3/4 lb. mixed lettuce
1 head of beautiful lettuce - I think it's bibb lettuce
5 garlic scapes
1 bunch of bok choi
1 lovely basil plant, in soil, which I have used to replace my former basil plant. Whose plant carcass had been sitting in my kitchen.
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 bunch snapdragons
HOORAY CSA!
Here's how fresh the strawberries are. I took a handful from the basket and put them in a bowl. I then went to rinse them and what came off? REAL DIRT. THESE BERRIES ARE FROM A REAL FARM WITH REAL DIRT. They were picked today.
When you live in the city, the idea of being handed a bowl of succulent tiny fresh berries is probably along the lines of what seeing land was to Columbus. Some weird miracle that seems too good to be true. Ignoring, of course, economies of scale. I'm not actually crazy enough to equate death by scurvy at sea with factory-farmed berries.
If I had a functional digital camera, I could post you pictures of my beautiful produce, but I do not. So sometime in the next two weeks, before I shove off for Spain, I will be digital camera shopping. I think I'll invest in the Canon SLR... But may go high-end point and shoot.
Stay tuned because now that summer is here, we're going to have lots of "how to cook with fresh organic produce" talk. Which I personally find super awesome.
I purchased an every-other-week share, which means every other Thursday, I go to the site and pick up my veggies, fruit and fresh flowers and have a glorious week of eating fresh, organic produce that our lovely farm grew.
I've had a bit of a crazy month or so, and I've fallen behind on cooking and general healthy eating, but now that I have a fridge full of fresh produce, it looks like I'm going to have to change my decadent, restaurant-going ways.
The flowers this week are beautiful snap dragons, and I now have about a gallon of strawberries that are so ripe and so fresh that you can smell them when you walk into the kitchen. Tonight for dinner I'm having a salad of fresh lettuce and ripe strawberries with a dijon vinegarette and a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, whose tart, crisp green apple taste perfectly compliments the delicate sweetness of the berries and the tang of the mustard dressing.
I'm not even having meat, which is like, blasphemy almost. To myself.
But even though its not sweltering like it had been for the past week, the air still has the slightly sticky warmth of East Coast summer to it, so it feels like the right decision.
The veggies this week are going to challenge my ingenuity, so any suggestions via e-mail or comment are welcome.
I have:
5 big turnips with greens
1 lb. russian kale
3/4 lb. mixed lettuce
1 head of beautiful lettuce - I think it's bibb lettuce
5 garlic scapes
1 bunch of bok choi
1 lovely basil plant, in soil, which I have used to replace my former basil plant. Whose plant carcass had been sitting in my kitchen.
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 bunch snapdragons
HOORAY CSA!
Here's how fresh the strawberries are. I took a handful from the basket and put them in a bowl. I then went to rinse them and what came off? REAL DIRT. THESE BERRIES ARE FROM A REAL FARM WITH REAL DIRT. They were picked today.
When you live in the city, the idea of being handed a bowl of succulent tiny fresh berries is probably along the lines of what seeing land was to Columbus. Some weird miracle that seems too good to be true. Ignoring, of course, economies of scale. I'm not actually crazy enough to equate death by scurvy at sea with factory-farmed berries.
If I had a functional digital camera, I could post you pictures of my beautiful produce, but I do not. So sometime in the next two weeks, before I shove off for Spain, I will be digital camera shopping. I think I'll invest in the Canon SLR... But may go high-end point and shoot.
Stay tuned because now that summer is here, we're going to have lots of "how to cook with fresh organic produce" talk. Which I personally find super awesome.
Comments
I like to mix box choi and kale together to balance out the taste - and I have a bunch of recipes for that. Ranges from spanakopita to cooking it with some protein, whether it's tuna, shrimp, or ground meat. Or failing that, the mix of the two with some sauce and onions, steamed and then sauteed...
Turnips taste great slow cooked or baked with kidney beans and tomato sauce. Or make mashed turnips with mustard/sesame oil, onions, and eggs.