A summary of the goodies that we got in our Fall/Winter share from our our local CSA (Small Farms, run by the Love is Love farm).
As Joe said, it truly was "the season of roots and greens"!
I've broken the produce out by type of vegetable and, as you can see by the total numbers at the top, we got A HUGE AMOUNT of leafy greens, roots, and vegetable fruits. I've also tried to include some of my thoughts on each item, either recipes or storage or just general reflections.
Total for each type of produce, roughly ordered by amount:
- 114 oz, 10 bags & 5 ct. leafy greens;
- 167 oz. & 30 ct. vegetable fruits;
- 193 oz. & 11ct. roots;
- 105 oz. tubers;
- 90 oz. beans & nuts;
- 6 bags herbs;
- 16 oz. & 36 ct. non-produce;
- 24 oz. flower heads;
- 6 oz. fungi; and
- 4 ct. orchard fruit.
Beans & Nuts
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
12 oz.
| soybeans (edamame)
|  | We'll probably just steam them and put a little sea salt or kosher salt on them. |
22 oz.
| Kentucky wonder snap beans
|  | Nina tells me that the main difference in green beans is between snap and pole beans. These delectable beans are SNAP, indeed! And very tender. |
56 oz. | red ripper crowder cowpeas, unshelled
|  | These babies are a bit hard to shell, but delicioso! It's been YEARS since I shelled peas. And, let me tell you: I now understand why it used to take place in
groups...so you'd have something to keep you from running out of
patience! :) Cowpea Chow Chow |
Flower heads
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
24 oz.
| broccoli
|  | Yum! |
Fungi
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
6 oz. | shitake mushrooms
|  | Grown on hard wood logs! |
Herbs
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
6 bags | sweet basil
|  | I see more Pesto and bruschetta in our future! |
Leafy Greens
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
3 bags
| braising greens
|  | A mixture of greens good for wilting or braising, such as: turnip, kale, collard, sweet potato, swiss chard. Good braised with diced tomatoes and then seasoned with chili garlic sauce. However, we usually prefer to cook our green types separately (as there are different ways to make each green shine). |
25 oz.
| sugarloaf endive
|   | A slightly more bitter taste than other salad/cabbage greens. But they are less bitter on the inside, near the heart. I feel like this should be some sort of karmic metaphor. :) |
35 oz.
| arugula |  | These have a great, nutty flavor and are good on sandwiches, in salads, and stir fried with wine vinegar. |
15 oz.
| swiss & rainbow chard
|   | It's important to cook the leaves differently than the stems. The leaves are very spinach-like, but the stems are tougher and are best when roasted with some canola spray and parmesan cheese. |
24 oz.
| cabbage, regular
|  | E. makes the most delicious stir fry with this and onions, turkey pepperoni, and low-sodium soy sauce. |
6 bags | salad mix
|  | Sometimes it would have endive in it, giving it a bit more bite than some of the earlier bags of salad mix. |
91 oz.
| napa cabbage
|  | These were delicious, even better than regular cabbage! |
4 stalks | bok choy |  | Nom. Nom. Nom. |
1 bag | turnip greens |  | Good wilted in a pan. |
1
| romaine head
|  | Good, solid salad lettuce. |
9 oz | sweet potato greens |  | These have an intriguing, somewhat nutty flavor. We still haven't figured out how best to cook them, however. |
Orchard Fruit
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
4 (ct)
| bartlett pears
|  | Small, but very sweet. |
Roots
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
11 oz.
| carrots
|   | Very sweet! We used the greens to make pesto. |
5 (ct)
| daikon radishes
|  | Makes my favorite Korean soup recipe (see recipes by drbenkim and dishgracepoint). |
94 oz.
| sweet white doll turnips
|  | We chopped them into cubes; added a small, cubed potato; boiled it all, then made mashed (or, possibly pureed) turnips! These are also good as cubes in a hearty soup or stew. The greens were still attached, so we cut them off and wilted them in a sautee pan with last week's wilting greens. I ran out of ideas for how to cook the greens, though. |
6 (ct) | watermelon radishes
|   | Joe suggested I slice these VERY thinly and eat with buttered bread. |
18 oz. | purple-topped turnips
|   | The key to cooking with these more-pungent turnips seems to be dicing them up small or slicing them thinly. |
24 oz.
| beets |  | Yummy when roasted in the oven! As with all roots, I'm now cutting off the greens as soon as we get them and am NOT storing them in the refrigerator, but in a dark, dry location (i.e. my empty crockpot).
I julienned a few of the smaller beets and put them in the some similarly-cut sweet radishes that I'm pickling in a bread & butter pickle juice in the refrigerator.
I'll probably julienne the remaining beets and throw them on a salad. |
46 oz.
| salad radishes
|  | E. found a great side dish recipe of braised radishes with onion and honey sauce. I wish we liked the greens more, but at least the compost bins appreciate them. :) We ran out of recipes for these, I'll have to find more ways to use radishes for next fall. |
Tubers
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
105 oz.
| sweet potatoes
|  | Did you know that sweet potatoes cure? The longer they sit, after being de-greened and dug up, the higher sugar content they get.
Joe lets his cure for 2 weeks, which gives them a wonderful, subtle sugariness...we REALLY enjoyed using these potatoes with just a hint of sweetness! E. found a GREAT recipe with these and tomatoes and eggplants. |
Vegetable fruits
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
17 (ct)
| Japanese eggplants
|  | These got smaller in size as the season progressed, but were perfect for E's eggplant chips! Spicy Garlic sauce I tend to like the Japanese better than the round ones, although I'm still not a huge eggplant fan. |
109 oz.
|
sweet peppers
|  | We found the small purple variety bitter, unless I sautee or otherwise cook them. But the green and red ones were SWEET and crunchy! |
8 (ct)
| green tomatoes
|  | Yum - you can have fried green tomato slices, without any breading and just a light frying in a pan. They are heavenly. |
58 oz.
| okra |  | My favorite discovery: these are absolutely DELICIOUS raw. E. also likes them skewered and roasted on the grill. |
1 (ct)
| butternut squash
|  | We used some of our shitake mushrooms and made that famous gruyere cheese, mushroom and butternut squash casserole recipe. |
2 (ct)
| round eggplants
|  | I still like the Japanese eggplant better, but eggplant lasagna helps me enjoy these. |
16 oz.
| cherry tomatoes |  | I eat these like candy. No recipes needed.
|
2 (ct)
| tomatoes
|  | Yummy.
|
Non-Produce
Amount
| Item
| Picture | Comments
|
36 (ct)
| eggs |  | Amazing eggs is right. These were a wonderful, tasty source of protein for us. E. made a killer souffle with these and the goat cheese. |
16 oz.
| goat cheese
|  | Very strong and smooth goat cheese. Spreadable or good in omelets. |
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