larryhammer | Entries tagged with csa

This week, our share had:

1 green bell pepper
3 heads garlic
5 small red onions
3 apples
1 zucchini-sized yellow squash
baggie fresh basil
baggie roasted chilies

Which order deliberately buries the lead at the bottom, because the big takeaway here is IT’S ROASTED CHILE SEASON, BABY.

Had not been planning for that, so have nothing in mind for them yet. Half of one made a nice layer in my lunchtime sandwich, and that may use up more in the days ahead. I was thinking of making a pot of chili this weekend, but roasteds aren’t my first choice for seasoning that. Well, whatever, there’s time. The squash should fry up nicely, and the bell could join it—and if it’s a Thai curry, the basil as well.

Also, we’re now nicely stocked on garlic and onions, yay. I should reach for them more than ginger, now.

---L.

Crossposts: https://lnhammer.livejournal.com/518858.html

Oof. I've forgotten about posting this -- gone the same wayside of all posting here. But I did at least have notes for what I meant to post.

Of what remained of the share from three-weeks ago, the canary melon turned out to be green-fleshed, with a texture crisper than honeydew. Most of the slender cukes went into sushi rolls (Janni has been teaching herself to make them) with the leftovers joining a salad.

Two weeks ago, the summer dearth continued (enough of one, there was no share last week). We got:

six small purple potatoes
basket of tomatillos
a couple nopales (prickly pear pads)
a nickel-bag of fresh basil
two very small yellow summer squash
three heads garlic
four yellow peaches

The purple potatoes were exactly what it says on the tin, purple skin and flesh -- and while I'd like to report they had a refreshingly different heirloom variety flavor, as far as I could tell they tasted just the same as light-skinned white potatoes. The basil was quickly used up, including in salads and a Thai curry dish (that included the squash), the peaches were yummed down quickly, and the tomatillos and nopales were traded to the neighbor in exchange for, um, that may have been the cherry tomatoes? I've forgotten already. Ah, well.

Tomorrow I'll post about today's share, if I remember.

---L.

Crossposts: https://lnhammer.livejournal.com/518536.html

Of last week's share, the parsley went into a pasta sauce, the honeydew was yum with the limes, and the jalapeños are … waiting … for us to remember them … and do something … Slice 'em up and pickle? I don't really like jalapeño flavor all that much, compared to the anaheims and poblanos that are regional staples.

This week, we remain in what they call summer dearth:
1 canary melon
5 small red potatoes
2 ears sweet corn
basket of okra
3 yellow peaches
2 heads of garlic
2 slender cucumbers

Corn and potatoes were immediately dinnered, and the okra was traded (we all hate the stuff) with the neighbor for a can of tuna. The remaining peach is in the fruit bowl, and the garlic and cukes are in their respective storage areas. The melon is chillin' in the fridge, probably for tonight.

On the home front, we've lost a whole round of cherry tomatoes to birds -- need to put up netting -- and two cantaloupes the size of softwalls continue to ripen. We planted tepary beans (a desert-adapted native heritage species) in the plots where the corn was, and they sprouted this week, just in time for the resumption of thunderstorms. Not sure there's enough for a full meal's crop, but we'll see how it goes.

---L.

Crossposts: https://lnhammer.livejournal.com/517545.html

Of last week's share, the corn went down sweet; the zucchini made another light summer stir-fry; and one of the tomatoes went spectacularly liquid before ripening, while the other turned orange and ended up as spectacular in a Thai red curry with sweet bell pepper (from the store) and thinly sliced carrot. Rosemary is still drying for long-term storage, though Eaglet sometimes sneaks a few leaves for chewing on. The second round of pickling tastes almost ready to snack down on. I've been flirting with the idea of pickling some watermelon rinds, but am hesitant to commit.

This week we got another slender summer share:

one honeydew 🍈
five key limes
six small white onions 🧅
two white potatoes 🥔
basket of tomatillos
two jalapeños
small bunch of parsley

Eaglet is dubious about the honeydew, as it’s the one fruit they historically don’t like, but they seem willing to try it—though possibly without lime juice. The jalapeños, they are outright negative about, having imprinted early in life on Dragons Love Tacos; they may go into dishes they aren’t likely to want anyway. Or into a jar of pickle juice (without watermelon rinds). Tomatillos (with a couple limes) are with the usual neighbor, in exchange for fresh pasta. Onions and potatoes are in the “root-cellar” drawer, and the parsley awaits its pesto destiny.

—L.

Crossposts: https://lnhammer.livejournal.com/516991.html

Of last week's share, the tomatillos went to our neighbor, the corn and peaches (the latter being, I learned, a type called Saturn) were eaten that day, and the watermelon was large enough to last two days. Some of the leek-onion-things have been used, but the carrots are waiting their turn.

The experiment of leaving the probable pickling cucumber in the leftover* pickle juice worked -- took a week and a half to get most of the bitterness of the skin, but they still had a good crunch at that point. I've cut up an older pickling cuke I'd forgotten about and popped that in for round two.

This week it's:

two ears of sweet corn
one basket of Saturn peaches
one medium zucchini
two large green tomatoes
three medium red onions
another jar of honey
another bunch of rosemary

Which is a bit of a thin week again. The sign said there was also supposed to be beans (the Tuesday pickup got black-eyed peas) but we were slotted for one of the last pickups, so I expect they ran out. Of note: no greens -- our high season for that is January-March, when it's not too hot for them.

Corn gets boiled tonight (yum!); peaches are in the fruit bowl for whoever gets to them first; and the zuke is a probable stir-fry again, this time likely with red instead of yellow onion -- maybe with cumin? -- we'll see. The honey and rosemary go on their respective shelves, and tomatoes await ripening to learn their fate.

As do we all.

* Which we have a lot of -- I'd quip that Eaglet eats sweet gherkins like popcorn, but honestly, they eat pickles much more frequently than they do actual popcorn. But regardless, we end up with a lot of pickle juice.

---L.

Crossposts: https://lnhammer.livejournal.com/515444.html

Another week, another share of a local farmer's crop.

As far as last week's bag, the zucchini was cut into spears and stir-fried with chicken, sliced onions, and rosemary; the probable eating cucumber was saladed in some vinegar and parsley (we were out of dill); the probable pickling cuke is resting in pieces in a jar of leftover pickle juice (just to see if that works); the oranges are long since gone down Eaglet's maw; and the creamy mesquite honey is in the cupboard, pending more spreading uses (it's too thick to easily measure into recipes). The tomatillos, nothing happened with -- we hadn't even gotten to giving them to our neighbor.

This week, we got:

another basket of tomatillos
two ears of sweet corn
six disc-shaped peaches
a watermelon
a bunch of small carrots
a few things they claim are leeks but that look more oniony

Both baskets of tomatillos are now with the neighbor, in exchange for some dill. The corn was immediately boiled for dinner, and the peaches -- white-fleshed, juicy, and sweet -- were dessert. The watermelon is chilling for tonight's dessert. The leek-onions will get used in the next dish they seem like they'll fit, ditto carrots.

In none-CSA veggies, Tuesday we harvested all of our garden-plot corn that seemed ready. Not a single ear was completely filled, and most had less than a quarter of their kernels grown. They were still tasty, especially the Hopi pink. (Which, yes, is usually a grinding not boiling-on-the-cob variety, but it still worked for us.) We'll pull up the stalks soon and plant something TDB. We are still waiting for the first cantaloupe and more cherry tomatoes to ripen. The string beans remain unhappy and unproductive.

---L.

In an effort to post something that isn't Chinese translations, I'm thinking of starting that blogging-your-CSA-share thing that's going around. Which makes it a meme, but at least it's different.

We used to belong to this CSA, but went on hiatus before becoming parents because we were already having trouble keeping up. It's only now with lockdown/quarantine keeping all of us eating and cooking at home more, that we finally felt up for resuming.

The schedule for this CSA is different from most of the country: the main farm (there are two involved) has three plots at different altitudes -- the one outside Phoenix produces in the winter and the one halfway up the mountains produces in the summer, which means it runs year-round. That said, we're in the stretch that's the hardest for them to fill out a full share, in the hottest part of summer before monsoonal thunderstorms have gotten the better summer crops producing. So it was a small but interesting bag that I picked up yesterday:

half-dozen small gold onions
two cucumbers of indeterminate type (one may be pickling?)
one medium zucchini
basket of tomatillos
bundle of rosemary sprigs
three oranges
jar of mesquite honey

For the record, mesquite is my favorite flavor of honey -- it's not as full-on sweet as clover, with a dusky edge -- and I'm really glad that it's available at our local Trader Joe's as their standard variety. But this, creamy and straight from the farm, should be yummy. The oranges went into Eaglet's stash -- they were down to only three, including no mandarins, and we're not due to go shopping till probably Monday. The tomatillos are going to our neighbor, who actually likes them. (Are they good for anything but salsa?) The onions are going into the stockpile, and I'll probably use one as the aromatic in whatever I stir-fry tonight, along with some green onions left over from last week. (A few more things are left over, including a pattypan squash I don't know what to do with, and two small round yellow squashes had gone bad oops.)

Not sure yet what to do with the zuke, which is a good 10in/25cm long, and Eaglet's eyes went wide when I told them it's only medium. I have been entertaining them with stories of the time my father first planted zucchini and thought he was playing it safe by planting "only" four hills, and how he ended up forcing his grad students to take some. If we had ground meat in the house, I'd halve-and-hollow it and bake 'em with a meat-and-marinara filling, but I used that up in a pot of chili this weekend. It's too thick to fry until golden -- wedges don't work well for that. *shrug* Will think on't.

Who else is doing a farm share?

---L.