A CSA Party!

Here's a trick to using up your CSA box--schedule a party the day after it arrives! I used much of last week's box contents--tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, squash, onion, basil, grapefruit, orange, and apple--in making these dishes, as it was my turn to host bunco last Friday night. Tarts aren't difficult, and salads are even easier--it's mostly just chopping when you're starting with such fresh ingredients.

Dinosaur Egg, or Melon?

In today's box...Pretty sure it's a melon--but if it IS a live dinosaur egg, our blog will have a pretty impressive scoop, eh?

"Just about perfect in every way"

The online local news site Redondo Beach Patch has a story about the Madison/Lincoln Tanaka Farms CSA programs this weekend. Reporter Joe Galliani interviewed Philip Jun at Neighborhood Grinds, and took photos of a box's contents, and explained how the program works and how others can join in. "As much as I love and use our local Farmers Market, this mutually supportive relationship between the farm and elementary schools is just about perfect in every way," Galliani declares.

Inventory and recipe idea for July 15

Penny wrote that her large box contained, "kale, eggplant, tomatoes, basil, oranges, grapefruit, lettuce, carrots, green beans, avocados, and four cobs of corn."

Sounds like it is time to make baba ganoush, a middle-eastern eggplant dip.  Here's a recipe and you can  buy tahini at both of the middle eastern markets near Neighborhood Grinds (the NE and SW corners of McKay and Artesia).

Backyard Garden CSA

Don't miss this article about a 14-year old Michigan teen, Alexandra Reau.

last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs.

While attending a party in north Berkeley in the mid 1980s, I noticed the extremely lush vegetable garden in the backyard. When I asked which roommate had the green thumb, the host explained that the yard was leased to Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. Her staff gardened yards all over the neighborhood; the chefs came over to harvest produce right before cooking!

I am tempted to rip out my front lawn and put in a veggie garden.  The 4'x8' raised bed in the backyard is not enough.

Squash bread with grapefruit zest

What I did with the squash in last week's CSA box...
Pretty much used this recipe, but I never really follow directions to the letter. It turned out very moist and delicious!

The locavore's dilemma

Catherine Price explores The Locavore's Dilemma: What to do with the kale, turnips, and parsley that overwhelm your CSA bin in Slate.

I left a comment there because those are the issues I am trying to address with this blog. 

For turnips, try this Taiwanese soup.
http://madisonschoolcsa.blogspot.com/2009/10/diakon-soup.html

Cilantro will keep for a month if you trim off the ends and put it in a glass of water. Put a plastic bag over the top because the leaves transpire a lot of moisture. See the picture here (but imagine a bag over it).
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2009/10/lifecycle-of-cilantro.html
We use a few springs here and there, just like Mark Bittman suggests. It's gone before it rots.

For cabbage, my mom sautes it with a bit of pork, or we make dumplings. The potsticker/wonton/dumpling recipe is here:
http://madisonschoolcsa.blogspot.com/2010/02/make-potstickers-with-your-napa-cabbage.html  
Apples and cabbage both ripen in cool weather. You think that is why German omas braise cabbage and apples together?

We've got recipes for kohlrabi and other 'problem' vegetables.
http://madisonschoolcsa.blogspot.com/search/label/Recipes

Don't be discouraged when you start because it takes a while to get into the rhythm of using up your box.  We get deliveries Thursday afternoons.  When I get the box home, I trim and put away the produce right away.  If any of it looks wilted, I will trim off the ends and put it in a pitcher of water, cut side down, like the cilantro example above.

On Thursday, think about how you want to cook that week's contents.  Then shop on Friday for ingredients you need to complete the recipe.

[Aside: If you are clueless, post a comment on this blog or email Penny and myself.  We will post something for you.  This isn't a test a la "Iron Chef".  We are here to help you figure out what to do with your "surprise box of goodies".

Don't forget to check the Tanaka Farms compilation of recipes http://tanakafarms.com/CSA-Recipes.html.

Or type the vegetable into your favorite search engine + recipe.  E.g. type "kohlrabi + recipe".]

A couple of hours investment once a week goes a long way.

On Friday night or Saturday, I wash and chop all the vegetables from the box. We rinse lettuce, slice cucumbers, shred carrots and radishes etc for salads.  I make a small blender jar of salad dressing and boil some eggs.  I make a vat of seasonal vegetable soup and then put them into 1-2 serving containers.  I put some in the fridge and some in the freezer.  Then I move a different soup from the freezer to the fridge.  This gives me more variety.

On Sunday night, we also make a bunch of sandwiches and cut up fruit.  That way, we have everything we need to easily assemble lunches during the week.

(If I can, on Monday, I also take some pre-made soups and salads in to a friend/coworker who is caring for two terminally ill parents while working more than full-time.  I used to swap home-made soup for home-baked bread with a neighbor.  Home cooked food is one of the nicest things you can give someone.)

On weeknights, we can heat up some soup, assemble a salad or roast or steam some precut veggies.  With our rice cooker on a timer, dinner is on the table in minutes.

And let's not forget the huge onion

In addition to the broccoli and onion, we also received:

• a bunch of ~12 carrots with attached tops (perfect for a bouquet)
• a bunch of beets with attached greens
• kale
• green beans
• a head of Romaine lettuce
• 2 grapefruits
• 3 avocadoes
• 8 green UFO-shaped squash
• and a huge container of sweet ripe strawberries

This week's mystery guest is ROMANESCO BROCCOLI

What's that?
Romanesco Broccoli. Lovely name, and what a shape! Treat it like its more traditional cousins broccoli and cauliflower. Or just admire it. (Bonus points if anyone uses it as alien landscape in a video.)

Kohlrabi! Squash! Grapefruit!

Plenty of new items in today's boxes--you can definitely tell the seasons are changing. Looking around for recipe ideas, I found this one for kohlrabi-squash empanadas--hey, that's two of the box ingredients right there!