Monday, May 9, 2016

2016 CSA Week 2

Greetings from Washington DC, fellow CSA members!
Our little family is making the most of a work meeting my husband has and will be doing a little exploring (and eating!) in our nation's capital for a couple of days. I am excited for the fresh veggies (and strawberries!) that will be awaiting our arrival home AND am happy to tell all of you about all the goodies in this week's share. SPOILER ALERT: If you've never eaten Sustainable Harvest Farm carrots, your wait is over:

More carrots?!?
Produce
Storage
Longevity
strawberries
unwashed, in fridge
2-5 days
cornmeal (yellow variety)
sealed in bag or container, in fridge
weeks
carrots
unwashed, in fridge
2 weeks
lettuce
unwashed, in fridge
1 week
sweet potatoes
in a dark, cool spot
1-2 weeks
fresh herbs (sage and oregano)
wrapped in paper towel, in fridge
3-4 days
As soon as Ford told me about all the things in this week's basket my mind started racing for all the things I could make. Local, farm fresh carrots are such a treat to me and these carrots are some of the best. We got a bunch in one of our winter CSA shares and I loved them. So much so that I pureed them into baby food and made them Matthias' first "solid" food! Maybe I'll share some with him this time. Maybe not. My mom was mentioning carrot cake yesterday, so I would love to find the time and energy to do that this week. Homemade cakes can be hard! If I don't get around to it, one of you should and tell me how it turns out! Or send me a piece.

Sometimes I try to see how many CSA ingredients I can use in one meal and any time I get carrots and sweet potatoes, I think of stew. For some reason African Peanut Stew popped in my head (which doesn't usually include carrots, but it sure could). A stew with peanut butter? Sounds crazy, right? We had it for the first time when our adventurous missionary friends made it for dinner one night. Even my super-picky husband liked it! (I haven't confirmed this, but I'm guessing he would give it a FOUR broccoli stalk rating.) If you've never tried it, make it a point to do so soon (sweet potatoes keep, so no big rush). I can see some kiddos willing to at least give it a go because it has peanut butter in it. As far as homemade dinners go, it isn't that hard or time-consuming. This is my go-to recipe, though I substitute tomato sauce for stewed tomatoes and sometimes add in chicken. It can kick off a cultural study at your house! Of course, you can just pop sweet potatoes in the oven whole or in fries and they make a delicious side (or meal).

If you haven't had Sustainable Harvest Farm lettuce yet, I'm excited for you! I like to use it for taco salad or to "dress" sandwiches and burgers. I had no idea we'd be enjoying it already this season... it just makes me more impatient for tomatoes to go with it!

Finally, I was so excited to see we're getting oregano and sage! I love fresh herbs. In theory. A lot of times they end up spoiling before I use them. So I think this week I'll be looking for ways to use them and/or save them. I'll let you know how it turns out.

As always, I welcome your tips, tricks, recipes and feedback.


Happy eating!

2 comments:

  1. I will probably end up drying my herbs this week. I discovered a super simple way to dry herbs that has proven effective for me time and time again. Take a cookie sheet and line with parchment paper. Spread the herbs out in a single layer and cover with parchment paper. Then all you do is set it on top of your refrigerator (or top of your top kitchen cabinet) and then in a week or so you will have dried herbs. Scrape them off the stem and store in an air tight jar (I use a small mason jar or jelly jar). The taste of freshly dried herbs in my recipes taste so much better than the store bought version. Hope this helps someone!

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    1. Thank you so much! I was thinking I might be drying mine this week and was going to look up the best way to do that. I will be sure to try this for drying herbs in the future!

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