2017 CSA Week 6

Greetings from DC, fellow CSA members!
I'm in our nation's capital this week taking advantage of sightseeing while my husband attends a conference. There is an organic produce restaurant, specializing in pressed juices, a few blocks from our hotel. I visited for breakfast this morning and was thinking about why I didn't cook like this at home - with my own organic produce.

The answer (okay, excuse) is time and energy. It takes a lot of thought, planning and preparation to fix fresh, healthy meals each day. And it takes even more to participate in a CSA share that adds in a level of risk and unpredictability with the ingredients you'll be working with from week to week. Speaking from experience, its a lot easier to pop a frozen pizza in the oven.

So, as I give myself grace for not utilizing my kitchen and my share to their fullest potential each week, I encourage you to do the same. You'll hear me say this a lot on the blog. We're all at different parts of our healthy food journey. It may be naturally easy for you, but extremely difficult for someone else - or anything in between. You'll have good weeks and bad ones. Successes and failures. The important thing is that you keep at it! Celebrate the wins and learn from the losses. I do a little better each year in the CSA than I did the year before. And I learn new things to try and to work at improving.

Feeling geared up for this week's share? Here's what's in store:

Produce	Storage	Longevity
swiss chard	washed and thoroughly dried, or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container	1 week
summer squash and zucchini	unwashed, in fridge	1-2 weeks
lettuce	unwashed, in fridge	1 week
turnips*	in fridge crisper	1 month+
kale	washed and thoroughly dried, or unwashed, in fridge, sealed in container	1 week
green onions	Lightly rinsed, dried and stored in plastic wrap or fridge container	1-2 weeks
radishes*	unwashed, in fridge, can remove greens	up to 1 week
small cabbage**	unwashed, in fridge	up to a month or longer
broccoli**	unwashed, in fridge	1 week
basil	store in an unclosed container in fridge or snip off bottom of stems and immerse in water	1-2 weeks

*Shares will include either turnips or radishes.
**Shares will include either cabbage or broccoli.

Ford gives me tips each week about how crops are generally supposed to look and how his are looking to help me sound like I know what I'm talking about in the blog each week. He shared that we should plan for lettuce to phase out of our baskets and the cabbage is going to be sticking around for a couple of weeks. Also, great news for those of us who love basil, we may be getting some every week for a while! My favorite way to eat basil is a caprese salad, but you can chop it up in pesto or have it a variety of ways. It also makes beautiful greenery in floral arrangements. I was looking for a picture of a bouquet I bought at the farmer's market in Frankfort several years ago, but couldn't find it.

While we're rolling out some of our favorite recipes from previous seasons this might be a good time to remind everyone about Amanda's yummy swiss chard gratin recipe, a favorite in the Waterstrat home.


Can't wait to see him playing in the
farm dirt this year!

You likely received an invitation from Amanda this week for a farm tour. Please consider visiting! You'll learn more about your food and your farmers, and it will be a great time! This will be the first year that some tours will include cooking demonstrations. Matthias had a great time last year at his first farm tour.

Please keep sharing your recipes and food pictures on Facebook. I get great ideas from what you share.

Happy eating!