CSA Farm Share Experiment Week Three
The produce and products we get weekly from Fresh Fork Market’s Vegan CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm Share are extraordinary. Every week I’m more impressed and I am less overwhelmed as we go, even though I don’t have my game on completely yet, I feel like each week it gets easier to focus on what needs done to get the most out of this program. For a Vegan couple, I’m sure our CSA farm share would be perfect and it’s pretty close to perfect for the four of us who are sharing this small Vegan share, but I think the Vegetarian share might suit us a bit better because I’ve tried some of the other products that we’d get in that share. The pasture raised eggs were amazing and we really love the spelt wheat cereal. So far, there isn’t anything I haven’t enjoyed. But, my parents’ small garden as well as our small garden will start producing soon and then we may be in trouble with a full Vegan share. I’m glad the program is flexible enough to allow us to learn as we go and make adjustments as needed.
This week our small Vegan Farm Share included (above photo)…
Zucchini – 2
Green Onions – 1 bunch
Cilantro – 1 bunch
Tomatillo Salsa – 1 pint
Kale – 1 bunch
Broccoli – 1 head
Leaf Lettuce – 1 head
Cherries – 1 pint
Corn Crackers – 1 bag
Strawberries – 1 quart
Bok Choy – 1 sleeve (ample for 2 families)
Black Beans – dried (not shown) 16 oz
My half of the Vegan small share this week and what’s left since Thursday…
Zucchini – 1 – used in a stir fry for a pot luck – recipe coming soon!
Green Onions – 1/2 bunch – 2 left out of 3-4
Cilantro – 1/2 bunch
Tomatillo Salsa – 1/2 pint
Kale – 1/2 bunch
Broccoli – 1/2 head – used in a stir fry for a pot luck – recipe coming soon!
Leaf Lettuce – 1/2 head
Cherries – 1/2 pint – these were the most perfect cherries I’ve ever seen and we ate every one!
Corn Crackers – 1/2 bag – I must admit we munched on these while prepping the veggies and the balance just disappeared by Sunday!
Strawberries – 1/2 quart – we love strawberries so these were dessert by themselves and went into our cereal.
Bok Choy – 1/2 sleeve
Black Beans – dried – 8 oz
Added from the farmers’ market and the organic market…
Farmers’ Market – 2 quarts of strawberries and another head of butter crunch – so good!
Organic Market – 1 yellow pepper, 1 bunch of celery, figs, bread, tomatoes, sinful zucchini muffins, cucumber and maybe one or two other things that I can’t remember.
Results from previous weeks…
How we used week two Vegan share and What’s left…
Broccoli – 1/2 of a very large head – made roasted vegetables, recipes to come! Leftovers went into omelets.
Spinach – 1/2 of 1 bunch – went mostly into salads, about half of it left
Garlic Scapes – 2 small of the 3 – I forgot about these! Must do something with them yet.
Lettuce – 1 of the larger 3 heads – 4 oz – so crisp! – salads were yummy, maybe 1/3 left, if that, because we had a guest to help us eat it.
Strawberries – 1/2 qt – are in our tummies already and we had to buy more.
(Kohlrabi – 1 bulb) my dad ate it sliced fresh – he loves it that way.
Radishes – 1/2 bunch (not sure how many radishes we can consume – wonder how long they’ll last?) – we’ve been slicing these thin for salads – so good!
Collard Greens – 1/2 of 1 bunch – I’m definitely failing where cooked greens are concerned, must do better.
Luna Burgers – 1 pkg of 2 – we bought a second package so we could both try 2 Luna (Veggie) burgers – in the freezer, waiting on me.
Zucchini – 1 – gave this to my mom since I already had 4 in the fridge — love my zucchini!
Asparagus – 1/2 bunch – ack! forgot about this too – must get to roasting!
Oats – .75 lb waiting for me to make something — I want to experiment with a breakfast bar or muffin.
Grape Cider – 1/2 Jar in our bellies
What’s left from my half of Vegan small share week one and what I plan to do with it…
Spelt Flour – 3/4 lb – this is in the freezer so it’s good to keep for awhile. I want to use it for Zucchini bread in a recipe I’ll share in the future.
Kidney Beans – small bag, dried – these are in the pantry to be used later. I’m thinking a soup sounds good.
Caraflex Cabbage – 1/2 of 1 very large head leftover – I got the large leaves for my half, which wasn’t the smartest way to split it but we’re learning! Not sure if this will get used in time.
What happened to the farmers’ market produce from last week?
Swiss Chard – 1 bunch – I forgot about these and didn’t do my normal prep so I have a rescue mission experiment results coming soon! I’m learning!
Butter Crunch lettuce – 1 small bunch – used in a salad
Mesclun mix of spring lettuce – 1 bag – used in salads
What else we’re learning – I’m experimenting with several methods to keep the greens fresh, so I’ll post about that with pictures and hints soon. Multiple size containers are great for leftovers, as well as chopping for several days, and doing a “leftover” meal that incorporates overages. I have come up with several time savers that I’ll share as we go to help those who want to incorporate more fresh vegetables into their daily intake. It’s not as hard as you think if you plan. On farm share day we use sticky notes to label any duplicates we already have in the refrigerator so we eat the oldest first. This became essential for the radishes because we also inherited some from a neighbor. Lettuce is also in overabundance because I bought too much in addition to our farm share, so I will cut down on that so we don’t have waste. It’s super hard to resist the gorgeous greens at this time of year!
In conclusion, the best part of this week’s food pickup day was sharing it with my mom and a dear friend. We shopped until we dropped at the farmers’ market, plus the organic market and laughed a lot. We shared ideas on how to prep different things so I’m sure it was fruitful for us all, including the strawberries none of us could resist! Great times. 🙂
Which are you using more this week, fork, knife or spoon?
June 23, 2015 at 7:17 am
It was a good time.
The strawberries are so good. The strawberries from CA are large, hard and have that white core. These were small, sweet, red all the way thru and they smelled wonderful….you know, like strawberries! hhaha.