CSA Farm Share Experiment Week 7

We’re doubling up in Week 7 of our CSA Farm Share Experiment from Fresh Fork Market since we skipped week 5 while we traveled. Such a great week of fresh produce!

That means we each received a full share to use on our own instead of splitting it. We could have chosen other products to equal our missed share, but we really liked the contents this week so we decided to double-up so we’d each have a full Vegetarian share. It cemented the fact that it’s very hard for either of our two families to use a full share by ourselves, without some preserving for later. That’s because we do eat out a lot in the summer by going to picnics, or while we’re traveling to family, so we’re not cooking every day. If we did cook every day, I’m sure we’d use most of a full share.

This week my small Vegetarian Farm Share included…(above featured photo)

~~Blueberries – 1 pint~~ – we shared these with our granddaughters on french toast and in a fruit salad they loved.
~~Cauliflower – 1 purple~~ – so cute! – Steamed with a small Leek in Chicken Stock and served with mashed potatoes and Herbed Pork Loin Roast — recipe coming soon!
Zuchinni – 2 – oops, still contemplating these.
Tuscan Kale – 1 bunch – I prefer the curly Kale so still thinking about what to do with this.
Cabbage – 1 HUGE purple one! Still in the fridge waiting to be blanched and frozen.
Red Potatoes – 2 pounds – oh these are so yummy. We simply baked some of them and used a wee bit of that lovely butter we got.
Broccoli – 1 head – aye, caramba! still in the fridge!
Dill – 1 bunch – this was lovely on the Low Fat Fresh Green Beans recipe here and on our salads. Still some left!
~~Cucumbers – 2~~ – happily munched on these in our salads – 1/2 left
~~Green Beans – 1 lb~~ – made away with these right away in our tummies in Low Fat Fresh Green Beans recipe here.
Guernsey Yogurt – 1 quart – this will last at least thirty days. It’s soupy and perfect for some blender action, so I’m thinking the frozen strawberries from week 4 and some of the wonderful honey (see below) will be great with it. I will let you know the results!

Added
2 lbs of butter split in half with my parents to try — this is excellent hand-rolled sweet creamy butter. Just a sliver adds so much flavor!

More Veggie Fun!

My biggest issue this week was the HUGE cabbage we received. It’s gorgeous, but my husband and I aren’t consistent cabbage eaters so we definitely have to freeze some for use in soups this winter.

I think this was my favorite week so far because of the colors of our share. It was so much fun to photograph that I got a bit carried away! That’s why this week’s CSA Farm Share Experiment post is getting logged into my Life Through the Lens category as well. There’s such a great story told through the color of food.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a purple cauliflower. Would it stay purple when we cooked it? Well, the answer is yes and it felt very strange eating muted purple cauliflower so I mixed it with some white so Mr. Carnivore would be sure I wasn’t trying to kill him. HA! After all, I had just made him try some fennel pollen from the garden so I was suspect for sure! If I could just include a photo of THAT face he makes when I tell him to eat something he doesn’t recognize. Tee Hee — so funny! Poor man is tortured, I tell you. 🙂

By the way, do you know how to tell the difference between zucchini and cucumbers? The photo above contains zucchini and those chunky, odd-looking bits on the end are the stem. Cucumbers are rounded and don’t have that weird stem attached. Many times there are pricklies or bumpy bits on the cucumbers sides and the zucchini is always smooth, so that’s another way you can tell the difference.

Of course, we had to visit the Highland Square Farmers’ Market in Akron, Ohio, which is organized by the Countryside Conservancy and I couldn’t resist some carrots and honey from my favorite organic growers – Schmidt Family Farms in Medina, Ohio. The Candy Sweet Onions came from another favorite vendor and I’ll have to get their name next time I go.

So there you have it, my life through the lens and my happy bouncing around the farm share this week, full of pretties waiting to be eaten and eat we did, deliciously.

What’s your fork and fridge been up to?