Great Salad Mix in Ohio Farm Share Week 10

It’s a great salad mix in Ohio Farm Share Week 10, along with some fruit to round it out. I welcomed the smaller size of the farm share this week to allow us to catch up on what we had in the fridge from previous weeks. It made a huge difference because even with this week’s share and some extra purchases, our fridge isn’t stuffed to the gills.

This week our small Vegetarian farm share included (above photo)…

Beets – 3
Red Cabbage – 1 head
Broccoli – 1 head
Lettuce, red leaf – 1 head + 1 head bought so we’d each have 1 full head when we split. Love red leaf lettuce! Not just the color, but I love that thick-leaved texture at the top with the crispy bottom.
Collards – 1 bunch – we have frowny faces about the collards because neither one of us have learned to eat these yet!
Green Beans – 1 pound
Peaches – 6
Cantaloupe, Sugarcube – 1 small personal
Tomatoes, slicers – 2
Tomatoes, grape – 1 pint

My half of the Vegetarian small share this week (above photo) and what’s left since Thursday…

Beets – 1
Red Cabbage – 1/2 head – 1/3 of the 1/2 head has been used in salad this week.
Broccoli – 1 head
Lettuce, red leaf – 1 head – we bought an extra head this week so we’d each have one head when we split. Love red leaf lettuce!
Collards – 1 bunch
Green Beans – 1/2 pound – gone — ate these right away
Peaches – 2 – gone — these are amazing!
Cantaloupe, Sugarcube – 1/2 small personal – haven’t tried this yet
Tomatoes, slicer – 1 — I ended up with the larger of the two since mom got 2 of 3 beets and mine wasn’t quite ripe enough so it’s ripening on the counter.
Tomatoes, grape – 1/2 pint – we eat these daily in salads but I made the most amazing pasta with them this week and I’ll share the recipe soon!

Added

Curly Kale and Nectarines from the grocery. The Curly Kale is awesome but the Nectarines aren’t local and aren’t as ripe as they looked in the package, so they’re ripening on the counter, hopefully.

Results…

We were able to dwindle down our stores this week so we’re not so overloaded with only a few casualties. I’m learning that some types of vegetables or fruits need to be eaten first or we lose them. For example, Dragon Tongue Beans don’t last as long as standard Green Beans and we lost those. The peaches should have been refrigerated within a day because they got too ripe on the counter and we lost 3 to mold. Daggone it!

Even with the losses this week due to my incompetence, we aren’t close to the losses we’ve had when buying produce at the grocery that simply weren’t fresh when we bought them. I can’t tell you how many packages of mushrooms I’ve thrown away within days of getting them home, so much so that I now only buy mushrooms at a grocery where I can handpick for freshness rather than in a package. Same with potatoes. It’s amazing what rot is put on the shelves for consumers to bring home and it disgusts me to think about all the waste that’s getting thrown away, not just by the consumer, but by the grocer who can’t sell what they have to offer.

Being part of a farm share gives me more control, knowing the freshness is more discernible than when you don’t know how far your produce has traveled. Luckily for us the local produce in grocery stores is improving but if they don’t mark that they’re local and when they were picked, it’s hard to know just what you’re getting and how long it will last. My hope is that the local movement will continue to drive the importance of informing the consumer.

There is still human error and I’m not doing so great at preserving greens like I should be so that’s an area I need to improve upon.

What we still have or have used up from weeks 7, 8 and 9…

Blueberries – 1/2 pint – must use these soon
Peaches – 5 or 6 – 3 left   We lost 3 because I left them on the counter too long! Grrr, my fault!
Apricots – 1/2 pint – about 10 – Lost a couple, ate most of them, 2-3 left.
Cantaloupe – 1/2 huge one – we didn’t eat this fast enough — too ripe, so we lost 1/2 of the 1/2
Corn – 4 ears   Fixed the corn with the Summer Vegetables and Pasta – I’ll share the pasta recipe soon.
Broccoli – 1/2 head – landed in the Summer Vegetables and Pasta – I’ll share the pasta recipe soon.
Dragon Tongue Beans – 1/2 lb. – lost these because I forgot about them — bad Dorine!
Onion – 1/2 yellow – so perfect, still left
Hungarian Hot Peppers – 1 – Not hot, just flavorful — used with leftover red potatoes – recipe coming soon!
Green Peppers – 1 – if I don’t use this up in something, I’ll freeze it — have a bag of frozen peppers in the freezer constantly
Cucumbers – 1 – this cucumber wasn’t in the best of shape when I got it so it became a casualty – that’s a rarity and actually, it might have been an extra we weren’t supposed to get.
Green Onions – 1/2 bunch – 2 left, the rest went into the green beans and they were yummy.

Leek – 1 – Used it with pierogies and grilled with the turkey burgers this week — never used a leek that way before and it was quite good.
Red Onion – 1 – so pretty, waiting to be used in our pantry, maybe in a bean salad for a picnic this week.
Carrots – 3 – 1  used in salad, very sweet – storing the rest in the fridge
Swiss Chard – 1/2 bunch – I really have to do some preserving for soups this winter, must find time!
Cabbage – 1 HUGE purple one!  Still in the fridge waiting to be blanched and frozen. The outside leaves needed tossed but it still looks good
Red Potatoes – 2 pounds – we used the final tiny ones in skillet potatoes — will share recipe later
Guernsey Yogurt – 1 quart – used some on cucumbers with dill but still a lot left to eat this week.

It’s hard work keeping track of what we’ve used, lost and still have each week from our Vegetarian farm share from Fresh Fork Market, but it’s necessary in order to know whether this farm share experiment is working for us. It’s how I decide what we need to do to improve and it’s how I stay focused on eating healthy when it would be so much easier to grab a convenience food full of preservatives instead of the blueberries or cantaloupe that need to be eaten.

Just like, as I’m writing this and thinking I’d like to be lazy on a Sunday evening, but I know there are beautiful small red potatoes waiting to be used up, so we paired them with candy sweet onion, rosemary, garlic and the Hungarian pepper we weren’t sure we’d like. If I didn’t have all this produce calling to me, I might have cheated and opened a can of salty soup! Then I wouldn’t have realized the Hungarian pepper wasn’t hot, either. Much better this way for our health.

Are  you eating fresh and how are you doing with your food goals?

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