Frozen and Fresh – Winter Farm Share Week 7

Frozen and Fresh aptly describes this week’s Winter Farm share. I love getting the root crops but the frozen veggies were a welcome sight. They’re easy and it gives me a chance to use up the fresh overflowing in my fridge. I immediately thought about soup so that’s on the menu this week. To add to our farm share, we got some eggs, yogurt and some more of those lovely canned peaches from Fresh Fork Market.

Week 7 our small Vegetarian farm share included (featured photo at top of this post is full vegetarian share)…

Frozen Vegetarian Lasagna – for ingredients, see this page at Fresh Fork Market.
Flat Rock Cheese (recouped from last week)
Candied Jalapeno Peppers (canned) 1/2 pint
tomato sauce (canned) 1 pint
Beets – 3 – 2 pounds
Potatoes – red – 3 pounds
Onions (candy sweet) – 2 pounds
Bosc Pears – 3
Apples -3 – we got a choice to get apples or pears this week so I asked for a little of both.
Leeks – 1 bunch equals 8 small leeks
Frozen Corn – 1 pint
Frozen Blueberries – (2 instead of 1 to replace Acorn Squash missing last week) 1 pint
Frozen Tomatoes – 1 quart
Frozen Green Beans – 1 quart
Black Beans (missing – will get next week) – 1 pound

My half of the Vegetarian small share Week 7 (above photo) and what’s left since Friday, January 15, 2016…notice that it rounds out to half fresh and half frozen/canned.

Frozen Vegetarian Lasagna – mom has this for our upcoming shared dinner for the four of us.
Flat Rock Cheese (recouped from last week) – 1/2 – I found my cheese grater so I’ll be grating this to use on pasta
Candied Jalapeno Peppers (canned) – none of us are brave enough to eat these so they’re going to my sister and brother-in-law who love hot stuff.
Tomato Sauce (canned) – not sure if we’ll do pasta or chili or what with this, but it looks yummy and will be shared between the four of us
Beets – 3 – mom is going to make this for one of our shared dinner nights – beets aren’t my thing but Mr. Carnivore will be happy.
Potatoes – red – Mr. Carnivore will jump for joy over these — he loves red skin potatoes.
Onions (Candy sweet) – I love getting these and we had one already in our pasta tonight. Sweet and mild – quite tasty.
Pears – 3 – I love pears so I kept these
Apples – 3 – my parents took these
Leeks – 4 – might be real good with the potatoes for leek and potato soup
Frozen Corn – this looks awesome so anxious to try
Frozen Blueberries – I’m anxious to see how these work in my oatmeal
Frozen Tomatoes –  I froze these in two sections so I could throw them in a couple different meals if I want.
Frozen Green Beans – these were gorgeous so I’m anxious to try.
Black Beans (missing – will get next week)

Added

Eggs – 1 dozen for each family
Vanilla Yogurt – our household
Peaches – our household

RESULTS…

It was challenging to split the share this week because it’s the first time we’ve received frozen vegetables. We weren’t real sure what to do since both families wanted to try everything. It ended up a real simple solution. We semi-defrosted the veggies in the microwave, enough so that we could easily slice or break them in half, then repackage them. Doesn’t take any more or less time than dealing with fresh vegetables, just different. If we weren’t splitting our share it would be a time saver. Next time I’ll split them as soon as I get home because they’re already a little defrosted, instead of waiting until the next day.

I try to keep my menu planning centered around our Farm Share but I do add to it from our freezer, our pantry or the grocery. It keeps Mr. Carnivore happy if we have variety, especially if we’re not going out to dinner very often where he can make his own choices. I’m limited on what I can have for health reasons so I cook mostly what I can have, knowing Mr. Carnivore will benefit from the healthy eating, too.

This week at the grocery we added some ham-off-the-bone and Colby-Jack cheese for sandwiches, plus some cluster vine tomatoes and lettuce. We have sandwiches for lunch or dinner 2-3 times a week, so I usually freeze part of what we buy since we won’t use it up within the week. That way if we’re in the mood for sandwiches, I can always find something in the freezer. We’ve been adding lettuce and tomato on our sandwiches so we squeeze in some more veggies and Mr. Carnivore always makes sure we have pickles and olives. Since soup is on the menu and lean beef for stew was on sale at our local neighborhood grocery, we added that for our meal planning. Five dollars for stew meat goes a long way in a big pot of soup.

Other weekly purchases usually made at the grocery include cereal, milk and bananas, plus a few snacks. Bananas are the only fruit I miss by participating in a farm share, so we do buy approximately two bunches weekly. I also always get some type of leafy green plus tomatoes or cucumber for salads. I find that I feel my best if I’m consistently eating salads/fruit at least 5 days a week. We also pick up Crimini/Baby Bella mushrooms and fresh garlic as needed for flavoring.

I used up some of the broccoli I froze last month in a pasta dish I like to make on the weekends. We love the frozen Vegetarian Ravioli we get at our organic market, so I usually have one or two of those in the freezer for an easy vegetarian dinner. I make my own sauce with extra virgin olive oil, mushrooms, onions, garlic and some Feta or Parmesan cheese. We added in the steamed broccoli this time instead of roasted tomatoes. It’s a super fast dinner with just as many vegetables as pasta. This time our ravioli was stuffed with cheese and pine nuts which added some great flavor.

As I’m typing this I’m working on a big pot of Beef Vegetable Soup, a favorite winter meal. This turns out different every time I make it based on what we have fresh, frozen, dried and canned. Tonight I added in some of those beautiful Red Potatoes above, part of the frozen Tomatoes, Corn and Green Beans from this week’s share, Carrots from a previous weeks’ farm share, Celery purchased from the grocery that needed to be used up, plus many more herbs and seasonings. I took pictures so I can share the recipe in the future.

I’m sure we’ll roast some veggies in the next couple days because we have a pile of Brussels Sprouts to use up. Mom told me about a wonderful Brussels Sprouts salad she made so I’ll point to that recipe as soon as she shares where she got it. We also have a night planned to dine with my parents to try out the Vegetarian Lasagna and the Baked apples in a previous share. Those are fun nights of card playing so it’s a good excuse to dine together, too. We’re planning on sharing the tomato sauce one night, but since it’s canned we can store that in the pantry for quite some time.

So that’s where we’re at since Friday. I may be switching my pick-up days back to Wednesday because it’s taking us 1.5 hours round trip to get to our Friday pick-up location due to rush hour traffic and inclement weather. I like Fridays better for timing but that 1.5 hour trip gets on my nerves when I know I still have to make dinner, take photos and then put all the produce away. Besides, my Wednesday pick-up location is close to an Organic cafe and market, of which I miss visiting. Maybe that’s the answer — eat out organically, then pick up the food! HA Sounds like a viable excuse to get out of cooking for one night, right?

What has your fork been up to?

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