CSA Farm Share Experiment Week Six

In week six of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm share program with Fresh Fork Market, we’ve switched from the Vegan share to the Vegetarian share. We really like their pasture raised eggs that come in the Vegetarian share. I was raised on farm-fresh eggs and I’ve missed them. I remember taking my great-grandmother to the farm where we picked up her eggs each month. She’d sometimes get several dozen because she loved to bake. Knowing where and how my food comes to me feels like getting back to my roots. Realistically, a family of four can eat all those greens in the Vegan share but we’re just not that good at it yet. We’re Flexitarians, so we need a bit more flexibility with our protein until we learn to focus better on our greens.

We skipped week five as the four of us were traveling too much so we’ll pick up that share sometime this month. We split our share between two couples because we’re just learning how to keep up with eating what’s currently available locally. We can choose to take two bags, or choose the products we want as the extra share to make up for our week off, but I don’t know how we’ll do that until we decide to do it. I love the ability to take a break because sometimes we’re running from one event to another in the summer and have no time to eat our farm share. I did take some of it with us, too, so we’re learning to make it work with our schedule.

I have to compliment the farmers who provide our share through Fresh Fork Market. This year it has constantly rained and stormed. It has been one gloomy, wet, messy day after another. I’ve had trouble getting my own plants into the ground, as well as keeping up with the weeds (NOT), so I’m so impressed with the quality of what we receive each week. Keep up the great work – you are very much appreciated and admired for your hard work!

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

Cauliflower – 2 small heads
Kholrabi – 1 purple head
Candy Sweet onion – 1
Swiss Chard – 1 bunch
Beets – 1 bunch
Green Onions – 1 bunch
Blueberries – 1 pint
Cherries – sweet – 1 pint
Zucchini – 2
Cucumber – 2
Eggs – pasture raised – 1 dozen
Leaf Lettuce – 1 head

My half of the Vegetarian small share this week and what’s left since Wednesday…

Cauliflower – 1 small head – this is gorgeous!
Kholrabi – 1/2 purple head – so strange seeing purple outside but white inside
Candy Sweet onion – 1 – I gave this to my parents as I already had one
Swiss Chard – 1/2 bunch – small and tender – beautiful
Beets – 1/2 bunch – 2 beets and leaves stored separately — anyone ever eat beet greens?
Green Onions – 1/2 bunch
Blueberries – 1/2 pint
Cherries – sweet – 1/2 pint – these are amazing and we eat them instantly.
Zucchini – 1
Cucumber – 1
Eggs – pasture raised – 1 dozen – I got the full dozen this week – woo hoo!
Leaf Lettuce – 1/2 head

Week four results…

Broccoli – 1/2 head – used in a garlic scape stir fry. Recipe to come soon!
Kale – curly – 1/2 bunch – we used this in a salad with some baby lettuce. Favorite Kale ever! It stayed so fresh and beautiful and the taste was amazing.
Lettuce – Romaine – 1/2 head – used up in salads
Swiss Chard 1/2 bunch – need to do something with this!
Bok Choy – 1 head – not sure if this will get used in time because I forgot to take it with us this weekend!
Beets – 2 – need to eat these – yes, Mel, don’t shake your head at me! hee hee
Cherries – 1/2 pint – Rainier? – Mr. Carnivore ate most of these so I’d say he liked them and I didn’t get any *pout*
Zucchini- 1 – used in a garlic scape stir fry.
Cucumbers – 1 – used in our salads
Garlic Scapes – used some with green beans, a little bit left. Not sure what they are or what to do with them? Check out this great article at The Dyer Family Organic Farm blog. I used 2 in a recipe I’ll share soon! Love them and we bought some more to freeze for later.
Green Beans – 1/2 lb – These were delicious. Enjoyed them in a Garlic Scape stir-fry for a couple days.
Kohlrabi – 1/2 bulb – 3/4 of the 1/2 bulb left  the leftovers may go to Kohlrabi heaven because this week has been more running than cooking!

Overall, both families are really pleased with this farm share program. It would take a lot of work on our part to source these goods at farmers’ markets on our own. It’s so easy to pick up our share that’s chilled and waiting for us in our bag. The staff are so accommodating as well. I highly recommend Fresh Fork Market to anyone in the Akron/Cleveland area who is looking to change the way they think about food.

Also, we do add other vegetables and fruit each week to our farm share. Not a lot, but we do supplement. For example, we might add some potatoes and almost always get bananas and more fruit of some sort such as blueberries, strawberries, etc… This week we added 3 quarts of strawberries and 1 pint of blueberries. We shared those with a family of four for breakfast, at lunch and sometimes as a snack over four days. I find that if we have some fresh fruit cut up and ready, we’re more apt to snack less on pretzels or something else salty. We added in some peppers, onions, a seedless cucumber for our salads and some hothouse grown tomatoes for slicing on sandwiches for this coming week. We haven’t eaten any purchased canned or frozen vegetables for several weeks and our canned soup consumption is down to an all time low. We’ve discovered that we feel better with less processed foods and our health is the whole reason we’re pushing so hard to change the way we think about food.

What about you — what changes have you made to your diet this year to eat healthy?

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