Vegetarian Pilot – Winter Farm Share Week 6

We are enjoying the Vegetarian Pilot with Fresh Fork Market and it’s hard to believe we’re into week 6 of our Farm Share. I have to admit that I’m loving the chef prepared entrees the most. It’s nice to taste something different without having to make it yourself. I still love photo day with the vegetables and fruit – I get so giddy about all the fresh items – but it’s those homemade frozen or canned items that I can’t  wait to dive into because I don’t have to think! It’s making me consider a bigger freezer so that we can do some of these prepared meals ourselves. I especially appreciate them on Farm Share pick-up day because it takes some time to prep everything, do a photo shoot, then divide everything so my parents can get their share, and then put it all away. I’m usually ready to sit by that time, so shoving something in the oven to be enjoyed with a salad is a blessing.

I’m actually thinking that I might like to try my hand at some canning, too, this year. Not anything grandiose, just a few canned goods when we have extras. I’ve never been a huge fan of canning because of childhood memories of canning up a storm in the heat of the summer with no air conditioning. It also seems rather complicated compared to freezing so I’ve been taking the lazy route! HA But, that said, I really think it’s time to dive into canning this summer since I do have central air and can make my kitchen an iceberg if I want. 😀 If I have a surplus of cucumbers I’ll really be tempted to can pickles so that might convince me. Oh, and tomatoes and maybe some other pickled vegetables and let’s not forget applesauce! Here we go, I’m convincing myself without any help…Back from dreaming and onto what happened last week!

Week 6 our small Vegetarian farm share included (featured photo at top of this post is a one half share)…

Ratatouille – 1 quart
Baked Apples – frozen
Sauerkraut – 1 quart
Flat Rock Cheese (missing so we’ll get it next time)
Celeriac – 1 bulb without the leaves
Kale – 1 bunch of curly
Brussel Sprouts – 2 stalks
Carrots – 1 pound
Onion – 1
Sweet Potatoes – 2 pounds ended up being 2 large
Bosc Pears – Quarter Peck
Cabbage – 1 head of red
Acorn Squash – 2 (one was missing so we’ll get it this week)

My half of the Vegetarian small share Week 6 (above photo) and what’s left since Friday, January 1, 2016…

Ratatouille – 1 quart
Baked Apples – frozen – my parents have this for a night we’ll have dinner together
Sauerkraut – 1 quart – gave to my parents
Flat Rock Cheese (missing so we’ll get it next time)
Celeriac – 1 bulb without the leaves – it looks pretty knarly so it will be interesting to see what it’s like inside when I cut it up for soup.
Kale – 1/2 bunch of curly – we used some of this in a Chicken Noodle Skillet recipe I made, as well as in a salad. Still have a couple stalks left.
Brussel Sprouts – 1 stalk – this ended up being a gallon size storage bag full of sprouts. I’m going to roast them.
Carrots – 1/2 pound – these are being stored. I used last week’s carrots in a roasted Chicken Tender recipe I made up.
Onion – 1 – this is stored in a cupboard.
Sweet Potatoes – 1 pounds ended up being 1 large – we baked this right away as it looked like it wouldn’t store well. Delicious!
Bosc Pears – 4 pears need to be eaten soon!
Cabbage – 1 head of red – gave this to my parents as I knew I couldn’t use it fast enough
Acorn Squash – one was missing so I gave this one to my parents since I had one in the refrigerator. We’ll get one this coming Friday.

RESULTS…

I was out of town on food pick-up day so my mom and dad picked up our share. That meant we got our part of the share 5 days later but everything still looked really good. The kale got a bit wilted because I didn’t store it the way I normally do when I got home, but I was able to revive it a couple days later with an ice water bath. The featured photo at the top is my half of our share. I gave a lot to my parents this time because I knew I wouldn’t be able to use it up quick enough. We went out of town unexpectedly, so I still had a lot leftover from the last share pick-up, including some that I had to throw out like the Collard Greens. I was too tired from traveling to do a full share photo shoot so you’re getting the abbreviated version this time.

We joined my parents one night to have our shared feast from Week 5, including the frozen Acorn Squash entree and the canned peaches. I made some flounder to go with it and another frozen entree from Sam’s Club that is a Hawaiian mix of Quinoa and vegetables. It was an easy dinner before we played cards. My parents really liked the Acorn Squash entree but it didn’t seem to have enough seasoning for my taste. I did enjoy the combination of texture but the flavor didn’t excite my taste buds. The peaches hit my hot button and I wish I would have brought the leftovers home with me to go into my oatmeal for breakfast. I’ve become addicted to Peaches and Cream Oatmeal from Quaker Oats so I’m looking forward to making that happen with Farm Share items this summer.

The rest of this week we’ve been enjoying casserole type dinners that I can put together easily with Mr. Carnivore’s help. After racking up my knee in a fall on Sunday, I’m not keen on standing in the kitchen very long to do much messing around. The picture above is of the vegetable mix I put together and then roast it all with chicken on top. I usually use thighs (recipe coming soon) but this time I used chicken tenders and it was done much faster. This gave us a chance to use up some vegetables in an easy meal that Mr. Carnivore could assist with — he’s a great washer and chopper!

A couple days later, after we ran out of Chicken Vegetable Casserole, we made a Chicken Noodle Skillet Casserole (recipe coming soon), using up some Kale and Onions from the Farm Share, then adding in some purchased fresh Mushrooms and some frozen Peas. I cheated this time and used some canned Chicken Breast and canned Cream of Mushroom soup that I keep in the pantry for lazy days. I figured I qualified for lazy with a bum knee! 😀 It was certainly better and cheaper than getting take out. Besides, I think Chicken Noodle Casserole is such good comfort food when you’re not feeling up to par.

Also, the bread was amazing from Week 5. I froze the broccoli because I didn’t have time to fix it before we left.

I’m so excited to pick up week seven’s share as rumor has it Chef Parker has made us Vegetable Lasagna! Woo hoo! And frozen Blueberries! Love those in my oatmeal! I can’t imagine going back to the life of shopping for food every week. All we have to do now is pop into the grocery for a few things that takes 15 minutes. I’m loving it!

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