Winter Farm Share Week 3 – tart Apples
Although Winter Farm Share Week 3 brings us many delights, it’s the tart apples bursting with flavor that excite me. Many winter share weeks we receive a different variety of apple and I can’t wait to taste each one. We aren’t always told the names so I called these speckled apples because they’re greenish yellow with speckled brown marks and sometimes a hint of rose toward their stem. It’s possible the real name is Goldrush, which seams appropriate. They have the most amazing flavor. As you bite into them, they’re sweet with a flash of tart like sucking on a lemon. They’re also very hard and crunchy and a bit more sour at first. As they ripen on the counter in the wire basket I use for apples, they become sweeter and less tart. I enjoy any kind of apple but a tart sweet is my favorite.
Week 3 of our Winter Omnivore farm share included (featured photo at the top of this post)…
Broccoli – 1 head
Pinto Beans – 2 lb.
Cauliflower – 1 head
Daikon radishes – 3
Carrots – 1 lb.
Kale – 1 bunch
Apples – quarter peck
Beets – 1 bunch without leaves
Ohio City Pasta – Butternut Squash and Sage Linguini – 1 lb.
Ground Beef – 1 lb. – gave this to my parents and we kept the ham hock.
Ham Hock – 1
My half of the share (above photo), plus extras, and how we used it.
Broccoli – 1/2 head – this is stored in the fridge for steaming later.
Pinto Beans – 1 lb. – landed in the pantry for later.
Cauliflower – 1/2 head – landed in potluck with other veggies and rice.
Daikon radishes – 2 smaller ones – these store nicely. They spice up a soup so they’ll probably be used in one or roasted.
Carrots – 1/2 lb. – I love steaming these, then adding some butter and dill.
Kale – 1/2 bunch – I’m about Kale’d out so I’m not sure when this will be used.
Apples – 1/8 peck – lovely yellow speckled apples that I eat like candy, possibly called Goldrush will be gone by the next week.
Beets – 3 small – in the fridge for later.
Ohio City Pasta – Butternut Squash and Sage Linguini – 1/2 lb. put in the freezer for later.
Ham Hock – 1 -reserving in the freezer for some bean soup.
Milk – 1/2 gallon 2% added – we really love this milk for cereal. It’s a bit more buttery than store-bought milk.
RESULTS…(week of November 14).
This week was the second part of our travel so we didn’t pick up this share until the end of the week. That cuts our use time before picking up the next pile of veggies by about three days, so much of this gets pushed off until the next week. Only one more week of picking up the farm share weekly, then we go to every other week with Thanksgiving in-between.
Let me just point out this gorgeous lime green cauliflower. It stays pretty green when it cooks – small, but very tasty. It landed in a pot luck the first week of December so it kept well.
I also have to point out these crazy purple aka blue potatoes. This is Mr. Carnivore’s plate the night I served these from Week 2 with salmon patties. Blue Potatoes have to be the most full-flavored potato I’ve ever tasted. Fresh-from-the-ground potatoes are amazing if you you’ve never had them. They lose some of their flavor in transit to the grocery so if you get a chance to nab some fresh potatoes, do it! Blue potatoes are pretty ugly prepared so you have to get past that strangeness to enjoy the taste but it’s worth it.
Check out the pile of olives and pickles on Mr. Carnivore’s plate. And the ketchup. These habits make me giggle because they’ve been going on as long as I’ve known him. No matter how much or how little I fix for dinner, the olives, pickles and often, ketchup, land on his plate. He’s rubbing off on me because sometimes those olives and pickles land on my plate as well. He asks me every night if I want some so to be polite I must say yes once in a while, right? HA
I like winter farm share better than summer for many reasons. The most stand-out reason is that cauliflower and broccoli are fresher and keep longer than any we get in the summer share. I don’t notice as strong a flavor, but I don’t have to use them up immediately because they’ll keep for up to 2 weeks and sometimes 3, if I dry them well before bagging them.
That’s probably my number one reason for loving winter share — the fact that I don’t have to rush to use up the veggies immediately, or get them into the freezer. Most of what we receive will store well without much fuss. I like that more relaxed pace. Besides, I really prefer these types of veggies.
The only thing I really miss from Summer is the variety of fruit. Good thing I love apples so much!
