Summer Farm Share Living Begins!

Summer Farm Share Living begins! Our third summer with Fresh Fork Market’s farm share buying club has become a way of life. Life before the farm share is a distant memory. Maybe that’s because I really hate grocery shopping and farm share living has reduced that to a minor event. I love not having to think about what to buy. It’s an adventure figuring out how to use our share creatively each week. If you’re bored with cooking meals for your family then a farm share may spice things up a bit for you.

Summer share started the last week of May, so we’ve been enjoying it for four weeks. The progression of veggies and fruits always entertains me. If you look at the photos closely, you’ll see what I mean. The variety explodes by the fourth week. It is by far my favorite. Once again, we’re sharing the weekly produce with my parents, so it’s working well for a family of four.

Week 1 is mostly green except for the welcome Ohio strawberries with some prepared foods such as yogurt and speltberries.

Week 2 – we opted for Omnivore because we love these pork chops. The ground beef is always good for sloppy joes, another favorite.

Week 3 – the strawberries and zucchini were favorites this week, but it’s hard to resist that cute cauliflower. Krispie Treat Granola is a fun extra we discovered.

Week 4 – by far the favorite for the color and variety. If only every share week could be this exciting!

RESULTS…

We opted for the Omnivore share for the winter, but I get so excited about the fresh veggies that we’re doing mostly Vegetarian for summer. With a lot of meat frozen from winter, we really don’t need more right now. I might feel differently later in the season when I’m overwhelmed by veggies, but for now I welcome the mayhem.

The first week was filled with green. I don’t think we’ve touched the eggs because we ate so many all winter long. There is nothing like Ohio strawberries so they were the first thing to go each week. We love the liquidy yogurt as a sauce over the strawberries. It’s like strawberries and cream without the guilt. The asparagus and zucchini were great simmered in a pan. I can’t have too much of either one.

The second week we went Omnivore since we’re not fans of making our own pizza. The pork chops were delicious using this recipe with apples. We used some leftover apples from the winter share that have stored nicely in my Rubbermaid crispers that you can find at several stores including Amazon. I didn’t have a fresh onion, so I substituted a medley of onion, celery and garlic I had frozen for stock. I didn’t have cider either, so I substituted vegetable broth. Delicious and definitely a new favorite! The strawberries and the broccoli were gone almost before they landed in our kitchen.

Week three brought us beets, my mom’s favorite. The cauliflower was so tender simmered in some vegetable broth. It was the accompaniment to the pork chops from week two. I discovered a new extra, Krispie Treat Granola, that tastes like cookies. It lands in my yogurt every morning, or in the evening on top of the strawberries and satisfies my sweet tooth.

We were on the road a lot in June. We had a weekend with our grandchildren, then our niece’s graduation in Michigan. That left a lot of veggies wondering when we were going to eat them. The greens were a loss and my fault. I just couldn’t wrap my head around food prep around the chaos of travel days and getting the plants I purchased potted up or in the ground. Still working on that this week!

Week four finds us with a few leftovers from previous weeks and an amazing bounty for this week. By far my favorite week, the cherries were gone in two days. My excuse? You can’t leave fresh fruit in the refrigerator or it will rot. Eat it fast to enjoy the peak of flavor. Mom took off with the cabbage and we split everything else. The cabbages are so huge so we take turns keeping one. We were traveling again this week so I’m behind on getting the share put up or eaten. I think some veggies on the grill will make us happy this weekend, especially with those beautiful spring onions and the one leftover garlic scape from a previous week. Aren’t those snap peas interesting? I don’t think we’ve had those before so it will be fun to try them.

One of the things I love about Fresh Fork Market is their newsletter every week describing our share. There are always ideas on how to use the share, as well as links to recipes. I don’t always use the recipes, but it sure is helpful to have them when I need them.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the season so far. It feels good to focus on veggies fresh from the farm!

What has your fork been up to?

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