We spent a week and a bit on the road, visiting my parents - and now, we're back! It's good to be home for many reasons, but perhaps the most relevant one here is that it's CSA day. Yum, veggies.
My parents mostly accommodated our semi-vegetarian eating habits, but there was still more meat and more vacation treats than necessary. Plus I missed my kitchen! My mom also likes cooking, which means that every time I tried to prepare something, she came to help - or intervened and offered to do it. It's good to go do things in my kitchen when I want to... and to know where everything is.
So this morning, it was off to market as usual on a Saturday. But one unusual thing is the size of our farm share this week. You see, our farm will allow us to set a "vacation hold" and choose a week later in the season to receive a double share. Effectively, this means we got last week's box *and* this week's box today. And what a good week it is for a double! This week's offering is fabulous, but the results of our double are overwhelming. This picture contains two heads of lettuce, two pints of blueberries, two heads of pointed cabbage, two containers of green beans, two bunches of garlic scapes, two bunches of kale, and six cucumbers. Did I mention only the two of us live here? The cats are not great at helping with things like cabbage.
Despite this sheer volume of veggies, we also had to pick up a few other things. That cabbage means it's coleslaw time again, so we got a couple of carrots and some more salad turnips to go with it. The seafood vendor was also at market this week, so it was salmon time.
Karen suggested that it might be a good week to share our strategies for storing all this fabulous produce. I wish I had some sort of magic trick, but it's very simple: we use green bags. We keep them fastened with bag clips from Ikea. Then we try to get all the bags in the fridge. The trick is to keep the air of the refrigerator away from your veggies as much as possible. We like green bags because when they're empty, you can rinse and reuse them. (The package suggests you can use each bag 20 times. We have used ours for considerably longer.) You can also wrap greens in a wet cloth (cotton or linen) for storage, but the same trick applies - try to keep the veggies away from the air of the fridge. (Thanks are due to our CSA farmer for that tip!)
Berries are the exception - they go in a plastic fruit storage container, but any glass or plastic container that seals will work fine.
So, what's the menu this week?
Breakfasts: yogurt and blueberries
Lunch: salads on yummy fresh lettuce (with cucumber, tomato, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and chickpeas)
Dinners: lentil sloppy joes (modified from Simply Quinoa) with coleslaw; salmon with green beans and corn on the cob; pasta with homemade pesto
We're gathering with friends next Friday, and I plan to make these baked egg rolls. They take a little bit of work, but they are delicious, freeze well, and also make a great snack. I'm also hoping I can convince another friend we're dining with this week to let us bring along a nice blueberry cobbler, made with berries we froze before our travels.
My parents mostly accommodated our semi-vegetarian eating habits, but there was still more meat and more vacation treats than necessary. Plus I missed my kitchen! My mom also likes cooking, which means that every time I tried to prepare something, she came to help - or intervened and offered to do it. It's good to go do things in my kitchen when I want to... and to know where everything is.
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| Hello, veggies! |
Despite this sheer volume of veggies, we also had to pick up a few other things. That cabbage means it's coleslaw time again, so we got a couple of carrots and some more salad turnips to go with it. The seafood vendor was also at market this week, so it was salmon time.
Karen suggested that it might be a good week to share our strategies for storing all this fabulous produce. I wish I had some sort of magic trick, but it's very simple: we use green bags. We keep them fastened with bag clips from Ikea. Then we try to get all the bags in the fridge. The trick is to keep the air of the refrigerator away from your veggies as much as possible. We like green bags because when they're empty, you can rinse and reuse them. (The package suggests you can use each bag 20 times. We have used ours for considerably longer.) You can also wrap greens in a wet cloth (cotton or linen) for storage, but the same trick applies - try to keep the veggies away from the air of the fridge. (Thanks are due to our CSA farmer for that tip!)
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| A veggie filled fridge is a happy fridge. |
Berries are the exception - they go in a plastic fruit storage container, but any glass or plastic container that seals will work fine.
So, what's the menu this week?
Breakfasts: yogurt and blueberries
Lunch: salads on yummy fresh lettuce (with cucumber, tomato, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and chickpeas)
Dinners: lentil sloppy joes (modified from Simply Quinoa) with coleslaw; salmon with green beans and corn on the cob; pasta with homemade pesto
We're gathering with friends next Friday, and I plan to make these baked egg rolls. They take a little bit of work, but they are delicious, freeze well, and also make a great snack. I'm also hoping I can convince another friend we're dining with this week to let us bring along a nice blueberry cobbler, made with berries we froze before our travels.
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