CSA Share

This is my CSA box for this week. I was so excited to see more peas, they were so good last week. And I really got excited when I got down into the box and saw the cucumbers. Nothing in the store can touch a home grown tomato or a cucumber. This week's box contained salad greens, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, lots of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peas, and zucchini. 

We have already gotten a couple of tomatoes over the past couple of weeks and to me, a ripe, home grown tomato is the sign of summer and all the delicious things that can be found in abundance from local gardens. That first tomato though, there is nothing like it. I made Greek Chicken, pitas and hummus for dinner one night last week. I had my pita stuffed with some chicken and hummus, and lettuce and tomato from the CSA. Biting into that tomato, the flavor of summer just danced on my tongue. 

Have a great weekend!

Raspberries

Last week I had 24 pints of blueberries, 3 gallons of strawberries and about 6 pints of raspberries to work with. I have already posted the blueberries and strawberries and will finish with the raspberries. I do love these berries too but rarely find them on sale cheap enough to make to ton of stuff. The same week the blueberries were on sale, I was able to get some raspberries too.  Samantha loves raspberries too and since I had so many other berries to work with, I washed the berries and measured them so that I could make jam with her when I was done with the strawberries.

In the photo above you can see (l-r) Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate, Raspberry Jam and a Mango-Raspberry Jam. They are all very tasty, but the one with the mango is just amazing. Another favorite jam! Our favorite way to enjoy the lemonade concentrates is to mix them with ginger ale. I have added them to plain water too, but the ginger ale is our favorite.

Samantha has been cooking with me at my house and at home with her Mom since she was just tiny. At 10, she is a pretty confident cook, understands kitchen safety and has quite the collection of her own kitchen supplies, including her own knives. She loves to try new recipes and was excited to make raspberry jam. Last summer, she made her first batch of jam and she was excited to be able to do it again this year. Since she loves raspberries so much, I saved that project for a day that she would be here with me. She is tall enough that she doesn't really need a stool anymore but when we are cooking with a deep pot, she uses one so that she is above the pot she is stirring so that she doesn't get burned. I supervise of course, but she understands the basics of making and canning jam now. After finishing she pronounced everything worthy of two thumbs up.

I swear I clean my stove! I normally have my water bath canner on the front burner there and I cook on the back burner. Samantha arms are long enough yet for that she when she is here I reverse it. After canning so many jars of berry products in just a few days, that front burner looks like that a lot, but I really do clean it!

Strawberries!

Strawberries have always been one of my all time favorite foods. I just love them.  I remember my Mom making me strawberry pies for my birthday when I was a little girl and a couple of times taking birthday cupcakes topped with strawberries to share with my friends at school. 

A couple of weeks ago I made some Strawberry Jam, some strawberry lemonade concentrate, some Strawberry Vanilla Jam and dehydrates some to use later in oatmeal and in granola. 

On Sunday afternoon a co-worked sent me a text letting me know he could get a good deal on some strawberries. He also asked if I could make him some jam if he bought all the supplies. In exchange, he picked up and delivered my berries to him and gave me a discount on them. I got two gallons of berries for myself and then he sent me another gallon to using in making his jam.

Three gallons of strawberries, washed, capped and sliced. When I run out of bowls, I often pull out my crock pots! They hold a lot, and don't take up as much room as another set of mixing bowls would since I already have the two crock pots on the shelf.

This is what I did with my strawberries: I made my friend a batch of strawberry jam and a batch of strawberry ginger ale jam and then for my pantry I made strawberry syrup, strawberry pie filling and the Maple Strawberry Smooch recipe from the Ball book. I hadn't planed on doing strawberry pie filling, but when I asked Kip if there was anything he wanted me to make that was his suggestion. And I am so glad I made it too!! It will be made here every year if I can, it is that yummy.

This was the Strawberry Vanilla Jam that I made a couple of weeks ago.

To finish my days of strawberry canning, I had strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream. I may have had this dessert more than once!

CSA Basket June 6

Thursdays are my CSA pickup days and this is what I got in this week's basket: summer squash, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries, two heads of lettuce, mesclun salad mix, onions, and peas. I love strawberries and the ones that I have gotten in this basket have been so tasty, but I think I was even more excited about the peas! I don't think I have ever had fresh peas before, at least I know that I have never cooked them before. I love peas though and did decide to grow some this year. 

We have already eaten some of the lettuce and tomatoes with last night's dinner. Since Thursdays are CSA pickup days I get home a little later than normal so I have been making Thursdays "sandwich night". It just makes it a little easier on me to make a quick dinner. Last night we had roast beef sandwiches on onion rolls and then I had some white cheddar cheese, made some horseradish mayo and lettuce and tomato from my basket.

The squash and the onions will probably end up in tonight's fried rice dinner, the strawberries will be eaten as snacks and with breakfast and the lettuce will make some fine salads. I am not sure about the peas yet, I haven't decided if some of them will also be in the fried rice or if I am just going to have a big bowl of peas for lunch today!

I think this is the fourth week of pick-ups with the new CSA and I have to say, I have been very happy with everything I have gotten. Switching farms wasn't a decision that I made lightly, but I really do think this was the best decision for us. The variety seems to be greater already and I am happy that this farm also included fruit in their baskets. 

Have a great weekend!

Grapefruit Marmalade

This was the first time that I have ever work for citrus for a canning project. I bought a case of grapefruit and a case of oranges. I love grapefruit so I decided to start with a Grapefruit Marmalade from the Ball book. 

I started by thinly peeling the grapefruit and the scraping away all of the white from the inside of the peel.

Then the peel was cut into small strips.

After that I followed the directions in the Ball book to make and then process the marmalade.

Final Product:

I decided that working with citrus really is a lot of work! I will probably do it again, but buying a much smaller quantity of citrus. I had a lot of it and every recipe that I made seemed to take me much longer than anything else I have made. I told Kip that this is liquid gold it took me so long to do! I made a few other citrus recipes from the same book and h ad mixed results. I canned some Crimson Honey Grapefruit that was supposed to stay in sections, but completely came apart on me. I don't know if is was a beginner error or what. They still tasted great and I eat them with breakfast, but it is definitely an eat with a spoon jar. Hopefully before citrus season rolls around again I will have found someone to give me some helpful hints.

Blueberry Days

Once a year Whole Foods has a one day only sale on organic California blueberries. It is a good enough sale to make me drive to one of the most congested places in Nashville. I love shopping over there, but there is never a good time for traffic in that area. Fortunately these sales happen on Fridays which happens to be a day off of work for me. 

I purchased two cases of berries, which is 24 pints. Most all of my blueberries that I will eat this year will come from these two cases. If you have looked here before, you have seen pictures of my blueberry bushes. This is the first year that they have produced any fruit, and while I have a bunch of clusters of berries there will be enough to snack on, but not enough to preserve in any way. I can't wait to snack on them though. Something about growing them myself makes it so much sweeter.

I had already decided what recipes I wanted to make this year. For some reason last year, I made way to much blueberry jam so I was set there. I did however want to try making a blueberry lime jam. I made a batch of that and blueberry syrup, blueberry butter and several jars of blueberry pie filling. I also have four pints of berries that I froze to be added into muffins, pancakes, yogurt or whatever recipe I happen to come across.

Oh yeah. and blueberries will stain your counters!

I also found raspberries on sale and as soon as I finish them, I will do a post with my jars of raspberries.

CSA Basket and a recipe

In this week's basket, we received two kinds of lettuce, some mint, a bag of spinach leaves, onions, strawberries and kale. I know I will be making a strawberry spinach salad this week, these strawberries are delicious.  I had planned on buying eggs when I picked up my share this week, but I forgot to take cash with me so I will have to wait until next week to get my fresh eggs. 

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Dressing:

2 tablespoons of poppy seeds

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar (or white vinegar)

1 tablespoon minced onion

1/4 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients together. I usually add everything to a mason jar then add a lid and shake it to mix it all together. It is easy to pour and then store in the fridge. 

Salad:

10 - 12 ounces fresh spinach leaves torn into pieces

1 quart of strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Combine all the salad ingredients into a bowl. You can pour the dressing over the entire salad and serve or let each person add their own at the table. I normally make extra salad for our lunches the next day so I don't usually dress the entire salad because it tends to not be as good the next day. If we have people over and know that it will probably be eaten, I do go ahead and dress the entire salad.

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First CSA basket of the Season!

This is my third year of begin part of a CSA***. I changed farms this year and was very excited for our first pick up this year. This week the basket contained: a head of Cherokee Red lettuce, a head of Jericho Lettuce, a head of bok choy, strawberries, lemon balm, onions, maple syrup, along with a letter from the farmer. I sampled a little bit of everything except the lemon balm. I could not be happier the the appearance or the taste of the items in my basket.

I love to make stir fry and I know that is where the bok choy and some of the onions will be used. Most of the time when I make a stir fry I leave them vegetarian and serve with some rice and maybe some hot and sour soup. I think they make a great dinner choice towards the end of the week when I have a hodge podge of leftovers in the fridge. Here is the recipe for my basic stir fry:

Stir Fry

1-2 cups of chopped bok choy or chinese cabbage

1 cup small broccoli florets

1/2 cup onions

1 small zucchini, cubed

1 small squash, cubed

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Heat oil in a large pan, and then add onions. Cook the onions for just a couple of minutes and then add the rest of the vegetables and cook until vegetables are tender crisp. 

Really you can add almost anything else to the pot that you like. Depending on that I have on hand, I like to add peas, some water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, some chicken or pork, or anything else that sounds good that night. 

***If you aren't familiar with a CSA: A CSA (consumer supported agriculture) works when a farmer offers a number of "shares" of his produce. The shares range from 1/2 a bushel to a full bushel  of various items. The customer pays a portion or the full amount prior to the season starting to help offset the costs of seeds, greenhouse supplies, repairs to equipment and other farm related expenses in exchange for a weekly share of the farmers produce. The farmer has money upfront to offset his planting costs and knows that he has a market for that amount of produce. The produce that is in each weeks basket changes to reflect what is in season at that time and tend to be pretty generous. Often there will also be additional items that can be purchased at the CSA pickup site such as eggs. Both of the CSAs have provided newsletters, emails or have a Facebook group where they will also share recipes, which is great when you have something in your basket that you aren't that familiar with. Like lemon balm! Lemon balm added to a simple syrup makes an awesome sweetener for iced tea.

In my experience I have found the CSA to be a positive thing. I think my food dollars go a little bit further, especially since I try to buy organic produce. I love the variety of food that I get. I know its fresh since it is picked the morning of the day that I get it, it is local and I am eating what is in season. The flavor of the foods cannot be beat. Even now that I am growing some of my own food, I appreciate the having access to things that I do not grow.

After two years with one farm, I did decide to make a change this year for many reasons. It wasn't a decision I made lightly but I think I made a good choice for our food dollars. One of the reasons I wanted to switch was that this one includes some fruit in their baskets. The pickup is also more convenient for me. There were other reasons too, and I think I will be very happy with this CSA.

Future Food Update

I thought I would do a post to show my gardening progress. The photo above is my lettuce and some carrots that are growing in my community garden plot. I went and worked over there for a couple of hours yesterday and took a couple of pictures before I started weeding. The lettuce looks great and the samples that I ate tasted awesome. There is also some spinach to the lest of the lettuce that I didn't get in the frame. This is the first time I have grown any of of these things. The carrots are sprouting their green tops and growing pretty well.

These are my raspberry and blueberry bushes. I planted these last year and thought that they had died over the winter but they surprised me how quickly they leafed out and started blooming. This is also my first time growing blueberries and raspberries.

And a close up of the blueberries that I am so proud of!

Here are some of the strawberries I am growing too, they are also blooming and I am starting to see berries form on some of the plants. 

In the box that Kip built me, I have some more carrots and two different types of peas. First time growing peas too! 

I am so excited to be growing so many different things. Digging in the dirt really makes me happy. I love my plot at the community garden too, most times when I go there, someone else is either there or will stop by to chat. Last night after we finished working in one of the plots, one of the other gardeners and I sat around and talked for over an hour. We talked about gardening, canning, dehydrating, bees, organic heirloom seed companies and pretty much anything else we could think of to talk about. One of the reasons I was so happy to find a community garden to be a part of, of course, was the opportunity to grow more food, but I was hoping to make some new friends with some common interests. Both goals have been achieved!

Have a great weekend!

Pickled Asparagus

I absolutely love pickled asparagus. A friend had me over for lunch a few years ago and she served some with lunch. I was hooked with that first bite. When I went to find my own jars, I found out how expensive and tiny those little jars could be. When I started canning again last year, I looked for recipes to can my own. Fortunately I was able to find one. I had already missed the season where the asparagus was at it's cheapest, so I made a small batch last year. I only pulled it out for special occasions! 

This year I was watching the asparagus every week when I went to the store and as soon as it went on sale below a dollar a bunch, I bought quite a bit of it.  We really liked the Taste of Home recipe that I used last year so I made that again. I made enough this year that I don't have to hide it as much as I did last year!

I was very happy when I went to visit my Mom a couple of weeks ago. My parents are canners too but they use mostly pints and quart jars. Mom picks up jars all the time at yard sales and I told her to be on the lookout for jelly jars for me. She went to a sale and found a dozen Ball half pint jars and then another dozen of these Ball pint and a half jars. These are the jars that I really like to use for the asparagus so I was very happy when she shared her find.