CSA Box: week 7

It is sweet corn time in Wisconsin. Huge signs at every road side farm stand, poster board signs at the end of farm driveways, piles of it. It comes for only a few weeks, so we try to stock up enough to freeze for the winter. We love getting it in our CSA box too - so fresh and sweet you can practically eat it raw.

In the box this week: sweet corn, turnips, beets, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, head lettuce, onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes, slicing tomato, nasturtium blossoms.


Extras this week: mushrooms, garlic, onions, sage, parsley, thyme.

CSA Box; week 6

The heat, sun and rain have been going all July and we are finally seeing some hot weather veggies!

This week: beets, dill heads, head lettuce, summer squash, daikon radishes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, pepper, broccoli.


Extras this week: cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic, thyme & mushrooms.

CSA Box.

Oh, I'm behind on my CSA posts! As many of you may know, my back (the one with two herniated discs) went 'out' again and I've been nursing it back to bearable for the past few weeks. I like to eat quick and fresh in the summer to take advantage of just picked produce, but with the back things were even more simplified. We have been having salads and stir-fry - whatever I can make quickly and easily. Of course how much fresher can you get with boxes of organic veggies from our CSA farm or something yummy picked from the garden.

This past weekend I was able to spend some time catching up on small batch fermenting - I have jars of garlic and beets lacto-fermenting on my counter - and made another batch of currant jelly and several quarts of my back healing bone broth. I even have several recipes I tested that turned out great. With several pounds of pickling cucumbers in my fridge, I know what I am doing today as well!

While I do have several recipes to share this week, I want to catch up on my CSA boxes for the past 2 weeks.

CSA Box:: July 8


Beets, broccoli, beans, romaine, head lettuce, spring onions, parsley, peas, garlic, peppers, summer squash, and a pint of raspberries!


CSA box:: July 15


Swiss chard, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, garlic, beets, chives, basil, head lettuce, summer squash, yellow beans.


And, feeling like I could handle more time in the kitchen this week, my extras included dill heads, pickling cucumbers, onions, cabbage, beets and mushrooms.

If you have a CSA, what is in season where you are??

honey balsamic reduction.

Like just about everywhere, we are in the end of the fresh strawberry season. We are not picking enough for any big recipe, but love having a hand full for dessert in the evening. One of my favorite combos is balsamic vinegar, strawberries and whipped cream. It is super simple and so good.

::honey balsamic reduction::
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp raw honey

Bring these two to a boil in a pot, reduce heat and simmer until reduced by about half (10 minutes or so). Take off the heat - it will thicken as it cools. Drizzle over fresh strawberries.

My favorite whipped cream is done by hand. I think using a big bowl gives you room for a better stroke and it doesn't take as long when using a whisk. I like to whip about a cup of heavy cream in with the seeds from about one half of a vanilla bean. Just as it is starting to thicken, I add a drizzle of honey and finish whipping to the desired thickness. Add a dollop of this over your balsamic strawberries - oh yes, it is REALLY good.

csa box: week 3

With parks, picnics, bike riding and playing with the neighbors in the alley I didn't post this yesterday.

So, here is our box for this week:: purple beans, basil, spring onions, fresh garlic, romaine, head lettuce, fennel, beets, cabbage, snap peas

I made a veggie soup last night (oh so good) since I had a fridge full of homemade stock. I don't like following a recipe with soups - in particular vegetable soup - I use what I have. Garlic, onions, peas, beets, mushrooms, broccoli, just cut herbs, fresh stock. Nothing else needed but some salt & pepper and a simmer!

csa box: week 2!

We went through our first box quickly - I'm excited to see beets in this box, and while I normally buy as many extra beets as are available each week so I can make my favorite pickled beets, this weekend we have visitors, so I'm trying to keep my workload on the food front down. I have a bunch of fresh herbs and I plan to dry about half of them as well as make a batch of pickled daikon. Yum.

In our box this week:: beets, new garlic, kohlrabi, dill, snap peas, snow peas, broccoli, kale, romaine, leaf lettuce, daikon


My extras this week are:: mix of mushrooms, marjoram, lavender, sage, parsley, bag of basil

We are drying another bunch of lavender to make more goodies -- this week we made lavender bath salts & lavender sugar, and plan to make more of the bath salts as well as lavender honey this week. I think scones are in my future!

garlic scape pesto.

ingredients::
1 cup chopped garlic scapes
4-5 sprigs parsley (or basil)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon
(1/3 cup pine nuts optional)


instructions::
In your food processor whiz the garlic scapes & parsley together until they lie flat in the bottom (10-15 seconds). Add the olive oil, lemon and Parmesan cheese one at a time until it looks like pesto. ;) You may need to add a bit more oil if you have big scapes. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Some recipes call for pine nuts or walnuts (about 1/4 - 1/3 cup) but I like the base recipe without. Why? I like using this as a base for many things, and it is easier for me to tweak the basic pesto for each recipe!

• Of course it is awesome as a pesto on pasta (if you want the nuts, add roasted pine nuts when you toss it with pasta).
• It makes a great base for salad dressings (just add more olive oil & a squeeze of lemon to thin and toss into your salad).
• It is wonderful as a condiment on burgers/brats/grilled veggies.
• It is a delicious dressing for steamed veggies like peas, swiss chard, spinach, etc. (after steaming, toss in bowl with the pesto...yum).
• It makes a great dip for veggies or pretzels...mix with some fresh sour cream!
• Use it instead of red sauce on pizza.
• Make it using ramps (instead of scapes) in early spring...oh yeah.

I like making a lot of something at a time - it really makes it easier to just get a bunch done at once. From there, I can freeze small batches, store it in canning jars in the fridge, and of course use some immediately for dinner. It is pretty easy to double/triple this recipe during scapes season - we got some in our CSA box, and found them for sale by the bag full at our neighborhood farmer's market!

Scapes are part of the garlic plant, so contain the same health benefits as the cloves, such as immune system booster and inflammation reliever as well as good calcium, vitamin c iron and even protein! They just have a milder flavor than their bulby base.