CSA Next Year?

Week 24: bok choy, turnips, broccoli, crimini mushrooms, onions, daikon radishes, and sweet potatoes.

Well, that's it! The Lancaster Farm Fresh spring and summer CSA has come to an end. Instead of showing you what I did with the bounty (you've probably seen it before, since I tend to eat the same things over and over), I thought I'd run through some positive an negative observations from my first CSA experience.



POSITIVES

You know you're getting local, organic vegetables if you buy from a CSA. Sure, you can buy organic produce at even the big box grocery stores, but they aren't necessarily local.

You're eating what's in season right now. This means you're getting vegetables when they are freshest and taste their best.

I would rather pick up a CSA share than go to the grocery store or farmers' market. This is where having a convenient CSA pickup time and location is very important. Fortunately, mine was very convenient. There are many different CSAs out there, and if you're thinking about signing up for one, I highly suggest picking one with a location and pickup time that fits with your schedule and routines.

Having fresh vegetables every week cuts down on grocery trips. With so many vegetables in the house (and more coming every week), you really have to work at eating your veggies, and this means making meals centered around vegetables. With a well stocked pantry of basics, and vegetables galore, there was rarely any missing ingredient I needed to go to the store for.

A CSA is a good way to get more vegetables in your diet. If you are trying to cut down on meat consumption, a CSA subscription might force you to forgo meat a few nights a week, because there's just no other way to get through all those veggies. Even if you don't eat meat, you're still likely to increase your veggie intake, and that's never a bad thing!

Getting local, organic vegetables through a CSA is cheaper than the grocery store or farmers' market. This I'm not sure of (I only compared prices here and there), but I'm going to put the price of CSAs in the "positive" category. My half share at $17 per week for 4-9 vegetable portions per week, could be cheaper or more expensive depending on where you shop, how many vegetable portions were in each share, and what kind of vegetables you received each week. Cheaper than shopping at Headhouse Farmers' Market? For sure! Cheaper than other not-so-pricy farmers' markets and roadside stands? Sometimes. Cheaper than Whole Foods? Most of the time. Cheaper than the big box grocery store? Sometimes. In the end, I think $17 for the quality and amount of vegetables I received was fair.
Week 25: cabbage, crimini mushrooms, broccoli, buttercrunch lettuce, Japanese sweet potatoes, onions, and butternut squash.



NEGATIVES

If you tire easily of repeats, a CSA might not be for you. Certain vegetables can be in season for weeks, if not months, meaning that you'll receive some vegetables week after week after week.

You cannot pick and choose your vegetables with a CSA. If you hate X and Y, it will seem like every week X and Y is in your share. You will feel resentful that you spent money for vegetables you hate and will not eat. If you refuse to eat more than a couple kinds of vegetables — or dislike an entire vegetable family, like brassicas, which include kale, Brussels sprouts, collards, and broccoli, just to name a few — you'll be happier picking out your own vegetables at the store or market.

It takes dedication to cooking at home to eat through a week's share before the next one comes. If you eat out a lot, it will be almost impossible to keep on top of a CSA share. With a two-person household and a half share, if we ate dinner out more than once a week, we struggled with clearing out the fridge before the next pickup.Will I sign up for a CSA next year? Yes!

Fortunately, I like all vegetables, don't tire easily of repeats, and cook at home frequently, so the potential negatives of a CSA (or at least the negatives that I could think of; perhaps you have other thoughts) aren't really negatives for me.

Will you continue with a CSA next year? Why did you love (or hate) your CSA?

How I Used My CSA: Weeks 22 & 23

Week 22: red kuri squash, portobello mushrooms, romaine lettuce, red onions, red gold potatoes, and bok choy.

Swapped out escarole (reason later) and Cajun peppers (grow our own peppers) for extra red kuri squash and portobellos.

As the CSA season comes to an end, we've found that eating through a week's share before the next one arrives is impossible. I just can't burn through winter squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, and beets like I can the tomatoes, corn, and cucumbers of summer.

Thankfully, a lot of the produce that comes in during fall stores well. Our refrigerator is ridiculously full after weeks of stashing produce away to eat at a later date. It will be months before we get through all our our CSA haul.

I'm very glad that we waited until the end of the 25 week CSA subscription (this week is our last pickup, but I'm a bit behind on posts) to see if we wanted to extend four extra weeks into December. We are set. No need for more squash or potatoes!This escarole goes back to week 20 of the CSA, but it took a couple weeks and a couple unsuccessful tries of eating the very bitter escarole raw until I just braised in it vegetable stock like I would collards or mustard greens. It was still bitter, but now palatable. Escarole is not one of my favorite greens!
That's not just a perfectly round mound of stir fried rice studded with bok choy; it's a stir fried rice-stuffed portobello. Because why not?
Week 23: crimini mushrooms, broccoli, Flashy Troutsback romaine lettuce, radishes, cilantro, and spaqhetti squash.

Swapped out butternut squash (still have some) for extra mushrooms (we've really enjoyed having mushroom almost every week).
Steamed broccoli with seitan and mushroom stroganoff. I've been using the vegan seitan and portobello stroganoff recipe from Post Punk Kitchen for years now, and it's fabulous. Make it!
We reached back into our produce-stuffed fridge for beets, and sweet potatoes from previous CSA weeks to combine with radishes from week 23 for roasted vegetables to top wheat berries. Collards from a few weeks back were also rescued from near death to become a side.
Butternut squash from a few weeks back was used to make this veggie version of sopa de lima from the Yucatan. The recipe comes from Passionate Vegetarian, a crazy, voluminous, over 1000-page cookbook (some great recipes for sure, but many could have been culled) that the boy brought into the relationship. Cilantro and lime juice really make this soup refreshing, and different than most squash soups you've had.
Back into the fridge for previous weeks' produce to bake sweet potato muffins studded with chocolate chips. I've made these twice already! Maybe a recipe post at some point?

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

How I Used My CSA: Weeks 20 & 21

Week 20: Collards, escarole, romaine lettuce, cilantro, edamame, bok choy, spaghetti squash, and butternut squash.

Swapped potatoes and onions (have plenty!) for edamame and escarole.

Lancaster Farm Fresh (the CSA I'm a member of) has an 8 week fall/winter vegetable share that runs from the week of October 31 to the week of December 19. A full share costs $225.00 and a half share costs $140.00. The deadline for subscribing is October 14.

Here is a list of other CSAs that offer an extended fall/winter shares in our area.
Week 21: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, kale, yellow onions, edamame, white onions, and crimini mushrooms.

Swapped out fennel leaf (the boy doesn't like it), romaine lettuce (still had some), and hot peppers (we grow our own) for extra onions and sweet potatoes (they store well), and cilantro.

I'm trying my darnedest to stay on top of each week's share, but social engagements, out-of-town trips, and special holiday menus that mean trips to the store for ingredients other than what is in the CSA share are making it hard. I feel like I will never catch up and eat the fridge down (I just love a fridge where I can see every thing, and at the moment it is packed). Autumnal sushi with sweet potatoes and kale! Salted edamame still in the pods to go along with the sushi. The boy made wilted kale and roasted potato winter salad, which was surprisingly good, especially since I don't get too excited for either tahini (used in the dressing) or potatoes.
Took this chili con chocolate recipe I posted years ago and added some sweet potatoes to the mix. Topped it off with cheese and cilantro. There has been a lot of bok choy in our CSA shares! Don't farmers grow any other Asian greens around here? Used the bok choy and crimini mushrooms for a stir fry. A dumpling squash from a previous week's share was roasted along with it's seeds to top a salad of romaine lettuce and Soy Curls.
For Rosh Hashana dinner, sweet potatoes, onions and cilantro from the CSA joined turnips, carrots, and chick peas for a Moroccan stew recipe from the cookbook Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. This is a great, James Beard Award-winning cookbook to check out if you like a little history with your recipes.

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

How I Used My CSA: Weeks 18 & 19

Week 18: Italian eggplant, bok choy, tomatoes, bell peppers, apples, onions, and delicata squash.

Swapped out beets (I have so, so many) from our Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA half share for an extra share of apples.
These apples from Three Springs Fruit Farm mark the beginning of my fall and winter-long apple eating. When I get in the groove, I'll eat an apple every afternoon as a snack. It just so happens that I like to get my apples from Three Springs Fruit Farm! At the end of October (or maybe it's the beginning of November), I get an entire crate of mix-and-match apple varieties for just $20 from Three Springs Fruit Farm at Headhouse Market when they have their crate sale. The Italian eggplant went into eggplant Parmesan with tomato sauce made from the last of the frozen CSA roma tomatoes. This was soooo good!
I almost made a batch of ketchup from these tomatoes, but knowing that it would probably be the last of summer tomatoes, I decided to savor them sliced and uncooked alongside some French bread slathered with goat cheese and pear chutney.
There was broth left over from the veggie pho made the previous week, so I turned it into an off-the-cuff soup creation with rice, CSA bok choy and the last of my homegrown cherry and pear tomatoes. The delicata squash and bell peppers were used in a pumpkin curry inspired by Circles' pumpkin curry. Very good, but I must confess that with so many great premade curry pastes out there, I rarely bother making my own.
Week 19: sweet potatoes, dumpling squash, crimini mushrooms, onions, beets, apples.

Swapped out bok choy (just had it two weeks in a row) for an extra share of sweet potatoes (I got a little excited to see them).

Honestly, with the exception of the mushrooms (the boy ate them at some point without my knowledge), I haven't touched anything in this share. Because of just a few social engagements, it has taken two weeks to get through most of week 18's share. It really does take dedication to cooking and eating at home to go through a CSA share. Even a half share!

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul? Are you excited for the dishes that the cooler weather brings?

How I Used My CSA: Week 17

Week 17: bok choy, Yukon Gold potatoes, portobello caps, heirloom tomatoes, mixed sweet peppers, sweet onions, dumpling squash, and delicata squash.

This week's half share from Lancaster Farm Fresh had a share of two delicata squashes, plus a share of one dumpling squash. I meant to swap the one dumpling squash out (two squashes total is plenty for us), but one of the delicata squashes was so stubby, it looked like the dumpling squash, so I messed up and put the wrong one back. Whoops.
So happy to still be getting tomatoes. Summer, don't leave me, yet! The reddish purple tomato in the bunch looked to be a Cherokee Purple, which is one of my favorite tomato varieties.

And, as far as the bagel debate in the city goes, we get ours (a dozen every other week) from South Street Bagels on 3rd St. out of convenience of location, and because they are great.
And, while I like squash just fine, the sight of these in my haoul made me a little sad. Fall (and winter), I'm not ready for you!

We halved and roasted the dumpling and delicata squash, then filled them with a cinnamon and cardamom spiced quinoa salad studded with dried cranberries, plus onions and peppers from the CSA. I used this recipe as the inspiration. The cooked skins of dumpling and delicata squash are tender enough to eat, so don't miss out on all those nutrients and fiber!We roasted the seeds from the squash, and I was going to top the quinoa-stuffed squash with a few, but the seed-and-nut human vacuum sucked them up before dinner was done. A few years ago when everyone would not shut up about pho (they still won't), I was sad and lonely because I couldn't find vegetarian pho in restaurants. Then Cathy over at the blog gas.tron.o.my posted her mother's recipe for vegetarian pho. I jumped on that recipe within hours, and have been using it ever since. Moms do not lie!

This rendition on Cathy's mom's pho includes the bok choy and portobello caps from the CSA. Remember last week when I mention that whole tomatoes freeze well? I used a few of those frozen Romas along with the yellow heirloom tomatoes, sweet peppers, and onions for an all-CSA chunky tomato sauce to go over spaghetti squash a friend grew.
Colcannon? I had never even heard of the Irish mash of potatoes and cabbage known as colcannon until I spied it a few years ago on some blog (I'm neither Irish, nor a big potato eater), but colcannon makes for a simple, stick-to-your-ribs meal. To make this dish more healthy, I use only a fraction of the butter called for in most colcannon recipes, use almond milk instead of milk, and keep the skins on the potatoes. A side of tempeh keeps it on the healthy tip, too.

How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

How I Used My CSA: Weeks 15 & 16

Week 15: corn, red romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, red beets.



From this week's Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA half share, I swapped out garlic (had some) for extra tomatoes, and parsley (grow it) and one tiny Japanese eggplant (not enough to do much with) for beets and more beets!



All this time I've been showing up early to pick up my CSA share thinking that I'd get a better selection from the swap box if I was first in line, but this week I was a little late and discovered that if you like beets (I do!) you should show up late, because there are an awful lot of people out there that don't like beets. This discovery had me giddy!



I could have come home with even more beets, but decided to stop at three bags (one in my share, two that I swapped for). I understand not liking bitter vegetables like mustard greens or dandelion greens, but, come on people, beets are almost pure sugar!



My strategy for swapping out this week was to get items that would store or freeze well, because I was going on vacation (hence the lag time in getting this post up).



Red romaine lettuce is so pretty! I downed a couple of salads with CSA red romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes and corn, and homegrown yellow pear tomatoes and basil before getting out of town.

I've struck out with starchy corn at every single pickup this season, so almost swapped these six ears out, but just knew that the one time I swapped out corn the corn would be sweet. My intuition was right. Finally, sweet corn! One ear was used in the salad above, the rest was cut off the cob and put in the freezer for a later date.

Did you know that you can freeze whole tomatoes? Yes, it compromises the texture, but if you're using the tomatoes in sauce or stews you won't notice it at all. When the tomatoes thaw, the skins also peel off nicely.



The beets are in our crisper waiting every so patiently to be used in good time.



Week 16: red romaine lettuce, eggplant, delicata squash, bell peppers, spearmint, portobello mushroom caps, red onions, bok choy, roma tomatoes.



Or at least that is what was supposed to be in the share. I gave this share away to a friend, since I was on vacation.



Between freezing and storing most on week 15's share and giving away week 16's share, I not only had a real vacation while I was away, but a break from obsessively trying to incorporate the week's CSA vegetables into meals before the next CSA share rolled around. Vacations are great things!



How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

How I Used My CSA: Week 14

Week 14: red romaine lettuce, red butterhead lettuce, green bell peppers, red onions, eggplant, white Japanese eggplant, Yukon Gold potatoes, cherry tomatoes, red tomatoes, and carrots.



For this week's Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA delivery, we swapped out jalapenos and basil (we grow both in our tiny raised patio bed) for red tomatoes and an extra eggplant. There are three Bartlett pear trees I take care of that prematurely drop fruit (deer, squirrels and raccoons assist in the "dropping"), so for the past few weeks I've been collecting a couple dozen unripe pears each week. This week I made a huge batch of pear chutney, and canned it. The red onions from the CSA went into the chutney. Not one to waste, I took the syrup and bits from the bottom of the pear chutney cooking pot that didn't fit into the last jar, and used it as a base for a sauce to a Chinese-ish stir fried eggplant dish.

Ironically, lettuce does not grow well during the hottest months of summer when you want a salad the most. I was happy to see the return of lettuce, and get on to eating some salads again. This one involved the red romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and grated carrots from the CSA, as well as Soy Curls.Here we have a classic Greek salad with feta, cucumbers (from the previous week's CSA), butterhead lettuce, red onion, tomatoes, and bell peppers (from this week's haul).

The boy made Thai curry rice-stuffed peppers (two green from the CSA, one yellow from the store), and it wasn't bland like most stuffed pepper recipes. Yay!



How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?

How I Used My CSA: Week 13

Week 13: corn, grape tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, red tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, okra, and red potatoes.



That bounty from our Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA sure looks like summer to me! We swapped out a bunch of fennel leaf (the boy is not fond of the fronds) and onions (had some) for heirloom tomatoes (can't get enough) and an extra bag of okra (lord, I love okra!).



Huh, looking at the pictures I took, it seems that all we ate this week was tomatoes.

We tried this tomato and grilled eggplant salad from The New York Times (it was good), and threw it on top of spaghetti squash that our friend grew.

Tomato and Mozzarella salad. Again.My most favorite okra dish: stewed okra and tomatoes. I didn't bother roasting the tomatoes as I did in the recipe I posted here, and it was just as good.

Heirloom tomato, Mozzarella, and basil on an onion roll from Famous 4th Street Deli.



This is the third time we've gotten corn in our CSA, and each time the corn has been dreadful. After cooking up the corn to eat on the cob, I was unwilling to suffer through more than two bites of starchy, flavorless corn. Not one to waste, I made a chilled corn soup the next day with the remaining corn (including my cob with two missing bites). It's amazing how you can make any vegetable (including those that aren't so tasty) into an amazing pureed soup with just caramelized onions and stock.



We have quite the pile of potatoes in the fridge (three share's worth),but I plan on taking them with us to the beach in a few weeks. And, gah, I meant to make a jar of pickles with those cucumbers, but haven't found the time.



How did you use your CSA or farmers' market haul?