How I Used My CSA: Week 9

Week 9: portobello caps, fennel, chard, onions, French green beans, 2 bunches of beets, broccoli.

The only items I swapped were two zucchini (friend gave me some earlier in the week) for an extra bunch of beets.

Said friend also came by the weekend following the week 9 CSA pickup and shared with me a crap-ton of vegetables, like, easily four times what you see in the picture above. This is how you know summer truly has arrived — friends sharing vegetables!
So, that weekend my friend and I got to canning. We made cherry lime jam, and bread and butter pickles. We also stuck some yellow squash slices into leftover bread and butter brine for some quick refrigerator pickles, and, let me tell you, I'm currently crushing on squash pickles. Can't get enough!

But none of that stuff came from the CSA. A few days later I canned the 2 bunches of beets (yellow and candy stripe beets) from the CSA, along with a bunch of beets (yellow) my friend brought over. With the French green beans I made a sweet three-bean salad like you get at summer picnics or potlucks, except with two beans, not so much sugar, and no oil.

My friend also brought over green beans, which I canned as dilly beans. I thought about swapping out the fennel, since the boy is not fond of it and it's anise-like flavor, but he said he'd give it a go. What a sport! We trimmed the fronds (haven't used yet), cut the bulb into eighths, tossed with Persian lime olive oil and salt, and threw them on the grill.
Along with the grilled fennel, we had grilled portobello sandwiches with garlic sauteed chard, as well as coleslaw made from carrots and one (!) of the cabbages my friend gave me. It's summery meals like this that make me happiest. Livin' large, I tell ya!

We haven't gotten to the onions or broccoli, yet, since we were truly (and happily) flooded with vegetables this week.

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