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?