Omnomicon

From the end of the season . . .

A discarded photo from the lemon meringue cupcakes, and is the best shot I’ve ever taken into an oven. Not that it’s come up much.

Easter egg radishes! This photo really doesn’t do them justice, but aside from the obvious white shade, these also come in purple and regular radish red. These are a little more earthy than conventionally grown radishes, eh?

Metrowest CSA season has officially commenced! We are in the green:

I took photos of the entire share, but are splitting down the middle for each. Pictured, roughly left to right (thought difficult to pick out where one ends and the next begins):

• a fistful of beet greens
• 8 oz mixed salad greens
• fistful of turnip greens
• 10 Easter egg radishes (so named for their colourful variety)
• 2 heads lettuce (not sure on the type)
• 8 oz arugula
• 8 oz bok choy
• and in the very center there, baby turnips, which we already went over last Friday.

Beside the enjoyment of delightfully fresh veggies, one of my intentions with this stuff is to get an idea of its worth. Our half share costs about $14.20 for each weekly pickup from June through October, assuming we continue to harvest through then.

So as it turns out, baby turnips are priceless (in the literal, you can’t buy them way), and you have to buy the beet to get the beet greens, and radishes don’t come with tops. But my estimate is around $18.19 for similar amounts of conventionally-grown (the farm is organic, you see) veggies at Stop & Shop. S&S didn’t have enough of an organic variety to make a reliable estimate. So my return this week was about -$5.11. This is still VERY early season, and I’m quite optimistic for the rest of it!

The end!

I’ve been hinting at my first CSA season, which officially commenced last night. While things are still lean around here (lots of leaves, not much in the way of solid vegetables), there are some interesting perks that come with the early season. The first would appear to be these baby turnips, which are nutty and quite delicious raw, if a little difficult to clean and therefore sandy.

I recently learned that veggies like turnips and beets must be thinned out early in the season, or they will crowd out one another and reach deeper into the soil, looking more cylindrical like carrots than nice plump turnips. Interesting, I thought to myself, I must remember to share this on my website. And though I am a complete spacecase, here I am, remembering to do so. Success!

When you thin your turnips you end up with these cute widdo fings, awwww, and why let them go to waste when they make such a nice little snack? Coo chee coo chee coo, etc etc.

Anyone lose any beans? Hey, I found some beans.

These beans are at ARTichoke Food Co-Op in Worcester, MA. This place has tons of personality. I especially like the adjective-heavy descriptions of how to use the dispensers: “Open Carefully,” “Close Quickly & Firmly,” “Shut Hard & Fast!”

Over the next couple months I have a short list of amazing events (read: San Francisco and a music festival) and extra hours to cram in at work to make them possible. As such I’ll be shifting the focus of the site for the next little while so I can get the most out of my summer. It’s like a free vacation from the job that doesn’t pay me. Thanks, boss! (that’s me)

While the photograph/recipe/thousand words/twice-a-week formula has been working quite well for me, I think this is a good opportunity to focus on some ideas that are a little less labour-intensive and maybe even refreshing, as there are a lot of food blogs who do the same thing I’ve been doing anyway. And don’t worry, I’m planning to return to the more familiar schedule in the last couple weeks of July.

So stay with me people, here’s what you have to look forward to over the next several weeks:

• The yummy results from June’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Round-Robin (with plenty of commentary, photos and the recipe as per usual). If you’re following along, you know that the taste-testing is just getting ready to begin!
• The announcement of July’s Recipe Round-Robin, a savoury dish as yet to be determined (still taking suggestions!).
• Daily noms, daily.

I’ll also be chronicling my first CSA summer. Depending on how much free time I can squeeze out of my schedule, I hope to photograph each week’s share, get in touch with my local agricultural roots, and perform a cost-benefit analysis on the experience. And likely some salad “recipes” if you can call them that.

So that’s my big announcement! Not a big deal, but a little different for a little while and then I’ll be back with a veritable onslaught of delicious originals.

Now get away from the internet and take some time to enjoy your summer too! And here’s a daily nom. We made sammiches on whole-grain Tuscan pane bread with Swiss, avocado and roasted reds on the left and muenster, capicola and red delicious apples on the right.

Lisa of The Lunch Box Project made another Omnomicon painting. Remember my Strawberry Heart Shortcake Cupcakes? They are as delicious as they are cute!

In RRR news, we have LOTS of Tastebuddies and can still accept a few more Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes if’n ya have one. Send it along before 9pm EST and you’re in! details

Here is a banana-free picture, wherein I am creating a graham cracker crust with the aid of my trusty bar blender.

Oh, I’m sorry, Apollo, was it you that hated bananas?

OH WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE, OH IT LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER PICTURE OF BANANAS. WHOOPSIE, HOW EVER DID THIS GET ON MY SITE? That is SO weird.

Alright, before everyone gets all awkward like they’re in the middle of Mom & Dad’s fight, I’m thinking Apollo’s the kinda guy who gets the joke. I just couldn’t resist. And I never realized how often I use bananas until the banana-haters creeped out of the woodwork.