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Jul-1-2009

the harvest: fourth week of june

Posted by aleta under what's in season

Weeks 2 & 3 of our CSA harvest were pooled with everyone else’s share because we were in California. But week 4 we had all to ourselves, as Heather & Jon (our share partners) were still in California on pick up day, so that’s almost like only missing the one share, hooray! Here’s what it looked like:

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

WE HAVE (roughly left to right)

  • 1 bunch dill
  • 10 radishes (1/2 lb), with leaves
  • 2 pints peas
  • All the nasturtiums I cared to pick (did not find out they were edible flowers until they had been wilting in a vase for awhile)
  • 1 head bibb lettuce
  • 1 lb bok choy
  • 8 garlic scapes,garlic chives, or whatever your farmer’s market or CSA calls them
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • a big old buncha collard greens
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 2 kohlrabi
  • 1 head red lettuce

Our cost for a half share is $14.20. Half of the above is worth about $15.03, or $17.53 if you count the flowers, which I do because I buy flowers for the house regularly. It should also be taken into consideration that these are organic vegetables (which drives up the price of the share) and I’m comparing to conventional vegetables at grocery store prices (which is what I’d most likely be buying if I didn’t have a share). We haven’t yet broken even, as I miscalculated the last share, but I think we’ll get there.

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

This week’s harvest brought a few new veggies to my kitchen, which was the real draw of this little experiment, and I suspect I’m not alone in this. I’d been itching to get my hands on garlic scapes ever since our farmer mentioned them at the orientation two months ago (those weird circley vine-looking things at the top . . . just to the right of the center . . . don’t see them? Yeah, they don’t really stand out) and they are incredible! They taste pretty much like chives, except with a garlicky bite that doesn’t even leave an aftertaste. Totally refreshing! I tried cooking with them here and there, but I found that no matter how much I added, their flavour seemed to wash out. Moving forward, these are being used like regular chives—chopped and sprinkled atop.

The other new veggie was kohlrabi. This is a funky-looking veggie, and I had high hopes for its flavour to be equally funky, but alas, it works like water chestnuts or cucumber or other bland veggies. Still, one cup has like 35 calories, 5 g fiber and 140% of your vitamin C. So whoah, it’s good for you.

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

Lettuce is lettuce, but yay for fancy lettuce!

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

We’re finally starting to get some herbs and I’m so excited about this. I love love fresh herbs. Love them. So much. Mmm!

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

And though radishes aren’t the most flavourful of vegetables ever, the purple ones had this beautiful sheen on them, like a purple satin with a golden sheen as it moves. Really, so beautiful.

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

But the biggest surprise were peas. Now anybody who’s known me any length of time knows I hate peas, but as it turns out, fresh-from-the-vine peas out-of-the-pod are incredible. They taste, not like the mushy gross woody-tasting crap I remember from my childhood, but unbelievably sweet, like fresh sweet corn. It was, to reuse a word, unbelievable. Of course, in like, two days, they’d become gross woody-tasting crap I remember.

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

And those are vegetables! Dano really liked this shot, but I thought it was harder to make everything out than the one at the top. My compromise was to include it at the end.

The Harvest: 4th week of June 2009

So tell me, which veggie shot do you like better?

Jun-8-2009

the box: first week of june

Posted by aleta under what's in season

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

Bounty: First week of June

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.

Choy to your bok.

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.

Lettuces.

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!

Beetz!Turnip greens (surprisingly yummy).

The end!

Jun-5-2009

daily nom #29

Posted by aleta under daily noms, what's in season

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.

Awww, wook at da widdo baby turnips, AWWWW!!!