Okay, let's try something new.
Jun. 22nd, 2011 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leahbobetI mentioned last summer, in and around things, that I signed up with a farmshare. It's one of those that's really collective on both ends: a bunch of small family farms in the Kawartha Lakes produce the food in an environmentally sustainable way, and then the organizer of the CSA (who is awesome) brings it all down to Toronto for CSA pickup and farmer's markets, five days a week. Where a bunch of people -- including a whole lot of my friends and co-workers* -- buy and munch it. This means supporting small family farms versus large industrial outfits; removing the timesuck of manning farmer's market stalls from the farmers themselves so they can, well, farm stuff; supporting ethical, fair trade, and environmental growing practices (although only some, not all of the farms involved are certified organic); eating a lot more vegetables, and they're much better-tasting vegetables; and actually achieving the first steps to a 100-mile diet.**
It also means I've learned to cook like an Iron Chef.
No kidding: Every Wednesday I stop at the pickup location on my way home from work with only the faintest idea of what I'll be getting that week. I grab whatever's chalked on the board, maybe buy a few extra odds and ends I really want, and then I have a week to figure out what to do with them. The words What do you do with ____? were uttered a few times last summer. Stuff got inventive. Many soups happened. It was kind of crazily, impressively fun.
So, farmshare started up for the summer again last week,*** and I had the notion that maybe this year I will blog it.
Consider this a new feature, as long as I have the time and attention span to do it, and as long as you guys are interested: CSA Wednesdays. What I did with my farmshare this week, and what I got for next week. Like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jmeadows's Spinning Sundays, but, y'know, tastier.
It will have pictures.
So, Week 1:
Last Wednesday was a bit of a smaller haul. I think partially it's the first week, but partially I didn't browse the other stuff as much: I was sticky and hot and kind of sleepy, and needed to get home for something. We got:
1 Boston lettuce
1 pint, or maybe 1.5 pints of spring mix lettuce
1 celeriac
5 stalks rhubarb
1 bunch popcorn on the cob
1 bunch asparagus
There was a lot of "what do I do with that?" in this batch. And then I had an idea, and since I haven't been able to find a rack of lamb in this neighbourhood that's less than $50 (Dear Rowe Farms: No.) I haven't executed a lot of that plan yet. So most of this is still sitting in my fridge, hopefully to be used tomorrow when I go to Kensington Market to get lamb that isn't $50.
The lettuces got all used. I mixed them together for salads, and got one or two caprese salads and then this one, which has both lettuces, some grocery-store tomato, some daikon from The Biggest Daikon in the World, slivered almonds, and pickled pomegranate seeds I put up this winter. The dressing is mead vinagrette. Yes, mead. The honey vinegar is also local.
So carryover from week 1 is the asparagus, the popcorn, the rhubarb, and the celeriac, which I do not know what to do with yet, although Dr. My Roommate had a suggestion I might follow up on involving grating and raisins and salady things.
The Week 2 preview!
This week's box was:
2 heads romaine lettuce
1 pint strawberries
1 handful garlic scapes
4 bunches spring onions
1 big basket spring mix
I also got a bunch of radishes on top of that, because I like radishes and they were there looking at me.
There's a MyMarket farmer's market a couple blocks away from home, also on Wednesdays, and I stopped there both looking for that lamb solution and to see what they had. So add to the count:
1.5 pint new potatoes
1 pint heritage mix cherry tomatoes
So that's the preview. Tune in next week to find out what happens to them! Thrill with suspense! Eat Ontario produce! Ogle pictures of yummy food!
(And if you have any recipes for celeriac, let me know?)
*Apparently CSAs are like Fluevogs. It takes two seperate vectors of exposure to get you addicted to them, and then they spread through casual social contact like you wouldn't believe.
**I haven't figured out the grains and staples yet, or a lot of the cheese. We're working on it in that idle, backburnered, compiling-code kind of way.
***I didn't do winter share last year, to my eternal regret. Won't be making that mistake again.
It also means I've learned to cook like an Iron Chef.
No kidding: Every Wednesday I stop at the pickup location on my way home from work with only the faintest idea of what I'll be getting that week. I grab whatever's chalked on the board, maybe buy a few extra odds and ends I really want, and then I have a week to figure out what to do with them. The words What do you do with ____? were uttered a few times last summer. Stuff got inventive. Many soups happened. It was kind of crazily, impressively fun.
So, farmshare started up for the summer again last week,*** and I had the notion that maybe this year I will blog it.
Consider this a new feature, as long as I have the time and attention span to do it, and as long as you guys are interested: CSA Wednesdays. What I did with my farmshare this week, and what I got for next week. Like
jmeadows's Spinning Sundays, but, y'know, tastier.It will have pictures.
So, Week 1:
Last Wednesday was a bit of a smaller haul. I think partially it's the first week, but partially I didn't browse the other stuff as much: I was sticky and hot and kind of sleepy, and needed to get home for something. We got:
1 Boston lettuce
1 pint, or maybe 1.5 pints of spring mix lettuce
1 celeriac
5 stalks rhubarb
1 bunch popcorn on the cob
1 bunch asparagus
There was a lot of "what do I do with that?" in this batch. And then I had an idea, and since I haven't been able to find a rack of lamb in this neighbourhood that's less than $50 (Dear Rowe Farms: No.) I haven't executed a lot of that plan yet. So most of this is still sitting in my fridge, hopefully to be used tomorrow when I go to Kensington Market to get lamb that isn't $50.
The lettuces got all used. I mixed them together for salads, and got one or two caprese salads and then this one, which has both lettuces, some grocery-store tomato, some daikon from The Biggest Daikon in the World, slivered almonds, and pickled pomegranate seeds I put up this winter. The dressing is mead vinagrette. Yes, mead. The honey vinegar is also local.
So carryover from week 1 is the asparagus, the popcorn, the rhubarb, and the celeriac, which I do not know what to do with yet, although Dr. My Roommate had a suggestion I might follow up on involving grating and raisins and salady things.
The Week 2 preview!
This week's box was:
2 heads romaine lettuce
1 pint strawberries
1 handful garlic scapes
4 bunches spring onions
1 big basket spring mix
I also got a bunch of radishes on top of that, because I like radishes and they were there looking at me.
There's a MyMarket farmer's market a couple blocks away from home, also on Wednesdays, and I stopped there both looking for that lamb solution and to see what they had. So add to the count:
1.5 pint new potatoes
1 pint heritage mix cherry tomatoes
So that's the preview. Tune in next week to find out what happens to them! Thrill with suspense! Eat Ontario produce! Ogle pictures of yummy food!
(And if you have any recipes for celeriac, let me know?)
*Apparently CSAs are like Fluevogs. It takes two seperate vectors of exposure to get you addicted to them, and then they spread through casual social contact like you wouldn't believe.
**I haven't figured out the grains and staples yet, or a lot of the cheese. We're working on it in that idle, backburnered, compiling-code kind of way.
***I didn't do winter share last year, to my eternal regret. Won't be making that mistake again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 10:39 pm (UTC)My favorite thing to do with celeriac is simple simple simple: I just grate it on a medium-to-coarse grate and then sauté it with garlic/olive oil/salt/pepper until it's soft and cooked through. The taste comes out like hash browns but with a definite vegetal/celery taste to it; in fact if you wanted it to really be like hash browns I suppose you could add flour/water to it and really fry it, or even add egg and leftover protein for a substantial savory pancake. :9~
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Date: 2011-06-22 10:44 pm (UTC)Also, your CSA has boysenberries in it and I am suddenly consumed with envy.
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Date: 2011-06-22 10:49 pm (UTC)And haha, see, I'm jealous of yours that you got popcorn on the cob and asparagus last week! ;) I haven't been sent any asparagus for about a month now iirc.
Re. winter shares, they are definitely a treat. You WILL get sick of cabbage, though; I mean, I loooooove the stuff and even I got sick of it. XD;;;
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Date: 2011-06-22 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-06-23 03:47 am (UTC)Also, cole slaw! I haven't tried that particular recipe but I love a good mayo-free vinegar slaw with mustard seeds. It's good on its own and better on sandwiches.
Having done the Iron Chef CSA thing, I am more than happy to advise on any peculiar vegetables that come your way.
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Date: 2011-06-23 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 10:44 pm (UTC)I am jealous of your new potatoes your cherry tomatoes. I can't wait for photos. I would commit to doing something similar but taking pictures of my food is a slippery slope for me. Once I start I can't stop...and then my food is cold. :D
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Date: 2011-06-22 10:55 pm (UTC)I could have technically waited for the potatoes, I think -- we'll probably get them in a week or two? -- but I want to make potato salad nownownow. With scapes in it.
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Date: 2011-06-22 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 10:54 pm (UTC)My other half keeps asking me to grow celeriac. Maybe next year, now that we have the space in which to try new things.
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Date: 2011-06-22 10:58 pm (UTC)Yay space! :) What do you have going that's not celeriac?
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Date: 2011-06-22 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-22 11:59 pm (UTC)I wish I liked celeriac.
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Date: 2011-06-23 04:19 am (UTC)...they do rather, don't they? :)
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Date: 2011-06-23 12:51 am (UTC)Noooo why did I click that link. Now I need either a monetary windfall or a short-term memory wipe.
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Date: 2011-06-23 04:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 04:15 pm (UTC)*loves forever*
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Date: 2011-06-23 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 03:42 am (UTC)Celeriac: boil until soft and then mash up with butter like mashed potatoes (either on its own or mixed with actual potatoes). SO DELICIOUS.
Also, there is only one thing to do with fresh young asparagus: sear it in an ungreased pan and eat it with melted butter and lemon juice.
Rhubarb + strawberries = pie, jam, cobbler, basically anything. I recommend cobbler mostly because it is ridiculously easy: bake fruit & sugar, fingerblend flour & butter & milk into dough, put dough on top of fruit & sugar, bake moar, eat. If you want to get fancy you can mix some oats in with the flour; this is especially nice with something rich and tart like rhubarb.
When I see "4 bunches spring onions" I immediately think of Chinese cooking. You can't go wrong with ginger and scallion, really. Ginger + scallion + noodles + meat + veg = stir fry. Ginger + scallion + sesame oil + five spice + blender = delicious goop to stuff under the skin of a chicken before you roast it, or to mix into dumpling filling, or to use as a condiment on basically everything.
Now I'm hungry...
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Date: 2011-06-23 02:13 pm (UTC)(I'm thinking steaming the asparagus, stewing the rhubarb as a vegetable and doing something funky involving ginger and mint and that lamb I keep not finding but will look for properly in Kensington Market this afternoon, and using the spring onions and some of the garlic scapes in Chinese
porkbeef buns, which I haven't made since I moved, practically, and which freeze wonderfully.)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-23 11:00 pm (UTC)EDIT: Aw, looks like it needs way more kneading than my arms could handle. I wonder whether I can adapt it for the bread machine.
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Date: 2011-06-23 05:41 am (UTC)My favorite thing to do with asparagus is to grill it brushed with a mixture of miso paste, mirin, water, and a little mustard powder and powdered ginger, all ingredients to taste except the water which should be used to get it to a brushable consistency. Cooks on beautifully.
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Date: 2011-06-23 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-06-23 10:59 pm (UTC)