Keeping It Fresh

Inside our box the veggies are in a large plastic bag.  I find that even our lettuce will last up to three weeks if I put it in the fridge inside the bag.  We often have a large amount so storing it all in one big bags requires clearing out an entire shelf in our refrigerator, but it's worth it to have tasty, fresh greens for weeks.  It's been my experience that a few things will just last and last.  Three weeks ago we received a large bunch of garlic scapes and they are still crunchy and delicious chopped up into hummus. 

Our CSA share comes every two weeks and I want our food to be crisp for at least that long.  When our share arrives I will put whatever we haven't use so far into our new bag with the newest, freshest veggies.  One of the joys of a CSA is that the food is recently picked, some times that day, so you can feel good about saving it and keeping it fresh for weeks. 

Healthy Living: Fresh Salad, Homemade Dressing, Warm Bread and Local Cheese

Today, I picked up our CSA items at the farm and was impressed at all the other items that they have available. Our CSA last year kept mentioning that extra items would become available, but that never really happened. So this year, I was suspicious when the same claims were made. They had some basic organic dry goods - flour, honey, maple syrup. This week, though...there was a refrigerator full of fresh, local cold items, plus a local coffee company offering samples as well as coffee to purchase, organic local cheese, etc. Local milk - extremely local, as in within my zip code - was a treat to find. I had no idea there were any dairies so close that were selling to the public. To say the least, I am extremely excited about my CSA this year. Add a growing list of classes on everything from bread making to honey farming to witchcraft, and I am fully onboard.

As for this week's haul...one small head of Chinese Cabbage, one kohlrabi, 1/2 lb. of spring mixed greens, 1/2 lb. of spring onions, a small head of broccoli and a bunch of dill. A random batch, to say the least. The amounts and number of items will continue to pick up as the weeks go by and the harvest grows. I am really looking forward to fresh picked strawberries next week.

I am still trying to come up with some good recipes for kohlrabi and dill aside from simply tossing them into salads. For tonight, I kept it simple - a salad of mixed greens with broccoli florets and local blueberries, plus a wonderful honey poppyseed dressing (recipe below). Add a fresh loaf of bread from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Cookbook (an almost daily occurrence anyway in this house), the last of the pesto from a trip to Claudio's in Philly's Italian Market last weekend and the remains of a triple creme goat cheese from DiBruno's South Philly, and you have an excellent healthy, local yet decadent dinner.

Below is the recipe for the Honey Poppyseed Dressing, slightly adapted from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It goes well with any type of salad, but it really goes excellently with strong greens and a few berries.

Honey Poppyseed Dressing
1/4 c. honey (any will do, but a good local honey really makes it shine)
3 T. apple cider vinegar
2 T. olive oil
2 T. dijon mustard
1 t. poppy seeds
2 shallots (you can also use scallions, green onions, spring onions...even one small yellow onion if that is what you have on hand)

Put all ingredients in a glass mason jar, then shake well to combine. This recipe is great to double or more, then keep in the fridge.

They Are Coming

This week...finally...my CSA starts. The CSA to which I belonged last year started a bit earlier, and I am surprised to find that I actually miss it. I complained at the time about box after box of greens, but this year I find myself buying more greens and even planting lettuce to compensate.

However, I am very excited about my CSA this year, mainly because it has a lot more direct involvement than my previous one. While last year, the convenience could not be beat - pick up a box once a week at a location about 8 minutes from my house - this year I am going a little bit farther to pick up my produce on the actual farm. The procedure was explained at an informal Meet & Greet at the farm last week, where we were able to pick up our membership cards, meet the farmers and key personnel as well as other CSA members and take a walk around the fields. While this CSA is definitely a bit more DIY, I look forward to the weeks when we will have chances to pick a pint of our own strawberries or beans, as well as seeing the people who put in all the hard work in person. I also think that this will be a great activity for my daughter, who is almost one, since it seemed like most of the members also had young children. As she starts walking, I hope she will enjoy walking through the fields with me on our pickup days.

After an extended weekend of eating out and barbecues, I hope to put up some more recipes that focus on the local ingredients available now. My herbs are coming up nicely - we should be able to use some in another week or so and maybe even get our first lettuce harvest. I want to go get a few more seed packets to fill in some gaps (how did I forget rosemary?), plus grab some heirloom tomato plants before they get picked over. We garden almost exclusively in large pots placed on the deck due to the abundance of deer and rabbits that just love to eat all my plantings, but it actually has worked out so far! I would recommend it to anyone - a few big planters, some good soil and a few seed packets will lead to more than you can imagine!

Happy Planting!