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.