More Fresh Veggies!

When the CSA share arrived this week, I was delighted to see the items I've photoed here:
the sort of cabbage I love - regular green cabbage of the sort I make coleslaw out of. I always have a time eating an entire one, but I will freeze the remainder of this head to add to a stew come late fall. Have to admit I'm using something not quite local for my coleslaw, tho' - I'm a light Marzetti's gal...there's just no substitute!

But then? Ahhh...
The very first beets - actually the CSA said "there'll be beet greens this week, and for a few of you, they'll have beets attached" and I crossed my fingers. I'm not a fan of beet greens at all, but oh, do I love beets! I roasted these tonight with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper - YUM! In winter I'll buy canned beets, because that's what there is, but oh these were wonderful, fresh from the ground...
When I picked up my CSA share at the Co-op this week, I had a couple of different selections of bread - dinner rolls from On The Rise bakery, pictured above, or another choice of wheat rolls from my favorite local caterer, Wildflour. I go back and forth as to which bakery's bread I prefer - there's no contest - they're both tops! You'll see examples of their work periodically here.

Last but not least, and happily for me, a coworker brought in homegrown yellow summer squash today. I adore it, and it's not available in the CSA share yet. I steamed it and ate it with butter and salt and pepper (along with the beets!). What a terrific summer meal I had.

Next week might be a bit slim here. Three weeks of the season, have to be skipped in the CSA, and I choose next week because I'll be too busy with a show to do much more than grab something quick. Big Sis will be here, and we'll probably eat at one local restaurant, perhaps Wildflour. I'll try to take my camera, but no promises. It will be a hectic time!

Good eating...and don't forget, while you're busily cooking and preserving your produce this week to also remember the environment in other ways - I'll be recycling (curbside) as I do every week, and as the temp heats up? I'll be keeping the a/c set a notch higher with the mini fans going room-by-room instead.
(((Hugs)))

Week 3 And I'm Getting Tired of Salads!

I didn't take a photo this week. It was all green. Same old same old.

The only thing new? Scapes. I've still got most of mine (I knew better than to keep them all, I like garlic, but hey there were a lot of them and it's only me!). I'm trying to think what I'll add them to.

What are they? Norma describes them Here and that entry came just before the CSA share arrived with - SCAPES!

I had no idea...

Anyway, this week has been impossible for cooking anything from scratch, but I managed a salad or two and I'm afraid that's pretty boring after the last several weeks. So.

Perhaps something more interesting will be available next week?

Swiss Chard!

My mom loved chard. I always thought she was nuts.

Do you think, perhaps, it's a "taste" one acquires as one ages? Well, I might have liked it if I'd ever tried it. Yes, this was one of those childhood things: "I don't like it, I don't like it, you can't make me - NO!"

Was I ever dumb.
My CSA share this week had this lovely bunch of chard in it. I knew it was coming, and determined that I'd find some recipe to try and make myself taste it...I read that it was important to cut out the stems, chop them, and boil them in lightly salted water before adding them to the cooking (I didn't quite get them completely softened up, after all, so they could have boiled a bit longer)

Then I chopped up the scallions that came in the share, poured olive oil into the pan, added chopped garlic (okay, that wasn't local, sorry!), and added the chopped stems:
(my only regret is that the color leaches out into the water - that gorgeous fushia in the first photo? Didn't last. :(

Then I added the chopped chard leaves...and stirred in the hot oil, turning everything over and over in the pan, mixing everything:
(I lightly salted and peppered, too)

Finally, I spooned a serving into a bowl.
At first, I ate it that way, and it was good, but somewhere along, I decide a touch of red wine vinegar might be nice.

Wow. Just perfection. With some freshly brewed iced tea? A perfect meal...all by itself, but I added a bit of bread from our local On the Rise baker on the market. I can pick some up at the Co-op when I pick up my CSA share, which saves trying to get downtown!

And I topped off with these:
Hmm...I must be into fushia and green - even my latest yarn purchase was the same colors!

And you know what? Mom always knew best.

One Local Summer Meal

My CSA has been hard pressed to get into the garden lately with all the rain we've been having...but we've had lots of greens, and this week we got two colors of radishes, green onions, and "weeds" for salad:
I'd been working pretty hard all day and decided an omelet with some of the green onions and local eggs, along with this salad would be my one local meal tonight. Unfortunately? The omelet came out of the pan, onto my plate and was polished off long before I remembered that I needed a photograph! I'm glad I got this one of the salad before I started to make the omelet!

But I did bring out a harvest of catnip from my own crop three years ago (when I had a balcony garden in my last apartment). The kitties were absolutely delighted: