Category Archives: CSA

CSA Share 15 and a vegan soup recipe
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CSA Share 15 and a vegan soup recipe

As I just wrote in my other blog…

A brief note:
Thank you, readers, for sticking with me! I know my entry schedule has been sketchy at best. I have to try to manage my time better so I can find the time to blog. I have started several posts in my head in the past couple of weeks but I think you would enjoy the posts more if I actually wrote them. Lately, Sleeping. Always. Wins.

CSA Share 15 — October 11, 2012

That’s a lot of greens!

I’ve been frustrated in the last few weeks because some things from each week’s share weren’t getting used, even though I split this share with a friend. So when I got home Thursday afternoon I decided, rather spontaneously, to whip up a quick soup using a recipe from my trainer. Whipping up a “quick soup” might sound like no biggie… but I always try to limit my food prep time during the week. I’d rather be hanging out with my daughter than cooking, and I love cooking.

My trainer went vegan for Lent this past year and she kind of made up this soup recipe. She gave me some notes… so I’m kind of making up the amounts here…

“Super Vegan Soup”

  • 1 onion, diced
  • 2 shallots
  • 1 full head of garlic
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 2-4 cups of greens, washed and ripped into smaller pieces (I used kale and Swiss chard, but you could also just use anything you have on hand)
  • olive oil
  • seasonings you like… I used salt/pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, basil, mint and sage

Basic directions: in a large stock pot add about 1 tbsp olive oil and sauté the onion, shallots and garlic. After a few minutes add the carrots and greens and cook a few minutes more. Stir in seasonings and add 6 cups of water. Cook over a low heat for at least 20 minutes, but more if desired. The longer it cooks the more flavorful it becomes.

Instead of water you could also use vegetable broth. My soup came out pretty good, but I added a little Parmesan cheese to it… making it not vegan. I went a little light on the spice, so next time I would also add more seasonings, like at least 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of each one.

kale and Swiss chard… prepped and ready for the soup

I finished the rest of the soup leftovers today for lunch

 

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CSA shares 7 and 8
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CSA shares 7 and 8

When I joined the CSA I had originally hoped to blog about each share. Life is proving too busy for that, but I do take pictures of each share once I get it home and spread it out in my kitchen.

I split my share with a co-worker, so when I get home from work and get my daughter settled with a snack and a Little Einsteins episode, I have time to divide it and bag his up.

Here’s share 7, picked up on Thursday, August 16. I always take a picture of the easel where they list everything so I don’t forget what I have:

The garlic from this share was UH-MAY-ZING! It was huge and really flavorful. I made some quick pesto using it and the basil from my garden. Thank you, lightlycrunchy, for this inspiration! (There wasn’t enough to freeze.)

The ground cherries were great — so I’ve been told. I made a roasted salsa out of them and a couple of the tomatoes and my husband ate it all before I could taste it. I’m glad we got more this week (8) so I could make more and then hide it from him. I’ll post a recipe next time…

Here’s share 8, picked up on Thursday, August 23:

I’m not familiar with “dragon beans“, but apparently they are just another wax bean variety. They’re pretty yellow beans with purple speckles. I don’t suspect they’ll taste any different, but we’ll have them tomorrow for dinner.

Hey there! Sorry for the absence. We were on vacation….
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Hey there! Sorry for the absence. We were on vacation….

Not the whole time, but you know… summer time is busy. And while I was off I didn’t turn on or even touch my laptop. That was pretty awesome…

My garden has been rockin’ OUT. Here’s a peek at some of it:

Sugar Baby Watermelons are coming along nicely…. only two have grown from this plant so far, but that’s fine with me. They say they grow to 6-10 pounds… we’ll see!

My tomatoes LOOK like a hot mess, but I had to thin out the crazy and toss the vines that had no fruit in order to give the vines that did some breathing room…we did get a little rain in the last few days, including last night. I haven’t gone out yet to check them this morning but I hope they look a little happier than they do here.

When we got back from vacation I picked about 5 off the vine that were red or turning red. This is a new one starting to turn. My husband said they were delicious… I’ll have to take his word for it, since I don’t like tomatoes! Not raw ones anyway. I hope we get enough (that my husband doesn’t eat) so I can make my own sauce.

My second pepper. While we were away (for about 8 days) it grew from the size of my thumbnail to this! And there’s another little one starting. Three peppers isn’t a lot, but since this is my first year with any of this I’m thrilled.

And then there’s this. This used to be the “compost pile” we started and then realized we needed to read up on composting. We covered this one up… but then something started to grow. I think it’s cantaloupe. I don’t know if we’ll see any fruit because it can take up to 100 days to finish… and so far we do have yellow flowers but no baby melons. I read up on how I could pollinate the female flowers but I think I’ll just let it be and see what happens. I don’t think it would survive through the fall, anyway, as the soil has to be kept warm. We’ll see!

And let’s not forget the front flower bed. I had planted some begonias and marigolds… but the marigold are totally huge and starting to cover up the begonias. This pic was taken before our vacation and they are even bigger, if you can believe it. My aunt told me that she plants the shorter growing (8″) variety of marigolds between her tomatoes and veggies in her garden because bugs that like veggies don’t like marigolds. I’m trying that next year!!

Today I pick up my first CSA share in 3 weeks and I’m psyched. (While we were gone — and getting ready to leave — I gave away my share to friends. They both LOVED it and are interested in signing up next year!)

I didn’t work out “in a gym” while I was away… but I did do a lot of “pool exercise” with my 2-year-old. She now weighs about 35 lbs, and I was throwing her around the pool a number of times while we were away!

In the Elmo’s World show at Sesame Place, taking a much needed break from the heat and humidity.

And I have been fighting a cold since we’ve been back, so I didn’t go to the gym yesterday and I’ll see how I feel on Friday before I make a call about whether or not to go. I started to feel sick Sunday afternoon, after my Sunday morning workout, which consisted of cardio (elliptical and bike) and leg weight machines. I hope I can get back on track with this in the days ahead.

I’m also looking forward to getting back on track with blogging! I’ll hopefully be able to write another post about my CSA share for this week in the next day or two.

See you then!

Garlic Harvesting, 2nd CSA share and Quinoa Patties
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Garlic Harvesting, 2nd CSA share and Quinoa Patties

CSA-ers fulfilling their volunteer commitment to harvest garlic

I helped harvest garlic for about 3 hours on Sunday, July 8. It was hot. Like, 90+ degrees hot. But it was kind of fun. Gratifying, even!

I was so dirty when I got home. I don’t think I’ve gotten that dirty since childhood.

I don’t know if you can appreciate how much I’m sweating. And I know this is a dumb hat, but it protected my head from the sun and provided my face with shade!

We had to pull the garlic out of the ground, dust off the dirt clumped on the root part, and then place the garlic in piles of about 20, like this.

I met some really nice people and traded some gardening tips with another lady. And participating in the harvesting fulfills my volunteer commitment for the CSA.

Since the garlic will have to be hung up to dry for a few weeks, it wasn’t in our shares this week.

So what was in our share? Take a look:

7/12/12 share contents

I took the broccoli rabe as well as some radishes.

In the last week I also found the time to try a recipe that I’ve had on my “to do” list: Quinoa Patties.

I found the original recipe here, at SoupAddict.com. It looks like she adapted this one herself… but she’s got a wonderful site with so many inspiring recipes and photos!

I’d really recommend you go visit. You’ll get lost for a while =)

I changed the recipe up a bit… I still want to play with it some more because they were absolutely delicious and really filling.

I added shredded zucchini, but I want to see if I can add more vegetables and still maintain the patty consistency.

Here’s my take on this.

Note: I read the comments after the SA post, and I came away with a good tip on forming patties: use a measuring cup.  Also… I really wish I’d had some chives to put in, as called for by SA’s version… but I didn’t. I think they would really be nice.

The finished product… I enjoyed mine with some hot sauce. YUM!

Quinoa Patties (adapted from SoupAddict.com)

  • 2 cups cooked quinoa, at room temperature (leftover quinoa is perfect)
  • 1 cup shredded zucchini
  • 1/2 onion, finely chopped
  • 5-6 oz feta cheese
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • a few shakes salt
  • a few shakes Italian seasoning
  • a few shakes crushed red pepper
  • a few grinds of fresh black pepper
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs (more if needed)
  • Water, as needed
  • Extra virgin olive oil

Yield: 12-15 patties

Mix the ingredients. Combine the quinoa and zucchini in a medium bowl. Stir in the onion, cheese, garlic, salt, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Mix in the beaten eggs. Add 1/4 cup bread crumbs and stir well.

To test that the mixture has the proper texture to form patties, pick up a palm full, squeeze and release. If the mixture holds together in a clump, then it’s ready. If it’s dry and crumbly, add water a 1/2 teaspoon at a time until the mixture passes the test. If the mixture feels wet and mushy, add more bread crumbs.

Heat the oil. In a large skillet over medium heat, making sure to coat the bottom of the pan.

Form the patties. Take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill with the quinoa mixture. Empty the cup into your hand or directly into the skillet and pat down to form a patty that is about 1/2″-3/4″ thick. Leaving room for flipping, fill your skillet.

Cook. For 8 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms are browned. (You may decide to cover your pan. I did not.) Carefully flip the patties with a spatula and cook the other sides for 5-7 minutes, or until golden. Remove patties from the skillet and place on a plate lined with paper towels for blotting some of the excess oil off.

Once they’re cool, enjoy!

the mix — I used organic tri-color quinoa from Trader Joe’s

using the measuring cup worked very well to form perfect-sized patties

Browning

First CSA share and Dandelion Greens with Garlic and Lemon
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First CSA share and Dandelion Greens with Garlic and Lemon

First CSA share! I swear, picking it up felt like Christmas.

holy cow thatsa lotta veggies

This week’s share consisted of:

They had regular yellow and green squash/zucchini, but I picked out 3 that looked like this:

what the what?

Yesterday I made myself sauteed dandelion greens for dinner.

Using this recipe for inspiration (the first one), I sauteed garlic in olive oil, then added the greens and cooked for a few minutes until they were slightly wilted. Then I squeezed a lemon over them and tossed them with roasted chick peas, penne and parmesan cheese. They were a little bitter… like broccoli rabe is bitter… but they were so good paired with the garlic and lemon. I’d definitely buy these in the future (if they aren’t included in a CSA share)!

Tomorrow I am going to fulfill my volunteer commitment for the CSA — I’m going to work on the farm that provides us with our vegetables. I’ll be harvesting garlic for about 3 hours in 90+ degree weather. It’s going to be hot but I think it will be fun. I’m really looking forward to it!

In other news, I worked out for an hour and a half on Wednesday, July 4. I haven’t sweated that much in a while! It felt great. I wasn’t able to get to the gym yesterday but I did spend about 2 hours tossing my kid around in the town pool earlier today (she’s sleeping it off now).

I’ll update you on the farming. I’m off to look up some recipes for salad turnips!