May 22 Share
The produce is beautiful this week! We received swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, beets, broccoli, cabbage, and some lovely strawberries. This year, we are getting a full share and splitting it with friends, so fortunately, they took the cabbage and I am not on the hook for figuring out what to do with it. Generally, a half share is suggested to be a good amount for one to two people, and I’d say that’s right on. I think I’d have to quit my job if I was going to cook everything in a full share myself.
But I feel like things have not been going well here. I still have a entire head of lettuce and all the spinach (one pound) from last week. Plus the beets, radishes, and turnips, but I’m not as concerned about those. Perhaps if I eat salad for lunch and supper today, that will make a sufficient dent in the lettuce, and I might try steaming and freezing the spinach. At least last week’s spinach…
Tags: beets, broccoli, cabbage, Community Supported Agriculture, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, swiss chard
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
For the spinach, you could try this simple sautee:
Pick and rinse the leaves, setting the smallest inner leaves aside. Don’t worry about the leaves being a bit wet. In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, melt about a tablespoon of butter until it starts to turn a slightly brown. Fill the pan with spinach, it should start to steam and reduce very fast. Stir constantly. Add about a tablespoon of rice wine or cider vinegar and keep adding spinach until it’s all in the pan. When the last handful goes in, take it off the heat and stir for about 30 seconds. Add the reserved inner leaves. Plate quickly and sprinkle with kosher salt and Parmesan.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Do you know off hand how much a half share costs? I want to get a garden going once I move to Durham, but it’s a bit late for planting for most things and others I will have to wait until the fall planting season.
May 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Half shares tend to run $200-$350, depending on a number of things, including how many delivery weeks and whether the farm is certified organic. As far as I know, all the CSAs will have started at this point and would have filled up their subscriptions a few months ago, but it never hurts to check. Try going to http://localharvest.org/csa and doing a search.