The Suburban Herbivore

Full share from April 28, 2010

Wow! This is my fifth year as a CSA member! I’m super-excited about the coming season for several reasons.

One, my feeble attempt at a vegetable garden last summer was pretty much a fail. I only had a 4X4 plot, and though it was in the sunniest part of our yard, it just wasn’t enough. I got a few tomatoes and cucumbers, and some basil, but it wasn’t a particularly productive garden. The hot peppers that I planted in pots on the back desk did pretty well, though.

The second reason I’m looking forward to my weekly shares is that we’ve had some changes in our family’s financial situation. Getting in a batch of produce each week that was paid for a long time ago is going to be a huge plus in meal planning and saving on groceries – something that I’m planning to start blogging a little more about in general.

I have to say, I wish there were more strawberries this week. As in previous years, we are splitting this share with another couple, and half a pint of strawberries is pretty much just a handful. (But they were delicious!) Here’s what we received: one big bunch spinach, one pint of strawberries, two baby bok choi, one big bunch turnips, one bunch French breakfast radishes, and two enormous heads of lettuce – one Romaine, one red-leaf.

Well, it was efficient in vegetable usage, anyway, though it took a couple of hours to coordinate and pull everything together. All the recipes came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

The first part of last night’s meal was braised root vegetables with miso. I used the radishes, the turnips, and the kohlrabi. This turned out really well – the turnips and radishes turned creamy and yummy. The kohlrabi could have used a little more cooking, but was still flavorful.

While this was stewing, I steamed a big mess of greens – last week’s kale, plus the radish, kohlrabi, and turnip greens – for use on Sunday or Monday. I refrigerated them, and began chopping up the bok choi and last week’s tatsoi. I sauteed the stems in peanut oil for a while, and added the greens. Later on, I added fermented black beans, some green garlic, and tamari. I probably added too many black beans – the flavor of the overall dish was a little strong.

I’d planned to bake some tofu to compliment the meal, but was running a little short on time, so I tried poaching it. I have to say, putting a big block of tofu in a pot of boiling water seemed a little silly, but it wasn’t too bad with a little tamari drizzled on top. But I think I prefer baked.

So at this point, I have left: green lettuce, kale, and some green garlic. Not bad!

We got several things today that I think of as difficult to use: kohlrabi (pictured), radishes, and bok choi. I’m really more of a summer vegetable person. But I’ll come up with something. I have a pretty good recipe somewhere for sesame radishes. Other goodies received: strawberries, kale, green lettuce, and green garlic. We will need to eat the strawberries soon – they mold very quickly. Shouldn’t be a problem…

The first share of the year! Here’s what we got: asparagus, strawberries, red-leaf lettuce, green lettuce, bok choi, tatsoi, green garlic, and turnips. The share was supposed to also have kale, but I think maybe we got extra lettuce instead. Tatsoi is a new one for me. It’s an Asian green that is pretty similar to kale, so I will probably use it in the same way. The bok choi and turnips will be the most difficult to use – I’m not that fond of either.