The Suburban Herbivore

Tomatoes are here! We received two varieties this week: Big Beef and Early Girl. Growing up, I’d always heard that it’s unusual to have tomatoes before the 4th of July, so I remain impressed when they show up before that. Certainly, the ones I’m growing won’t be ready for quite a while. A few years ago, I grew Sungolds, which are little, orange, sweet, and delicious. Since our CSA supplies those, I’m devoting my tomato space to ones that can be used for sauce and/or slicing. I haven’t written about my garden yet… I’ll do that soon.

Full share from June 24, 2009.

This week, we received two pounds of tomatoes, three pounds of Red Pontiac potatoes, one yellow squash, one zucchini, one bunch of basil, three onions (two yellow, one red), two cabbages (one green, one red), and three cucumbers (two green, one lemon). Since our friends are out of town this week, we are keeping the entire share for ourselves. Time for another cooking challenge!

Cabbage starts this week. Somewhere in my giant pile of clipped recipes, I’ve got a couple for cabbage that I want to try. Though I’m not that big of a fan of coleslaw, this recipe (which I linked to last year) is pretty good. Of course, that is for red cabbage, and we received green cabbage this week. I once tried making sauerkraut, but my lackadaisical approach and faulty memory made it somewhat of a disaster. I ended up tossing the entire pan, complete with towel and National Geographics (for weight) into the trash – what a waste!

Half share from June 17, 2009.

This week’s photo may look a little sparce. It is just half of the produce, as I was not able to get a photo of the full share. We actually received two cabbages, one bunch of baby turnips (so double what’s in the photo), two pounds of cucumbers, two heads of lettuce, and three onions (two white, one red). Additionally, what looks like parsley in the photo is actually cutting celery, an herb that I’ve never used before. It smells and tastes like celery. Above the onion is a lemon cucumber. This is one of my CSA’s specialties. It tastes like a normal cucumber, but is round and yellow instead, so it would yield nice big slices for a cucumber sandwich.

I am excited to already be getting tomatoes! I have heard in the past that, at least around here, tomatoes don’t show up before July 4. I don’t think I’ve managed to produce them earlier than that, but then, sometimes, I procrastinate a little in my planting. Unfortunately I forgot to include the two Big Beef tomatoes in the photo because they were in a separate paper bag.

This week I also received: one red cabbage, three leeks, six orange and yellow carrots, one bunch of beets, four regular cucumbers (not sure which variety), two lemon cucumbers (I’ll be making a separate post about this), a bag of green beens, and one head of garlic. Definitely some good stuff. From the newsletter that Elise sends, it seems that this is the last week for carrots and beets. I’ll miss the carrots but am soooo ready to say goodbye to the beets.

Half a pound of basil is a LOT of basil! I have no doubt that I could use it all myself, but I suppose I should give our friends who are sharing the share their share. Heh. We also received a cauliflower, a small red cabbage, some dill, two zucchini, four yellow squash, four cucumbers, 3/4 pound green beans, and two onions with the greens attached. It’s a pretty good haul, and I remain really happy with the shares so far this year.

I placed a quarter on top of the cauliflower for scale before taking this photo. This is a trick that I picked up in my geology classes – though they tended to use a pick-axe or lens cap or a person.

My husband is already planning to make pickles this weekend. I may ask him to do a guest post about that. I actually have a couple ideas of what I want to do with the cabbage. Dill is one of those herbs that confounds me a little. It’s very good in omelets. I haven’t used it for much else, and am open to ideas…

This was another banner week. Nearly all of the produce so far has just been exceptional. And, thankfully, we have a week off from lettuce, as I still have an entire bunch left from last time. We received several new items: yellow, orange, and purple carrots, as well as sugar snap peas. And, of course, broccoli, kale, cabbage, onions, turnips, boc choi, and the best batch of strawberries yet.

I already have plans for the broccoli, in the form of a tofu stir-fry. But I think I’m going to need to cook up another mess of greens this weekend. And probably some beet risotto. And maybe I can make some soup somewhere in there, too.

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…