The Suburban Herbivore

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…

Here’s my laundry list of miscellaneous veggies that I will try to use up today. Check in later to see how I did!

1 lb beets
7 small turnips
1 lb bok choy
7 radishes
3 small broccoli heads
1 bunch greens (kale, chard, turnip, beet)
handful of sugar snap peas
1 lb carrots
2 spring onions + tops

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…

This week we received turnips, spinach, lettuce, onions, beets, radishes, and strawberries. The strawberries were perfect, much better-looking than the previous batches and equally as delicious. I’ve been anticipating the arrival of the beets, positive that this year I will come up with something different to do with them. I stumbled on a great recipe for beet risotto that, though it is kind of a violent fluorescent pink, is pretty tasty. But I’d like to come up with a new recipe. Any ideas?

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.

My original idea for this blog was to track what I receive each week in my CSA delivery and what I end up cooking from it. But I will also talk about cooking in general and vegetable gardening and local restaurants and … well, whatever else seems to make sense.