The Suburban Herbivore

Full share from September 2, 2009

I haven’t been tracking how far along my CSA is, but this is week 18 of 20. And it’s officially the end of the tomatoes for the season. It’s been a pretty good crop this year, though we didn’t receive as much variety as in years past – very few Cherokee Purple and no Orange Blossom. Though, on the other hand, I did really enjoy the colorful and yummy cherry tomatoes.

This week, we got three pounds of tomatoes, one cantaloupe, one quarter-pound of basil, one and a half pounds of green beans, and nine small turnips. I’m glad to get the green beans – I know exactly what I’m going to do with them: Thai-Spiced Tofu and Green Beans.

Last year at this time (week 19 of 20), we received a half pound of basil, two and a half pounds of tomatoes, one pound of Japanese eggplant, and two small acorn squash. My photo is nowhere to be found, unfortunately.

Whoops. Just as I was getting back in the blogging groove, work intervened, and I spent three weeks doing practically nothing but. Working, that is. Hopefully things will slow down long enough for me to catch up a bit on what I’d wanted to post several weeks ago.

Full share from July 1, 2009

Anyway, here is what we received on July 1. Since we took the entire share last week, our friends got the full box this week, so I’m not on the hook for dealing with the first of the eggplant. Though I’m sure there will be plenty more later on… We (i.e. they) got: 1.5 pounds of Big Beef tomatoes, 3 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 pint of Sungold tomatoes, 1 pound of Japanese eggplant, 1 cantaloupe, 1 pound of green beans, and 1 pound of lemon cucumbers. I was sad to miss out on the sweet, sweet Sungolds this time. I grew Sungolds a few years ago, and I absolutely loved having them on-hand all summer.

We received some broccoli this week along with a sizable number of cabbage worms. The weekly newsletter included a tip on deworming the broccoli (shudder): soaking it in salt water until the worms detach and rise to the surface of the water. I grew broccoli one summer a few years ago and had the same infestation. It’s particularly insidious because the worms are the exact same color as the broccoli stem. It was actually enough to put me off trying to grow broccoli again because ewwww.

Full share from June 10, 2009.

Here’s the full list of what we received this week: one pound of green beans, two heads of lettuce, three onions, one bunch of orange carrots, one bunch of beets, one pound of broccoli, and one bunch of radishes. The white onions are a variety called Candy, and the red one is Candy Apple. These are said to be sweeter than the average onion, though I don’t know how they will compare to Videlias. We are a little overwhelmed with beets!

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…