The Suburban Herbivore

This is week 4, a particularly colorful week! With the appearance of yellow squash, the summer vegetables begin. I refuse to make squash casserole right away. I’m going to use the squash in something else. I’m guessing that this is the last of the strawberries. I definitely need to start thinking about these beets, though they will keep for a while. It has been interesting, if challenging, getting different varieties of beets.

Full share from May 27, 2009

Here’s what we got: one head of lettuce, one large cauliflower, two zucchini, three yellow squash, one bunch of scallions, two pints of strawberries, one large bunch of Forona beets, one bunch of parsley, and one bunch of yellow, orange, and purple carrots. The parsley is a variety called Giant of Italy, and surely, the leaves are huge (for parsley, anyway).

The strawberries are still coming in strong, and they are getting sweeter. (If there is a lot of rain while they are ripening, the berries will taste a little watery and not as sweet.) So far, the produce has been wonderful. I’ve really been enjoying all the lettuce – we’ve been having salad almost every night. Salad before the meal, that is. I’m rarely able to eat only a salad – it’s just not substantial enough for me.

Full share from May 20, 2009

This week: two pints of strawberries, two heads of lettuce, one bunch of scallions, one bunch of purple, yellow, and orange carrots, one bunch of Chiogga beets, one bunch of purple radishes, and two baby boc chois. In the photos, the radishes are on the left and the beets are on the right.

More greens this week, and some left over from last week. I’ve got to get a jump on that, because the beets will start soon, and then I’ll be completely overrun with greens. Fortunately, they cook down quite a lot, so you can have a giant mess of greens that reduces to a relatively small mess of greens.

Full share from May 13, 2009

This week’s haul: two pints of strawberries, two heads of lettuce, one bunch of scallions, one bunch of baby turnips, one bunch of dill, one bunch of Swiss chard, and the magical, once-a-year kohlrabi. Last year’s kohlrabi, I believe, went into a dish of roasted root vegetables. Let’s see what I can come up with for this year’s…

I’ve got some catching up to do. Not only am I way behind on updating for this year’s shares, I would still like to at least include the lists and photos from the rest of last year.

For 2009, we are with the same CSA as last year: Elysian Fields Farm. And again, we are splitting a full share with friends. I like to include the entire share in the photo to fully illustrate what we receive. But I am only responsible for cooking half of it!

Full share from May 6, 2009

The year was off to a great start with three pints of strawberries! We have to eat the strawberries right away as they spoil pretty rapidly. But generally, this is not a problem. We also got one bunch of red Russian kale, two heads of Boston lettuce, one bunch of French breakfast radishes (I don’t know what makes them “breakfast”, but they are long, pointy, and will be eaten at supper), one bunch of baby turnips, two baby boc chois, and one bunch of scallions.