The Suburban Herbivore

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.

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!

We canceled our share for last week, as our friends that are splitting it with us were out of town. And this week’s share was fairly light. But I’m requesting a double one next week to make up for the one we missed, so that will be … something. For sure.

Last week we missed out on potatoes, of which there will be more, and red cabbage, which I am happy to be done with. Though I did turn up a fairly decent recipe for coleslaw online recently.

Anyway, we got a cute little watermelon, six tomatoes (!) and more lemon cucumbers, as well as leeks, regular cucumbers, serrano peppers, garlic, and the first of the eggplant. Elysian Fields grows Japanese eggplant, which are smaller, more tender, and not as bitter as the standard Black Beauty eggplant that one typically finds in a grocery store. I really appreciate them, because (1) I just don’t like eggplant that much, so having them be smaller is better, as far as I’m concerned, and (2) they are better for Asian/Indian cooking, which I’m more inclined to do anyway.

In rereading this post, I realized that I keep complaining about the vegetables I don’t like. To counter-balance, let me mention all the ones we got this week that I love: serranos, garlic, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I also love watermelon, which is of course not a vegetable. I don’t actually believe there are any fruits that I don’t like.

I am planning to do a flurry of posts this weekend, including reviews of the two Moosewood cooking classes I attended, and a guest post by my husband about making pickles. Stay tuned…

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.