The Suburban Herbivore

Half share from July 15, 2009.

We weren’t able to get a picture of the full share, so what you see is just our half. The list, though, is the entire amount. We got: five pounds of Big Beef and Pink Girl tomatoes, one pint of Sungold tomatoes, one pint of mixed cherry tomatoes, one pound of green bell peppers, one jalapeno, one pounds of onions (white and red), and one pound of Japanese eggplant. The cherry tomatoes are beautiful – I love the yellow pears.

Full share from July 16, 2008.

I think it’s a little funny that there’s one jalapeno in the box each week, as if more than that would be way too much for anyone to handle. While it’s often advised to wear gloves while cutting hot peppers, I’ve never bothered and haven’t suffered from it. Yet. But I have suffered a lot from running the hot water when there are pepper seeds and stems in the sink. If you are cooking with hot peppers, please don’t do this!

Last year’s share: five pounds of tomatoes, two pints of Sungold tomatoes, one pound of Japanese eggplant, one pound of yellow snap beans, two yellow squash, one zucchini, one cantaloupe, and two onions (one white, one red). Check out those crazy eggplant!

Full share from July 8, 2009.

So, this is the point last year where I quit, though I didn’t know it for a while. I continued to take photos of our share each week and I saved the newsletters. And after a while of being out of the habit, it was too overwhelming to try to catch up. Fortunately, I have most of the photos, so what I’ve decided to do is present this week’s share in conjunction with the corresponding week’s share from 2008.

Full share from July 9, 2008.

This year, we got: four pounds of Big Beef tomatoes, three pounds of potatoes, one pint of Sungold tomatoes, one pound of cucumbers, four green bell peppers, one jalapeno pepper, and three onions: two white (Candy) and one red (Candy Apple). Last year, we got: four pounds of Big Beef and Pink Girl tomatoes, three pounds of Rose Gold potatoes, one pint of Sungold tomatoes, two pounds of Japanese eggplant, four yellow squash, two zucchini, and one cantaloupe. The differences are pretty apparent, but it will be more interesting to see what trends develop.

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!

I feel compelled to periodically remind the readers that my husband and I are splitting this share with another couple. What you see in the photo is the full share, and we are just keeping half of that. I like to include everything in the photo to illustrate the wide variety and quality of produce that we are getting from our CSA.

Full share for June 3, 2009.

Here is this week’s produce: one pint of strawberries, two yellow squash, one zucchini, one bunch of leeks, one bunch of orange carrots, one bunch of beets, one bunch of kale, three cucumbers, and some basil. Happily, we have more strawberries, though this will definitely be the last week. I have some cucumbers of my own growing in a tiny little garden that I carved out this spring (more about that later), so I suspect there will be pickles in our near future.

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).

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…

Though it was the first squash of the year, I still felt compelled to pull out my old stand-by, Squash Casserole… despite the fact that there were far better/healthier things I could have made with these cute little yellow squash and zucchini, and also despite the fact that I had less than half the amount called for by the recipe. Fortunately, I had a great idea. It seemed perfectly reasonable that I could replace some of the missing squash with turnips. And so it was. I sliced up and used all the turnips that I had, and added some extra carrots to make up the rest. The casserole turned out great and I had the bonus of polishing off one of my problem vegetables.

And in share #6 of 20, the summer produce begins! Today we received yellow squash, zucchini, parsley, and… basil. I’ve been excitedly awaiting the arrival of basil. I love to use it in Thai dishes, as well as, of course, pesto. Once the tomatoes start, the easiest thing ever to make is a caprese salad. (More on that later.)

We also received beets, strawberries, broccoli, and a giant head of cauliflower. I think I’m going to need to bust out a roasted vegetables dish to go through the remaining beets and turnips. Or maybe we can grill them. Hmmm.