The Suburban Herbivore

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.

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.

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?

Well, it was efficient in vegetable usage, anyway, though it took a couple of hours to coordinate and pull everything together. All the recipes came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

The first part of last night’s meal was braised root vegetables with miso. I used the radishes, the turnips, and the kohlrabi. This turned out really well - the turnips and radishes turned creamy and yummy. The kohlrabi could have used a little more cooking, but was still flavorful.

While this was stewing, I steamed a big mess of greens - last week’s kale, plus the radish, kohlrabi, and turnip greens - for use on Sunday or Monday. I refrigerated them, and began chopping up the bok choi and last week’s tatsoi. I sauteed the stems in peanut oil for a while, and added the greens. Later on, I added fermented black beans, some green garlic, and tamari. I probably added too many black beans - the flavor of the overall dish was a little strong.

I’d planned to bake some tofu to compliment the meal, but was running a little short on time, so I tried poaching it. I have to say, putting a big block of tofu in a pot of boiling water seemed a little silly, but it wasn’t too bad with a little tamari drizzled on top. But I think I prefer baked.

So at this point, I have left: green lettuce, kale, and some green garlic. Not bad!

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…