Tuesday November 27, 2007

Community supported agriculture part 1

Well, I did it: I signed up for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program run by Redland Organics. My first batch of food came the weekend before Thanksgiving, and it was an impressive haul — two squashes, two turbocharged avocados, some crazy Komatsuna greens (seen at left in photo), green beans, turnips watermelon beets (the incredible flavor of which I can never convey, but the eye-poping color the inside of which I will reveal in a later photo) with greens on, plus fresh dill, garlic chives, and basil. Wow… and they start light in the early season?

I wasn’t really ready for this, and so a lot of it got consumed in a big stir-fry, with sauces probably overpowering the freshness which is the point of the whole thing. By next time (this Saturday!), I am will to have a salad spinner (as advertised, these veggies come with soil very well attached, straight from the farm style, and washing is necessary), an empty fridge, and a mind ready to eat whatever vegetables are put to my usage. Prepare for more reports of where this came.

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  1. KH    Tue Nov 27, 09:10 AM #  

    Are those turnips perhaps actually watermelon beets? ‘Cause we got watermelon beets in our box, and they look just like your turnips. ;)



  2. Paula    Tue Nov 27, 09:45 AM #  

    I have produce envy! I’m on the waiting list and hoping to at least make it to a trial.



  3. Michael    Tue Nov 27, 10:54 AM #  

    Wow, those look great! I was out of town during the end of the sign-up period, but next year, I need to plan earlier. Very impressive.



  4. KH    Tue Nov 27, 11:59 AM #  

    AH, oops! Not beets! Radishes.



  5. alesh    Tue Nov 27, 11:11 PM #  

    Ack! Well, some delicious root vegetable, anyway.



  6. KH    Wed Nov 28, 12:47 AM #  

    Amazing, it was! Both raw and sauteed. Mmmm. Maybe I’ll have some now. Aren’t you so excited for Saturday?



  7. Trina    Wed Nov 28, 07:29 PM #  

    Oh, I’m so glad you are doing this! I’m going to blogging weekly on what I do with my veggies and I hope others do the same and/or leave comments so we can all share ideas. Great picture!



  8. Margie    Wed Nov 28, 10:51 PM #  

    Thank you so much, everyone (especially Alesh and Trina-http://www.miamidish.net- for doing the blogs). It’s great to see the Community Supporting Agriculture (yay!).
    I hope I can garner the recipes posted here to add to our member recipe collection, and perhaps include some future CSA newsletters.
    Chow!
    PS- to clarify the mystery veggies in the first box: the round spicy roots were RADISHES; the crazy greens were either Komatsuna OR Yukina Savoy, which is a kind of tatsoi on steroids. The picture of the share in this blog shows a Yukina Savoy (on the left, a rubber-banded rosette). The Komatsuna, which were in about 2/3 of the boxes, is a softer leaf banded in a bunch by their loose stems.



  9. Adam    Thu Nov 29, 11:11 AM #  

    When does the spring season start? I’m mouth watering.



  10. kia    Thu Nov 29, 12:47 PM #  

    I love Saturdays! I feel like a kid waiting for a present when I head to the drop-off location.



  11. Kristen    Thu Nov 29, 04:16 PM #  

    great post as always. Small typo in header. Thought you’d like to know.



  12. Audra    Sat Dec 1, 03:17 PM #  

    OOoooo…I didn’t know about this blog before T-giving. I just got my 2nd CSA Box. I’m so happy happy happy!! I was kinda shy to use my Watermelon radishes and haven’t used them yet. I don’t know what to do with them and I don’t want to mess them up!! Can I roast them in olive oil like beets? Did I wait too long? I kept them in the fridge. Now they are a little soft…I hope I didn’t ruin them! HELP!



  13. alesh    Sun Dec 2, 11:39 AM #  

    Audra~ I’m sure they’re fine. Roasting sounds great; I bet they’d be tasty slicked up and eaten raw, too.