Cooking Out Of The Box

The first box of the season arrived on Saturday, of course just in time for me to go out of town the next week.  No matter!  It’s great to have the season kick off. 

The start of the season is always a bit sparse, but I’m not complaining.  The CSA that we belong to is Harmony Vally Farm, and we chose them because their delivery season is longer than most.  This early in the season, we don’t expect to see a large offering full of variety.  But tearing into that first bag of spinach for the season makes up for the lack of robust offerings this early in the year.  And besides.  There were RAMPS!  In the box this week:

• Ramps
• Sweet Overwintered Parsnips
• White Sunchokes/li>
• Sorrel
• Horseradish
• Chives
• Dogwood

No, it isn’t the sighting of the first Robin that makes me believe that spring is here.  Robins foolishly come back to Wisconsin long before the last snow storm.

Instead, it is news that the Dane County Farmers Market will move from its Winter home at the Convention Center, and return to its rightful home on the capital square.  This pivitol event happens on Saturday, April 19, 2008.  Now, we all know that there will be very little in the way of real, fresh product.  It’s still April in Wisconsin, for Chrimeny Sake.  We may be nuts to live here, but we are not delusional and we can face the truth.

It doesn’t matter though.  We’ll out on our long johns, parkas, mittens and boots, and hike the square cheerfuly, pretending, like the robins, that spring really is here, even if it did snow today. 

. . . Even if blog entries don’t!

I’ve become lax in updating all of my blogs as of late, mainly because I’ve been so busy with the “real world” that my blogging as fallen by the wayside, in general.

This is not a good thing!  But even worse, whereas I had been doing really well in terms of using up veggies in the produce box… well, last week, that went right out the window as well.  I was only home for dinner 3 out of 7 nights last week, and that doesn’t exactly create an ideal situation!

But this week will be better.  It better be better, because this week I have the following to use up from my CSA box:

• Red Cabbage
• Broccoli
• White Turnips
• Chioggia Beets
• Fennel
• Green Top Carrots
• Scallop Squash
• Scallions
• Strawberries
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Summer Squash
• Zucchini

Of course, this is a challenge, because I am NOT a beet or turnip fan.  We’ll see if I can find a palatable way to prepare these.

In addition to our CSA box, we also opted to share a fruit box with another member.  Lots of fruit to dig through!

Technorati Tags: red cabbage, Broccoli, White Turnips, Chioggia Beets, Fennel, Carrots, Scallop Squash, Scallions, Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Summer Squash, Zucchini, CSA box, produce box, seasonal produce

Where oh where has the spring gone?  We’re on week #5 of our CSA deliveries, and I have to admit that we’ve been very very bad about using the produce box to it’s full advantage.  Last week was a blur - I was on vacation, but didn’t spend a whole lot of time out of the office, so time at home was spent cramming “vacation time” things into a couple of hours a day.  That means that cooking went by the wayside.

Excuses, excuses.  No more excuses!  This week we’re getting back into the swing of things, and here’s the produce that we’re swinging with:

• Asparagus
• Bok Choi
• Cilantro
• French Breakfast Radishes
• Garlic Scrapes
• Red Boston Lettuce
• Potato Onions
• Rhubarb
• Arugula (mmmm, arugula)
• Spinach
• Burdock

More to come as the week wears on.  I’ll be posting about some of these items, and what we’ve done with them to incorporate them into the menu!

It’s week #2 of the CSA box, and I am not proud to say that I didn’t do all that well with week #1.  Oh, I had spinach salads with ramps and spinach.  I cut up some of the black radishes too.  I sprinkled chives over things.  But I had vowed to do something with the sunchokes, and I didn’t.  So now, after this week, I have double the sunchokes.

Anyone have a bright idea about what to do with sunchokes?

In the box this week:

• Asparagus
• Ramps
• Parsnips
• Black Radishes
• Sunchokes
• Chives
• Spinach
• Salad Mix
• Sorrel
• Rhubarb
• Herb pack

Our first produce box arrived!  I’ve stolen the image that our farm sent us a day or so before it was time to pick it up… I don’t think that they’ll mind!

It’s always entertaining to see how sparse the first few boxes are.  The box this week was small and very light in weight.  In August, that box is going to weigh up to 30 pounds, not 2 pounds, and it is going to be very difficult to lug into the back of my car.

Of course, given that we’ve spend a very long winter season with no fresh produce, I’ll take what I can get!  I’m not going to complain about the sparceness… I’m going to enjoy the ramps! 

In this weeks box we recieved:

• Chives
• Parsnips
• Ramps
• Spinach
• Sunchokes
• Black Radishes