2008 CSA Wrap-Up

Can't believe I never finished this out last year.

Well, for my own benefit, since that's the whole reason I did this in the first place, here's the remainder of last year's CSA. Because they sometimes have to swap things out at the last minute, or had extra "bonus" stuff, there may be some things missing... I'm not really going to remember that almost a year later.

Week 17/22

• 5 tomatoes
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 6 4th of July tomatoes
• 1 squash
• 1 zucchini
• 12 pcs swiss chard
• 1 eggplant
• 1 onion
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 12 ears of sweet corn
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 banana peppers
• 6 gladiolas

Week 18/22

• 5 tomatoes
• 6 4th of July tomatoes
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 1 yellow squash
• 12 ears of sweet corn
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 banana peppers
• 1 pt. blackberries
• 2 sprigs of basil
• 1 onion
• 1 winter squash
• 1 lb. green beans
• 1 eggplant

Week 19/22

• 5 tomatoes
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 onion
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 sweet peppers
• 2 eggplant
• 2 acorn squash
• 3 turnips
• 12 ears sweet corn
• 1 lb. green beans

Week 20/22

• 4 tomatoes
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 4 sweet or hot peppers
• 2 carnival squash
• 2 onions
• 1 eggplant
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 lb sweet potatoes
• 2 bulbs of garlic
• 3 heads of lettuce
• 3 turnips
• 12 cut flowers

(This week included an awesome recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Carnival Squash that we made quite a few times for the remainder of last season).

Week 21/22

• 4 tomatoes
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 4 bell peppers
• 4 sweet or hot peppers
• 2 winter squash
• 2 onions
• 1 eggplant
• 12 pcs swiss chard
• 1 lb. sweet potatoes
• 2 bulbs of garlic
• 3 heads of lettuce
• 3 beets

Week 22/22

• 4 tomatoes
• 2 bell peppers
• 4 sweet peppers
• 4 hot peppers
• 3 heads of lettuce
• 2 winter squash
• 2 mini pumpkins
• 12 ears of sweet corn
• 1 lb. green beans
• 3 beets
• 3 radishes
• 1 onion
• 12 cut flowers

And that's all!

We were really happy with our CSA last year... so we renewed for 2009 (and have already picked up week 1 of that!). The only major complaint is that it's a drop-off at Amy's gym way out in BFE... but it's not THAT bad, especially for fresh veggies weekly!

Live From Value City Arena, 2008 Edition

It's OSU move-in day again, and I'm set-up on the floor of the Schott once more. I've lost track of how many times I've worked this event now. It's definitely been awhile - going back to when it used to be at the French Field House.

Things are going pretty well so far this morning - for the first time everything I needed was already set-up at the table and waiting for me - so THAT'S a good start. Plus I'm actually feeling human and not like the three-times dead zombie I was last year, so again, I've got that going.

A flawless start just makes the day so much better...

CSA Update

Haven't updated in awhile, so let me catch up on the good 'ol CSA:

Week 12/22

• 3 Tomatoes
• 1 massive zucchini
• 2 Banana Peppers
• 1 bulb hard-necked garlic
• 3 odd-looking carrots
• 1 sprig of basil
• 2 yellow squash
• 2 green peppers
• 1 onion
• 3 heads of lettuce (again with the lettuce!)
• 2 large (summer) squash - 1 8-ball, 1 mini-pumpkin looking one (high-ball was it?)
• 1 pt cherry tomatoes

Week 13/22

• 3 heads of lettuce
• 5 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 2 green peppers
• 3 banana peppers
• 2 large (summer) squash - 1 8-ball, 1 patty-pan
• 1 tiny eggplant
• 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
• 2 sprigs basil

Week 14/22

• 5 tomatoes
• 3 green peppers
• 3 banana peppers
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 2 sprigs basil
• 1 onion
• 2 large squash (another patty-pan and another mini-pumpkin looking one)
• 1 pt cherry tomatoes
• 1 smallish eggplant
• 3 heads of lettuce
• 1 pt. blackberries!

Week 15/22

• 3 heads of lettuce
• 1 sugarbaby watermelon
• 1 pt cherry tomatoes
• 6 tomatoes
• 1 summer squash (8-ball)
• 1 pt. blackberries
• 1 onion
• 4 banana peppers
• 2 sprigs sage
• 3 sunflowers

Week 16/22

• 5 tomatoes
• 1 pt cherry tomatoes
• 1 smallish eggplant
• 2 green peppers
• 6 banana peppers
• 3 heads of lettuce
• 1 pt. blackberries
• 1 large squash (I think we skipped it?)
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 6 4th of July tomatoes (kind of in between cherry tomatoes and regular ones)
• 1 onion
  
• 1 bouquet cut flowers

--And that's it! I can't believe we've still got 6 weeks to go! Should be interesting getting into the late Summer/early Autumn crops to see what we get.

The farm our CSA is through lost their first two crops of corn to weather, so unfortunately we haven't gotten ANY corn from them. That's a bummer, but hey, helping farms through disasters like that is part of why we DO CSAs, right? They've given us more than enough stuff to make up for it.

As you can see, these past few weeks have been VERY tomato and pepper-heavy. Since Amy doesn't like red pasta sauce, there's not much we could cook to easily go through that volume of tomatoes before they go bad... so I've been making a lot of fresh salsa! Taking a HUGE batch to a potluck at work tomorrow, actually.

Anniversary, CSA Update

Quick CSA Update, week 11/22 - halfway over already!

• 3 tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 huge yellow squash
• 1 green pepper
• 2 banana peppers
• 1 cucumber (pickling)
• 1 sprig basil
• 2 ridiculously huge zucchini
• 1 large bulb of garlic
• 1 smallish light purple eggplant (they had white, but those were even smaller)

The recipe they gave us for this week is for a tomato, basil, & mozzarella salad. It sounds pheomenal - can't wait to try it out, especially with fresh mozzarella.

We're clearly being overwhelmed by zucchini and squash here - they're so large that most things I cook with them only use one at a time and we get 3-4 each week! Gotta come up with more things to do with them.

So today is our EIGHT YEAR Anniversary. Completely crazy. Eight years ago today around this time I was posing for pictures getting ready for things to start - they were just about underway at this point.

Amy & I are of course continuing the Anniversary Steakhouse Tour. So far, we've been to, in order:

1. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
2. Mitchell's Steakhouse (Crosswoods)
3. Smith & Wollenski
4. Morton's
5. Walker Station
6. The Top
7. The Claremont

This year we're going to the brand new Eddie Merlot's on Polaris. It just opened a couple months ago, but saved us from having to dip into the well of places we've already been (together but NOT on the Steakhouse tour), like J. Gilbert's, J. Alexanders, or even Hyde Park. After that, we'll be looking to travel to find a new place that meets the requirements.

After dinner, hopefully we'll be able to see The Dark Knight... depending on how late it is I suppose. Chris says we're 2 of 12 people in the US not to have seen it yet...

More CSA

Still keeping track so that we've got a decent record of everything we got. Amy tells me that this is apparently the first year Bird's Haven Farms has done a CSA, and they're learning quite a bit. I guess they also do "self-pick", and that's why we only got swiss chard once, for example (self-pick folks picked it all up!). Also, I guess they were planning on only giving fruit to people who got the "large" CSA, and only gave the medium folks (like us) some to make up for the slow weeks.

This is our first year trying out a CSA, so it's all new to us anyway. And it's still been a blast getting so many fresh veggies every week and looking up new recipes to use them in.

So anyway, the updates:

Week 9/22
(in week 9 we were driving back from Chicago on our usual pick-up day, so someone from the gym picked out our share for us)

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 tiny eggplant
• 1 huge kohlrabi
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 tomato
• 2 tiny carrots (that's pretty much all they have carrot-wise)
• 2 cucumbers
• 3 turnips
• 1 green pepper
• 1 bulb (or whatever you call a "head" of cloves) of garlic! [the sheet says we were supposed to get an onion, but somehow we wound up with fresh garlic instead. Works for me!!]
  

Week 10/22

• 2 tomatoes
• 2 large yellow squash
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• 1 bell pepper (a purple one! I didn't even know such a thing existed! It looks most like the one in the back in this pic:
• 2 banana peppers!
• 1 onion (for real this time)
• 1 huge zucchini
• 1 huge kohlrabi
• 1 cucumber (pickling variety)
• 3 turnips

Another nice haul. I made a zucchini & onion stir-fry (with fresh garlic) to go with dinner tonight and boiled the cabbage to serve with a southwestern pork loin we had. Turned out pretty tasty I think, though the zucchini I used was too much - it made it hard to keep the moisture down in the stir-fry and things got soggier then I usually like.

Amy's making kohlrabi & turnip stew using a recipe she's made a couple times now. It's tasty, and makes for good lunches especially.

CSA Week 8/22

Picked up this week's CSA today, and it was another pretty impressive haul. We got:

• 3 heads of lettuce
• 1 massive cucumber, 1 curvy cucumber
• 1 large yellow squash
• 2 large zucchini
• 2 bunches of broccoli
• 1 large kohlrabi
• 3 wimpy carrots
• 10 leaves of kale
• 1 green pepper
• 1 eggplant
• 3 turnips

Their featured recipe was for the eggplant, but it was just plain fried eggplant. When trying to think of what to make for dinner with our haul, focusing on the eggplant specifically, there was fried or roasted eggplant, eggplant parmigiana... I wound up going with Ratatouille -- probably at least partly inspired by having watched the movie last week (our first Netflix selection!).

It turned out pretty good, and I have to say it was a lot easier to make then I expected. I mean, with all the different veggies involved, I figured the prep-time would be a pain, but really it was just a matter of chopping it all up & throwing it in the pan for awhile. Easy! And actually a nice filling meal, despite being vegetarian...

Diving into the CSA

So after reading about them and seeing them around here and there, we decided to dive in and try out a CSA this year. That's community-supported agriculture, for those that don't know but don't want to follow the link. Think of it as kind of subscribing to a local farm -- you pay $$XX for the CSA and each week you get a variety of farm-fresh vegetables, locally grown and in season!

I've been really happy with it so far. We went with Bird's Haven Farms for our first try, primarily because they have a pickup location at Amy's gym, which she'd be going to anyway. They started a bit early in the season, so the first few weeks were a little thin, but things are really hitting a great stride, and it's so nice to have a variety of different fresh vegetables to work with each week.

I wanted to try and keep track of everything we've gotten without needing to worry about losing the little pieces of paper they give out, so here goes. So far, we've gotten:

Week 1/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce (chosen from several different varieties, none being "iceberg")
• 1 bunch of swiss chard
• 4 radishes
• 1 ginormous cucumber
• 2 onions
• 1/2 dozen eggs

Week 2/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce
• 1 qt. strawberries
• 1 lb. spinach
• 1 huge cucumber
• fresh herb planter/basket

Week 3/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce
• 1 qt. strawberries
• 4 radishes
• 1 huge cucumber
• 1/2 dozen eggs

Week 4/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce
• 2 large cucumbers
• 4 radishes
• 1 green pepper

Week 5/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce
  
• 1 large carrot
• 2 lbs. potatoes
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 green pepper

Week 6/22:

• 4 heads of lettuce
• 2 large cucumbers
• 10 leaves of kale
• 2 large yellow squash
• 1 green pepper
• 2 beets
• 1 huge zucchini
• 1 lb. green beans

Week 7/22:

• 1 green pepper
• 2 bunches of broccoli
• 1 kohlrabi
• 3 smallish carrots
• 2 beets
• 2 medium cucumbers
• 2 turnips
• 9 leaves of kale
• 1 large yellow squash
• 1 lb. green beans

And that's all so far. Last week (6/22) and this week (7/22) were great hauls. Amy's actually started bypassing the biggest cucumbers, simply because we can't eat that much cucumber in a week.

Again, one of the best parts for me has been trying new foods. I'd never had swiss chard before and I love it (sauteed with some garlic & olive oil). Kale and kolhrabi were new tastes for me as well. I can't wait to see what's still to come.