Friday, June 11, 2010

foodish friday

This year we are participating in Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.  The idea is behind a CSA is pretty simple:  at the beginning of the growing season, you can purchased a share of a local farm (ours was $395) and for the duration of the growing season, you get a grocery bag of fresh, local produce grown by a man with a face (and if you're lucky, his wife, too... Hi, Gail!).



There are two CSA options (that I know of, if you are a local and know of something else, please say so!) in my area: Porter Farms, a certified organic farm, and Fenton's Produce (not certified organic).  Fenton's CSA is brand-spanking new this year, and we opted for them because they offer a market experience, where members are able to decide the contents of their bag.  (However, too bad for you if you want in on Fenton's... they're not accepting any new members at this time.  Hop on the waiting list for next year, and tell them I sent you, or call Porters.  And tell them I sent you, too.)



So, each week my children will choose all (or the majority) of our veggies for the week, and then each of them will plan a meal around the vegetable they choose.


Except this week.  I went by myself, because I can't resist taking me out on a hot date to the farm.  


I chose two bags of spinach, and a bundle of asparagus.  Have I ever told you that when I was pregnant with HB I would eat approximately 10 pounds of spinach a week?  No?  Well, I did.  I guess that was a little weird.  But at least I wasn't eating chalk.


Garlic scapes are like green onions, or scallions, but instead of tasting like onions, they taste like... wait for it... garlic.  I know.  This whole Learning New Things About Vegetables Business is superty complicated.  We ate garlic scapes in salad, and last night I made a baked potato with some sharp cheddar cheese and snipped up a garlic scape to top it off.  So. Yummy.

And did you know that POTATO + CHEESE = PROTEIN?  It does.  And you're welcome.

I also picked up a bag of potatoes, two huge heads of lettuce, and some potted herbs.  Thyme, of course, because it is my most favoritest herb of all, and lavendar and rosemary.  

On the menu this week: 
~Grilled pork chops, brown rice, spinach
~Bean burritos with spinach, tomato, cheese, and avocado
~Spinach lasagna with homemade ricotta cheese and roasted red peppers and locally raised beef, green salad
~Eggs, fried potatoes with onions, garlic scapes, roasted poblano peppers (from the freezer), strawberry-rhubarb pie
~French toast with maple syrup, scrambled eggs, asparagus

Where does your food come from?

9 comments:

  1. I want to come your house now!

    Actually, I've been looking into CSA's near here, but I'm buying for one most of the time, and I'm not sure I could use everything promptly. I do need to fully research the options. There are some good local farms in the area, including dairy, vegetables and meat.

    Now I'm really hungry...

    ReplyDelete
  2. My garden and
    http://bootstrapacres.com/
    XOXO
    Joce

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, and your pics are really really nice.
    OXOX
    Joce

    ReplyDelete
  4. Costco. I know. I suck. I need to work on this area of my life.

    ReplyDelete
  5. guess who else has the most favoritest herbs of lavender and rosemary...guess...guess...

    thas righttttt..

    me.

    xok

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dillons and the Super Walmart. I get my eggs from the backyard. If I had a larger backyard, I'd get more things from back there. We are working on that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. CSA sounds like a great idea. Wish there was something like that around my area.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Some of my food comes from our garden. Some of it comes from other people's gardens. Some of it comes from Costco (yikes but those dang mangos are good...they're from Mexico which actually isn't too far away from here...but yeah...) and the only meat we eat comes from our pasture...eggs from our chickens...I've got 10 turkeys on my patio at the moment (at least one of them is for Thanksgiving). There are a couple of local eateries here that serve only local food. When we were ordering at one recently Jasper says, "Is this the kind of meat that I can eat or the kind that stands around in its own poop?" It was hilarious. The chef said..."Little Dude - it is the kind you can eat!"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Everything is local at our house, too. And I mean everything. What I can't do myself we get from local farmers.

    We also just discovered garlic scapes a few weeks ago. I did some research - you probably already know this - they grow off the bulb of garlic and are harvested in the spring to give the actual garlic head itself more growing energy underground. Turns out the people who lived in our house before us must have planted some garlic at one point because I found the scapes right in the backyard garden!

    ReplyDelete

talk to me, people. because you know i get all giddy when you do.