Week One

This is going to be the story of my journey through a 20 week season of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture. I love food, love to cook and find it really satisfying to just make random things in the kitchen and see how they come out. I know that there will be some mishaps (hello roasted veg soup in which I forgot to peel the onion skins thoroughly), there will be meals that I won't want to ever look at again, but I also know there will be some hidden gems thrown in with some new veggies I haven't tried before. I will post another time about my eating habits and beliefs (I am a vegan, have been for nearly 2 years, and before that a vegetarian for 17), but for now I want to be able to tell you about my first CSA adventure.

I belong to Farmer Dave's and I have been looking froward to picking up my first share for weeks! When I got the the pick-up location, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were still plenty of great looking fresh veg out and that they gave me a great tote that looks like it will be very useful in the weeks to come.

There was so much food! I purchased a 'small share', enough to feed 1-2 people. I'm vegan and I am thinking that I won't have to supplement fresh ingredients too much if I plan carefully and cook creatively.

My box contained:

1 bunch of large radishes, red & white
1 bunch of beets
1 head of Romaine lettuce
1 head of Boston lettuce
1 bunch of garlic scape's
1 head of tatsoi
1 kousa squash
1 Zucchini
1 bag of snap peas
1 head of bok choy

I asked to get the pre-boxed share since it's going to be a bit of a tight squeeze to get to my pick-up sometimes and I couldn't have been more pleased with what I got! I only had to look up 2 items in my haul, the Tatsoi and the Kousa. I've had Kousa before and it's delicious, I just couldn't remember what it was called. I somehow made room in my refrigerator for all the leafy greens and then proceeded to think up dinner.

I had had garlic scape's before in a risotto, but felt that there must be a better use for them. While I looked through cabinets, I snacked on a radish that was the largest I have ever seen, just putting some salt and pepper on thin slices. It was so fresh! I have only ever had dried out radishes from the grocery store before and this was a serious upgrade. After looking around, I decided to saute about half of the head of Tatsoi in olive oil and just do a simple seasoning of salt and pepper and I enjoyed it. My final creation involved a Garlic Scape Pesto with Almonds, Artichokes and Cannellini Beans over pasta, I used Campanelle because I thought it would hold the sauce well. To top that off, I also made a Strawberry and Sesame Salad with some of the romaine lettuce. I didn't measure anything, I was just looking through my cabinets, refrigerator and thinking of what has worked with similar vegetables.


Garlic Scape Pesto with Almonds, Artichokes and Cannellini Beans

1 bunch of garlic scape's
1/4 C. almonds
enough olive oil to make a sauce, somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 C.
2 T. water
2 t. basil, I only had dried but fresh would be best.
1/2 cup of cannellinni beans
1 small jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
3/4 box of pasta
Salt & Pepper

I set a big pot of water to boil and then set out to make the pesto. I took all my scape's and chopped them in to roughly 1" pieces. I put them in my Magic Bullet (food processor) with the basil and olive oil. They were pretty tough to puree, so I ended up having to add water to looken it up a bit. Once it was close to my desired consistency I added the almonds and then took it to a pretty pureed texture and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. Once the pasta is finished, reserve some of the cooking water, you will need it once everything mixes. I added the artichokes, beans and pesto to the pasta and then served some panko bread crumbs over the top that I had toasted with Earth Balance vegan spread. This came out amazing! The bread crumbs were the perfect addition and the house smelled wonderfully garlicky. It's surprising that the pesto did not taste to strongly of garlic (is that possible??) but it was really perfect. I will be making this again, possibly with different nuts just to try something new.

Strawberry and Sesame Salad

10-12 medium to large strawberries
3 C. lettuce, I used romaine but it even better with spinach
2 t. Dijon mustard
1/4 t. sesame seed oil
1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
1/2 C. olive oil, a combo of olive and grape seed is best.
Salt & Pepper

Tear greens up to pieces that you won't have a issue eating and slice then take 5-6 strawberries and slice them up. Next, take the mustard, vinegar, oils and puree. Season to taste and serve over the romaine with a sprinkling to sesame seeds on top. This salad makes a wicked pink colored dressing and is so much fun to serve to other people. I have only ever made it with almonds, walnuts or pecans but the sesame seeds were a nice change.

I had so much fun cooking everything, but next time I will try to pay more attention to how much I am using. Just use your judgment about the quantities of oil and if something is off, let me know and I can adjust accordingly. My plan is that I will get to write the recipe down every time I use an ingredient from my CSA box.

I'm still not sure what to do with my bok choy or what I'll do with my remaining tatsoi, but I'm sure i figure it out.

Happy Cooking!