What's in the CSA box? Week 7 and 8 from Fall 2013

I'm playing catch up with weeks 7 and 8 of Doe Run Farms Fall 2013 CSA baskets.  

We still have carrots and beets in the fridge and sweet potatoes in the pantry, but our supply is dwindling and I am seriously missing all the super fresh veg. 

 I just placed my order for the Spring/Summer CSA, which starts in May.  It will last 24 weeks.  We've ordered the half bushel this time.  So keep an eye out for more pics of fresh produce starting in May.  Until then, enjoy this recap of the Fall harvest.

Doe Run Farms CSA

Fall 2013 (8 weeks) 

Washing and Prepping CSA Box Veggies

If you have seen any of my "What's in the Box?" posts, then you know that every week for the last 6 weeks, we've gotten a huge box of fresh veggies. 

No pre-washed, pre-bagged produce here.  Everything we get is straight from the field.  It takes a bit of work to get it ready to go into the fridge, but it's worth it to keep things at their peak for as long as possible.  

These are the steps I take to wash and prep the produce each week. 

With only 2 weeks of the autumn season left, I'm really writing this for myself so I can remember the process I've developed when spring rolls back around.

Step 1 

Open the box and lay veggies on counter, remove any hitchhikers(bugs)

Step 2

Arrange artistically and take a picture for blog entry.

Step 3 

Sort

this fall, 3 categories have worked well

A-no washing needed prior to storage:   very clean sweet potatoes, onions, etc.  Sorry there's no pic, I already put the sweet potatoes away. 

B-needs washing before storage

C-requires extra processing before washing root veggies, corn if not to be cooked in husk, etc.

Step 4

Put up items in Category A

Step 5

Process items in Catagory C

For example:  cut tops off of root vegetables.  If tops are edible, set them aside with other greens to be washed.

Step 6

Thoroughly wash veggies starting with cleanest and working to dirtiest, by spraying with veggie cleaner, rubbing,  scrubbing, or soaking.

Rinse. 

Spin greens in salad spinner to remove extra water. 

Set on towel to dry.

Step 7

Store.

Onion and Chard Quiche

With all the super fresh veg from the Doe Run Farm CSA, I've been creating and trying new recipes.  This caramelized onion and Swiss chard quiche was a hit in my house with kids and grown ups alike.

Ingredients

pie crust of your choosing

1 T olive oil

1-2 onions sliced (if you really love onions use 2 or even 3)

large bunch of Swiss chard washed and chopped 

(stems chopped separately)

3 eggs

1 1/2 C skim milk

"Fine herbs" or any other herb blend to taste

freshly grated nutmeg

1 T corn starch.

freshly ground pepper to taste

salt to taste

1 C Grated Monterrey jack cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.  Heat saute pan or skillet over medium heat.  Add olive oil to pan and saute onions and chard stems till tender.  Add chard leaves and cook til leaves are tender.  Continue cooking to "dry" the ingredients and remove excess moisture.

While onions and greens are cooking, whisk together milk, eggs, cornstarch, herbs, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Prepare pie crust.  Fill uncooked pie shell with onion and chard mixture.  Top with cheese, then pour on milk and egg mixture.  Bake at 425 for 15 min.  Then lower heat and continue baking 30-40 min or until custard is set and a knife comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool 10-15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

What's in the CSA box? Fall Week 5

 

This week we received:

2 bunches of carrots, 1 bunch of radishes, 2 bunches of beets, 2 purple kohlrabi,  3 sweet potatoes, 1 bunch of arugula, 1 bunch of red lettuce, 1 bunch of swiss chard, several turnips with the tops removed, 2 tomatoes, and 1 very large head of cabbage

Plus freebies:

extra turnips and cauliflower

What's in the CSA box? Fall Week 4

This week we received:

2 bunches of carrots, a bunch of radishes, a bunch of beets, 2 bunches of salad turnips, 2 bunches of arugula, 3 sweet potatoes, 1 onion, 1 butternut squash, 3 kohlrabi, and a small head of cabbage

Plus freebies:

extra radishes

As usual, I wasted no time turning the radish tops into radish pesto.  The radish bottoms got some special treatment this week and have been reincarnated as radish pickles. 

These turned out to be so pretty.  I took a standard ratio for vinegar to water to sugar to salt, that I found across several recipes.  Then did my own thing with the spices, adding turmeric to get more of an orange color.  

They look nice, but how do they taste?  

Well, lets just say there is a reason I'm not including my recipe modifications here.  They are o.k., but not great.  

In my opinion, my pickled radishes taste better than their raw unaltered counterparts, but they need something added or left out.  I'm not exactly sure which.  Back to the drawing board for me.  

Good thing I have a crisper full of radishes.

Update: 11/16/13

I tried these again today and while I still don't love them, they are much better than they were.  I'm hoping they will improve with age.  Cloves.  I really wish they had more of a clove taste.

What's in the CSA box? Fall Week 3

This is about a week behind due to having house guests and a miserable cold which has left me voiceless the last 4 days.

However, I couldn't forget to post a pick of week 3's CSA goodies from Doe Run Farm.

This week we received   2 bunches of carrots, 1 bunch of radishes, a bunch of beets, 2 bunches of turnips, a bunch of Swiss chard, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 onion, 1 acorn squash, 2 bunches of arugula, 

plus freebies:

eggplant

What's in the CSA box? Week 2

Last week's CSA box from Doe Run Farms was amazing, and almost all of my food experiments turned out well.  So I've been looking forward to this week's box and secretly hoping for one vegetable in particular.  

Do you see them?

CARROTS!
Who hooo!  We got 2 lovely, super sweet, and crunchy bunches of
CARROTS!

Also in the box:

2 bok choy, 2 kohlrabi (without their tops this time), 2 bunches of radishes, 2 bunches of turnips, 2 bunches of beets, 1 pepper, kale 

plus freebies:

 extra peppers and eggplant

After cleaning and prepping my veggies for storage, the very first thing I made was more of the lovely radish leaf pesto that we all loved so much last week.  It is made with radish leaf, olive oil, garlic, almonds, lemon zest and Parmesan cheese.  

You can find the complete recipe at Chocolate and Zuchinni.

Radish Pesto is amazing on bread.  It also adds a nice spark to pasta sauce, which complimented the eggplant Parmesan I made from the before mentioned eggplants beautifully.

What's in the CSA box? week 1

I am so excited!

We just joined Doe Run Farms CSA.  For those of you not in the know,

CSA =  Consumer Supported Agriculture

It works by the us, the consumer, purchasing a "share" in advance of the harvest.  In exchange for our money, we get about half a bushel of farm fresh produce delivered once a week, for a specified number of weeks, to a drop site near our home.  

This is what our first week's box included:

2 pak choy (might be bok choy), 7 beets, 4 radishes, 3 kohlrabi, 2 red bell peppers, 1 tomato, one onion, 2 sweet potatoes, 2 bunches of arugula, plus freebies (eggplants and  banana peppers)

So far (in 3 days), I've used 1 1/2 of the choys and the radish bottoms to make my first ever kim chi.  I used the radish tops to make a pesto that is out of this world.  We've also managed to do away with the tomato, eggplant, and banana pepper (in a ratatouille), half of the beet greens (in a brown rice casserole) and one bunch of arugula in an omelet.