CSA and Other Things

[lydamorehouse]

Image: glass jar with flecked mint sugar and some pottery and a startled frog salt shaker.

Yesterday our first CSA box was ready for pick-up.  I wasn't sure how big a full share was going to be, so I enlisted Mason's help in case it was going to involve a lot of repacking. They wanted us to leave the cardboard box behind, collapsed, and so I grabbed a bunch of bags to transfer the food into. Turns out I probably didn't need to drag Mason along. It was all fairly manageable, though since we also bought a flower share, it was nice to have him there to help hunt through the bouquet buckets for the one with our name on it.

They shifted our pick-up location to a business called Green Acre in Falcon Heights (a inner ring suburb of St. Paul which is, unfortunately, mostly known for the site of the murder of Philando Castile.  In fact, our CSA pick-up site is two door down from his memorial.)  The reason we were asked to move is that they were trying to find more places that had easy outdoor pick-up so as to avoid too many people in an indoor space. We brought our masks, but we never saw anyone else picking-up, which was kind of nice. They had all the boxes hidden behind a half wall, but still outside. So, it was a quick in and out, with no "in." It was also an eight minute drive, tops.

The flower share was lovely, mostly peonies.

Inside our box was:  asparagus, two bunches of green onions, chives, garlic scapes, a huge bag of mixed salad greens, spinach, rhubarb, and mint.

I like mint a lot, but I was really not sure what to do with the amount we got. So, I went off to the Googles, as grandma would say, and found a couple of fun things, like the first picture, mint sugar. 

Mint sugar is really easy. It was 2/3rds cup of white sugar and 8 leaves of mint (I ended up just using all the leaves of one sprig.) You grind that up in a food processor on high, and then you let it dry overnight (or, like I did, for about ten minutes in a warm oven.)  Viola!  

Then I started steeping mint tea:


Image: tea leaves in a mason jar.

And boiling up some mint syrup:


Image: pot on stove with mint syrup simmering in it.

I have no idea how any of this is going to taste (though I tried the sugar and it's subtle, but noticeably minty.)  

The other stuff is already going fast. We plowed through a huge portion of the mixed greens and spinach last night because the instant Shawn saw them she said "Oh, will you make that one salad for dinner?" That one salad is basically just a fully loaded salad topped with chopped up hard-boiled eggs and spicy, pan-seared chicken strips. Even Mason who normally leaves his salad somewhat untouched devoured this.

We have plans for the rhubarb, of course--Shawn found an upside down cake she wants to try.

The rest are just the sort of things that go into everything we make, that I don't expect a lot of waste. Though I am thinking about chopping and drying the chives, so they don't go bad before we have a chance to use them up.  

I'm already looking forward to next week! Huzzah!

The only other thing I wanted to put out there for folks (hey, from anywhere, because it's Zoom), is that the Twin Cities chapter of the Northcountry Gaylaxicans are planning a book club gathering to discuss my latest book, Unjust Cause, with me on July 14 at 7 pm CDT/GMT-6 (details of how to join the event are on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/events/653999645190057/).  You are all welcome!  Read the book! Come joint us!

Okay, that's all I've got for now. How's by everyone else?

Comments

[dreamshark]

Your first CSA load sounds great. A varied batch of food that is actually useful and only one big chunk of "what do we do with this, now?" which proves to be a fun learning experience.

We tried a CSA one year and it was a huge disappointment. I envisioned tender salad greens and green onions in the spring, summer squash and fresh peas in the mid-season, big bags of sun-ripened tomatoes and juicy sweet corn in late summer, and maybe pumpkins and potatoes in the fall. What we got was boxes and boxes of bok choy from spring until fall, varied with a couple of surprise loads of radishes, a handful of tomatoes and sweet corn, and more bok choy.

Nobody in our house much liked bok choy and by the end of the year we absolutely hated it. The radishes were a useful learning experience. We thought we didn't like radishes until we tried cooking them (sauteeing or roasting) which turns them from unpleasantly bitter hard marbles into a delicately sweet vegetable. But where was the spring lettuce??? Oh, it was "a bad year" for lettuce. Similarly for tomatoes and corn and squash and peas. And "we don't do pumpkins."

What kind of truck farm can't manage to grow tomatoes and zucchini? Especially when the farmers markets were full of all those things? At some point it occurred to me that we would have been way better off buying the vegetables we wanted from those same farmer's markets (and a pox on the bok choy). We could still support local farmers and eat seasonally, but not be at the mercy of one quirky or incompetent grower.

But this year I don't know if farmers' markets are even open, so a CSA sounds good.

[lydamorehouse]

The people we are getting our CSA from this year are the Hmong Farmer's Association, so we're likely to get a wide variety of food since they're actually pulling from a large number of farms. https://www.hmongfarmers.com/

This is our second attempt at a CSA. Our first was a lot more like your experience. We did Driftless Organic Farm and they were very up-front that some years were bad crop years, but the very first year we got all sort of fun variety and I was like 'LOVE THIS' so we signed up again. That second year was our bok choy year... only it was something else that we just kept getting so much of and I was like, "OMG, I WOULD KILL FOR A BEET."

The nice thing about the Hmong Farmers is that they also allow you to put in your preferences so if you will NOT eat cilantro, they will not pack you cilantro.

[spiderplanet]

This is close to my second year CSA experience. We had one good year with great balance and variety. There were staples along with interesting things that I might not have tried before. There were cuke-nuts, which were wonderful and which I have not found anywhere since.

The second year, the CSA got some nice restaurant contracts, and 100% of their marginally interesting produce went to the restaurants. For the CSA customers, there were tomatoes, potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, and some potatoes. I distinctly remember the week they sent me the tops of carrots, along with a sheet explaining how I could enjoy 'carrot greens.' There may have been swearing.

[lydamorehouse]

OMG the carrot tops. Yes, there would definitely have been swearing if that were my box!

I actually went back down my "csa" tag on DW and discovered that what we had gotten so many of that I was sick of it was cucumbers and zucchini, both of which I normally adore, so if I was sick of them we were getting a LOT. I do remember it was a year that they sent us photos of flooded fields, but still. I swear CSAs lure you in with one amazing first year and then duds thereafter.

[jon_chaisson]

We've been getting farm boxes over the last month or so and it's great! We get ours from a farm south of us (Tomatero Farm in Watsonville CA) that comes to our neighborhood in SF every Wednesday for pickup. We get all kinds of greens and veg, so we've been making a LOT of kale salad and kale smoothies (it's great with a mix of fruits!). They also add a small serving of strawberries that are SO ripe and tasty that they rarely last more than a day!

The funny thing is that these greens are so fresh the first thing we often need to do is give them a wash because they still have mud and grit on them from the field! :)

[lydamorehouse]

I'm glad you think of the dirt as a feature, not a bug. My first CSA did only minimal washing and prepping and I ended up feeling like I spent more time scrubbing and trimming than I did enjoying the food. But, I might also be lazier than you are. :-)

I tend to pick CSAs that promise a lot of prep now. It means I pay more though. Which is fine? I mean, I hope it means that I am paying for the labor--either hired workers or more paid hours for the farmers.

I like kale. too! The smoothies sound amazing!

[pameladean]

I used to have a large and flourishing mint patch, and made a lot of mint or mint-and-coriander chutney. We often cook Indian food, but the chutney is also good for flavoring just about anything -- I used to put it in cottage cheese and yoghurt and it's also amazing on a baked potato.

There's also a salad called katchumbari (which I think just means "salad," but that's the name it has in various cookbooks) that has various vegetables, but almost always tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, and it's good with a lot of chopped mint in it. It's dressed with just salt, pepper, and lemon juice, so it keeps much better than something with oil in it. People who like oil in their salad dressing can drizzle some on just before eating it.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

I wish I'd thought of mint chutney before I used up all the mint.

I have some mint growing in my garden, but this year the pests seem to be winning the battle in that particular space this year. Shawn came in with some basil for tonight's pizza she told me that not only is the parsley and oregano besieged, but the basil has spots now too!

Well, if we get more mint in the next box, I will know what to do with it!

[pameladean]

There must be some very widespread herb blight going on -- I've repeatedly had black spots on mint, and finally gave up on it. I think my sage was immune, but any other soft herb I tried to go got the same problem. I haven't even tried recently.

I used to think one could always grow mint, that nothing would ever affect it, but very sadly that's not the case. I wonder what your CSA farms' secret is.

P.

[spiderplanet]

I have many greens from my dad's garden, and a small bit of uncooked chicken left. "That One Salad" sounds like a perfect use.

[lydamorehouse]

Enjoy! It's a hit at my house!

[offcntr]

Rhubarb upside-down cake is the best! I've got a recipe from my mom that Denise requests every time I bring some in from the garden.

The only CSA I ever sprang for was fruit-specific, and only ran for one year. With Saturday Market next door to Farmers Market, not to mention two farm stands within an easy bike ride, I prefer to spread my produce dollars around a bit.

[minnehaha]

All these years later, I am still amused by lj-user=daedala, who described having a CSA share as "Iron Chef Vegetables."

K.