CSA Share Week 1

Here goes!  We are going to try and document our experience this year (our third) with our CSA share. CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture share in a farm. Each week for 20 weeks we receive a brown paper bag filled with an organic bounty of fresh vegetables and occasional fruit from Scotch Hill Farm in Broadhead, WI.

We have a 2.5 year old (who does NOT like most vegetables) and an almost five year old (who loves most veggies). It has been interesting over the past two years learning what works for us and what doesn't.

We eat what we can fresh, but when pickup day rolls around again, we must make room for the new. Last year we began steaming and pureeing some things. We then put it in ice cube trays and freeze. We've made a lot of different sauces with these cubes (pumpkin/squash, greens, various root veggies etc). We add them to pasta, risotto, cous cous...  Things with longer shelf life we keep around, but we don't like to waste a thing.

Week 1 bounty:
Chinese Cabbage
Radishes
Turnips
Lettuce Mix
Salad Selects (Mizoma greens)
Freckled Romain (a speckled variety)
Spinach
Cress
Leeks
Garlic Scapes (early cutting from plant that helps bulbs get bigger; use as you do garlic cloves)

Meal #1: Chinese cabbage and garlic scapes

The kids actually ate this whole meal!

Spicy Bok Choy in Garlic Sauce

1 pound bok choy (replaced with chinese cabbage)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

2 cloves garlic, minced (replaced with garlic scapes)

1 tablespoon oyster sauce (didn't have, so we omitted)

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Trim off the ends of the bok choy and chop, keeping the white parts separate from the green as they will need to cook longer.  Rinse and spin or pat dry.  Set aside.  In a small bowl or cup, stir together the vegetable oil and sesame oil.  In a separate larger bowl, stir together the water, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes.  Set this aside.  Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add the bok choy stems first; stir fry for a few minutes or until the pieces start to turn a pale green.  When stems are almost cooked, add the leaves; cook and stir until leaves are wilted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and transfer the bok choy to a serving dish.  Pour the sauce into the skillet or wok and set over medium-high heat.  Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes.  Pour over the bok choy and toss lightly to coat.  

* Recipe from allrecipes.com by Spyce

• 
  
• Ginger glazed mahi mahi

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
  salt and pepper, to taste
  2 Tbsp soy sauce
  1 Tbsp maple syrup
  couple squirts of lemon juice
  3 tilapia filets
  Cook filets with oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper for about 2 minutes on each side.  Add maple syrup cook another 2 minutes per side.
  
  
  Cous-cous with Cubes Sauce
  Made whole wheat cous-cous with 2 greens and 2 squash cubes (from last year's bounty).

• 
  

Meal #2: spinach, radish & turnip greens and garlic scapes

"Oscar Pasta" 

This is our own creation that the kids love.  

We steam greens (spinach, radish and turnip greens) and puree them. Usually it's just greens, butter/oil, salt and nutmeg to taste.This time we added some garlic scapes. Put the sauce on pasta.

Hot dogs

We try one meal a week to be just for the kids - all beef natural hot dogs.  This whole meal is always a guaranteed hit.  

Meal #3: radishes, turnips, leeks

Roasted Radishes and Turnips

radishes and turnips, cut into small bite-sizes
Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Then sprinkle with seasoning salt of choice. Toss to coat. Spread on a greased jelly roll pan. Place in oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Turn vegetables every 10 minutes.

Allen's Best Burgers

1 lb lean burger

He puts a little of each of the following in our Magic Bullet: olive oil, dash of worchestershire sauce, oregano, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper, Lawry's salt (and a special new ingredient - a quarter of an onion, finely diced in our Magic Bullet). Mixed it with the burger and made patties.* Recipe from my husband :)

Pasta with leeks and last year's leftovers

We used 3 cubes of pureed greens, 3 cubes of pumpkin, 2 dashes of homemade salsa and added them to sauteed leeks.  Made a great sauce over our pasta.  The kids devoured it!

**Lettuces and cress have been eaten throughout the week with many meals (including last weeks' leftovers, which we had a lot of hence only 3 meals for 7 days).