In week 14 we received a ton of food: four ears corn, two butter lettuce, four zucchini, one bag potatoes, a lot of carrots, two cucumbers, two bunches beets, two bunches parsley, one bunch collard greens, two bunches chard, one bunch green onions, two little melons, one eggplant, one red bell pepper, a lot of tomatoes, and some spicy red peppers (no idea what they’re called).
Things I’m Happy About…
Unlike last week, I didn’t do exciting things with our produce so instead I thought I’d just talk about what’s working well for us. I’m still really happy with the zucchini and again bought more at the store last week because I didn’t think we’d have enough. Last week I made it into noodles, sautéed it in slices with onions, and shredded it to put into chicken soup. I love zucchini.
Jesse’s been taking care of the starches. He boiled and froze the corn again, adding it to the bag with the corn from last week. He eats crispy roasted potatoes for breakfast with his eggs several days a week. I’m getting a little tired of washing his potato pan, which is making me wonder whether it would be possible to make a double or triple batch of potatoes at once to minimize dishes. I suppose they would lose their crispiness in the fridge, though.
I made a couple of chicken stir-fries last week, in which I used the bell pepper, the green onions, much of the carrots and a few of the collard greens. Unfortunately they only turned out so-so. The vegetables were delicious, but my attempts at coming up with a (soy-free) Chinese-like sauce were not very successful. I’m thinking next time I may need to really amp up the garlic and ginger.
I’m happy to see beets return after a few weeks without any. Jesse made a big pan of roasted beets, carrots, and onions to go with dinner on Friday. They were delicious, and we got to enjoy the leftovers for our next couple of meals.
…And Things I’m Not So Happy About
I understand that consumers don’t have a whole lot of say when it comes to the contents of the CSA box every week. The farmer grows what they grow and we all get to eat it. Still, I find myself becoming increasingly annoyed about the proportions of some of our boxes. For instance: parsley. Last week we got two bunches of parsley. Who needs two bunches of parsley a week? Particularly after receiving a truly humongous bunch of parsley the week before?
Perhaps the farm management is particularly enamored of parsley. Or perhaps parsley is particularly easy to grow here in Colorado. Regardless, I’d much rather receive a variety of different herbs instead of buckets of parsley, even if that means we get less herb volume every week. I just can’t believe that parsley and cilantro are the only herbs that you can grow in Colorado.
I’ve decided I’m done with parsley, at least for a while. I tried drying the last two weeks’ worth of parsley in my dehydrator, and while that did end up giving me a few jars worth of dried parsley leaves, the process was annoying and frustrating enough that I have no desire to repeat it anytime soon. Plus, we now have enough dried parsley to last us for ages under our normal use. If we get parsley in our box the next few weeks I will be leaving it in the trade box for someone else to use.
The other thing I’m not so happy about is really not anything new, but I’ll say it anyway: I’m tired of so many leafy greens! I know I said I’m happy that we’re eating them, and truly I am, but there’s just too many of them right now. Two huge bunches of chard plus a bunch of collard greens is too much for our family of two to consume in a week. I know that I can freeze them, and perhaps I will at some point, but right now our freezer is quite full and there just really isn’t room for new stuff in there.
Lastly, I have to say that I’m prematurely unhappy about something on the horizon…kohlrabi! We never found an enjoyable way to eat kohlrabi in our last two CSA seasons. This became particularly annoying when we started getting a good six large kohlrabi every week. Honestly, who needs that much kohlrabi? I am determined to do some more experimenting with it this year to try to actually find a good way to eat it, but I will not be happy if we start getting flooded with the stuff like last year.
Overall, Though…
I’m still happy with our share. Sometimes I just get a little bogged down by those things I wish I could change. We will keep plugging on, though! If you have any great (egg-free and grain-free) ideas/recipes for kohlrabi, chard, or even parsley, I’d love to hear them.
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What’s making you happy (or not happy) this week?
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For parsley, you can make gremolata (search “parlsey gremolata”), parsley sauce (best one is in Tamar Adler’s book, “An Everlasting Meal”, but from memory, crush up a few cloves of garlic with a pinch of kosher salt, add a bunch of minced parsley, and add olive oil to your desired consistency – it will keep for WEEKS in the fridge covered). I use it on just about everything – just drizzle over the top. Little toasts, radishes, meats, pasta, etc. It’s a strong garlic flavor – and soooo good.
You can also make parlsey pesto, although I never have. Just Google it.
No clud with the kohlrabi or chard. Chard chips are NOT good. I love kale chips but chard was terrible.
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Thanks for these ideas, Amy. And for the tips about what not to try – it’s good to know that chard chips are not good! I like doing that with kale so I probably would’ve tried with the chard at some point…
I’m not quite sure what you can eat, as I haven’t quite gotten a handle on your restrictions, but my mom does a thing with kohlrabi that’s like a slight pickling, and then you eat it cold sort of like an appetizer (“small dish” in Asian culture). At least I think that’s the same vegetable (looked up a picture on Google images). It’s nice on hot days, if I remember correctly… it’s been awhile since we’ve had it.
What a beautiful pile of veggies – it’s harvest time for sure! My favorite way to use parsley is in tabouleh – it’s a medeterranean dish. Not sure if it’s GAPS compliant though…
Perhaps next year you could get a bunny to help you with all those greens
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I definetly share some of your frustrations! We are part of a Phoenix, AZ CSA run by my daughter’s school. We even shared our share and would get way too much chard. However, I will say that the way I got thru most of it was to juice it – which I love doing. I throw everything in my juicer – beets, lettuces, parsley, etc. and love the results. Especially in our hot summers, the idea of cooking any of the CSA box felt too overwhelming! Good luck.
Thanks for this suggestion!