CSA Adventures Boxes 4 & 5. Corn, Peaches, Onions, Peppers, Zucchini, Squash, Cukes, Beans, Greens

So, the question is, do I share recipes that I made but don’t entirely love? I don’t always have the time or ingredients to make things over and over and get them to the point that I think they’re wonderful, so what I will do is post hyper links to recipes that I know are reliable or from reliable sources. I’ll give opinions on my experience and go from there. So if you see a full recipe here, it is one that I like enough to make again.

That said, the cukes, beans, peaches and greens we just ate, straight up or in salad. Nothing special to report other than that they were crunchy and full of flavor and that there’s something gratifying about watching kids eat fresh summer food. Summer squash was halved, seeded, diced and sauteed in garlic-infused olive oil with onions and peppers to go with grilled meat and basmati rice.

The first batch of corn we just steamed and ate, and it was good but not very sweet and a bit starchy – not very surprising with the wet weather and it still being early in the season. So I set out to make a warm corn salad with the logic that sauteeing the corn would bring out more flavor. Using Ina’s Garten’s Confetti Corn as a starting point, I came up with this:

Warm Corn Salad with Peppers and Herbs

• Kernels cut from 6 ears of sweet corn (about 5 cups)
• 2 Tablespoons garlic infused olive oil (plain is fine, too)
• 1 Small red onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 red or orange pepper, diced
• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 Teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 3 Tablespoons julienned fresh herbs: chives, parsley/cilantro and basil
• 1 Tablespoon minced seranno pepper (no seeds), optional

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil, and add the onion, cooking until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the sweet pepper and cook for 3 more minutes. Add 2 Tablespoons of the butter to the pan. Once it’s melted, add the corn, salt, and pepper and cook for about 6-8 minutes, adding the additional Tablespoon of butter. If using the seranno pepper, add that and cook for 2 more minutes and then correct the seasoning a bit before adding the herbs. Serve warm or hot.

Serves 4-6.

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CSA Adventures: Box 3. Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Yellow Squash, and (hooray!) more Spring Onions

Now when we pick up the share on Sunday mornings it seems like there’s an advantage to showing up closer to 10am, since we fill our own box from the assortment of produce and they were out of green beans by the time we  arrived (my children will not mourn the loss of the beans, nor will they cheer the appearance of the broccoli).

The chard was the only item I’ve never prepared at home, so I took up that challenge first. A quick poll of friends and a cruise around the internet revealed that everyone just tears the leaves, chops the stems and sautes them with something – pretty much the same as collards. Based on several recipes found, here’s what I came up with to go with the steak and potato salad we served for dinner.

Swiss Chard with Pancetta and Spring Onions

The spring onions were bigger this week so one of them is comparable to a shallot, which is what I would probably ordinarily use (or a small vidalia).

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch Swiss chard, washed, with stalks chopped and leaves torn from stems (discard stems)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4-6 ounces pancetta, diced
• 2 ounces dry white wine
• 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the pancetta and onion at medium heat until they are browned and caramelized. Add the chard stalks and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add the leaves. Simmer for 1-2 minutes then add the lemon juice. Simmer until the leaves are wilted and the stalks are tender. Serve hot.

Some folks found the chard still too bitter, but I loved it with the salty pancetta and tangy lemon. It went well with the mayonnaise-based potato salad and would be very nice in winter alongside risotto.

Serves 4

Grilled Spring Onions

Another use of the spring onions was simply to cut the tops off, trim them, halve them, brush them with olive oil and cook them, cut side down, on the top rack of the grill – 6-8 minutes, depending on your grill and how crunchy (or not) you like them. I served them with a grilled pork loin that had been rubbed with cumin, ground black pepper, sea salt, olive oil, garlic and lime juice.

CSA Adventures: All Local Summer Menu, All on the Grill

Groton, MA

Everything just kind of turned out to be all local, so it wasn’t really contrived, honestly. And in a heat wave it’s key to avoid the stove and oven. Once again, it’s really just a combination of things with no actual recipes (I call this the Mark Bittman approach):

• Tomato and basil salad – tomatoes grown by Springdell Farm, basil from our John Crow Farm CSA. These tomatoes were so good we did not dress them at all – my resourceful daughter put them on the grilled bread for an improvised bruschetta.
• Blood Farm ham steak, grilled. If you ask, they will cut the steaks from a whole ham for you.
• Steamed broccoli (in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and a little crushed red pepper, on top rack of the grill) from our John Crow Farm CSA (from Box 4 – I’m behind in my reporting).
• Grilled sourdough bread (with a little olive oil on it) from Nashoba Brook Bakery.
• Dessert? Local blueberries and peaches from Springdell. Ice cream is nice (Kimball Farm?), but not required.

Stay cool.

CSA Adventures: The Lessons of Ignorance and Taste

First, the ignorance. The beets that I killed were not beets at all – they were turnips. That explains a lot. I foresee  we will have another chance at mastering turnips. Onward.

Despite the kindness of suggestions from far and wide – Alaska to Maine, really, and several spots in between – I was unable to sell kale to my family, although we had some guests munching happily on kale chips one summer evening. To me, they tasted like slightly overcooked brussels sprouts, to which I am a very recent convert. I would make them again but would likely be eating them by myself. So that’s the lesson of taste: I’m only sharing things I would eat again, even if I am alone in that desire. Having said that, next time I would try something with more spice to it, like the recipe for kale chips they have over at Food 52, which adds cumin and paprika to the basic olive oil and vinegar recipe.

My far-flung helpers also identified the sorrel leaves in the box, and while I really would have like to make a sorrel soup, it was just too hot for that. So I just used the fresh sorrel in sandwiches because it has such a lovely texture and tang to add to things like avocado, humus, and cheddar, or roasted chicken, guacamole, and tomato. Note also that when making wraps, square or rectangular lavash (sometimes labeled flatbread) is far preferable to circle wraps, which seem too moist and gummy for me.

That pretty much covers the misadventures of box 1. The decidedly better results from  boxes 2 and 3 will follow soon.

CSA Adventures: Box 1. Lots of greens and some albino beets.

Just the box was practically worth buying the farm share – I am a type/font geek of epic proportions.

We’re such newbies.

When we arrive at the farm sign said it was closed, but then we realize that the door was open and people were picking up their shares. There’s something kind of speakeasy about it. It’s a little dim on this overcast morning, with just the light from a single window. A boy asks you what you’re there for. “Veggies.” What size? “There are different sizes?” Yep. Checks a list. Name? We give it. He tells us: “Small.” Then he disappears into a back room and emerges with the box. A young guy comes in for a pickup. Exact same exchange. They start to discuss eggs. Time to leave.

I wondered if it made any difference if we picked up our share early or not – if the boxes would be on display and thus be “picked over” if you were the last to arrive. Happily, no. Not only can you not compare boxes, they are closed on top so you can’t even see what’s inside – like a surprise package of vegetables. I decided to wait until we got home to open it.

Here’s what we got: two beautiful heads of lettuce, one green (Boston or bibb, depending on what you call it) and one red leaf. Plus, what I think are two kinds of kale, and four sizable albino beets. There is also this beautiful leafy green with an unexpected lemony citrusy taste – just phenomenal to eat plain. If you recognize it tell me – in the meantime I am going to ask the farm what it is.

While I will wait to post any recipes until later in the week, today’s lesson is this: my salad spinner is my new best friend. Last week was quite rainy and though the produce appeared quite clean, I washed all the greens again, wrapped them in towels and put them in the crisper.

I did not save the beets for later (they are roasting now), but let the record show that Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home will be another terrific resource for this endeavor. Something to try with the next round of beets: Roasted Beet Potato Salad with Soft-Cooked Egg, Smoked Salmon and Mustard Vinaigrette. This link is to a site where someone else has already tried it.

If anyone reading this has good recipes for kale that are not soup, please share. Seriously.

CSA Adventures: Well, How Did I Get Here?

Facebook on a winter’s day can be a dangerous thing. A local vendor, John Crow Farm, posted a notice that their summer farm shares were going fast. Weary of tasteless winter tomatoes and cucumbers and having cooked several too many pans of roasted root vegetables, the thought of a box of local produce in my kitchen every Sunday felt like a ray of July sunshine in the bleak midwinter. We don’t have enough sun in our yard to grow produce and so each year I find myself paying too much at the local market for a lot of things I know I can get locally but am too busy/lazy to make the extra stops. So I signed up.

So, what’s the story on CSAs? John Crow Farm tells us this:

What is a CSA?
CSA stands for community supported agriculture, a system where you help John Crow Farm by making a commitment to buy its products early in the year. Your advance payment helps sustain the farm.

 And what can we expect to find in our own CSA?

What does the Veggie CSA include?
The JCF Veggie CSA contains healthy, delicious, NON-organic (ask us why), chemical and pesticide free vegetables. The V-CSA runs from June til October…20 weeks of field-fresh goodness, which may include Broccoli, Lettuce, Lettuce Mix, Spicy Greens Mix, Spinach, Carrots, Potatoes, Summer Squash, Tomatoes (heirloom and regular), Cucumbers, Sweet Onions, Cooking Onions, Cauliflower, Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, Chinese Cabbage, Eggplant, Kohlrabi, Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Leeks, Parsley, Basil, Scallions, Cabbage, Celery, Celeriac, Fennel, Tatsoi, Tomatillos, Beans, Arugula, Sugar Snap Peas, Shelling Peas, Beets, Edamame (soybeans), Winter Squash, and/or Turnips.

Should be interesting. Food gurus Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan both say that the only thing the health food experts can all agree on is that we need to eat more plants. Much as I hang on every word from both of these guys, I often find it hard to put their wisdom into practice – a quick scroll through the recipes here will attest to that. So, come Sunday, we will do our best to eat all the plants John Crow Farm provides for us.