CSA Time

A sample haul from our CSA last summer.


I am really missing having a CSA (Community Supported Agricultural) Share. It's so nice getting a big delivery of fresh, local vegetables each week to guide our eating. I had intended to find a Winter CSA, but we were in England for a couple of weeks and then my first trimester nausea set in, so I missed the sign-up. We had a couple of warmer days last week, and it had me starting to think about Spring and CSA sign-up. We really enjoyed our Foodstockings CSA last summer, but we have since moved to Brooklyn and its Lower East Side location is too inconvenient. I went over to the trusty Local Harvest website to find some CSAs in our Brooklyn neighborhood. Can you believe that some of the groups already have a waiting list? The deliveries don't start until June here in NYC. I thought I was planning ahead, but I guess I'm not alone.

So this is my PSA: If you are thinking of joining a CSA, start researching your options.

Happy Eating!

This post is part of Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Delectable Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, and Works-For-Me-Wednesday.

Plans for Week 17

Yesterday was one of those days when I was really excited to do some cooking for the week, but nothing turned out quite right. That really kills the mood. I bought a chicken at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday, and decided that I wanted to boil it to create some chicken broth and shred the meat to use on salads. I ended up using the huge stock pot because the chicken was slightly too big for the normal soup pot. This pot is pretty wide, so in order to cover the chicken with water, I had to use a fair bit of water. The chicken stock ended up being really watery. The upside is that we have a lot of it. Oh well. I was planning to cook quinoa and brown rice in it anyways. I guess I managed to stretch it farther. After making dinner, I decided to bake some cherry tomatoes. We just got them on Saturday in our farm share, but they were very ripe. I have done this lots of times, but yesterday I left them in the oven too long, and they cooked down to burnt bits. I managed to save a few. Hopefully I got my kitchen mishaps out of the way for a while.


This week's share brought us arugula, some bitter greens for braising, daikon radishes, potatoes, beets, garlic, heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.

The plan for this week is:

Monday - Salad with pork chops and mushrooms

Tuesday - Steak topped with leeks and mushrooms, beet salad, and arugula salad

Wednesday - Chicken breasts with garlic scape pesto and salad

Thursday - Lentils with beets and goat cheese

Friday - Out to dinner


Last night we had some shredded chicken with tomato sauce, oven roasted potatoes and a big salad. The tomato sauce was really good and really dressed up a simple dinner. It was so simple, but full of great tomato flavor.

This post is part of Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist and Menu Plan Monday at I am an Organizing Junkie.

Smoked Trout

Two years ago we were in Arizona to visit my family, and we spent several days on an AZ sightseeing trip. We went to Jerome, Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, Williams, Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. My husband hadn't seen most of it before, and I was excited to show him the rest of the state where I grew up. In Flagstaff, we ate breakfast at a small diner downtown. It was great! We love the type of places where the waitstaff knows how the regulars like their coffee and their eggs. My husband ordered scrambled eggs and smoked trout, and the combination was amazing. We wanted to buy some, and we tracked the trout to Oak Creek Canyon, but they only smoke it for restaurants. We hadn't tried it again... until, yesterday! We were walking through our Whole Foods, and spotted some local smoked trout. We were so excited!

We had smoked trout and poached eggs for breakfast, and it was delicious. I hadn't tried poaching eggs in a while, so I looked up some tips. People recommended cracking the egg into a ramekin, and then gently submerging the ramekin into the boiling water and transferring the egg into the pan. We don't have any ramekins, so I used a small shallow bowl. They don't look perfect, but they were delicious. My husband came up with the idea of using a ladle tomorrow. We sprinkled a little chopped sage over the top. The creaminess of the egg yolk with the smoky, salty taste of the trout and the herby, fresh taste of the sage created the perfect flavor combination.





We also picked up our farm share yesterday. It was another roof top week, and we had to climb the 7 flights of stairs to pick-up our veggies. I just tried googling Anthill Farm the other day (the farm that provides our veggies) and they now have a website!


This week we will be enjoying garlic, onions, leeks, beets, carrots, kale, yellow beans, and corn. My goal is to eat them all from root to tip (if possible).

Week 12

I grew up in a house where there was almost always a grocery shopping list on the fridge. If someone drank the last of the milk or ate the last slice of bread, they needed to put it on the list. This was our household inventory, and helped to ensure the basics were always around.

Our CSA veggies have started to pile up a bit, so I decided to make a list. This one is not a list of what we need to purchase, but a list of what we already have. It's pretty impressive, right?


When we went to pick up farm share #12 yesterday, we got more corn, tomatoes, garlic, green beans, onions, basil and our first blueberries. After running the vegetables home, we hopped in a Zip Car to head out of town to a family party. We just got back today, so we haven't made any additional progress on the veggies. Better add the new ones to the list!

Do you have any suggestions for way to eat up lots of vegetables or ways to preserve them for later?

Week 10

We love getting out of town and visiting new places, but this year each weekend away is a little bittersweet. Our farm share pick-up is on Saturday afternoon, so each time we go away we miss out on the week's vegetables. Last weekend we were in Boston, and missed out on week 9. That put us up all the way up to week 10 of our CSA. Hard to believe! This week in our share we got some old favorites including kale, radishes, beets, braising greens, cucumbers and carrots, plus onions and basil.

We have been feeling a bit under the weather, so it will be good to eat lots of fresh vegetables and get us back to our regular selves. Any suggestions on easy greens recipes? We're not using our oven because of our hot summer weather, so we're looking for stove top recipes for collard and mustard greens, kale and beet greens.

Week 8

We passed by Saint Patrick Old Cathedral School this morning on our way to pick up our CSA share, and noticed that they had sign for a yard sale. We were intrigued! Both my husband and I love the treasure hunt aspect of yard sales and church rummage sales, and this had the added bonus of offering a peak inside the school building. We were drawn to the above poster, but not big fans of the silver frame and bit concerned about some mildew and foxing around the edges of the print. We decided to go get our veggies and think it over. On our way home, we purchased it and it is now hanging near our table. I'm looking forward to doing some research on the poster and learning more about it.


It's hard to believe that we are up to the eighth week of the farm share. I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed with the volume and variety this week. I was hoping that we would get some peppers and tomatoes, but I guess it is still too early. It seems like the volume has been down the last couple of weeks, and I'm wondering if the heat wave is adversely affecting some of the plants. All in all, I'm still very pleased with the Foodstockings CSA, I think it has been a good value, and everyone involved is very nice. This week we will be enjoying carrots, fennel, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, collard greens, mustard greens and heads of garlic.

Yesterday I wrote about how I couldn't find the salmon orzo salad recipe, and then I found it in our big organization effort this afternoon. Ha, ha, ha. For now, the loose recipes are in a file folder waiting further organization.

Week 6

We woke up with a lot of vegetables still in the fridge, and it was already time for another farm share pick-up. I decided to make a breakfast chock full of veggies. I steamed a bunch of kohlrabi greens (very similar to kale) and one of radish greens until they were tender. In the meantime, I chopped up 7 garlic scapes. I sauteed the scapes and once they were tender, added the greens. I spread them out in the pan and added 4 beaten eggs. I cooked them until they started to firm up around the edges (about 8-10 minutes). Sprinkled some soft goat cheese over the top and placed it under the broiler for 3-4 minutes. You can see in the photo it looks like greens with a little bit of egg, but it was really good. We enjoyed it with some bread from the Sullivan St. Bakery. Mmm, better than eating out.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Union Square Greenmarket where we made a beeline for some of our favorite stalls. We picked up a loaf of the whole wheat multi-grain bread from Our Daily Bread Bakery. I should consider branching out and trying something else, but this is just soooo good that we have gotten it for the last 3 times. We headed over to Elk Trails Bison, and we picked out some bison stew meat and beef livers. I love these farmers. They wouldn't sell us the stew meat until we promised not to brown it first. We promised, and were sent on our way with some crock pot instructions for the stew meat. We got some eggs from Northshire Farm in Herkimer Co, and had a lovely chat with the farmer. We learned that he's been making the trek from West Winfield, NY to NYC for 17 years. My husband grew up not far away, so we know that drive well. Picked up some milk from Milk Thistle Farm, grabbed some peaches and headed on our way.

After the farmers' market, we walked over to pick-up our CSA share. Here's the photo of this week's loot:

This week we will be enjoying summer squash, zucchini, purple and green kohlrabi, bok choy, fennel, lettuce, mustard greens, salad turnips, radishes and garlic scapes plus the leftovers from last week.

Stay tuned to learn how we do on eating our way through all of these vegetables.