This week's CSA pickup included:
5 quarts of strawberries (half of one got eaten on the way home!)
1 head of Bok Choi
1 head of lettuce
Crimson Rhubarb
1 bunch of radishes (with the greens!)
1 bunch of Kale
Some parsley and cilantro from the pick-your-own herb garden
1 dozen eggs
And then because I always feel bad for the poor sad misfit vegetables, we also got two HUGE bunches of rhubarb, 2 big bunches of collard greens, 1 bunch of green onions, a bag of spinach, and 8 quarts of jam grade strawberries.
This was plenty of food to feed our family for a week, and it may be one of the smaller week's shares of the season. I know when the harvest really begins we're going to be loaded with fresh veggies and I'm just so excited to be able to stock it all up. No more grocery store for me! Hurrah!!
Here's how we used it:
Strawberries & Rhubarb
We ate two quarts of strawberries the first day, and at least a quart a day since then. I also made three loafs of this Strawberry Rhubarb Pecan bread, this Strawberry Summer Cake, these Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp bars, Strawberry Rhubarb Soda Syrup, Strawberry Lemonade, Strawberry Milk, Strawberry Popsicles, a few breakfast smoothies, and Roasted Vanilla Strawberries (recipe coming soon). I'm working on a revised post on what to do with strawberries, but you can check this one out in the meantime. You really can never have too many strawberries!
Bok Choy
I blanched this the day I picked it up so I could cook it quickly later in the week. We're using it for Fried Rice for tonight's dinner.
Lettuce
I had big plans to make lettuce wraps, but in the end, we ended up using this for salads. I had two lunch salads and then we made a huge salad for dinner. My favorite salad was this Steak Salad! I used lettuce and strawberries from this week's share, picked up some tomatoes and cilantro when at the stand today and made mango salsa to use instead of dressing. Then we topped it with a grilled beef strip steak from last month's meat pickup. The only thing that might have made it better was crumbled blue cheese on top. And maybe some pecans. Next time!
Radishes
I made radish butter with this bunch. It's so surprisingly delicious. I mixed the greens with some basil to make pesto and stuck it in the freezer for later use. For more radish ideas, check out this post on For the Love of Radishes.
Kale
I love this easy pasta dish because it comes together in no time. I altered it just a bit this time around, cooking 2 slices of bacon at the beginning, then using the bacon grease to cook some green onions and spring garlic (from my garden!) instead of leeks. I had picked up some seconds roma tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and slow-roasted them, so they were patiently waiting for me in the fridge. It's one of my favorite staples to have in the fridge, especially this time of year.
Using the rest of the Kale, some spinach and some seconds potatoes that were hanging out on my counter from a couple of weeks ago, I made these twice baked potatoes and stuck them in the freezer. We didn't have a chance to eat them this week, but it's one of my FAVORITE meals ... and I love being able to pull it out for a fast side or main course.
Parsley and cilantro - This went in my mango salsa for the Steak Salad.
Eggs - We go through at least a dozen eggs a week ... sometimes more. This week we boiled some to take to the beach with us, made a breakfast scramble with some, and used some in all the strawberry rhubarb pecan loaf that I made.
It feels good to be back in the swing of CSA-land. We can hardly wait for this week's pickup!