Faboo

Thanks Ari! I can’t wait till next years CSA either. It’s interesting to me how PVF & GCF are both in Loudoun County but have such different offerings each week. I still haven’t gotten tomatoes, never got beets, etc. This week we picked three pints of blackberries, more corn and collards/kale. Besides the usual soup, I made zucchini pancakes. The tomatoes (from Harris Teeter’s past date rack -- I’ve had good luck w/the produce from that rack) were slow roasted w/thyme, salt, pepper & sugar. Cooked up the pattypan squash per Babka’s instructions and it was very delicious! Thanks again, Babka!

Babka, thank you for your response. I have more squash this week with which to try out your recipe: Redglass, it's a cornucopia. I too still have produce from last week, plums & peaches. Fortunately, on the way home from work today, I had a brilliant idea -- Peach Daiquiris! Enjoy your weekend!

I'm replying to myself . Found out the cucumber looking things were exactly that -- regular old cucumbers. Sliced them up for salad. Blanched the green beans for salad as well. Searched the internet for pattypan squash recipes and came up empty handed, so I wound up cutting it up like so and tossing it in this weeks pot of soup: Finally tried the okra. Gotta admit, tasted like zucchini to me. However, the sweet corn on the cob for dessert was awesome!

So last nights delivery was a little different than GCF's email said it would be. I was expecting corn, apricots, plums and peaches. My delivery included a mystery squash, green beans, two boxes of delightful yellow plums, six ears of gorgeous corn, four ripe peaches and two things I'm not sure of. They look like pickeling cucumbers. If anyone has a reasonable suggestion for what to do w/them, I would appreciate it. It was another HHH evening as you can see. Redglass, you got a huge order! Does Potomac Vegetable Farms have u-pick in addition to the delivery? I thought the squash I got this week was a patty pan but now that you say your's is patty pan, I'm not sure what I have, an albino . What are you going to do w/your squash? I dont even know how to cut one that is shaped like this up, so any pics you have of that would be great. I still haven't tried the okra. Just finished up last week's soup last night. Chuchelo, glad you're still with us.

Redglass, your share is so different, I'm thinking of getting a share from both Potomac Vegetable Gardens and Great Country Farms next year. Assuming I'm still employed . GCF was having a big shindig for members on Sunday, so I did the u-pick on Saturday morning. Got apricots, blackberries, collards, broccoli and okra. Discovered that the okra plant has a beautiful flower, wish I'd had my camera, and the walk to the apricot trees was bucolic, past a pond, geese, llamas, chickens. The apricots were starting to fall off the trees, so I just picked them up off the ground. The ones GCF delivered on Thursday were better, guess fresh apricots are supposed to be hard, not like peaches. I plan to fry the okra as described in this weekends NYTimes magazine. I'll check out the galette recipe for squash. I'm finding most squash recipes are casseroles that require a container of sour cream and sleeve of crumbled saltines. More for thanksgiving than summer. Sure hope I see some pics tomorrow!

Chuchelo, come back! We need more info! No beets this week. I wonder if I'll get them at all? Yesterday's delivery: Broccoli, Cucumbers, Onions, Kale, Apricots, Plums and a little pot of Chives. Last week I was relieved to have a week off from having to find things to do w/the produce. This week, I was super excited to get it. Without it, I was eating a lot of pasta & bread, just feeling depressed and unhealthy. I immediately had one of the plums and it was awesome. I've never eaten a fresh apricot before, that should be neat. Soups on!

When I was around seven years old, a jar of Aunt Nelly's pickled beets hurled itself off the shelf and onto my big toe. The jar didn't break, but my toe was black & blue for well over a month. Anyway, before signing up for the CSA, the three items I was most concerned about wasting were the radishes, beets and eggplant. So far I've done well by the radishes (actually enjoyed them!). When the beets come, I'm planning to make Epicurious' Roasted Beets w/Horseradish Cream. The eggplant will go straight to my mother. Redglass, thanks for your reassurance about making so much soup. I do feel better now knowing I'm not alone on the soup front. Your "mini" share sounds very big and your season is at least a week ahead of mine since I haven't gotten any squash/zucchini yet. Great Country Farms must be in a different climate zone than Potomac Vegetable Farms. Did the Roasted Beet Salad w/Gorgonzola Sauce alter your mind about beets? Chuchelo, what a wonderful meal/memory! If I were served beets in France, I'd eat them too. If any pics of the salad exist, I'd love to see them.

Last Thursday's delivery was a huge bunch of romaine, another huge bunch of collards, three heads of broccoli, spring onions and two basil plants. I know this is unimaginative, but in order to use up the collards, broccoli and spring onions, I made.....more soup. I also made Caesar Salad. The croutons were quite overpowering. I sure miss Balducci's Caesar Salad. On Sunday we went to pick blueberries, broccoli, lettuce and collards/kale. Unfortunately, 120 CSA members had descended on the farm the day before and there were no more blueberries or broccoli to be had. We picked more collards/kale and lettuce. I am ashamed to say I made another pot of soup. However, I am proud to say I am getting so good at making soup, I no longer need to look at a recipe. There is no delivery during this short holiday week, which is good cuz we still have romaine and the other lettuce we picked. I do hope that next week I can think of something else to do w/my delivery other than make soup or mix it w/eggs.

I can definitely see where receiving a box of produce every week wouldn't work for a lot of people. I'm fortunate in that Great Country Farms sends out an email each Tuesday detailing what is in the weekly delivery. Because I get my box on Thursday I have two days to prepare for the arrival, unlike those getting their deliveries on Tuesday or Wednesday. This week we got kale, a cabbage, radishes, onions & a little pot of sage. Immediately went to work on a Portugese Kale & Chick Pea Soup. I used Tofurky Kielbasa instead of chorizo, so it was more a Polish soup than Portugese. Still good though. Standing and cleaning kale after working all day is no fun. I got the recipe from '30 Minute Meals' but it still took at least an hour and a half to prepare. Fortunately, the leftovers last for several days. It's not bad having soup in the summer if you have good A/C. Because I was not visiting my mother this week, and cannot abide by food wastage, I willed myself to try the radishes. I decided to try them the way Busboy described in the Farm Markets thread. I started small and went on to eat them all. They were good, I enjoyed them. Ever since I saw the Two Fat Ladies make 'Bubble & Squeak' I've wanted to try it. The cabbage was my opportunity. Unfortunately, the dish was very blah. Didn't squeak. Thumbs down. We picked a half pint of blueberries & a pint of peas. After shelling, there was only a handful of peas and word back was every single blueberry was sour. Lots of new experiences this week thanks to joining the CSA. I'd never bought cabbage or radishes. Never picked or shelled peas. Some critter keeps unplanting the sage from my herb garden every day, but the sage is still thriving. I'm all ready for this weeks delivery....

We're all food lovers at my house So anyway, I was able to incorporate the collards into a pot of Spicy Bean Soup (another Giada De Laurentiis recipe). That lasted through the weekend and was really tasty. Highly recommend. Yesterday, I washed the lettuce for a salad, it was still gorgeous! And used up the green onions in some Sloppy Moes. They were a little too tomatoey for my liking. Now I'm cleaned out and ready for tomorrow's delivery!

Nothing says "summer" like a heaping plate of Mushroom Stroganoff!

This is my first CSA experience as well. Sounds like Potomac Vegetable Farms & Clagett have more exotic stuff than Great Country Farms. I went and picked two more quarts of strawberries yesterday morning. Then at 2:30ish my order was delivered. Collards, oak leaf lettuce, spring onions, strawberries, radishes and a little pot of basil. Lots of green stuff and I hadn't yet finished the lettuce & spring onions from the previous week. I confess to feeling overwhelmed with all of it, like I'd better incorporate the delivery into dinner right away. But after reading Redglass' post, I had my heart set on making margherita pizza with which to sprinkle my basil on. I want to enjoy the CSA experience and not feel pressured. While planting my basil, one of my Barred Rocks let me know that she'd gladly help me eat the lettuce. And my mother is gladly taking the radishes. (No pic) Tonite I'll make veggie soup.

All the perishable items have left the building. 30% off all remaining items (vino, chocolates etc) while they last. $5 off coupons for $25 or more purchases. Bummer.

Even though Thursday's box arrived after a t'storm in 90 degree weather, the asparagus, lettuce, spring onions, strawberries and pot of parsley were all in great shape. Unfortunately, my camera was all steamed up. I was prepared for the arrival and made Epicurious' Asparagus Tart that evening: The next evening the green leaf lettuce became a big salad w/lots of stuff in it. (Got the "stuff" off Balducci's salad bar, so perhaps that explains why it's so photogenic) Saturday, half the spring onions went into Giada De Laurentiis' Spaghettini with Checca Sauce. I highly recommend this recipe. It's an excellent summertime dish and very easy/quick to make: Sunday I tried to use up some of the lettuce on Boca Burgers w/Roasted Potatoes. I still have some spring onions and lettuce to use up. Not to mention the rest of the two quarts of strawberries I picked on Sunday. Not just any strawberries, the most delicious strawberries I've ever had in my life. Pictures or words could not do them justice.

Epicurious' Onion & Tomato Tart:

A lot of these pics look like they're from the pages of Saveur or Martha Stewart Living or....hmmmmm.....say....here's my dinner last night: DANDELION SALAD WITH LARDONS AND GOAT CHEESE PHYLLO BLOSSOMS... Just kidding, Grub. I think EGullet needs people like us to level the playing field. Keep posting your pics!!!!

Our second weeks order from Great Country Farms had some gorgeous strawberries along w/collard greens, baby spinach, spring onions, asparagus and a little pot of cilantro. By Saturday night, we'd eaten the whole half share. Thursday night we ate the collards. Cooked them down w/some veggie broth, onions, garlic, ginger and jalapeno. Spooned into pita bread. Tasted like spinach and very healthy. Had the strawberries for breakfast on Friday and gave the cilantro to a coworker. Friday night I mashed two potatoes w/some of the spinach and a little gruyere. Made asparagus omlettes w/boca sausages. Unfortunately, the asparagus was pretty hard, having just been blanched. Would've been better had it cooked a few minutes longer. By Saturday night, the spinach was fading fast and I did not know what to do with it. So I mixed it w/some eggs, the spring onions & meunster cheese alongside roasted potatoes and boca sausages. It may not look it, but this was really delicious. I hope to have more inspired recipes this week.

Thank you, Busboy! I didn't know where to post it, the Cooking/Dinner! thread or General Topics/Weight Watchers/CSA's etc. Finally decided to just play it safe and stay local for the time being.

We got our first delivery from Great Country Farms last Thursday and finished it last night, in time for tonite's delivery. Last week's box contained spinach, kale, spring onions, asparagus & a little pot of dill. Unpacked: Washed: The first night we had Padma Lakshmi's Chick-Peas and Spinach Tapas on pita bread: The second night we had Epicurious' Kale & White Bean Ragout on baked potatoes. Sorry for bad pic: Saturday we had Epicurious' Creamy Dill Eggs w/Rachael Ray's Green Onion Hash Browns & some Boca Veggie sausages: Then Sunday things took a turn for the culinary worse, starting w/a bagel & cream cheese from Dunkin' Donuts and spiraling downward from there. No more pics were taken, however, I did use up the rest of the kale in a Portugese Kale & Potato soup and the asparagus in some quesadillas. Oh yeah, long time lurker, first time poster!