Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A TIME TO REAP

The start of harvest has begun at the CR Farm and we on the subscribers list have received our first box of farm-fresh veggies. The first few boxes are seldom exciting but lucky for me, I like my greens.

I grew up in a household where both parents worked at packing plants and would bring home fresh veggies regularly. I'm a firm believer that most kids don't like vegetables simply because they've only eaten the canned variety. I love vegetables. OK, I don't much like green peas (the roly-poly kind) but even I have been known to throw a handful in soup or tuna/noodles if they come in a farm box. I kinda wish the CR kids would go a little lighter on the beets but I always try their recipes so found borscht to be an interesting use of them, especially with a sprinkle of dill and a dollop of Daisy. If nothing else, they can be pureed and "snuck" into other foods. They make real pretty bread. My cousin was shocked at my dislike of beets and told me she just cooks hers in butter. I will have to try that because this week, we have beets…. little baby, radish-sized beets but beets nonetheless. We also have kohlrabi, new potatoes, baby spinach and a few summer squash. Oh yeah, a bag of cilantro.

What to do when I need to cook dinner and I have this entire box that needs to be dealt with? sigh... I cleaned the spinach (these veggies are fresh from the field and DO NOT come prewashed like the ones at the grocery store) and tossed it in my pasta y fromage…mine was homemade but I’m sure it would improve even the boxed kind of mac `n cheese. Later in the season, I look forward to bushels of tomatoes and clumps of basil (it freezes well so gets me through the winter) and cilantro to make pasta sauce and salsa. A few years back there were figs. Oh, man, I LOVE figs! We’ll have lots of peppers and carrots, some cucumbers. I love fresh veggie season. My intention is to share with you the contents of each week's box to encourage you to subscribe to one of the local farms. Supporting our local farms is a good thing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deb, I love reading your posts. I wish I had known (remembered, actually) you were doing this. I would have followed along while you were on vacation and such ... Matt Lewis

Anonymous said...

Roasted beets are always good; you can add sliced of them to salads, or make up a roasted-beet-only salad. A friend of mine swears by her chocolate beet cake recipe to use up extra beets. I haven't tried it yet, so can't comment from experience, but it supposedly makes it really moist.

Kym said...

How do you get the CR box? Is it delivered or is it something you pick up?

beachcomber said...

Hey Matt. Glad to see you're still checkin in.

Melanie, I haven't put beets into chocolate cake yet but if we have the abundance we did last year, I may go there. I do eat the greens.

Kym, in the fall, the Ag Department starts collecting "subscriptions". It's pricey...$400 for a full share. I think they do a half-share for $250. We're good veggie eaters plus I see it as support for local agriculture AND the CR program. I'll try and remember to post the information when the flyer comes out.

Anonymous said...

Yum! That looks so good! I don't do beets, though :-).