As some of you know, Mike and I signed up for our first CSA shares ever this past summer. We chose a farm that we could drive to, and we were very happy with the produce! However, the drive was a bit long, and there were some weeks when I was out of town that Mike barely made it in time for the pick up hours after work. So, we wanted to see if we could find a different CSA for 2009 that delivered somewhere closer to our house. After inquiring with a few farms, we found one that has a drop site only 15 minutes from our house and longer pick up hours – sweet! And what’s even better is that they have a winter CSA share – 4 big boxes over 8 weeks. We decided to sign up for it and and test drive the new produce. Well, we were not disappointed – here’s our first “grande” box:

Incredible! Currently, we’re experimenting with different storage ideas… we don’t have an unheated part of our basement, so we’re trying to keep the produce on an interior wall of our porch covered/loosely wrapped in fleece blankets. I’m also starting to look for some recipes to use the different veggies – tonight I will try a napa cabbage stir fry and if it tastes good I’ll post it here. Hooray for winter CSA!

Tuesdays are CSA days, and in my haul today included a huge bunch of swiss chard, a head of lettuce, a bag of mesclun, a handful of asparagus, and a kohlrabi. I thought I would tackle the swiss chard tonight, leaving the lettuce for a good lunch tomorrow, the asparagus for steaming or roasting, and the kohlrabi for sauteeing for dinner tomorrow.

Swiss chard is pretty easy to deal with – wash the leaves thoroughly, cut out the ribs (leaving, essentially, two halves of the leaf and the rib), and, keeping the leaves and ribs separate, chop into pieces as thin as you like. (I slice the ribs about 1/2 thick, and I roll the leaves and slice the roll across the circle bit thinly into a chiffonade. It seems to work.) Sautee the ribs in some oil over medium heat, and after they soften, add the chopped leaves. Cook until bright green, and eat. Yum.

But this can get dull, especially because chard is so prolific and you can end up eating it all summer. So I dolled up my usual recipe.

I used butter instead of oil (a couple of tablespoons for a large bunch of chard), I sauteed the chopped ribs with half a large onion, and just before the leaves were done, I added a handful of raisins and the remaining capers I had in the fridge (probably 1/3 c, I confess). When it all was done, I sprinkled some balsamic vinegar over the mixture and some toasted sliced almonds (toasted in a dry skillet on the stove top, stirring frequently until brown enough).

I’m quite pleased by the result! And have some chard for leftovers. This recipe, made with a large bunch of chard, looks like it would do for 2 veggie people (the leaves shrink drastically, like spinach).

Sorry for the long blogging absence!

We are members of two CSAs(=”Community Supported Agriculture“), one in Illinois and one in Indiana. The one in Illinois, Henry’s Farm, is fairly infamous for its fabulous variety of vegetables, and its servicing of Chicago restaurants. The one in Indiana we’re new to, ECO/TwinCrooks, which works with an Amish farmer in Montezuma, IN.

We love our CSA relationships, and look forward to pickups on Tuesdays. This is the third year we’ve been members of Henry’s CSA, and we’ve learned so much about seasonal eating, and completely different fruit and vegetables than you might find at a supermarket. We love the fact that our money (paid in the depths of February, to help the CSA farmer buy seeds at a time when he/she has little other income) goes straight to the farmer with no middleman, and we love knowing who picks our food and that it comes from less than 100 miles away. In general, CSAs are also organic, although many are not certified because of the huge cost that comes with government certification which is too much for small farms to bear.

We decided to join both CSAs this summer because we don’t know where we’ll be most of the time, Illinois or Indiana, or traveling. The Illinois share we have to ourselves, and we give it to friends when we’re out of town; the Indiana share we have split with 2 other folks, which means really none of us get enough veggies when we’re all in town but most of the time we only split with one other person. Or, like this week, I get them all to myself. And because we’re vegetarian, we can totally eat through 2 shares of veg, although this week with all the salad we got, it might be a bit harder. But I’m okay with salad for two meals a day, especially when the greens are as good as they are.

This week, in the Indiana share, we got:

• a bag of mesclun
• a head of some lovely kind of lettuce
• 2 rhubarb spears
• a pound of very long asparagus
• a bunch of radishes, greens attached and looking fab
• chives and apple mint
• STRAWBERRIES, with extra quarts available for purchase. Needless to say, I bought one and would have bought more, but didn’t want to be too piggy.

With all the good lettuce stuff, and me not feeling all that well last night, I had a huge salad for dinner. But what to use as a dressing? Since we’ve been CSA members, I’ve stopped buying salad dressings and started buying more cookbooks with dressing recipes in them. If you have a blender or cuisinart, they’re so easy to make, and so much better than the store-bought ones, and I’ve converted completely. Here’s the dressing I made last night (halved), with an end of blue cheese I found in the fridge.

Best blue cheese dressing
from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special, p. 318, and annotated by me

3/4 c canola or other vegetable oil (I used grapeseed as I was out of canola)

1 c crumbled Danish, Maytag or your favorite blue cheese (I used Stilton. What a waste, you might say! But it makes for great dressing.)

2 tbsp cider vinegar

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice (I even had a lemon in the fridge! Callou-callay!)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 to 2 tsp sugar

2/3 c 2% milk (I used skim, and it worked fine).

Pour the oil into a blender/cuisinart, add the crumbled blue cheese (or just stick in a big block of the cheese and pulse the blender until crumbled ). Add the vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 1 tsp of the sugar, and puree for a few seconds. Pour in the milk and puree until thick and smooth. Add more sugar to taste, if needed. Pour the dressing into a serving container, cover tightly, and refrigerated. Yields 2 cups.

So salad with green onions, pine nuts, and this dressing, a few sesame sticks, and strawberries – sounds like a great dinner to me.

Hope you’re enjoying the beginning of summer wherever you are!