Thursday, May 30, 2013

What's in our Basket?

About a month ago I was doing some research on the farmer's markets available in my neighbourhood and the kinds of opportunities available for community gardening, since my housing situation doesn't
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have much of a yard. I spoke to a friend who used to have a small community plot, and they told me about how they used to have baskets of fresh produce from a local farm delivered straight to their doorstep every week. This got me excited. After a quick google search I discovered the wonders of Community Supported Agricultural and signed our family up for a share. Basically, we have paid for a share of a local organic farm's harvest over the next four months (we've signed up with Plan B Organic Farms). It helps us to not only eat seasonally and organically but also support our local economy and community.

We signed up for a bi-weekly half share and fruit share - meaning every other week we will receive 8-10 helpings of vegetables as well as 3-5 helpings of fruit. I like to think of it as a produce loot bag. We don't know exactly what we'll be getting, and we'll have to figure out how to use it, but that just gives us the fun challenge of recipe experimentation! Every other week I'll be sharing what comes in our basket and the recipe potential for the items included. So without further ado, here is what's in our basket:


Vegetable Half Share:
1 bunch of kale, 1 bunch of asparagus, 6 small potatoes, 1 English cucumber, 1 head of live Boston lettuce, 1 bunch of parsnips, 1 bunch of fresh oregano, 5 small bunches of bok choy, 1 bunch of green garlic

Fruit Share:
1 bunch of grapes, 1 small bunch of bananas, 3 valencia oranges, 8 royal gala apples           

Their Potential:

This green smoothie using the kale, bananas and cucumber.   
     
An Asian inspired salad using the bok choy. 

Follow these steps for dried oregano and store in a mason jar for extended use.

Use the parsnips and substitute the rutabaga for the potatoes in this root roast.

A take on this frittata recipe using the green garlic and asparagus.

Make either this or that apple crisp using the royal gala apples. 
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6 comments:

  1. Amanda Raponi30.5.13

    wow you got a ton! it looks awesome! you should make kale chips and then let me try them.

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    1. Unknown30.5.13

      oooh kale chips is a good idea! I'm still warming up to green smoothies but I love chips, i'll see what i can do!

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  2. Kerry30.5.13

    Wow, looks good! I always shied away from CSA's because I was afraid I'd be unfamiliar with lots of the veggies and they would go to waste but now that I'm getting more adventurous, I'd love to do this!

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    1. Unknown30.5.13

      My mom was also nervous of the potential for strange foods but she asked around and eventually became even more excited than I was for our basket haha. We're thinking of adding a dozen eggs to it but we shall see, so far it seems like a great idea for the summer!

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  3. AmyLu30.5.13

    This made me very excited!!!! I kind of want to do this too, although I do get nervous about the odd rarities...
    What exactly is 'green garlic' and how does it differ from regular garlic?
    Looking forward to the recipes! And if I do ever sign up for one, I will email you with suggestions for the weirdo stuff ;)

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    1. Unknown30.5.13

      i think green garlic is just garlic before it gets the cloves, so it's like a little baby garlic haha. it's weird cause it looks like green onions but smells like garlic - so far we've just used it like regular garlic :)

      aha do it! it was so exciting picking up our first box, though we seem to have the most trouble figuring out what to do with the bok choy cause there's so much of it.

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