CSA – Harmonious Belly

June 4, 2015June 4, 2015

CSA Season Starts Again – My 10th Year With the Hellgate CSA

Our first share of the 2015 Hellgate CSA season, in a rad new space.

This week marks my tenth season with the Hellgate CSA, a community supported agriculture organization that I helped establish up in northwestern Queens. A little history: it was originally called the Ravenswood CSA, based in the Ravenswood Houses senior center, and as CSAs work in NYC it was passed on the following year from the Americorps member who staffed it, to an all-volunteer team. The members interested in forming the core group all lived above the GCP, so we brought it north.

I was a core member for eight seasons (2006-2013) and am happy to see the CSA still going, well-managed by the current core group. I left the core group for a variety of reasons, one being my desire to move on and make room for new experiences. But I wanted to remain a member, so here I am.

(The other day I realized I’ve been a member of a CSA on and off for about 24 years; my first CSA experience was with Full Belly Farm in CA, which started my love of CSAs and eating seasonally.)

We’re also in a nice new space, away from the elements, and with a lot more room than we’ve had in the past.

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December 20, 2011December 18, 2011

Final Hellgate CSA Share of 2011

So, last Tuesday was our final Hellgate CSA distribution of 2011. I won’t deny that it will be strange not picking up later tonight. What we got last week was:

1 bunch lacinato kale
1 celeriac
1 pound carrots
1 pound rutabagas
1 head cauliflower
1 bag sunchokes

I’ve eaten half the kale and carrots. The sunchokes were used for carrot-sunchoke fritters. Celeriac for remoulade. Rutabagas will be for roasting, as will the cauliflower.

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November 16, 2011November 16, 2011

Hellgate CSA Weeks 22 and 23

It’s been a while since I posted about our CSA share, and I’ve missed that. We’re really into the fall vegetables and fruit these days – apples and pears especially, plus root vegetables. Week 22 brought us:

1 bunch of kale
1 bulb of celeriac
1 pound winter radishes
1 bunch kohlrabi (though I got two bunches – they weren’t so popular)
3 pounds carrots
1 head lettuce
2 pounds bosc pears
1 pound empire apples
1 pound mutsu apples

I made kale chips out of the kale, seasoned with rosemary herb salt made by my friends at Gardenfreude. The kohlrabi and some of the carrots went into the kimchi I fermented this past week. Loved the apples for snacking. I will make a celeriac remoulade later this week. I love, love, LOVE celeriac, especially in a remoulade. This celery root and apple salad is also delicious.

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October 13, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 18

This week we still got what I think of as a summer-fall hybrid. Summer veggies like tomatoes, peppers, beans, and eggplant, then fall veggies like asian greens and beets, plus classic fall fruits like apples and pears. We also got some prune plums, which are beautiful. Well, everything is beautiful. We got:

1 pint mini tomatoes
1.5 small beets
1 pound green beans
.5 pounds eggplant
1 bunch asian greens
1.5 pounds sweet peppers
2 pounds pears
1 pound mutsu apples
1 pound yellow delicious apples

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October 7, 2011October 10, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 17

This past week was a comparatively small share. We’re still seeing summer vegetables – tomatoes and green beans – and the onslaught of fall apples and pears is upon us. Good thing I like apples and pears!

We got:

1 bunch of mizuna
2 pounds tomatoes (not pictured)
1 bunch carrots
1 bitter melon
1 butternut squash
1 pound green beans
2 pounds bosc pears
2 pounds honeycrisp apples
1 pound empire apples

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September 28, 2011September 27, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 16

This is week 16 of the CSA – that means we’ve been at this for about four months! We did skip a week because of Independence Day, but still. Four months! Awesome.

Last week’s share didn’t get documented, mostly because of laziness (yes, it happens). However, I will tell you – we got corn! I froze the niblets for winter. We also got an acorn squash, some seckel pears, and it was the second week of tomato shares.

I ordered another 25 pound box of plum tomatoes, which I think were actually romas. I used part of that tomato share for my tomato dehydrating project. I used the rest to can crushed tomatoes – 11 pints! I can imagine a tasty winter soup of tomatoes, corn, peppers, and chicken, made with my delicious and nourishing chicken bone broth.

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September 15, 2011September 16, 2011

Hellgate CSA Week 14

This week we definitely got a glimpse of fall – enter the winter squash! Exciting, to say the least – I am a huge fan of winter squashes. Additionally, we got:

1 bunch carrots
1 pound green beans
1 head escarole
1 pound sweet peppers
1 pint mini tomatoes (not shown)
(1 acorn squash)
2 pounds apples
2 pounds pears
2 pound concord grapes

The carrots will be fermented; the green beans turned into dilly beans. The tomatoes have just been eaten out of hand pretty much. The escarole is quite bitter, so I’ll likely braise it somehow, perhaps with bacon!

I plan to pickle the grapes.

Apart from these fruits and vegetables, I received a tomato canning share – 20-25 pounds of plum tomatoes.

They look and feel great so far, and I plan to make crushed tomatoes with them. If they do as well as I expect they will, I’ll order another box for next week! Slow roasted tomatoes, yum.

This week was a meat & dairy week, so it was great to replenish my stock of ground beef and turkey sausage. I also ordered two cheese from Nettle Meadow Farm – Kunik and Three Sisters. Both are excellent, but Kunik is out of this world! A very luxurious cheese.

Also, I ordered a batch of “Battenkill Brittle,” which is a kind of crunchy, sweet, seedy brittle. It’s sweetened with brown rice syrup and maple syrup, though it’s not super sweet at all.

Quite a week this week!