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Hellgate CSA Weeks 22 and 23

csa collage week 22

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.

Continue reading “Hellgate CSA Weeks 22 and 23”

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Hellgate CSA Week 7

week 7 csa collage
Week 7 share from our CSA

This week’s share was a bit more modest than last, but still full of amazing fruits and vegetables. We got:

1 bunch beets
1 pound zucchini
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 pound string beans
1 bunch carrots
1 bulb fennel
1 cucumber
2.5 pounds red plums
2 pounds nectarines

The carrots came with the fronds, and I’m looking into ways to use them. They could be good!

I was considering lacto fermenting the fennel with carrots, but I’ve read that fennel can get bitter in the fermentation process, with lots of shrinkage after a few days. Carrot fennel slaw I think is in my future, instead.

The fruit continues to be amazing and I am loving eating the plums with raw yogurt for breakfast. Jenny from Nourished Kitchen recommend poaching yellow plums in honey-vanilla syrup, and I bet these red plums would also be great that way.

We’ll be eating salad with the lettuce as opposed to the no so successful lettuce soup I made last week.

Zucchini will be eaten with tomatoes from my garden!

Summer is amazing.

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Hellgate CSA Week 5

CSA Week 5
Week 5 shares from the Hellgate CSA

This week we resumed receiving CSA shares (last week there was no delivery due to the Independence Day holiday). The biggest surprise was a pint of cherry tomatoes in our fruit share!  All in all, we received:

1 pound of fava beans
1 bunch of fennel
1 bag of snap peas
1 head of lettuce
1 bunch of swiss chard (broccoli rabe was another choice)
two apples
2 pounds of yellow plums
1 quart of sour cherries

I’ve already eaten a lot of this. The tomatoes are gone – last night I cooked half them with two of the zucchinis in olive oils and garlic, plus fresh herbs from my deck. Today I had them in a raw salad with more zucchini. The favas were sauteed in olive oil with garlic at the end and topped with a little fleur de sel.

The sour cherries will become cherry liqueur and hot cherry preserves. As I write this the cherries are macerating with dried peppers, vanilla bean, and sugar for preserves, and the liqueur is coming to be with cherries and sugar sitting in rum and vodka.

I may make a plum syrup with any of the plums we don’t eat simply out of hand.

Let me tell you – it is so great to have the veggies and fruit back!

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CSA Bounty – Week Five

hot distribution

Well, this week brought searing heat, wilted CSA members, and serious summer vegetables and fruit!  Peaches, apricots, and plums scream “summer” to me.

peaches

plums and apricots

All the fruit has been fantastic eaten out of hand.  It would make good sorbet, too.

The vegetable I was most excited about was the fava beans.  I look forward to them every year.

fava beans

I think they are gorgeous pods, but the beans inside are even more fantastic. I shell them and then remove each bean’s outer covering, throw them into a pan containing a little hot olive oil, and cook them till they start to brown a bit.  Sometimes I cook them with onions.   Then I eat them with fleur de sel on top.  Perfection!

We got more greens – butter lettuce and curly cress.  Not much to do with them except make a salad, which I did.

butter lettuce

cress

We also got fennel – I’ll probably braise it.

fennel

Oh, and spring onions!

spring onions

And peas! Shelling peas – I made a tasty salad with them that involved mint and dates (recipe to come).

shelling peas

Lastly, we got zucchini, which was a surprise! I chose 5 perfect medium sized squash, which I will make zucchini fritters out of this weekend. I’ll probably grate whatever is left and freeze it for zucchini bread.

zucchini

So much great produce!  I just love my CSA.