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CSA Bounty – Week Two

We had another week without radishes, but with plenty of lettuce. Last year we got a head each week for almost the entire season; I wonder if this year will be the same.  I will eat a large salad tonight.  This week we got:

week 2 menu

The strawberries were better this week than last week, I think, which is kind of like saying we got 12 oz of gold this week over last week’s 11.5 oz.  Both weeks have brought us amazing strawberries. We ate them for breakfast this morning with some cantaloupe I cut up last night.

strawberries week 2

This week’s lettuce head was a leaf lettuce in a very unusual color – kind of the color of manzanita wood.

red lettuce

We got cilantro this week!  Also dried black beans.  I’m thinking of making a black bean salad tonight with them both.

cilantro

bagging black beans

I have a share of beans and grains from Cayuga Organics, which grow the best beans I’ve ever had.  Their grains are also amazing.

We also got asparagus – I think we are at the end of the season.

asparagus

Last night I had some of it and it was so good.  Simply pan roasted with some salt.  I ate it with a quesadilla I fried in coconut oil, made with raw pepperjack cheese (also from the CSA), some cilantro and Tortilleria Nixtamal tortillas.  We had stopped in over the weekend and picked some up on our way home from touring the Louis Armstrong House in Corona (fabulous).  They really are the best tortillas around.

In addition to the veg, berries, black beans and grains (farro!), my meat and dairy order came in – my freezer is now full of grass fed/finished beef, organic chicken breasts and turkey sausage, and I’ve got a nice goaty chevre to look forward to tonight, too.

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Iliamna Fish Company CSA

iliamnaThis weekend, while perusing Chowhound, I came across a post entitled Where should I buy wild salmon? It mentioned a wild salmon CSA, and as a lover of wild caught salmon, it certainly caught my eye.

The salmon is caught by the Iliamna Fish Company, a third-generation family-owned cooperative based in Alaska. They follow the natural spawning season of the salmon, and catch the fish in late June and early July in Bristol Bay.  Members of the CSA will receive 12 pounds of flash-frozen sockeye salmon in late August, at a pickup location in Brooklyn.

Wild Sockeye is deep red in color and has the highest levels of omega-3 in the salmon family.  It’s high in protein, has plenty of good fat, and minerals.  It’s also delicious!

So how sustainable is are the methods for catching this fish?  According to their website, “Iliamna Fish Company sockeye salmon are Marine Stewardship Council certified-signifying the ocean, rivers and lake where our wild sockeye grow are part of a healthy and pure marine ecosystem.”  As far as the way they are caught, the fish are caught by small boats (4 feet deep and 20 feet long)  in set nets:

The process of set netting might be compared to tying a sheet to a clothesline in the wind. Nets are “set,” or anchored, perpendicular to the shore, usually in 25-fathom increments. The top of the net, floated by white synthetic corks, is tied to a line running between fixed anchors at both ends. The bottom of the net is a heavy, weighted line that sinks below the surface of the water.

Between the floating line and the weighted line, the webbing of the net billows with the strong current of the tide. As fish move up and downstream with the tide, they are caught in the billowing, curved “basket” formed by the tide and net. Fish are either ensnared at their heads, by catching their gills in the webbing, or they are caught lying broadside, ungilled-held in the “basket” of the net by the tidal current.

More about Iliamna’s set nets can be found here.

They also work with the biologists that monitor the streams in the area, and only after they determine there is enough fish does the Iliamna crew head in for the catch.  This ensures there is no overfishing and that salmon will be here for years to come.  They also support the work of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Marine Stewardship Council, Ecotrust, and Salmon Nation.

So, come August I should have 12 pounds of sustainably-fished, wild-caught sockeye in my freezer!  I’ll be enjoying salmon throughout the fall and winter, I expect.  I’m really excited about this!  I will certainly report back on the quality of the fish this fall.

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CSA Bounty – Week One

I’d like to show off what I bring home from the CSA each week, so this is the first post in my CSA Bounty Series.  Mostly eye candy, this is going to be my record of the 2010 Hellgate CSA season.

Our vegetables are organic and the fruit is “ecologically grown”, which means it’s not quite organic, so they do their best to use alternate techniques (like integrated pest management) to control pests, weeds, and fungus.  In NY state, it’s pretty much impossible to grow tree fruit truly organic, due to the overly wet summers.

Strawberries!  One of the best parts of the early CSA season.  They were delicious.  Note that past tense, “were”… these strawberries came from our vegetable farmer, so they were organic.

strawberries

Green leaf lettuce, one of my favorites.  I ate some of it tonight and it was lovely.

lettuce

Tarragon, my new favorite herb.  I use it liberally in chicken salad (I’ll share the recipe sometime soon – it’s fantastic).  This was particularly gorgeous tarragon.

tarragon

Leeks – beautiful (and delicious – I’ve already eaten them).

leeks

Bags of jerusalem artichokes.  Not very photogenic, I’ll admit, but I’m grateful that the farm pre-bagged them for us.

IMG_6255

Gorgeous collard greens.  I didn’t choose these (the choice was these greens or the leeks), but glad I got a shot of them.  I expect they were delicious.

collards

That’s it!  I can’t wait to see what we get in week two…