‘Tis the season for stone fruits! We’ve had plums, peaches, and nectarines crowding the fridge for the past two weeks. We’ve mostly been eating them just as they come, although I’m finding that it’s a little hard to cut segments from stone fruits that don’t like separating from the pits. This was never a problem until I had a small child who needed his fruit cut into segments. And of course all that lovely sticky fruit juice squishes out between his fingers and gets all over everything. Parenting is a messy business.

Week 7 of the CSA: 6 ears of corn, green peppers, peaches, Methley plums, onions, zucchini, tomatoes, cantaloupe, eggs, and bread (Breadery blueberry cornbread).

The peaches were soft, juicy, and ready to eat. As the sign at the CSA said,
10 Peaches
*be gentle, we bruise

Week 8: green beans, nectarines, green peppers, potatoes, beets with beautiful greens, Shiro plums, tomatoes, 6 ears of corn, and Great Harvest “everything” sourdough. It was a value-added week so I picked up a block of Muenster cheese in place of eggs.

I love picking up veggies in Breezy Willow’s new addition, because the breeze moves through the screens and sunlight comes through to dapple the fruits and vegetables.

It’s a beautiful time of year.

I’ve been lazy these past few weeks, but the CSA most certainly has not; the vegetables have been rolling in at a very good pace. Three weeks ago, it was salad greens and blueberries all the time; now, corn season is picking up in earnest and we’re finally getting tomatoes. Bruschetta, here we come. I used to resent summer, but now I love it for all the wonderful food it brings.

CSA week 3: kale, green and red leaf lettuce, broccoli, spring onions, bean sprouts, turnips, mushrooms, blueberries, eggs, and bread (Wheat? I don’t remember). We managed to eat all of these except the bean sprouts, which got buried up in the fridge drawer and had turned into a brown sludge by the time I unearthed the bag. Poor bean sprouts. Oh, and we haven’t eaten the turnips yet, but I checked on them yesterday and they’re still good. Root vegetables are wonderfully sturdy.

CSA week 4: double blueberry week! Also romaine lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, cucumber, and a mysterious unlabeled loaf of something very ciabatta-like. It was also a “value added” week so we got our choice of sauces instead of eggs. I picked the horseradish mustard (the other choice was BBQ). It seems like slim pickings; I get the feeling I might have missed something at pickup but oh well.

CSA week 5: the season’s first corn! Also, spinach, kale, red leaf lettuce, blueberries, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, and bread (pumpkin bread, actually).

CSA week 6: More corn, beets and carrots with their greens, green and yellow squash, tomatoes, chard, mixed greens, peaches!, blueberries, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough).

I plan to make pesto with the carrot greens, which worked out well last time I tried it. I’m looking forward to trying it on my standby focaccia recipe. Maybe I’ll stick some root vegetables into the oven to roast while I’m doing that. No use wasting oven heat.

I sauteed up the beet greens with the chard, and did the same with the squash and last week’s mushrooms. Also the corn. It’s my standard process, and the result packages well for weekday lunches (and reheats well for weeknight dinners).

Really, if you’re wondering how I cook any particular CSA vegetable, my thought process tends to go something like:

Can I cut it up and saute it in butter and olive oil, with a bit of garlic?
If not, then can I eat it raw, with a little grated cheese or a fried egg?
If not, then can I cut it into chunks and roast it, tossed with olive oil and a bit of garlic?

This takes care of most things. It’s when something doesn’t fall into those three categories that I start looking around for ideas.

You know what I love about fresh salad greens in the summer? It means you don’t have to turn on the oven on a 90-degree day, or even heat up a saucepan on the stove. Nope, you just rinse, chop, and eat. No heat required. We’ve been eating a lot of salad.

The summer CSA began last week and I’m already a week behind. My excuse: ice cream. More on that later.

Week 1 pickup: chard, green leaf lettuce, strawberries, zucchini, white mushrooms, spring onions, mixed greens, spinach, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough).

I did have to turn on the stove for the chard, spinach, and mushrooms. I sauteed the chard in butter (stems first, leaves after they’ve cooked a bit) with some spring onion, and served it as a side. I also wilted down the spinach and combined it with mushrooms to make vegetable-y, cheesy scrambled eggs for the kid.

Since week 1 was the week of my birthday, and I was planning to throw a milkshake party, I also splurged on some pints of Trickling Springs Creamery ice cream (available right at the Breezy Willow pickup! It’s a dangerous place).

I still have remnants of pistachio and strawberry cheesecake ice creams in the freezer, but the black forest ice cream disappeared. Just vanished. Apparently chocolate-cherry is a favored combination among my guests. I did manage to get a little into my own milkshake, too, so I’m content. (My milkshake, for the record: black forest ice cream, chocolate ice cream, raspberries, whipped cream, maraschino cherries.)

Week 2 pickup: beets, Boston Bibb lettuce, green leaf lettuce, spinach (in bags), double spring onions (I swapped kohlrabi for more spring onions), blueberries, garlic scapes (yay!), yellow and pattypan squash, eggs, and bread (parmesan sourdough).

I made the mistake of giving the kid a blueberry and he promptly sat on the floor and demanded more, eating blueberry after blueberry with great enjoyment. I finally discreetly dumped the remaining blueberries into another container and showed him the empty carton. He was a little upset, but I managed to buy him off with a stick of cheese. Kid’s got good taste.

I made a zucchini pie (suggested in Breezy Willow’s weekly recipe mailer) with some spring onions and last week’s zucchini. It was kind of underwhelming. The base flavor was pretty good, but it was a little drier and tougher than I wanted, and also insufficiently cheesy. I’ll tweak the recipe and try it again; if it works out, I’ll let you know.

Oh, and I wasn’t going to get any more ice cream, but they were running a special on salted dark chocolate ice cream. Featuring local Salazon Chocolate, even.

So I, uh, went home with an extra half gallon of ice cream.

Salted dark chocolate. I have no willpower.

For the last week of the spring CSA, Breezy Willow wants to make sure that you eat your vegetables.

Look at all those beauties. Hiding in the back there is the largest celery cabbage I’ve ever seen. Leaning up against it, a head of romaine lettuce, a loaf of sourdough bread, a bunch of fresh asparagus (the ends were still moist!), and a pound of spinach. Closer to the front, there are two bunches of red chard (I traded an eggplant for extra chard), a pile of zucchini, Breezy Willow eggs, and three Vidalia onions.

I may have mentioned it before, but let me just say it again: I really love the colors on those Breezy Willow eggs.

Last weekend I buckled down and prepped or cooked almost all the vegetables in the fridge, enabling more relaxed weekday evenings. I blanched green beans, cut up Brussels sprouts with garlic to roast in the oven, and sauteed kale, chard, beet greens, and radish greens in butter. I also roasted up all the sweet potatoes that have been biding their time in the back of the cupboard. It made getting dinner on the table really easy this week. Since this is a holiday weekend coming up, I should have plenty of time to put a dent in the greenery crowding our refrigerator.

Usually the last week of the summer/fall CSA is a very sad time for me; it ends around the same time as the last of the farmer’s markets, and it means I have to stock up for the winter. The end of the spring CSA, on the other hand, is a happy time. The farmer’s markets are opening, I’m making dates to visit the pick-your-own places, and summer’s bounty is just around the corner… and so is the summer CSA.

Oh, and strawberries. Larriland Farm‘s latest email blast said that they plan to open sometime next week for strawberry picking. I am so ready. Casey was saying that the strawberry harvest in North Carolina was hurt by heavy rain, and that ours is relatively late because strawberries need sun to ripen. I enjoy learning these details; it makes me feel closer to the land, and really makes me appreciate the berry harvest when it comes.

Speaking of strawberries, the last of the berries from last Sunday’s market were starting to look a little wrinkly and soft, so I cut them up and tossed them lightly with some sugar and a dash of lemon juice. In a jar overnight in the refrigerator, they released even more juices, producing a dark red syrup with chunks of strawberries floating around inside.

It’s tart, sweet, and brilliant on ice cream. Vanilla works perfectly well, but I’ll take mine on a scoop of Breezy Willow’s strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

The spring CSA is only 12 weeks long, and then (if memory serves) we’ll get a week off before the summer CSA starts up. So there’s just one more week left. At least the farmer’s markets are open to tide us over.

Week 11: Bean sprouts, green beans, Brussels sprouts, cremini mushrooms, romaine lettuce, sweet potatoes, beets, dinosaur kale, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest cinnamon chip). Apparently dinosaur kale is so called because the pebbly texture on its leaves is kind of like dinosaur skin. It does give off a sort of prehistoric vibe.

I’m determined to eat the bean sprouts tonight; the last couple of times, I let them sit too long and they turned brown and sad. The romaine will probably get eaten next; a nice crisp salad is always good on warm days like these. Everything else is a good hearty vegetable that can sit in the fridge drawers for a couple of days without too much damage.

Last week, week 10: spinach, asparagus, spring mix, rainbow chard, zucchini, Breezy Willow eggs, radishes, spring onions, red potatoes, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough). I think we did a good job eating all of these except the poor chard.

We sliced and baked the zucchini in the toaster oven, the asparagus got sauteed with some onion, the radishes were pickled (K is delighted with the result, but I am not quite convinced), the spinach and mushrooms went into an omelet (the kid likes vegetables when covered with egg and cheese) and the poor chard is rehydrating in the fridge. I pulled it out to cook a couple days ago and the stems were all floppy. I’m letting them drink up some water; hopefully they’ll get a little more firm. Still nice and colorful, though.

As for the spring greens, we had a dinner salad that very night. My favorite, with an over-easy egg on top, and some sliced sausage and grated Parmesan to add a little bit of luxury.

The past couple of times K’s fired up the grill, I’ve had him throw some sausages on as well. Protein is a time-consuming item to prepare, and I like being able to just whip up some veggies with some kind of carb and then serve it up with sliced sausage. Gets dinner on the table faster in the evenings, and the fat-and-flavor hit of the sausage means you don’t need to eat very much to feel full.

On the table for week 9: spring mix, kale, green beans, eggplant, spring onions, bread (parmesan sourdough), crimini mushrooms (aka “baby bellas”), Brussels sprouts, eggs, and grapefruit.

The kale was softer than usual, with pointy edges to the leaves, and I asked if it was a different breed. Casey told me that it was just because the kale was young. I’m looking forward to seeing if they cook up with a more tender texture than normal kale.

CSA cooking has been a different experience for me this year. In past years, I haven’t hesitated to try intricate and interesting ways to eat the vegetables, looking up lots of recipes and trying some really time-consuming things in the kitchen. (Like that tomato corn pie that required peeling tomatoes and making from-scratch biscuit crust; it took hours.) This year it’s all about what’s quick. I’ll probably blanch the green beans in the same water as the kale, for the extra time savings. Last night we ate half the salad greens and I roasted up the sprouts to put in our lunch containers. Quick and easy, that’s my goal.

It’s because the kid doesn’t want to wait around for dinner. We pick him up from daycare at 6, and when he gets home, he expects to eat; the less time we spend cooking, the better. After dinner, we play around until his bathtime after 8, and by 9 he’s usually in bed… and that’s when I do the cooking, as quick and clean as possible so I have some time to relax before bed. Tonight after he’s down, I’ll probably get the beans and kale blanched, and I might even clean up the mushrooms and spring onions and get them into some kind of frittata form. Or I could stir-fry them up with the eggplant. I just need something that’ll reheat easily when we come home with a hungry kid at 6pm.

Thank goodness he eats practically anything that we’re eating. (Last night he even sniped some salad greens from my plate.) I prepare his food the same as ours, except I cut it in smaller pieces. Please, please let him stay an omnivore as long as possible.

Anyway, this focus on quick-cooking technique is only temporary (most stages are, with the kid), and I gotta say that I’m really looking forward to cooking with the kid once he’s actually old enough to help out in the kitchen. But right now he’s just learning to walk and handle a fork, so it’ll be awhile yet.

At least, with all these beautiful veggies, I know I’m feeding him well.

On the table for CSA week 7 (which was last week, I’m trying to get it down before this week’s CSA comes along): Beets with lovely bright greens, spinach, mixed salad greens, green beans, zucchini, grapefruit, mushrooms, eggs, red potatoes, and bread (Great Harvest sourdough).

The spring mix and the zucchinis got eaten right away. The spring mix from last week had gone kind of slimy and brown around the edges before we got around to eating it, and I had to throw away about a third of it. We’ve learned our lesson: if we get salad greens, we’re eating dinner salads on CSA day! As for the zucchinis, one got sliced and baked in the toaster oven for a quick side, and the others became part of a pasta dish with some Italian sausage. The spinach and mushrooms went into an omelet. The green beans got blanched and served as a side dish. Still haven’t used the beets or their greens, but I just checked on them and they still look good. So that’s all the quick perishables taken care of.

Also, it should be noted that Great Harvest sourdough makes absolutely stellar grilled cheese sandwiches. (We make ours on the stovetop, with generous amounts of butter.)

When I showed up at the farm for the pickup last week, the chickens were out and pecking around. Per posted instructions, I did not enter the barn, but they looked so content that I had to snap a picture.

Now that’s what “free range” is supposed to look like. It does make me a little nervous when I see them meandering close to the cars, but in the almost five (!) years that I’ve been going to this CSA, I haven’t heard of one being run over yet, so they must have more in the way of self-preservation instincts than I give them credit for.

I think I’m going to call this the year of the bean sprout. I remember one summer we had green beans from the CSA almost every week, until I was sick of beans and out of bean puns (has-bean, bean there done that, etc). Finally a friend suggested just blanching and freezing them whenever they showed up. It restored my sanity, not having to eat green beans all the time.

This year, it’s bean sprouts, week after week. Good thing we’re in the middle of a good bout of stir-fry weather. When it’s hot outside, no one wants to stand over a hot stove, simmering something for hours. Let’s get the pan hot, cook something quick, and retreat back to where it’s cool.

Week 6 of the spring CSA: bean sprouts, Brussels sprouts, a head of garlic, beets, beautiful red radishes, collard greens, mixed greens, grapefruit, rainbow carrots, eggs, and bread (Great Harvest parmesan sourdough).

Actually I’ve never cooked collards before, but I’m told they’re very similar to kale. Maybe I’ll make colcannon (thanks to AnnieRie, I now know that you can make colcannon with more than just kale and scallions). Or maybe I’ll go leafing (hah!) through the Lee Bros cookbook, considering they’re Southerners and collards are a Southern staple.

I’m noticing that i somehow managed to face the two orange carrots of the rainbow carrot bunch face up in the group photo. Luckily I took a picture of the carrots arranged at the farm:

Aren’t they beautiful?

I was reading an article recently – I don’t remember where – that lamented the fact that when we go shopping, we have an entire aisle of cereals to choose from, but head to the produce section and we get to choose between three types of apples, and if you want cauliflower or carrots, you get whatever the store happens to have. I was an adult before I knew that carrots came in jewel-toned colors, or that you could even grow purple or orange cauliflower. When I go to the farmer’s markets in the fall and see all the different kinds of winter squash, in all shapes and colors and textures, I’m like a kid in a candy store. If we filled a store with many different kinds of fruits and vegetables, how wonderful would that be? How many more people would fall in love with food?

(Impractical, I know, both for shipping and storage. But it makes me sad that most people can probably name fifteen different cereals but less than five types of apples.)

Week 5 of the CSA: even more greens! I’m really loving the mixed greens this year; they’re a snap to prepare and I really value quick meal preparation time now that there’s a kid banging around. One of my favorite quick dinners is actually a salad with a fried egg on top; I like to break the egg so that the yolk gushes down around the salad greens, a rich and flavorful dressing. (People who like their eggs hard-cooked may want to supplement their salad with shredded cheese instead.)

Anyway, we got spinach, sugar snap peas, apples, mushrooms onions, sweet potatoes, oranges, and more mixed greens. I got Breezy Willow eggs this time (hence the colors) and challah from Great Harvest.

Looks like I get to make spinach and mushrooms again. I’m also thinking about roasting up some of these sweet potatoes and making a quickbread for the kid. He loves starches, and the more nutrition I can pack into bread form, the better.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering how to eat sugar snap peas, Breezy Willow has got that covered:

Apparently enough people were asking that they decided to put up a sign.