It feels kind of silly making an update because I’m actually going to pick up week 10’s produce later today. But I figured I’d go ahead and get this post out, so as not to crowd the next post. Week 9:

Green leaf lettuce, green beans, oranges, eggs, bread, spring onions, beets, strawberries (from North Carolina), red potatoes, and mushrooms. I was really excited about the spring onions, but then I just ended up using them like giant scallions.

Whenever you see beets, it means you’ll also see beets on the trade table. I would roll my eyes at the non-beet-users among my fellow CSA members, but I have to admit I have the same impulse regarding kohlrabi.

Now that we have the kid at home, weeknight hours are much more precious. I’ve started cooking the vegetables in batches, for easy reheating later. So far it’s been pretty easy; I just mince a lot of garlic (my sister points out that an even bigger time-saver would be to get one of those big jars of pre-minced garlic) and spend a couple of hours at the beginning of the week prepping and cooking.

Here we have green beans, beet greens, and diced eggplant, all ready to finish chilling in the fridge. The process for cooking all of them was the same: heat oil in a wok, add minced garlic and a bit of chili flake, and let it sizzle a little bit so that the oil gets flavored. Add sliced spring onion, and let it cook just a tad longer. Then add in the vegetable and toss to coat, stirring occasionally, until it’s cooked. Salt and pepper to taste.

(I remember asking my mother how she knew when something was cooked. “You’ll just know,” she said. The voice of experience. Now I know to keep tasting the food, to recognize a good color, and to pull it immediately from the heat when it’s done.)