Green Bag Special

Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

During our first year as CSA members, I was a bit overwhelmed by the cleaning and drying of greens.  At the beginning of summer, I did a great job of rinsing and storing the veggies the day we received our share, but as summer wore on, I tended to stick them in the fridge until needed.

Drying greens right before dinner turned out to be a tedious process, usually involving lots of towels and paper towels.  Once, I even bought a laundry bag for our washing machine and spun the greens.  Unfortunately, the greens came out smelling linen fresh, thanks to Downy residue in the washer.

I had heard about salad spinners but did not realize their amazing benefit until I found one on Craigslist and put it to use.  I paid $10 for an unused Ratchet Salad Spinner from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, which would have been $20 in the store.  My tedious drying process became a short chore, one eagerly shared by my husband and children.

If you are unfamiliar with spinning salad, it’s very easy.  Just rinse your greens and place into the bowl.  Press the handle multiple times.  Centrifugal force is used to sling the water off of the greens.  You can see a demo here.  In less than 5 minutes, my greens are ready to enter the skillet or salad bowl.  If you are using greens throughout the week, this handy tool will soon be one of your favorites.  Yes, it’s the little things in life!

Imaged borrowed from FG's website

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have decided to only eat meat from local sources, so we ventured out for a double date to a fairly new local restaurant called Farmers Gastropub, which offers meals made from local ingredients.  The restaurant’s website said they decided to go local for “for health reasons, for social/economic reasons and for environmental reasons.”  Sounds good to me.

To find the best local produce, Farmers Gastropub has an employee visit farmers markets to buy fresh picked vegetables.  Because of the seasonal nature of their ingredients, the menu changes frequently to feature the freshest picks of the week.

If you visit Farmers Gastropub, know in advance that there are two seating areas: the Bistro and the Pub, with distinctive menus.  For our visit, we chose the pub, and we felt cozy in the dimly-lit wooded dining room.  In addition to the tasty foods, many visitors brag on the pub’s selection of beers.  We choose to eat on the pub side because the menu had familiar foods such as burgers and fish and chips.  In addition to the regular menu, diners can select from the daily specials.  Before visiting the restaurant, “friend” it on Facebook to see their current specials.

On our visit, I chose to try the daily special: chicken marsala.  The mushrooms were savory, but the teeny flecks of local tomatoes really stood out.  My sister-in-law had a burger, topped with the reddest tomato I’ve seen in a while.  We all envied her tomato.  Apparently, it came from a local source that used a greenhouse to get a headstart.

My husband had the fish and chips.  While the fish wasn’t a standout (not compared to my mom’s homemade catfish), it was good, but the definite favorite of his plate were the “chips.”  These were hand-cut french fries topped with the exact right amount of salt.  What made them especially delicious was the slight sweetness of the potatoes.  Yum!  I’m getting hungry just writing about them.

We all felt a tad sorry for my brother-in-law who had ordered a version of shepherd’s pie.  The serving just didn’t look like enough for a grown person.  However, he did say it was tasty.

Overall, it you are wanting to try a new experience and enjoy foods created from the bounties of local gardens, be sure to give Farmers Gastropub a try.  The servings are a tad on the lite side for the prices; however, you are supporting local farmers who are raising the meats and vegetables in human, sustainable ways.  Eat well and feel good doing it!

I borrowed Barbara Kingsolver’s new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life from my local library and devoured it this week.  Though I have loved Kingsolver’s fiction in the past, I wasn’t sure how intriguing this book would be.  I was pleasantly surprised.

The book follows Kingsolver and her family as they attempt to live a year eating only locally-grown foods, mostly homegrown.  The current popular term for such a lifestyle is locavore, and it’s an idea that is spreading.  Kingsolver was ahead of the curve.

The book could have made for dry reading material, but Kingsolver was great at including just-right anecdotes to keep the story flowing with a light, sometimes humorous, narrative.  Readers will not only get to know Kingsolver’s family, they will learn a lot about how to raise and preserve vegetables and animals.  Readers even learn about the very rare practice of turkey sex.

The narrative of the family’s experiences is broken up by occasional informative pop-out sections, explaining the myriad reasons why people might want to think more carefully about the American diet.  This information comes across as merely informative, not preachy.

The book also includes seasonal recipes, which is a wonderful feature.  Kingsolver shows what kinds of delicious foods can be enjoyed without visiting the grocery store.  I was amazed by the wide-range of foods the family was able to eat, even in the depths of winter.

While this book was fascinating, I’m not planning to follow suite.  Kingsolver apparently already had a green thumb and a great base of knowledge, before beginning her experiment.  My family lacks in these elements; however, the book reminds me that we can greatly improve our food sources, even without going to the same extremes.

Kingsolver was kind enough to share all of the recipes on the book’s website.

From Asparagus to Zucchini

I like veggies. There are certain veggies that I daresay I love. However, I am still a little nervous about getting a BAG full of vegetables each week from the CSA farm. The cause of my nervousness: What will I do with all of the mystery veggies?

I may be somewhat literate in the veggie world. I even branch out to the more adventurous veggies, such as artichokes and asparagus. What? Those aren’t adventurous to you. Sorry. In either case, those are nothing compared to the wonderful array of veggies I’ll be meeting in my close future. Our CSA recently sent a list of what to expect this year, and the list contained some mysterious vegetables: bok choy, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and swish chard, just to name a few.

What’s a girl to do? Well, I was thankful to discover a cool book called From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce, written by the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. This just might be my bible for the months ahead.

The book introduces a wide variety of vegetables by providing a general introduction to each, most importantly how to cook and store them. Then, readers are provided a handful of recipes featuring each vegetable. Right now, I can only imagine how useful this guide will be.

Let’s see, kohlrabi. The book describes this as a cross between a turnip and a cabbage (not sure this one will make our greatest hits list this summer…we shall see!). Did you know you can peel kohlrabi and eat it like an apple? Right now, I’m imagining a turnip/cabbage apple and thinking, “Eww.” If that doesn’t appeal to my family, perhaps we’ll try the sauteed kohlrabi with onions and butter.

Another handy feature of the book is a chapter of seasonal recipes, which will help me throw together some tasty dishes using the vegetables delivered in my “green bag special.” There’s even a chapter of kid recipes, which I will hope will inspire my sons to eat more greens.

So, if you are new to the CSA lifestyle, I highly recommend this book.