Green Bag Special

Spin Those Greens

Kerri — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:13:02 +0000

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!

Checking In

Kerri — Wed, 18 May 2011 23:15:26 +0000

Welcome back! We’ve started a new CSA for summer 2011. We took a break from the veggie train for 6 months, and I took a break from the blog. I didn’t really have the time or desire to create an all-round blog about our life–I want this site to stand alone as a document about our experiences as CSA newcomers. More of a magazine article than a full-blown biography.
Anyway, so after much debate, we joined a CSA this summer. We weren’t sure we wanted to commit the money, time, and effort it takes to be a CSA member; however, I felt it was important to try again. Being a member of a CSA really made us eat more veggies–local, organic veggies to boot. Also, my creative side somewhat enjoyed having to figure out what to concoct for supper each week using the supplied vegetables.

And they’re off……

Lessons Learned

Kerri — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:08:09 +0000

We learned many lessons from our participation in a CSA:

* Radicchio is pronounced ra-dick-ee-o instead of ra-dish-ee-o.

* We don’t like beets.

* Sugar snap peas taste like candy.

* Washing, storing, preserving, and preparing fresh vegetables can be a lot of work.

* Fresh corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes are amazingly awesome.

* Greens come in a variety of types and flavors: some we like, some we could live without.

* Homemade salsa is a great way to use up a ton of tomatoes.

* Purple hull green beans turn green when you boil them.

* You can shred and freeze zucchini.

* Okra tastes great raw, but don’t try to steam it….it creates explosive slimy green goo!

* Zucchini cake is one way to get your children to ingest zucchini, but the amount of chocolate in it makes it ineligible to be considered a healthy foods.

* Don’t judge a vegetable by its looks.

* To really truly grow your own food and eat seasonally would be a lot of work.

* You can use a garment bag to spin lettuce in your washing machine to dry it; however, be careful if said washing machine is dripping fabric softener or your greens will smell “linen fresh.”

* You can lead your children to vegetables, but you can make them like them.

* Belonging to a CSA is a great adventure!

Vegetables can cause messes:

List of Lists

Kerri — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:50:22 +0000

Thanks to our CSA, we tried these vegetables we had never eaten before:

* patty pan squash

* kale

* endive

* radicchio

* mustard greens

* beets

* sugar snap peas

* Swiss chard and rainbow chard

* fresh okra–when I first saw it, I had no idea what it was. I had only ever seen it fried!

Thanks to the CSA, we tried new types of familiar old vegetables:

* purple hull green beans

* egg tomatoes (which are a pink grape tomato–very yummy)

* yellow salad tomatoes

* lemon cucumbers (which are ugly little balls, but they taste great)

* blond cucumbers

* buttercrunch lettuce

* freckle lettuce

* ball carrots (little balls with plenty of flavor)

We used our vegetables to make many wonderful new recipes:

* chard pie

* white chard pizza

* homemade salsa

* endive or radicchio pasta bake

* ramen noodle salad

* zucchini cake

At first, we couldn’t decide whether these were a tomato, a cucumber, or a squash. Turns out, they are called “lemon cucumbers.”

What We Made Out of Our Veggies

Kerri — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:16:50 +0000

I made a lot of great things this summer with our bags of veggies.

Chard Pie:

White Chard Pizza:

Veggie Wraps:

And here’s what my husband made with our veggies:

Very creative, Russell!

Off the Wagon

Kerri — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:21:16 +0000

We started our CSA mission with the intention to become healthier, and as summer wanes away, I must confess to falling off the wagon. I must confess to giving some greens to a friend, instead of eating them. I must confess to letting some greens wither up and land in the trash can. So, what happened? As usual, Life-with-a-capital-L took over.

We started off the summer with a fairly calm routine. It included meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. Lately, though, we’ve been busier and cooking at home less and eating out more. Try as I might, I just can’t force myself to order a salad instead of an entree at a restaurant. That would be like, well….what would that be like? That would be like going to Paris and not visiting the Eiffel Tower. That would be like getting a pedicure and then wearing only tennis shoes. That would be like reading a whole book, other than the last chapter. That would be unimaginable in my book. So, when I eat out, I do not eat well. I engage in the pleasure of enjoying the variety of food that was cooked. By Someone Else! How I love to have food cooked by someone else! No mess, no dishes. *Sigh*

Back to the veggies, so we’ve been lazy with our veggies lately, but we have a game plan for healthier eating after our upcoming vacation. We’ll do it. We must.

In the Bag Lately

Kerri — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:47:24 +0000

It’s been a busy few weeks around our house. Though my husband and I are both teachers, with all summer off, we hardly end up feeling like we’ve had all summer off. We have work stuff and home stuff keeping us plenty busy.

The folks at the CSA farm have been busy, too, Many crops are in season. Lately, we’ve enjoyed a wider range of vegetables, including two varieties of cucumbers, kohlrabi, purple snap beans, sugar snap peas, and broccoli. Our household hasn’t tried the kohlrabi yet, but we have greatly enjoyed the rest of the veggies. The broccoli definitely impressed us–it was very flavorful. We learned that purple snap beans don’t stay purple once you cook them. We’ve eaten a lot of salads, but have also continued to try our hands at some fancier fare.

A success this week was Swiss Chard and Artichoke Pizza. You can find the recipe at Farmgirl Fare’s blog. We added red peppers to the saute because we enjoyed the mixing of the sweetness of the red peppers with the more bitter chard when we made chard pie. We also made a second pizza with red sauce. Our friend Shannon was visiting. Like us, she couldn’t decide which pizza she liked more. The chard went really well with the red sauce and makes me think I should make a lasagna chocked full of my next load of greens. Also, I didn’t prepare my own dough and went the lazy route, using store-bought crust instead.

I’ll leave you with this beautiful site…my oldest son liked the sugar snap peas so much that he asked for them for a snack!

Update on my youngest son: still no veggies have crossed his lips. We tried to get him excited about the sugary peas, which were just like candy, but, umm, he didn’t buy it.

CSA Work Day

Kerri — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:40:17 +0000

I don’t like heat or sun. I blame it on being a freckled pale person. We must hate the sun as a form of natural defense. So, I was a little sad to see our mid-June weather already in the 90s as we headed to the CSA farm for one of our work days. Most CSAs have members do work days to contribute to the farming. If you are completely unable to, you can pay an extra fee to avoid the labor. Despite the hot day, we looked forward to doing our work day to learn more about the food we were eating.

The day started with picking root vegetables. My oldest son, who had accompanied my husband, enjoyed helping with this part. They pulled beets and carrots. The carrots were small orange balls, appropriately called “ball carrots.” Upon testing them, we found no difference in the taste. They were delicious!

Later in the day, I arrived and helped cut some greens. We picked arugula and endive. I keep getting endive and radicchio confused, but I think I’m learning. After the picking was done, we helped wash veggies. THIS was the job to have on the humid summer day. The CSA had a four-vat commercial sink set up, and we dunked the greens several times. Then, we placed them in mesh bags to go for a spin in the dryer. On my must-have list right now: a salad spinner or a mesh bag. You can spin the moisture off of the greens to help them keep longer.

At the end of our shift, we bagged the veggies for the rest of the members and received our weekly share. Big excitement this week: carrots and new potatoes!

Enjoy these pictures of the farm. It is a beautiful place, with hills overlooking the Finley River valley. The farm isn’t very big, which makes you appreciate how much food you could grow on an acre or two…not that we are getting any ideas. We have a couple of acres that would be perfect for a huge garden, but I have a known history of not being able to keep anything alive (I call this my “black thumb” condition) and I remind you, the last time we had a garden, we even killed the supposedly ‘unkillable’ summer squash. We appreciate that the CSA farmers have the knowledge and skills to turn their plot of land into food for so many families!

Enjoy these pictures:

Confessional note: No, my son did not act like Farmer Brown all day. He did get tired and hot pretty quickly and retreated to the porch to play Pokemon on his DS. That being said, I think it was still important for him to be there and for him to get an idea that yes, food does grow out of the ground…it doesn’t just arrive on store shelves out of nowhere.

Best Ranch Dressing Ever

Kerri — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:39:17 +0000

After eating a rotation of spruced-up salads, this week we enjoyed regular old salad. In our CSA delivery, we had some mixed spring greens with very mild flavors, carrots, green onions, and radishes. I add a farmers market tomato. To top it, we whipped up my dad’s special recipe for ranch dressing. If you want your ranch dressing at home to taste like restaurant ranch dressing, you need to alter the directions of the Hidden Valley Ranch packet. Here’s the secret recipe:

1 cup mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix

Whip and chill! It’s delicious, I promise. However, I can’t promise that it’s good for you. Just look at those ingredients!

Chard Pie: More Delicious Than You Would Expect

Kerri — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:15:34 +0000

When you hear about Chard Pie, it might not sound particularly tasty. At least, not to my family. When I baked it last night, my mother (who joined us for dinner) brought down some leftovers from the night before, in case anyone wanted a replacement meal. The great news is that the Chard Pie was enjoyed by all, except the children. My oldest son wouldn’t try it. Unfortunately, he is a little scared of sauteed greens after trying kale and radicchio. I hope to win him over some day because chard is much milder.

You might be wondering why it isn’t called Chard Quiche. It has a pie crust and eggs, so it’s very similar to quiche. I think it’s not considered a quiche because the egg layer is fairly thin, and the chard has its own layer–it’s not mixed in with the egg. I guess it’s like the apple of apple pie.

Here are photos of the Chard Pie whole and from the side.

Chard Pie

See that chard!

We got this recipe from the Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook, which I reviewed earlier on this blog (click on the title to go to the review). I will definitely cook this again.

Micah’s Yummy Chard Pie

2 Tbs. olive oil

1.5 cups chopped onions

1 Tbs. minced garlic

1 large bunch chard (can substitute spinach or other greens)–stems removed and leaves chopped

6-8 eggs

2 cups milk or half & half (we had half & half on hand from cooking this radicchio recipe, so that’s what I used)

1 tsp salt

2 8-inch deep-dish pie shells (I used the refrigerated kind)

2 cups grated cheese (we used sharp cheddar)

1-2 Tbs chopped dill (we don’t like dill, so we skipped this)

Optional ingredients –anything you would enjoy in an omelet! We added a chopped red pepper, which added a nice sweetness. I added while I sauteed the greens. We also add a cup of chopped ham, which I added after the eggs.

Heat oven to 400 degree. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender (if using other firm vegetables, you might saute them, too). Add chopped greens and cook, stirring often, until they wilt. Turn off heat. Beat eggs, milk, and salt in a bowl. Spread chard mixture in bottom of pie shells. Add cheese. Pour egg mixture over top. Add any optional ingredients and spices of choice. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes–make sure the eggs are firm, not jiggly, in the middle. Makes 16 slices.