Posts Tagged ‘Veggies’

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.

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.

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.

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.

So far, our experience with the CSA is helping us make the exact changes we hope to make.  In the book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan promotes the manta: “Eat food, less of it, mostly plants.”  (I need to tattoo this to my forehead to force myself to follow it!)  Our CSA deliveries have definitely increase our plant eating.  Our first two harvests included mostly greens, so we’ve eaten a lot of salad.  Before the CSA, we would eat salad maybe once a month.  Lately, we’re averaged at least three times a week.  This week, I’ve made fajita salad and taco salad.  We’ve also had a simple green salad.

When we got this week’s CSA delivery, my oldest son asked, “I wonder if there’s any ruby-red chard in there.”  Ha!  How many eight-year-old boys know what ruby-red chard is?  We watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and were shocked by the class of kids who couldn’t even identify common veggies, so I was thrilled my boy remembered ruby-red chard.  Yay!!  Unfortunately, he liked the looks more than the taste (it IS a beautiful veggie with deep red veins flowing through the dark green leaves–which even I didn’t know until last week).  To answer his question, no ruby-red this week.  Instead, Swiss Chard, with leaves so gigantic they resemble elephant leaves.  It look so freakin’ healthy you just knew it had to be packed with nutrients!  On tap for tomorrow, sauteed chard.  Last week, the sauteed kale wasn’t a big hit, but I think the chard might be less bitter.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Here are some pics of our ruby-red and Swiss chard.

Corn on the cob is making its preview appearance on the grocery store shelves.  No, it’s not local, but I can’t help but grab a few ears.  When sweet corn is juicy and sweet (aided by a tablespoon of sugar added to the boiling water), you can’t eat it without making some satisfied grunts.  I can’t wait for the local stuff to become the star of the show!

YUM!

We were able to pick up our first ‘green bag special’ today.  We were excited to officially be starting our journey.  The CSA had planned a bonfire and potluck, but the April May showers drowned out that plan, so members were invited to the farm to pick up their shares.  Despite the less-than-stellar weather, we enjoyed the beautiful view from the farm.  We were able to see the raised beds, already overflowing with the plants that will eventually bear dozens of different vegetables.  Today’s share included several types of lettuces and salad greens, as well as green onions and radishes.

We brought home our healthy haul and proceeded to investigate.  My oldest son jumped right in to help clean.  I was pleased to see him so eager to be involved.  We had towels lined up along all of the counters, so the washed leaves could dry (see below).  Though we have a half share of vegetables, it felt like a good amount.  We could make two huge salads, at least.

Remember my references to mystery veggies?  Well, we had some mysteries on our hands tonight.  Luckily, a couple of friends had joined the same CSA, and we were able to confer on Facebook.  Google Images was also handy tool.  Several times tonight I googled things like “green leaves, red veins” and “green leaves, purple veins.”  Thank goodness for Google!

After washing all that produce, we were ready to eat.  I was partially interested in taking on this change in our lives in order to inspire my sons to eat more healthful foods, and tonight, I couldn’t have been prouder.  After volunteering to clean the vegetables, my oldest son continued to jabber about the bounty.  He was very interested in learning about each green leaf and willingly sampled them.  We decided upon a salad for dinner, starting simply with our first harvest.

While preparing the salad, my oldest even recommended a type of salad dressing he enjoyed: Honey French.  Our friend Google led us to a recipe, and we created homemade salad dressing to accompany our locally-grown foods…yee!

The salad was delicious.  You cannot compare the pale, watery lettuce in bagged salads to what we ate.  Our salad had a multitude of interesting flavors.  Yum!
So, overall, I’m feeling pretty good right now.  We ate well, we have a drawer full of greens for the rest of the week, and we are still excited about the weeks to come.

What about our youngest son, the picky one, you might ask?  Well, he was at his grandma’s house tonight, enjoying a ham sandwich.  He’ll get to participate in the next green haul.

Look! He ate green things!

To encourage all members of the household to try out our many veggies this summer, I’m planning to create a bingo board with names of various vegetables filling the boxes.  We’ll mark off a square each time we try something on the board.  First person to hit bingo gets to make plans for a family outing to places he/she wants to visit.  Hopefully, this will make the mysterious veggies more appealing and will make the whole adventure more fun for the kids.

My youngest is a very picky eater.  He eats these things: cheese, bread, peanut butter and jelly, apples, cereal, bananas, graham crackers, chicken nuggets, sausage, pancakes, chocolate milk, and apple juice.  And that’s about it.  Literally.  Yes, you are reading that correctly, not a single vegetable on the list.  He doesn’t just not like vegetables, not a single one has passed through his lips his entire life (edited to clarify: I was a good mama and fed him vegetables when he was eating the mushed-up kind.  Somehow, it trailed off after that as he became picky).

How did we get here?  I don’t know exactly.  If he were our first child, we would have tried harder to encourage him to eat a wider variety of foods.  However, he is the blessed second child.  The one who gets fewer photos in the baby book and less stifling attentive parents.  With two young boys and two full-time jobs, we felt lucky to get dinner on the table with the four of us around it, so we weren’t all that into dinner time battles over food.

It didn’t seem to be a big deal to give our toddler a piece of cheese or bread instead of a dinner plate, but somehow that toddler turned into a pre-kindergartner in a blink of an eye.  In the meanwhile, he developed a very limited palate.

Right now, he thinks vegetable is a bad word.  Maybe a little vegetable bingo will entice him.