Michael, I'll echo LAZ's fish-stuffing idea. Last week my wife, in dire need of a cookbook, found a budget Moroccan book at Borders, Modern Moroccan by Ghillie Basan. A recipe in it has me salvitating for grape leaves myself. You marinate fish in chermoula, standard Moroccan fish sauce (cilantro, garlic, lemon, olive oil and cumin); wrap it in grape leaves (the recipe calls for preserved but what the hey, just soak yours) and grill. You then serve with a dipping sauce of vinegar, sugar, onions, garlic, grated fresh ginger, chiles, cilantro and mint.

As to the cabbage: we had Asian night at the Bungalow last night, and one of the dishes was stir fried cabbage with dried chiles and ginger from Hot Sour Salty Sweet. We used a savoy cabbage, but I cannot see why napa would not work. The dish seemed easy enough, of course my wife made it...You begin by frying a bit of bacon (or other pork product) in a wok, adding dried chiles, star anise and ginger to the oil. After that has been infused, you stir fry the cabbage for a few minutes to wilt. Finish with a dash of soy.

I made zucchini bread two nights in a row from this recipe and scooped vanilla ice cream over it while the bread was still warm. My favorite desserts include that hot/cold combo, so this was a great treat. And I still have another zucchini left over.

We're going to tackle the cabbage tonight, so I'm looking for more ideas.

Lindsay

We threw the zucchini on the grill last night as a side to our grilled swordfish. I also added some sugar snap peas to the ginger rice (which was a pleasant crunchy, sweet addition to the zing of the ginger). I meant to save some zucchini to try a variation of the zucchini appetizer I adore at Spacca Napoli. Zucchini with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and mint. So simple. So tasty. Maybe next time!

Tonight I'm going to tackle the rest of the sugar snap peas. I bought a whole bag full from Nichol's at the Evanston farmers market last week and now we're looking to store some away. I blanched and froze some, but my boyfriend suggested pickling the rest. So tonight I'll venture into pickling the sugar snap peas.

Also looking forward to using those grape leaves and appreciated everyone's suggestions!

-Sara

I have a question concerning the economics of CSA's. I am doing the Sandhill farms in Grayslake CSA share, and the cost comes to around $32 per week. I have only received 1 week so far so I cant really comment on the quality, though that 1 week was very good. My concern is the quantity. I thought that the idea behind CSA's was that we prepay, and then share in the harvest. If the weather is bad, we might not get much, but in a decent year we should get good value for our investment. The portion that i received looked similar to what is pictured in this thread, and I dont expect any more in the prime of the harvest because they use the same size box all year round. I think that I could go to the farmers market and buy this amount for less than the $32 I am spending per week. I was expecting to get a lot more produce from the CSA. I thought that I was running the risk that 1 week in might be 25 pounds of spinach, but that barring a drought I would get a lot to cook with. Instead it looks like lots of fairly small portions (at least for a family of 5) of a large variety of things.....sort of like I went shopping at a higher quality, more variety Whole Foods. This is the opposite of what I was expecting.
Were my expectations unrealistic, or has something in the CSA world changed?

Thanks, Will

WillG,

Since this is my first ever CSA subscription, I can't say if anything has changed, but I can give you my value perceptions. If you subtract the eggs, my deliveries are $32.50 each. (If I went for the full 20 deliveries, it would drop to $28.75). A friend of mine looked at the photo of my last batch and thought that I was not getting my money's worth. I priced things out individually at the Farmer's Market (ballpark-ing it for items that didn't exist there) and I came within $2. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth, although saving money isn't one of my motivations for buying into a CSA. Yes, it would be nice if everything came in noticeably cheaper than the farmer's market since I'm a guaranteed weekly customer and they don't have to set up and sell it all day, but then again, organizing a CSA with dozens of drop-off points, hundreds of customers, and a weekly newsletter is probably a full-time job for someone.

*****************************

In other news, I cooked this weeks collard greens--my first time ever cooking collards. I didn't have a ham hock, but bacon in the pot worked quite nicely. The collards were great with some chopped sweet onion and a little cider vinegar.

Here they are along side cornmeal-crusted, pan-fried chicken thighs and some broiled sweet onions:



Best,
Michael

Michael - that dinner looks wonderful! I really need to get in the habit of taking photos.

We had the lacinato kale, and I steamed it up this evening, then sauteed some bacon (from my meat CSA), onion and garlic, then tossed in the kale, and served that over brown rice, and served with some lamb kebabs. Absolutely delicious.

Will, I definitely feel like I'm getting my money's worth with the CSA - I know we're a little down on volume right now due to the storms - that's part of the risk, but I'm okay with that, and also know that the farmers are still planting, and we'll get more bounty later in the season, to make up for the weather issues we've had. The quality is impeccable, and I'm really in this to have a greater connection to the people who grow my food, as well as experience a wider variety of produce than I would otherwise buy for our household. Between the weekly veggie CSA and the monthly meat CSA, I'm really only hitting the grocery for dry goods, and the farmer's market for cheese and extra fruits. Works well for our two-person household.

Here is a shot of my second delivery:


2lbs ground beef, 1lb Andouile Sausage, 1 lb beef stew meat, asparagus, strawberries, lettuce, garlic scapes, radishes, dried nettles.



Broken down per delivery my CSA is $64.58 per delivery. So far I have not received that much per delivery. However once growing season is at it's peak I think I will be getting much over that, and it will be worth a lot more than that per delivery and it will be up to me to use it, freeze it, or can it so that it can be useful in the future and fully get my monies worth. As I have been told that from my farmer's, I will be getting bigger boxes when the peak season kicks in. I also though, am not doing this just to try and get cheap food. I'm very happy to be supporting a local farmer and building a friendship with that farmer.

Like everyone else, the quality has been awesome, and I do agree that all the storms have probably had an effect on the efforts so far.

Also, here is a picture of a meal from my first delivery that includes a lot of the stuff. Grassfed ground beef burgers, grilled asparagus, and spinach are all from the CSA.

To address the economics of a CSA, from WillG's post, I would say that it's similar to a Farmer's Market in value. Typically, the vegetable farmer, farming over 12 acres of land, will bring home an average of $11-12/hour for their hard work at the end of the season (per a study by the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems; UW Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences 2/06). The farmers that offer a CSA have a little higher return. The farmers need CSAs and farmer's markets to stay in business.

The price of food is deceiving though. In America, we can go to a big box grocer and get very cheap produce but the quality of that produce is typically poor. I believe I read somewhere that the average American spends far less for food than our European counterparts.

The truth is that growing food to yield a high quality product isn't cheap but it's better for you and the health of your family. Participating in Farmer's Markets or CSAs helps those local farmers provide us with good produce and meat.

If you really want to take that next step, you can start growing your own for a more economical option. I've been doing it so far this year and have more food than I can eat - I'm giving it away. I'm hooked and I would hope more people look at this option in the future...

WillG wrote:I have a question concerning the economics of CSA's. I am doing the Sandhill farms in Grayslake CSA share, and the cost comes to around $32 per week. I have only received 1 week so far so I cant really comment on the quality, though that 1 week was very good. My concern is the quantity. I thought that the idea behind CSA's was that we prepay, and then share in the harvest. If the weather is bad, we might not get much, but in a decent year we should get good value for our investment. The portion that i received looked similar to what is pictured in this thread, and I don't expect any more in the prime of the harvest because they use the same size box all year round. I think that I could go to the farmers market and buy this amount for less than the $32 I am spending per week. I was expecting to get a lot more produce from the CSA. I thought that I was running the risk that 1 week in might be 25 pounds of spinach, but that barring a drought I would get a lot to cook with. Instead it looks like lots of fairly small portions (at least for a family of 5) of a large variety of things.....sort of like I went shopping at a higher quality, more variety Whole Foods. This is the opposite of what I was expecting.
Were my expectations unrealistic, or has something in the CSA world changed?

Thanks, Will

I've made this point before, but I believe it is worth making again. I am, like you, somewhat hazy on whether a CSA is a "good buy". To me, however, the ancillary benefits of the CSA make up for whatever shortfall may exist in the per week price.

The biggest advantage of subscribing to a summer or "main" season CSA is that you then get on track to participate in other season CSAs, spring and fall. These CSAs are much more limited, but if you want to maintain your supply of local food or jump start the season, they are crucial. Most CSAs with other season programs either restrict subscriptions to existing members or give priority to existing members.

The next reason for a membership, I believe, is the contact and relationship with the farmer. Me, I relish the chance each year to visit Farmer Vicki's farm. This year we learned a lot about her new organic fertilizer program and saw her expanded poultry operations. If the day was not good enough, I got to bring home a door prize of about 50 freshly picked zucchini flowers. A CSA membership gives you the chance to be part of the farm.

Being part of the farm has other advantages. Somewhat to my wife's chagrin (who hates when I mess with other people's business, always bringing up Jerry Seinfeld's ill-fated efforts to help Baboo), I've helped talk Vicki into a fall crop of iceberg lettuce. That kinda line to the farmer comes from CSA-ship.

I think it also goes without saying, as this thread has shown, that being in a CSA forces you to eat more than you might, but this is a good thing too. It ties you into your local food 'cause you already have it and paid for it, and it forces you to eat stuff, say collard greens, that you may not have tried.

So yeah, on a purely cost basis, I think there are issues, but overall, I think other benefits of the CSA overcome those issues.

I dont want to give the impression that I feel ripped off. I am happy that I am doing the CSA, I just think that I might be better off, while doing as much good for the farmer, and perhaps having a more personal relationship, by buying at the farmers market. My surprise is that instead of having to be creative about how to use 5 pounds of something before it goes bad, I am trying to figure out how to combine chard, kale and garlic greens to have enough to put on 5 plates. Obviously this may change as the season progresses, and I guess one of the best things about the CSA is waiting to see what arrives next.

-Will

From my second delivery:

eatchicago wrote:--A few stalks of rhubarb (I imagine that this is the last of the crop)

The rhubarb wasn't on the CSA newsletter, which lead me to believe that I just got lucky and they threw in the little bit of rhubarb that they had left in some of the boxes.

But what to do with about a 1/2 lb. of rhubarb? Certainly not enough for my favorite application (crisp, pie, or cobbler). So, I just chopped it and cooked it down for five minutes with some sugar and water to make a quickie compote.

I had a little of it the other night with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but my best moment of inspiration came last night while I was cooking dinner. It made a perfect side/condiment for thin pan-fried pork chops.

Farewell, rhubarb season. See you next year.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:From my second delivery:

eatchicago wrote:--A few stalks of rhubarb (I imagine that this is the last of the crop)

The rhubarb wasn't on the CSA newsletter, which lead me to believe that I just got lucky and they threw in the little bit of rhubarb that they had left in some of the boxes.

But what to do with about a 1/2 lb. of rhubarb? Certainly not enough for my favorite application (crisp, pie, or cobbler). So, I just chopped it and cooked it down for five minutes with some sugar and water to make a quickie compote.

I had a little of it the other night with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but my best moment of inspiration came last night while I was cooking dinner. It made a perfect side/condiment for thin pan-fried pork chops.

Farewell, rhubarb season. See you next year.

Best,
Michael

Nice work, Michael.

With only small quantities on hand, I like to use rhubarb as a flavoring agent, a la lemon peel, to add a little acid punch or balance to a dish. I shave it into thin strips with a vegetable peeler, then blanch for 30 seconds and shock in an ice bath. Finely chopped, this works nicely anywhere you might use lemon peel. Recently, I've used this form of rhubarb successfully:
- as a garnish to balance a rich parmesan risotto
- with shrimp sauteed with white wine and served over linguini
- in place of the lemon peel in a traditional gremolata (chopped garlic, parsley, rhubarb) served with ossobuco

Week 3's delivery: Mini onions, strawberries, rhubarb, zucchini, colossal cucumbers, sugar peas, romaine, mustard greens (?), black radishes, beets/turnips, radish micro-greens, a dozen eggs and 1/2# winter raw cheddar and 1# pepper cheddar.

I had an excess of zucchini, so I made some zucchini bread. Quite a tasty recipe too, but I didn't use the optional fruit/chocolate. Just walnuts.

Is anyone subscribing to Erehwon? They're featured in a New York Times article. I was struck by the fact that besides getting money out of their shareholders, they're also getting labor:

Shareholders are not required to work the fields, but they can if they want, and many do.

Mr. Trisko said his family knows that without his volunteer labor and agreement to share in the financial risk of raising crops, the small organic farm might not survive.

"It’s very hard for them to make ends meet,” he said, “so I decided to go out and help. We harvest, water, pull weeds, whatever they need doing."

How common is that?

And why would you fork over hundreds of dollars and do the weeding at somebody else's farm, when you could just grow your own vegetables?

Well, as long as eatchicago has mysteriously given Mike G his veggies, I figured I'd second petermavrik's picture of this week's haul



Clockwise from the top that's kohlarabi, knob onions, two very large cucumbers (more on these elsewhere), sugar snaps, zucchini resting on bok choy, black raspberries, microgreens, baby beets and a beautiful reddish-tinged head of lettuce.

edited to correct a lazy error

Your hauls are kind of making me wonder where some of my vegetables might be.

Delivery #3, large delay on getting the picture up:



This week: Pea pods, garlic scapes, strawberries (last of), kohlrabi, kale (way back), 4 heads of lettuce (three types), dill, breakfast pork sausage, ground beef, pork chops, round steak.

The lettuces are really great. So much flavor compared to anything from the store. Pea pods were good too. The breakfast sausage was amazing, some of the best I have ever had. I just formed it into patties and fried it in a pan.

Beautiful pics this week! Brandon - part of the reason I like the Home Grown Wisconsin CSA is that its a co-op of about 20 farms, so we get a LOT of variety, and when there's as much flooding as there's been this year, we still get a very nice box each week.

I'm going to roast up the beets to go with some grilled lamb tonight, and I'm especially looking forward to sauteeing up the beet greens - they're almost my favorite part!

Delivery #4:



Chuck arm roast, lamb shoulder steaks, kohlrabi, garlic, green onions, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, shelling peas, raspberries, a cucumber and lemon basil.

Homegrown Wisconsin Delivery #4 of 10

Note: My delivery #3 was picked up by the Mike G family while we were busy elsewhere and not posted about here. Also, Homegrown Wisconsin delayed this delivery by two weeks due to crop recovery needs. They did not skip a delivery, but rather took a break in the middle due to this year's weather impact on the farms.

This was quite a heavy haul this week, with a lot of bang for the buck:



From left to right:
4 ears of sweet corn
Cucumber (Diva variety?)
2 heads of garlic
3 green bell peppers
Lacinato kale
Red bottle onions
Big bag of carrots
Eggplant
Kohlrabi
Cauliflower
New potatoes
Small watermelon
Eggs

Best,
Michael

The melon from delivery above has been opened:



Crisp and extremely tender flesh and rind. Very juicy and moderately sweet.

Best,
Michael

This was delivery #5:



Kale, a bunch of lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, kohlrabi, raspberries, giant pork chops,stew meat, ground beef, banana pepper, garlic (the garlic has been outstanding).

Cooking report from delivery #4:

When you're cooking with quality ingredients, it's easy to make good food with minimal thought or effort.

Tonight's dinner was kohlrabi-corn chowder with ingredients mainly from delivery #4. Here's my loose recipe:

Ahead of time: roast ears of corn and remove kernels. I had two ears of corn roasted in the fridge from the day before.

--Dice kohlrabi, a small onion, add salt, white pepper, and sautee in olive oil until slightly softened (about 12 minutes).

--Cover with chicken stock (or veggie stock or even water. I ran short on homemade stock and added water.), add a bay leaf, and simmer for about 20-30 minutes until kohlrabi is soft. In this case, I subscribe to the Ruhlman rule: "if you don't have homemade chicken stock, use water". He applies this rule absolutely, I apply it more selectively. When making soup, I use this rule.

--Remove bay leaf and hit it with a stick blender. Do not completely puree but break down about half the kohlrabi, leaving some chunks.

--Add milk to thin it out to desired thickness, add corn kernels, and bring back up to a simmer. At the simmer point I tasted it and added salt, white pepper, and a little local honey (which helped bring out the sweetness of the corn). I let it simmer for a few minutes longer and served.

--I garnished with some tiny grape tomatoes that I found at the farmer's market, cut in quarters, and a few drops of apple cider vinegar per bowl.

The chowder turned out great and we ate it along side some delicious mushroom-sauerkraut pierogi from
Delightful Pastries (Thanks, Dobra, for setting up a booth at small farmer's markets like Independence Park!)

Best,
Michael

PS
I did not photograph the chowder since it was milky, off-white. The exact same color as our soup bowls. Not an attractive photo.

Thanks for the kohlrabi recipe - that GIANT veg has been staring me in the face everytime I open the fridge, and I haven't figured out what to do with it...and your soup sounds like a very fine solution! Thanks!

And I have to say that the carrots in the last two weeks have been spectacular! I roasted up a few with potatoes/herbs, olive oil...but then discovered as I was chopping that they were really too tasty for roasting. So, I've scrubbed them, and chopped them up for general munching, and we cannot keep our hands out of the bag!

Jenn_in_RoPa wrote:And I have to say that the carrots in the last two weeks have been spectacular! I roasted up a few with potatoes/herbs, olive oil...but then discovered as I was chopping that they were really too tasty for roasting. So, I've scrubbed them, and chopped them up for general munching, and we cannot keep our hands out of the bag!

You could very easily add a couple diced carrots to the soup along with the kohlrabi. Enjoy!

Best,
Michael

Jenn_in_RoPa wrote:And I have to say that the carrots in the last two weeks have been spectacular! I roasted up a few with potatoes/herbs, olive oil...but then discovered as I was chopping that they were really too tasty for roasting. So, I've scrubbed them, and chopped them up for general munching, and we cannot keep our hands out of the bag!

Jenn,

I enjoy raw kohlrabi, just cut away the tough outer layer and slice for eating out of hand or as a chip to use for dips. Though Michael's kohlrabi soups sounds delicious, I might even make it for dinner this evening.

Speaking of dips and kohlrabi, I was reminded of a simple delicious dip Jazzfood made for a party. I thought he used kohlrabi, but in reading my notes it was thin disks of rutabaga, either or both would work.

Sardine Mousse
Jazzfood

Sardine, can in olive oil
Block of cream cheese 8-oz
Blend in food processor
Dust with Chives

Serve with thin sliced rutabaga, sliced peppers, diakon, belgin endive, crackers, bread.

Note: I've made Jazzfoods dip a few times always adding a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and shot of hot sauce.

Enjoy,
Gary

Kohlrabi and Carrots is a great combination. Sautéed on the stove top with some butter, salt, pepper, and dill the two of them make a great side dish.

That chowder does sound really nice though.

Here is delivery #6:


There were more potatoes than that, but I only needed a few for the picture. The T-Bone steak (to the left) was a solid 1lb, with some poatoes and swiss chard it was enough for the wife and I to share.

I have been enjoying my the CSA a lot this year, but am undecided on what I will do for next year. My farm offers a meat share, meat and fruit, and now I think a meat and bread share. I might just go with meat and bred, because I love to go to the Farmer's Market and often find myself with abit more produce than I need.

Brandon, I am increasingly jealous that your CSA includes meat.

Here's Homegrown Wisconsin: Delivery #5 of 10



Starting from the top and moving clockwise:

A variety of tomatoes (according to the newsletter: green, red slicing, saladette, red paste)
Italian romano beans (big bag)
Yellow summer squash
White onions
Red batavian lettuce
Banana pepper
Japanese cucumber
Beets
Eggs
Crimini mushrooms
Honey bear (from Mt. Horeb, WI)
Basil
Green peppers (center)

The only thing that's really new to me are the romano beans. The newsletter doesn't have a recipe. Any suggestions?

Best,
Michael

More CSA/Farmer's Market Cookery:

Shrimp/Corn/Potato/Tomato Hash

Ok, so there's nothing local about the shrimp, but at least it's from the US and not imported from Thailand. It was in my freezer and needed cooking.

New gold potatoes, onion, young garlic, roasted corn from the HGW CSA. Grape tomatoes from the Independence Park farmer's market. Topped with a fried egg and basil chiffonade from the CSA.



Recipe? Cut potatoes small, cook in olive oil in a skillet. When they're about 2/3rds done, add pre-roasted corn, whole grape tomatoes, julienned onion, minced garlic, a little more oil, salt and pepper. When everything looks about done, add shrimp. While shrimp starts to cook (this takes about 90 seconds) start frying an egg in another pan. Plate the hash just BEFORE the shrimp looks done and top with the egg just BEFORE the egg looks done. Top with fleur de sel and basil. (Salt is also not local).

Paired with Three Floyd's Gumballhead wheat beer.

Best,
Michael

great looking meal. particularly gorgeous egg. nicely done!

Kennyz wrote:great looking meal. particularly gorgeous egg. nicely done!

Yes, nicely done, I'm not sure I would have thought to pair an egg with shrimp and hash, but looking at the nicely setup plate it makes perfect sense.