skess wrote:Next time, if there is a next time, I would cut back on the sugar; mine came out too sweet, but I only had dark brown sugar in the house so maybe that's why?

Strawberries are a lot sweeter than rhubarb, so if you replaced some of the rhubarb with strawberries but didn't cut down the amount of sugar, that would do it. (If you don't have much experience with rhubarb, you might not know that it's very tart on its own.) Also, if you cut down the total amount of fruit, but kept the original amount of sugar, that would make it sweeter as well. Using the same amount of brown sugar in place of white sugar shouldn't make them sweeter.

I'm on the "B" week and very excited to get the first box now that I've seen what's coming.

So far this season, I've done a rhubarb/strawberry pie (random googled recipe) and made sundaes. For the sundaes, I made rhubarb sauce (water, brown sugar, about a tablespoon of butter), then sliced strawberries on vanilla ice cream. In the past, I've had rhubarb compote (just sugar and water) on yogurt.

I'm so excited for the CSA season to get started!

ronnie_suburban wrote:we made a big salad with the red leaf and romaine lettuces we received in our box. I made a vinaigrette out of xvoo, champagne vinegar, and touches of miso, avocado, honey and dijon mustard. I also finely grated one bulb of the green garlic from our box into into it.

Thanks for the suggestion--I made a rough version of this last night (couldn't find any miso, added some chile-spiced pecans). You were right--tender and delicious.


My rhubarb and strawberry crisp (with some fresh mint thrown in) turned out pretty good.

continuing to intrude on this thread with my non-CSA hauls from the farmers markets:



starting at top and working around clockwise: Blue Marble buttermilk, cream, yogurt, Nichols Farm spinach and radishes, Green Acres fennel, lambs quarters, grey shallots, Genesis Growers carrots, Mick Klug peas, fresh mozzarella from a fantastic WI cheesemaker at the Lincoln Park market, peaches (!) from a farm in southern Indiana, and - since we're nearing the end of the season - strawberries to freeze.

Rough plans for all of this include pea soup made with a fennel-stalk stock using stalks I froze last year, strawberry-buttermilk ice cream, spinach/ lambs-quarter salad with hard cooked egg and bacon, olive oil poached fish served with carrot puree and roasted fennel, radishes with fresh whipped butter, and peaches with juice dripping down my arm and chin..

thaiobsessed wrote:What's everyone doing with their strawberries and rhubarb? (I like msmre's idea but I was thinking more along the lines of a crisp or something)

We've made this Rhubarb-Sour Cream Snack Cake with Walnut Streusel twice and it came out great both times.

I think I'm going to try some kind of basil and green garlic pasta tonight. Any thoughts?

You could use the green garlic tops to flavor the pasta (if you are making your own) and the bottoms is a pesto with the basil.

my weekly haul:



Blue Marble cream, yogurt and milk. Mick Klug blueberries, Green Acres white beets, Kinnikinnick chicory, Nichols garlic, Mick Klug peas, raspberries from somewhere, green beans and peaches from the Lincoln Park market, Nichols favas, Rainier cherries from the same people that had the raspberries, first-dig potatoes from Green Acres, Prairie Fruits farm goat ricotta and little bloom on the prairie, arugula from can't remember, Mint Creek chicken eggs.

Already made oil poached halibut with favas, tiny potatoes, and garlic scapes. Other rough plans include gnudi with peas and butter, arugula-chicory salad, homamde vanilla ice cream with fresh fruit, and who knows what else.

Homegrown Wisconsin Half Share Box 2/Week 3:

I joined the Scotch Hill Farms CSA and am enjoying the produce. It is interesting to compare your box contents to mine. The last 4 weeks have been all about the leafy greens, herbs, and root vegetables. This week, I was delighted to get broccoli , snow & snap peas, and nastursium blossoms.
One week they added goat cheese and the next week homemade soap to supplement the box (presumably due to limited/delayed harvest during the June all rain, no sun period)

-W

I signed up for the Homegrown Wisconsin CSA this year for the second year in row. Last year I was really pleased and felt it was worthwhile. This year I was really disappointed with the quality, quantity and diversity of what was included. I received lots of carrots, celery and cabbage. When I did receive 'good stuff', it was generally in small quantities. Last year I had an abundance of produce which was difficult to use up. This year, I felt like I used up the contents of the box in3-4 days. I'm not sure if it was just a bad year for farmers or if this experience was unique to the CSA. I'm thinking about signing up for the Genesis Growers CSA next year. Anyone have opinions about their particular CSA or know anything about the growing conditions for farms this summer?

Thaiobsessed - I am really glad you posted. I was thinking about joining Homegrown Wisconsin next year -- assumng the variety would be greater with a multi-farm CSA. Seeing the contents upthread I had box-envy, e.g. my Scotch Hill Farm spring deliveries had no strawberries or asparagus and I cried uncle on the rainbow chard because it was in 10 of the first 12 deliveries.

The quality on the other hand was quite good. My only nit: the zucchini was allowed to grow too big.

I didn't think about it when I signed up - but delivering the CSA boxes through a retail store (Provenance) is a brilliant idea to get consistent foot traffic to the store. So convenient and rough on the wallet to also grab a bottle of wine, bread, Neuske's bacon, etc.

I'm not sure whether the grass is greener. Anyone have a(nother) CSA recommendation?

thaiobsessed wrote:I signed up for the Homegrown Wisconsin CSA this year for the second year in row. Last year I was really pleased and felt it was worthwhile. This year I was really disappointed with the quality, quantity and diversity of what was included. I received lots of carrots, celery and cabbage. When I did receive 'good stuff', it was generally in small quantities. Last year I had an abundance of produce which was difficult to use up. This year, I felt like I used up the contents of the box in3-4 days. I'm not sure if it was just a bad year for farmers or if this experience was unique to the CSA. I'm thinking about signing up for the Genesis Growers CSA next year. Anyone have opinions about their particular CSA or know anything about the growing conditions for farms this summer?

I don't know if you've been following the gardening threads, but it has been a horrible year for growing vegetables. Too wet and cold.

teatpuller wrote:

thaiobsessed wrote:I signed up for the Homegrown Wisconsin CSA this year for the second year in row. Last year I was really pleased and felt it was worthwhile. This year I was really disappointed with the quality, quantity and diversity of what was included. I received lots of carrots, celery and cabbage. When I did receive 'good stuff', it was generally in small quantities. Last year I had an abundance of produce which was difficult to use up. This year, I felt like I used up the contents of the box in3-4 days. I'm not sure if it was just a bad year for farmers or if this experience was unique to the CSA. I'm thinking about signing up for the Genesis Growers CSA next year. Anyone have opinions about their particular CSA or know anything about the growing conditions for farms this summer?

I don't know if you've been following the gardening threads, but it has been a horrible year for growing vegetables. Too wet and cold.

And the Homegrown Wisconsin newsletters were very forthright about a lot of the troubles that many of their farmers had this year.

eatchicago wrote:And the Homegrown Wisconsin newsletters were very forthright about a lot of the troubles that many of their farmers had this year

That's true, but they said the same thing last year (and even offered an extra delivery to make up for it).
Also, I feel like I've been getting such great stuff from farmer's markets (Green City, especially, but also Logan and Lincoln Square)--I guess that's where I see a disconnect.
Anyone getting Genesis Growers CSA? I got such great veggies from their stand.

thaiobsessed wrote:Anyone getting Genesis Growers CSA? I got such great veggies from their stand.

My family gets a CSA box (medium share) from Genesis -- we had done summer and fall last year and three-season this year. I prefer the market pick up and doing this from a particular (single) farm, as we have a chance to chat with Vicki, ask questions, etc. For our family of four (two small kids), the medium share is just about perfect most weeks -- we typically cook at least five nights a week and the box requires little supplement for our purposes (I typically supplement with some additional fruits from elsewhere in the market, as the basket tends to be vegetable heavy but meets our vegetable needs except for things we need for specific recipes, which we also supplement from the market -- Genesis or elsewhere). Vicki is very informative and generous; recently when I mentioned during a pick-up how much we had been loving the hot peppers, she filled an additional grocery bag with a ton of poblanos, serranos and jalapenos for us to take home. She also has something worked out with Klug Farms where we were getting certain fruits (apricots, raspberries, blueberries) from Klug during parts of the season with our box. I believe I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum that when I have done the math, we generally end up paying per week about what we would if we bought the same box of goods from open market stock, but I like supporting a single grower and I like being forced to use and eat things I might not otherwise buy on my own. I think the boxes have been a little lighter this year than last on account of a relatively poor growing season, and Vicki had to skip one week in the spring (although with an offer to take a second box or additional market stock for a week later in the season), but to us that is part of sharing in the farm's successes (there were some boxes last summer that were almost too heavy to carry comfortably) and shortcomings, and it probably evens out if you are in the CSA for multiple years (which we have been and probably will be again next year). As I've not done Homegrown Wisconsin or any other CSA, I can't really compare Genesis to the others in terms of quantity or quality (although the quality of Genesis has generally been excellent), but we have been pleased with our Genesis CSA.

Here's a sampling of what we got in a few recent weeks (pasted from the weekly emails she sends to subscribers):

Last week:
Acorn Squash
Romaine speckled lettuce
Red onion
Eggplant
Apples - two varieties
Peppers, Red as welll as some miscellaneous varieties
Cayenne peppers, long skinny that dry easily
Cantaloupe

A few weeks ago:
Nectarines
Peppers - miscellaneous sweet
Peppers - Hot banana - try pickling or freezing hot peppers for winter use
Peppers - Jalapenos - same as above or try one with your spaghetti squash
Eggplant - tender and non-bitter
Red leaf lettuce - small but flavorful
Tomatoes - basket of cherries and larger tomatoes - We are slowly getting tomatoes, but many are split and thus I have to discard them.
Kale

A few weeks before that:
Gold zucchini
Cantaloupe
Mixed pepper basket - all hot except for the sweet chocolate - Save hot peppers for winter use by chopping and freezing. No need to blanch. You can also pickle the hot guys for later use - both the pepper or the juice for spicing up a salad dressing.
Small finger size green = Serrano (a few folks received a little round red pepper instead - a Cherry Bomb)
Larger green - Jalapeno
Yellow - hot banana
Brownish red - Sweet Chocolate
Heirloom cucumber - round yellow is a lemon cuke; long yellow or rust is a Poona Khera - you got one or the other
Sweet corn
Celery - we clipped out some stalks if they had insect damage
Swiss chard
Apples
Japanese Eggplant
Cherry tomatoes

Matt, that is very informative. I like the idea of getting a little fruit in the box. We have Angelic Organics and here is what we got last week:
Copied from their farm blog (http://web.me.com/angelicorganics/farmb ... _Info.html)

BRASSICAS
◆ Broccoli (we got three HUGE heads of broccoli)
◆ Kohlrabi *

ROOTS
◆ Potatoes
◆ Radishes - topped & bagged w/ lettuce

SALAD GREENS
◆ Lettuce - Two Star, Oscarde, &/or Nevada

COOKING GREENS
◆ Toscano Kale
◆ Spinach

HERBS
◆ Parsley

FRUITING CROPS
◆ Winter Squash - Acorn &/or Delicata
◆ Sweet Peppers
◆ Eggplant - unlikely (they said-- we did get some)

ALLIUMS
◆ Garlic
◆ Onion(s)
◆ Leek(s)

I have been very happy with the quality of produce and we do get lots. I don't go for the "Farmer John" cult of personality, but the veg is good.

Jen

I agree with Matt - I like the idea of investing in a single farm. Otherwise, it sort of defeats the purpose of a CSA for me (why not go to the farmer's market then?). Also, I like my vegetables to "feel" like they came from a farm and have dirt on them; I don't want to feel like someone went to the store or farmer's market and assembled this box for me. I've done Angelic Organics for 5 years and have been happy although I've noticed (for the reasons cited above) that my yields were lower this year. I've also noted less variety than prior years (no sunchokes, for instance, lesser variety of peppers). I don't pay a whole lot attention to the biodynamics/Rudolf Steiner schtick except as a mild source of amusement at worst, and a testament to their love of the land, at best. They also have open houses where you can visit the farm and meet the crew.

FWIW, my office neighbor subscribes to Genesis and she's happy with them as well.

We compost through The Urban Canopy. They usually run a summer CSA, which we've never done. (They call it LUCSA: Local Unified Community Supported Agriculture.) In this time of sheltering at home, they have started offering a weekly grocery delivery of local and some non-local items. The price was $60 or $40 -- your choice based on your financial situation. There are options to add other items (meat, eggs, bread, etc.) for an additional cost. The order form comes out on Friday and are received until they reach capacity. Deliveries then start Wednesday afternoon through Friday. We ordered a box of produce and added a Pleasant House Bakery kale/mushroom pie and River Valley Ranch granola. Our box contents and purveyers are listed below. Overall, we were happy with the process and cost (we selected $60.) Now I have to figure out what to do with the parsnips, one of my least liked vegetables...

http://www.theurbancanopy.org/

Parsnips - Nichols Farm
Onions - Nichols Farm
Yukon Gold Potatoes - Nichols Farm
Carrots - Genesis Growers
Spinach/Chard - Windy City Harvest, Cedillo's Fresh Produce, Down on the Farm
Lettuce - Backyard Fresh, Windy City Harvest
Black Beans - Breslin Farm
Tomatoes - Mighty Vine
Portobello Mushrooms - River Valley Ranch
Pears - Marano's*
Oranges/Mandarins - Marano's
Peppers - Marano's
Avocado - Marano's
*Marano's produce is all non-local but IS certified organic

The GP wrote: Now I have to figure out what to do with the parsnips, one of my least liked vegetables...

I wish we were closer. Parsnips are a favorite of mine.

The GP wrote:We compost through The Urban Canopy. They usually run a summer CSA, which we've never done. (They call it LUCSA: Local Unified Community Supported Agriculture.) In this time of sheltering at home, they have started offering a weekly grocery delivery of local and some non-local items. The price was $60 or $40 -- your choice based on your financial situation. There are options to add other items (meat, eggs, bread, etc.) for an additional cost. The order form comes out on Friday and are received until they reach capacity. Deliveries then start Wednesday afternoon through Friday. We ordered a box of produce and added a Pleasant House Bakery kale/mushroom pie and River Valley Ranch granola. Our box contents and purveyers are listed below. Overall, we were happy with the process and cost (we selected $60.) Now I have to figure out what to do with the parsnips, one of my least liked vegetables...

http://www.theurbancanopy.org/

Parsnips - Nichols Farm
Onions - Nichols Farm
Yukon Gold Potatoes - Nichols Farm
Carrots - Genesis Growers
Spinach/Chard - Windy City Harvest, Cedillo's Fresh Produce, Down on the Farm
Lettuce - Backyard Fresh, Windy City Harvest
Black Beans - Breslin Farm
Tomatoes - Mighty Vine
Portobello Mushrooms - River Valley Ranch
Pears - Marano's*
Oranges/Mandarins - Marano's
Peppers - Marano's
Avocado - Marano's
*Marano's produce is all non-local but IS certified organic

I make oven or grilled “french fries” with parsnips. McD’s type cut is best—could mix right in with one of the potatoes. I season generously—good paprika, granulated garlic, white pepper, kosher salt. Oil up the pan, bake on 400, toss halfway thru. Usually takes about 10 mins. Can be done on a pan on the grill as well. I bet you like them a lot better!

boudreaulicious wrote:I make oven or grilled “french fries” with parsnips. McD’s type cut is best—could mix right in with one of the potatoes. I season generously—good paprika, granulated garlic, white pepper, kosher salt. Oil up the pan, bake on 400, toss halfway thru. Usually takes about 10 mins. Can be done on a pan on the grill as well. I bet you like them a lot better!

That does sound good. I was going to layer some in the Potatoes Anna that will accompany the Smoking Goose ham for dinner today.

We did a second LUCSA box and with add-ons of bread (wheat round from Middle Brow) and a dozen eggs from Finn's. Photo for posterity. I'm happy with this service. I feel like we're helping the different providers and it keeps us out of a grocery store for another day.



Ramps - Micky Klug, Michigan
Potatoes - Nichols, Illinois
Yellow Onions, Nichols, Illinois
Mushrooms - River Valley Ranch, WI or Windy City Mushrooms, Chicago
Tomatoes - MightyVine, Illinois
Spinach - Windy City Harvest, Chicago & Cedillo Produce, Chicago
Lettuce Mix - Backyard Fresh, Chicago or Arugula - Windy City Harvest or Mustard Greens - Windy City Harvest
Carrots - Genesis Growers, Illinois
Dried Black Beans - Breslin Farm, Illinois
Pears - Marano's
Zucchini - Marano's
Cucumbers - Marano's
Apples - Marano's
Raspberries - Marano's