I want to take a minute to celebrate you! The home cook! I want to celebrate your daily practice of preparing nourishing food for your families using fresh, local, organic vegetables. Your decision to source your vegetables from an organic vegetable CSA farm is applaudable and has far-reaching effects that go beyond your kitchen. Your not only supporting a small scale diversified organic family farm, but your putting in serious time and dedication to wash, process, sautee, blender, bake and steam all of these veggies. Bravo!
I believe that the creative energy your putting into these veggies also supports your community. Your showing your children, your partner, and your community that home-cooked meals matter and are worth your time and energy. Your showing your community that the source of your food matters when you choose to buy it from a farm that practices stewardship and a respectful relationship to the land, water and an a balanced ecosystem. Your proving to yourself that even though your busy, you know you have time for what is important for your body and your mealtime routines.
I have three small children myself and I know they love it when mom is in the kitchen. My children feel loved by me when I’m in the kitchen creating aromas and flavors that create a nostalgia that lasts a lifetime for them. They bob in and out of the kitchen, sometimes offering to help chop and peel and stir whatever is in the pan. They nibble at my diced cucumbers and carrots. They show excitement for the expectant meal that nourishes not only their bellies, but their hearts as well. They see how busy I am, but they also see how important it is to me that we eat home-cooked meals prepared with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
I love to think of you all out their with your meal plans. I think of you all in your kitchens chopping and dicing. I imagine the hundreds of meals and salads and soups and casseroles and fritattas made with all of these nourishing greens. I wonder what dishes excite you. I wonder if your kitchen is as messy as mine. I wonder how you pull it off, because every day at our house it feels almost like a miracle that these veggie-loaded meals make it onto plates and into tummies amidst the chaos of farm life. I wonder if your fancy in your plating or do you have guests over to share your veggies with and do you brag to them about your CSA boxes?
You aught to be bragging! I’m so proud of you! Especially in an age of convenience and sound bites and flashing screens and dinging phones and deadlines, who has time for cooking? But then again, who doesn’t have time for cooking? If the home cooked meals go away, there is so much else that is lost. Not just the calories and the food, but the shared meals with families. The time spent together cleaning up the mess, washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, straightening the chairs. The time you get to yourself with a glass of wine and your veggies and a cutting board and your playlist. The meditative, slow cooked meal is important, by golly and we all must rally to save it!
Celery- Gorgeous Celery by my standards! I have to tell you that local celery is difficult to grow! It’s also much different than store-bought celery which mostly comes out of California. Local celery is generally much greener and has a stronger celery flavor. We leave much of their greens on for you to use in your stocks, soups, or juice them up if you’re a juicing person! Local celery generally is less succulent and juicy than Cali celery which is heavily irrigated. We do our best on this unusual local item and are happy to share it with you today!
Red or Green Cabbage- Most members received a green cabbage this week. I hope you’re not cabbaged out yet. We had one more succession that was ready to be harvested. I hope you got the color you love most!
Onion- We’re very happy to be sharing full sized white onions with you this week!
Beets- These are the first of our field beets for this season. Will store best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Cucumbers- 2-3 cucumbers per member this week. We have another succession of cucumbers coming on that will be here next week. Did you know that cucumbers prefer a 50 degree storage temp? A fridge is too cold and the countertop is too warm, so we recommend eating them up so you don’t have to worry about storing them!
Zucchini and Summer Squash- 3-4 per member. Also prefers 50 degree storage, but they don’t last long at our house. We find ways to sneak them into to just about everything.
Swiss Chard– Swiss Chard is in the same family as spinach, so we wilted down their greens and made our favorite spinach stuffed shells recipe. The stems of swiss chard add a nice veggie crunch to any stir fry or frittata.
Green Leaf Lettuce- We’re thrilled to still be offering lettuce in the heat of the summer here. For your sandwiches, tacos, salads and however else you eat your lettuce!
Broccoli or Cauliflower- Most members received a broccoli this week. We also filled in with cauliflower for those who did not get broccoli. Broccoli prefers to stay very cold. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Garlic- This is the Chesnook variety which is a purple stripe hardneck variety. We love that it has large cloves mixed. Fresh garlic like this will have a thicker membrane around each clove. It isn’t fully “cured” which is why we are giving it with some of it’s stem still attached. Fresh garlic is fine on the countertop until the new year. It may start to sprout after the new year in a warm kitchen. For long term storage garlic prefers “cold, dark and dry” like the fridge.
Next Week’s Best Guess: Celery, Cucumbers, Zucchini,Summer Squash, Onion, Garlic, lettuce, watermelons, sweet corn (hopefully!), cherry tomatoes and or asian eggplant?, carrots, maybe broccoli.
Recipes
Swiss Chard and Onion Fritatta from Williams Sonoma
Easy Egg Salad Recipe with Celery from Mom’s Dinner
Mediterranian Celery Olive Salad from Ally’s Kitchen
Cheesy Zucchini Rice from Buns in My Oven
