The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 18!

This share came with the very sad news that it would be the last of the season for the East Farms CSA. This was just as well - this week also brought the first big snowfall of the season! Not much more was going to be growing after that. In fact, the produce in the share was all hardy root vegetables or winter squash - the only things that could have survived intact for delivery. This was by far the heaviest load of the year, at over 20 lb of total food:

CSA SHARE		Price (Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
8.81 lb Butternut Squash (2)						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$8.72
2.20 lb Buttercup Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$2.18
3.75 lb Carnival Squash (2)						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$3.71
3.71 lb Spaghetti Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$3.67
1.73 lb Yellow Potatoes						1.49/lb	$2.58

It's a good thing this share was full of winter squash, because my refrigerator is still overflowing with more perishable produce. In fact, despite my best efforts, I am ashamed to admit I've already lost 1 cucumber, 2 eggplants, and 5 roma tomatoes to time. I should have given them away faster! Or frozen them. Oh, well.

Because I'm still struggling to eat the other produce, I'm going to have to add an addendum or two as I eat the winter squash over the next few months. We'll see how it goes! Included at right is a photo of one of the new squash varieties I received with this share: a carnival squash. At bottom is a recipe for butternut squash fries, as inspired by my local bakery's sweet potato fries. Unfortunately I don't have a picture - they were all eaten before I could buy a new set of batteries for my camera!

This share came with a newsletter announcing not only the end of the season, but also including an invitation to visit the East Farms pumpkin patch on Saturday and pick up one pumpkin per family member. We were excited about the prospect of pumpkin patching, and since the farm is close to the Borski Farms produce stand we figured we'd visit both over the weekend. We hopped in the car early Saturday morning for our field trip and easily found both the farm and the stand.

The pumpkin patch was full of both pumpkins and pickers, as well as Andrew, the manager of the East Farms program. He was kind enough to talk with us for a bit about the program in general and the year specifically - East Farms was hoping to add some fruit to its shares from a family orchard, but the fruit was mealy and lacked flavor, even though it looked good. This was likely the result of our unusually cool spring and early summer, and possibly some frost damage; but I was impressed that they didn't go on and include it anyways - I sure know the grocery chains don't think twice about selling mealy and flavorless produce!

Andrew also directed us to the back of the patch where the really big pumpkins were. He kindly agreed to let us take two extra pumpkins for our neighbors, which we did. Our four pumpkins were almost perfectly round, very handsome, and together weighed in at over 90 lbs! (Individual weights were 29.75 lb, 23.5 lb, 19.75 lb, 17.6 lb.)


At the grocery store price of .19/lb each, they all added up to a $17.21 value. But mostly I was proud of the size and regularity of the squash (pictured below). I did indeed deliver one each to both of my immediate neighbors, and another one was given to my cousin. Since I haven't actually used mine yet (it will meet the same fate as the other winter squash in my cold storage - eventually) I can't post what I did with it, but I will when I cook it!

We stopped by the Borski stand on the way out, and found that it's actually a cooperative stand run by a few farms in the area. As a result the produce may or may not be organic, and it may or may not be completely local - though the stand operator at the time could tell us which was which. They had a great selection of winter squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, and even boxes of peaches (in mid-October!!), all at fair value.

Since I have more food than I know what to do with spoiling, I couldn't justify purchasing more. Regardless, it was nice to see the location and what produce was available. As the year has worn on, I've found that I've really craved produce from weeks prior - but the grocery store versions are so flavorless. I have had extra produce I could have stored, but to make food storage worth my while I feel I need to work with more than just two weekly shares. Now I know where to go to grab the produce I want to store in bulk so I can put it up for the rest of the year and not crave it for months without relief (ahh arugula, how I miss thee!)

Overall, I found this share provided a great variety of vegetables, the share distribution was flexible, the pickup times worked very well for my schedule (both when I was working and when I wasn't), and the location was very convenient. It also provided the best value overall value: for the total spread of 18 weeks, the conservative estimated value adds up to $334.64. That is of course treating most of the produce as non-organic grocery store fare. Even so, I paid a price of 205.00 for this share on April 23rd (the late price - earlier comers paid slightly less), and I've been exceptionally pleased with the results. I would highly recommend this CSA to anybody who doesn't mind a glut of vegetables every week.

Looking back, the biggest highlight of the East Farms season for me was learning how to use the overabundance of vegetables in ways I've never done before, including bitter mediterranean greens - which I have been craving for the past month - eggplant, beets, peas, kohl rabi, green beans, and summer squash. Mostly this was all new because I've never had to cook these vegetables on this scale before - I can manage to use one package of green beans a year but several pounds in two months meant searching out good recipes and learning new cooking and/or storing techniques. Additionally, I found it incredibly fun to give extra produce to neighbors, friends, and some acquaintances (which made more friends!) I am grateful that everybody was so excited to help me with my project and to learn more about it - or at least, they were tolerant of my eccentricities and if they thought I was really weird, they didn't let it show.

Overall, I have very much enjoyed both of the CSAs, and would be hard pressed to say which I would pick, if I had to pick just one. Craig says we should just get both again - and I'm tempted to do so!

An additional perk of the project that I hadn't really anticipated was our near independence from grocery stores. We rarely needed to shop for anything other than milk and bread, and some meats and cheeses. Our grocery store runs were quick and to the point - and included very little side-spending on things we normally would have purchased while 'browsing' the aisles. Though it may or may not have helped our overall costs, I feel it helped us cut back on unnecessary spending and it certainly saved me a lot of time shopping. Exact numbers follow!

Quicken reports to me that for the 18 week duration of the experiment, including the costs of both shares, Craig and I spent $55.54/week on groceries - this is our bill for all grocery items, food and nonfood (like toilet paper and toothpaste) but not household (like linens and clothing). If we had only opted for one share (the recommended amount, meaning we would have given away less food) our bill would have been $44.15/week. I'll be honest in saying that's a little bit more than our usual grocery bill, which was for the 7 months prior to the project an average of $150/month; but it's difficult to tell whether the increase came from the CSA, or from several other changes in buying habits I've made in recent months, including buying eggs from cage-free hens and raw milk (more on that subject another time.)

Recipe for week 18:

-----Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash Fries-----

1 whole Butternut Squash
1/2 t. salt
3 T. butter

Peel the squash with a knife or a vegetable peeler, cut and deseed. Cut the flesh into slices - thin if you like shoestring fries, and thick if you like potato wedges. Melt butter and salt, and coat the squash fries. Bake at 425 F until done, ~20 minutes for shoestrings and up to 1 hour for wedges. Be sure to turn them occasionally!

The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 17!

Week 17 was bittersweet - our first week in months with only one CSA share, but again with less produce we would have a chance to get caught up on what our refrigerator was overflowing with. Unfortunately I was very sick this week, and spent most of the time (when I wasn't working) either sleeping or drugged up so I would be well enough to work. As a result, fixing food wasn't exactly on top of my priority list. Luckily, the East Farms share again included a lot of produce that stores well!

CSA SHARE		Price (Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.51 lb Yellow Onions (2)						0.99/lb	$0.80
1.69 lb Roma Tomatoes						1.99/lb	$3.36
4.55 lb Buttercup Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$4.50
2.5 lb Acorn Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$2.48
4.27 lb Spaghetti Squash (2)						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$4.23
1.67 lb Red Potatoes						0.69/lb	$1.15
1.52 lb Zucchini (2)						1.29/lb	$1.96

The total comes out to nearly 17 lbs of food - the squash takes us a long way! The potatoes and onions and winter squashes will all store very well. This week came with yet again a new kind of squash: Buttercup. This looks nothing like a buttercup in my opinion - we can start with the fact that it is green, not yellow; and warty, not soft. But I didn't make the rules, so we'll call it a buttercup.

Only the Zucchini and the Tomatoes will spoil in the next month, if I don't get to them all, and that includes the stash of tomatoes I've been putting off for the past few weeks. I'm sure you are wondering at this point why I was so excited for tomatoes earlier in the season, if at this point I can't figure out what to do with them.

The problem with the tomatoes is two-fold:

1 - Most tomato recipes I am familiar with use vegetables out-of-season. Picture that delicious salad with shaved carrots, garden tomatoes, and green-leaf lettuce. Oh, wait. Lettuce season is over. Hrm, what about the classic BLT? Bacon on wheat toast with sliced tomatoes and lettuce - oh wait, lettuce season is still over. I could do glazed green beans with tomatoes, except I haven't received any green beans in my share recently!

2 - By and large, I have recived a disproportionately large amount of Roma tomatoes compared with those that I typically use. At least the round tomatoes I can slice up and eat straight with salt and pepper, but Romas don't have quite the flavor, and tend to be better in sauces and baked goods, since they are more fleshy. So they have to wait until I use a recipe for them. Luckily, they store a little bit better than the others (so that's probably a good thing).

So I was out shopping at one of my favorite grocery stores, and found they had a really fantastic deal on green beans - $1.00/2 lb California grown green beans. Now, I realize they aren't Utah green beans but I was pretty sure I wasn' t going to find Utah green beans, and I thought at the time that these would help me use up my tomato supply. They looked healthy, so I bought a package and made a batch of glazed green beans with (extra) tomatoes with dinner.

I probably should have seen this coming but, they tasted awful. No - not awful, they just tasted like nothing (which is awful for green beans). I think straw would have had more flavor. This was the first time I can ever remember throwing out perfectly 'good' food (they really were completely healthy looking, no defects at all) but neither Craig nor I could bring ourselves to eat them - even with the really good sugary tomato glaze.

What happened? Have storebought green beans always tasted this way, I just never noticed because I was used to it? Did I notice it now because I'm used to food with flavor? Or was this batch of green beans just no good? I don't have any answers, but I am disturbed. I feel even more leery of purchasing grocery-store fare now than I was before! I suppose time will tell (as I am forced to buy more grocery-store produce over the winter) whether or not this was an isolated incident or a horrifying revelation of actual flavor that I always thought was 'normal'.

In the end, I used up quite a few (~10) romas in a Red Chili dish. (Think the White Chili recipe from last week, but use red kidney beans and black beans in place of the white ones, beef steak chunks instead of the shredded chicken, and lots of added pureed and chopped tomatoes) Note to self: pureed roma tomatoes still don't approach the thickness of tomato sauce, much less tomato paste. The chili was all right - not great enough to justify posting the whole recipe, and the White Chili was better but Craig ate it and that was good. I would have a picture but I'm blaming drugged-up brain fogginess for the lack thereof. Please forgive me!

The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 16!

Week 16 came with more surprises, beginning with yet another variety of winter squash. The East Farms CSA brought in quite a haul by itself, valued at nearly $17 at non-organic prices.

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.70 lb Green Peppers (2)						1.29/lb	$0.90
0.80 lb Onion						0.99/lb	$0.79
1.77 lb Roma Tomatoes						1.99/lb	$3.52
2.02 lb Eggplant (2)						1.60/lb	$3.23
1.71 lb Gold Potatoes						1.49/lb	$2.55
2.00 lb Acorn Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$1.98
4.03 lb Spaghetti Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$3.99

The onions and potatoes and squash go into cold storage for use as I need them. I have so much perishable produce in my refrigerator and on my counters that I can't possible think of using the nonperishable ones anytime in the immediate future. But it was nice to see a new squash, the acorn squash pictured at right, with the share.

These peppers I used for another batch of white chili, but I've still got quite a few. I've started freezing them all so they don't go bad, but there are far too many spicy ones. By spicy I mean each time I cut up a batch for the freezer I must refrain from touching my nose or eyes for 48 hours (OW). In the future, I'm using latex gloves.

The eggplant and tomatoes went into the refrigerator for later use. I still can't get to the eggplant fast enough, and the tomatoes are backing up as well. If this keeps up I'm going to have to start freezing them.

Speaking of freezing, this week also marked the first snowfall of the season! I had to clean off 6" of snow from my car at 9:00 am Sunday before I could go to church. By 1:00 pm when I came out, it was all melted. It came and went quickly, but I'm pretty sure that any life remaining in my little basil and parsley plants was snuffed out. =(

The second share here is the last share of the year for the Borski Farms CSA program. It is a very sad prospect, but on the other hand it has begun to be very difficult to make it with my work schedule as well as Craig's new school schedule. Again, I got the share with only 5 minutes to spare on the 6:00 pm pickup time.

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
1.10 lb Green Peppers (2)						1.29/lb	$1.42
0.48 lb Peach (1)						1.99/lb	$0.96
0.93 lb Apples (Golden Delicious, 3)						1.49/lb	$1.39
0.82 lb Yellow Onions						0.99/lb	$0.81
0.67 lb Red Onions (2)						0.99/lb	$0.66
1.48 lb Blue Potatoes						1.49/lb (Gold)	$2.21

Again, the onions and potatoes went into cold storage. The apples I used in the dessert recipe provided (below), and the peach sat on my counter: a lonely reminder that there would be no more. The peppers went into my refrigerator for later use.

The share also came with a newsletter thanking us for participating and informing us of the Borski Farms produce stand in Kaysville on 315 N Main (open through Oct 31). Information on registration for the 2009 season will be available on their website in January. In addition, the newsletter came with a recipe for a baked apple dessert, which I have included below.

Overall, I found this CSA provided good variety of quality produce. The value was reasonable, the share distribution was flexible, and for the most part the pickup times worked well. For the total spread of 15 weeks, the conservative estimated value adds up to $193.05. That is of course treating most of the produce as non-organic grocery store fare, and often including the only available price substitutes on some produce I couldn't find anywhere (blue potatoes, for instance) which most likely would have gone for more. Even so, I paid a price of 190.00 for this share on April 23rd (the late price - earlier comers paid slightly less), and I've been extremely pleased with the results. I would highly recommend this CSA to anybody for whom the pickup location, days and times work - which was my only issue.

Looking back, the biggest highlights of the Borski season for me included finding completely unexpected produce: anasazi beans, local cheese, blue potatoes, and delicata squash. The herb starts at the beginning of the season were also unexpected, and I used the fresh basil and parsley throughout the season in many dishes. In addition to the surprises, I loved the outstanding flavor of the produce - for instance, the potent garlic which overwhelmed the whole shopping bag. Finally, I cannot close without mentioning again how happy I was for the regular shares of (really good) peaches for weeks on end.

Recipe for week 16:

-----Baked Apple Dessert-----

1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. butter, split into 6 pieces (1 t. each)
6 apples

Heat the oven to 325 F. Combine cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and set aside. Core the apples without puncturing the bottom. Fill each cavity the cinnamon mixture, then top off with 1 t. butter each. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes-1 hour.

The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 15!

This week began with the Chinese party I'd been looking forward to for weeks. I took all my potsticker ingredients, the M-M-M-Monster Cabbage, and my pastry wraps looking for some fun. As it was the party went great! But we had too much food (including some already pre-prepared potstickers) and we ended up useing nothing that I had brought. So instead, Craig and I sat down and made a very large batch of potstickers we were able to freeze for future use.

To freeze potstickers, prepare them but do not cook them. Place them on paper plates or a wax paper lined pan in so they are not touching; then place the plate or the pan in the freezer until the potstickers are frozen solid. At that point, you can transfer them all to a big freezer bag and seal for long term freezer storage. Cooking the frozen potstickers is the same as cooking the fresh ones - heat 2 T. oil in a non-stick skillet, then add just as many potstickers as can cover the bottom of the pan (they will stick together if you layer them on top of one another.) Cook 2-3 minutes until the undersides are lightly brown. Add 1/2 cup water, then cover and let cook until all the water is absorbed. Remove when potstickers are again crispy and golden brown on the bottom.

The East Farms CSA share came with the most variety in items I've seen so far this season, including lots of summer standards and one new winter squash. Here's the lowdown:

CSA SHARE		Price (Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.62 lb Green Peppers (2)		1.99/lb				1.29/lb	$1.23
0.79 lb Onion		1.99/lb				0.99/lb	$1.57
1.83 lb Tomatoes (slicing)						1.99/lb	$3.64
0.80 lb Chili Peppers (6)						1.99/lb	$1.59
1.00 lb Eggplant (1)		1.99/lb				1.59/lb	$1.99
1.68 lb Red Potatoes						0.69/lb	$1.16
1.86 lb Spaghetti Squash						0.99/lb (asst. squash)	$1.84
0.45 lb Zucchini (1)						1.29/lb	$0.58

I have to admit, at this point I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to do with eggplant that is new and delicious. Despite all my attempts to dress it up, Craig is still not a fan (it's the texture, not the flavor). This eggplant I used to make a Cashew-Eggplant Casserole I found on allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites), but sadly it didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. The onion went into my cold storage with the potatoes, the zucchini and peppers went into my fridge (more on the peppers later), and the tomatoes sat on my counter for snacking (and as a reminder that I needed to use them.) Tomatoes tend to lose their flavor in the refrigerator, so I'll only put them there if I know I won't get to them in time to use them.

The Spaghetti Squash is the only winter squash I have experience using. Unlike the delicata I received last week, I grew up on spaghetti squash (in season) although I can't admit it was ever my favorite in my childhood. I think it's because it was clearly a vegetable trying to pose as something it wasn't - pasta. But once I reached my late teens I discovered something amazing about this vegetable - it's *really* tasty. It has a sweet flavor, one that is regrettably masked by the heavy flavors in the spaghetti sauce the vegetable is often served with. For this reason I recommend first trying spaghetti squash cooked with just a little butter and salt and pepper, to augment the already sweet and delicious flavor, before experimenting around using it in other recipes like soups or stews.

Probably the biggest reason it is often served with spaghetti sauce (aside from the fact that the vegetable produces thin tendril-like fibers, which resemble the pasta), is the sheer ease of preparation. Making spaghetti squash with sauce is probably the easiest dinner dish ever, so long as you know what to do with a squash! (Most people don't.) So here's the lowdown on how to cook a squash, complete with a picture guide (it's the same for all squashes):

1 - Cut the squash lengthwise into two halves. 2 - Scoop out the interior seeds with a spoon, and discard. 3 - Place both halves flat-side down onto a baking sheet.

4 - Bake at 350 F for 1 hour or until the flesh is tender. 5 - Remove the flesh from the shell. 6 - Serve with marinara sauce or butter and salt/pepper. Enjoy!

The only difference between spaghetti squash and other squashes for cooking is that smaller squashes (like the delicata) will require shorter cooking times, where larger squashes (like banana or pumpkin) will require chopping up into more than 2 pieces (cook those pieces skin side down) and possibly a longer cooking time.

Bonus: save the seeds when you remove them from the squash for a yummy snack. Salt and bake in a single layer until golden brown - the same way you'd cook pumpkin seeds!

I made this particular dish for a neighbor who had just had a baby. It was simple, easy for me to do, made a ton, delivered like a casserole, and was simple to pair with vegetables and garlic bread. What with my increased work schedule recently on top of my other obligations, a simple and easy dish like this is exactly what I needed.

Speaking of work schedule, this week was the first that I had a conflict with my Borski CSA pickup. I'm surprised I didn't have a conflict earlier, seeing as how the pickup times are a firm "between 12:00 and 6:00 pm" which doesn't always sit well with many working schedules. In this case, I had to work late (well, late for me); and Craig had to have the car by 5:30 for a school appointment at 6:00 as well.

In the end I left work in Provo at 4:45 and flew home as fast as possible. Instead of passing the car off to Craig I picked him up, flew him down to the school, then zoomed up to the pickup location with 5 minutes to spare. Then of course I had to head back to the school and wait patiently for Craig to finish his appointment, but it didn't take that long. Still, it was a close call (and I am lucky I didn't get a ticket).

All that zooming around, and what should I find in my Borski CSA share? As with last week, not a peach to be seen! What a gyp! The nectarine and apple are not a suitable substitute, that's all I have to say. At least there was a great variety of produce!

CSA SHARE		Price (Organic)			Price ('Normal')	Value
0.94 lb Mixed Peppers		1.99/lb			1.29/lb	$1.87
0.75 lb Onions (2 sm. yellow)		1.99/lb			0.99/lb	$1.49
0.44 lb Onions (2 sm. red)					0.99/lb	$0.44
0.25 lb Garlic (2 heads)					1.99/lb	$0.50
1.06 lb Nectarine (1)					1.99/lb	$2.11
0.44 lb Apple (1 Red Delicious)					0.99/lb	$0.44
2.38 lb Golden Potatoes					1.49/lb	$3.55
1.31 lb Corn (2 ears)					3/1.00	$0.67

The onions are getting smaller, and now some red ones! They all go into my pantry anyhow (and I use them regularly) but it was interesting to see how as the season goes on the size and type of vegetables will change. The apple and nectarine went on my counters for snacking (and as a constant mournful reminder that fresh peaches will nevermore to be seen for a whole year). Corn went into the refrigerator, potatoes to cold storage, and the peppers. . . .

We've received a lot of peppers in the last few weeks from both CSAs. Sometimes they come in a big bag of 'mixed' peppers, where I must admit I am not entirely sure what is which variety. Other times it's just green peppers, which I do have recipes for - but I still can't use them fast enough. For some reason most of the recipes I can think of with peppers also use tomatoes, which we haven't been getting. So I keep putting peppers in my refrigerator, thinking that I'll be able to use them soon. But then the tomatoes have been slow in coming and sparse, and then I remember how much time it takes to prepare something like soft tacos what with the cutting up each individual vegetable for toppings, etc.

So I decided to give away some peppers, but that meant I had to actually take stock of what I had. This was easier said than done. The picture on the right shows a small sampling of the bunches of peppers I've been receiving lately. As you can see, starting from the left there are bell peppers, some kind of chiles that look like Anaheims, a darker set of peppers, a few little jalapenos, and a reddish-orange looking pepper.

I knew what to expect from the bell peppers and the jalapenos, but I am new to the Anaheim peppers and the rest. It turns out the dark green peppers are extremely spicy, but the lone orange pepper was very mild (go figure.) The Anaheims I was told were also mild, but I had mixed results. So when preparing a meal that needed peppers (usually mild) I would grab a few Anaheim peppers, open them up, and taste a sliver. 50% of the time they were perfectly mild and easy to use, the other 50% of the time they were AHH MY TONGUE IS BURNING hot. But they all looked the same so I couldn't tell in advance. My solution was to chop up the spicy ones and freeze them for later use before pulling out another pepper for experimental spice determination in the hopes I'd find one suitable for the dish I was preparing. Using this method I was able to go through peppers twice as fast as I expected - because I was storing half of them in my freezer.

My pepper dish this week was a great white chili (recipe follows). I made it for a family get together and Craig insisted we had to bring half of it home so he could have it for lunches. Of course, there was none left to bring home (in part because my father snitched a bowlful for his lunch!) so I had to make it again.

Recipe for Week 15:

-----White Chili-----

1 lb white beans, cooked
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium sweet or mild peppers, diced (hot peppers may be used as desired)
1 T. cumin
1 t. oregano
1 t. black pepper
1 T. lime juice
3 c. chicken broth
1 c. medium salsa
grated cheddar
sour cream

Saute onions and garlic in 2 T oil until cooked through and starting to brown. Combine onions, chicken, beans, peppers, cumin, oregano, pepper, lime, salsa, and broth in a large saucepan. Heat until boiling, then simmer 30 minutes. Serve with grated cheddar and sour cream.