The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 14!

Week 14 came with more of the same, and all of it good. There was one thing that truly jumped out at me, though. Can you see it?

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.38 lb Green Pepper (1)		1.99/lb				1.29/lb	$0.78
0.83 lb Mixed Peppers						1.99/lb	$1.65
8.8 lb Green Cabbage		1.49/lb				0.69/lb	$13.11
0.93 lb Onion		1.99/lb				0.99/lb	$1.85
1.15 lb Eggplant		1.99/lb				1.68/lb	$2.29
1.23 lb Zucchini						1.29/lb	$1.59
1.81 lb Roma Tomatoes		1.99/lb				2.99/lb	$3.60

In the past when I picked up double shares I had a chance to compare one share to another - and it was clear they were pretty similar in content. Even so, sometimes it is hard to resist the temptation to peek into one box or another and see if they were different. And sometimes it doesn't take much peeking to notice some things. This week I quickly saw that all the shares contained a head of cabbage. But one of them looked as though it contained a truly massive head. As you can see from the weight listed, it was more than 2x the weight of any other cabbage received so far - and even those cabbages were much larger than the storebought variety. This one was a M-M-M-Monster Cabbage! (Cue the monster truck rally radio voice here). Everybody who saw it plainly agreed it was massive. I was excited to take it with me to the Chinese party for potstickers. This would make a ton of potstickers. I stuck in in my refrigerator for the party.

The peppers, zucchini and eggplant were stashed in the refrigerator, the onion went to the pantry, and the tomatoes were left on the counter (They have much more flavor when they're not refrigerated, though they go bad faster).

As for peaches, my peach train stopped last week and I had a lot of peaches that even I couldn't eat fast enough. They were going soft and I didn't bring them home to rot on my table. I cut up all but a few and stored them in the freezer. I'm looking forward to using them in shakes, on oatmeal, and in desserts for a few weeks more.

Unfortunately, not only did my train stop, but my Borski CSA share lacked peaches this week too! In light of that, my little store of frozen peaches seems pitifully small, indeed! Even the advent of more and different fruits (nectarines, plums, and apples) is not sufficient to completely make up for this tragedy.

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.22 lb Plums						1.99/lb	$0.44
0.73 lb Nectarines						1.99/lb	$1.45
0.27 lb Golden Delicious Apple (1)						0.99/lb (Red Delicious)	$0.27
1.16 lb Delicata Squash (1)						0.99/lb (assorted squash)	$1.15
0.93 lb Eggplant		1.99/lb				1.68/lb	$1.85
1.5 lb Blue Potatoes						1.49/lb (Red)	$2.24
1.43 lb Roma Tomatoes		1.99/lb				1.99/lb	$2.85

The fruit was eaten the first week as snacks, and the eggplant given away. Tomatoes were stored in the refrigerator for use next week. This week also brought more fun blue potatoes. I did a mixed-potato oven-roasted potato recipe for a tasty colorful dish. I would post the recipe, but it's the same as previously listed in week 8.

As promised in last week's newsletter, this week also contained the first winter squash of the season. It was labeled at the pickup location as 'delicata' variety. That's good because I've visited quite a few supermarkets recently and nearly all of them sell their squash in a bin with an 'assorted squash' tag. I don't think they know what varieties they are! And in fact, I suspect quite a few shoppers don't care what varieties they are: they buy them as fall decorations, missing out on a great easy-to-prepare vegetable.

Winter squash are very easy to prepare - usually by splitting open, scooping out the seeds, then roasting the pieces until tender. They also tend to have very good flavor. But one of the best things about winter squash is that they store very well in a cool, dry environment - from 8 weeks to 6 months storage, depending on the type of squash. This is good, because I'm anticipating receiving a lot of squash over the next couple of weeks, and based on the amount of produce I have now, I'll need to store everything I can (including this one).

No recipes this week - more of the same, and we weren't feeling well either. More for next week!