The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 11!

This weekend we went camping with my family, and took along the fresh edamame (pictured at right) so they could all experience the vegetable with us. Overall, my family heartily enjoyed the beans, and they were gone quickly. I tested the pods, because I hated to see them go to waste and they tasted like normal green beans. I probably wouldn't eat a lot of the shells but one or two certainly didn't hurt me.

These next few weeks I head back to work nearly full-time, so it will be interesting to see how I manage the CSA process while juggling other obligations. This first share can be picked up after 4:00 pm on Thursdays, which shouldn't normally be an issue with my work schedule; unfortunately, I had to work late this Thursday so I asked my father if he would pick up my East Farms share for me and keep it at his house until I could pick it up later that evening. I arrived at ~10:30 pm to find the following:

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
0.68 lb Green Peppers (2)		1.99/lb				1.29/lb	$1.35
0.73 lb Onion		1.99/lb				0.99/lb	$1.45
1.07 lb Beets		1.71/lb				2.45/lb	$1.83
0.07 lb Anaheim Peppers (1)						1.99/lb	$0.14
0.63 lb Eggplant		1.99/lb				1.59/lb	$1.25
0.55 lb Green Beans						5.32/lb	$2.92
3.65 lb Corn (6 ears)						3/1.00	$2.00
5.65 lb Zucchini (1)						****	****

More of everything, and all veggies we enjoy. The zucchini was a puzzle, though. The CSA has given me a lot of zucchini, but never any that wasn't still small, young, and tender. Once zucchini gets to be the size of this monster it's really starchy and only good for a few things, mostly to be shredded and disguised as other things in dishes like breads or cookies. Also, it was stuck on top of the rest of the food, which was odd placement given its size and heft (I hope the picture included conveys the size of it accurately. The peaches and bottle are included for size comparison). I wondered if my parents had any need for zucchini, since this one was clearly much more than I needed. I looked around their kitchen counters to see if they had any (and might possibly want more). What did I behold? Only two more monster zucchini, suspiciously like the one in my box. "Hmmm. . ." I thought. When confronted, my father smiled guiltily and admitted to planting the veggie in my box. I don't think he thought he'd get away with it, but it was funny anyhow. I was happy to add a 6 lb zucchini to my load - I was delighted to have material with which to experiment on zucchini chocolate chip cookies. They turned out very well and were quickly devoured at a family party.

One note on the prices: I regret to inform you I've been lax in my duties of keeping this blog so the prices from store values are actually values from several weeks after this share came. It is my experience that as the season goes on, the prices fall, and I suspect the 'value' of this share was higher when it came. Regardless, I've given the values I have and hope you will forgive me. Also, I wanted some real sense of the value of this food as 'organic' which I haven't had in weeks, since my local grocer mostly carries only early spring greens and the like in organic. I went out of my way to get prices for organic goods from Whole Foods in this case. The story is the same on the Borski share I received, as follows:

CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
2.29 lb Red Potatoes		1.99/lb				0.69/lb	$4.56
0.53 lb Green Peppers (1)		1.99/lb				1.29/lb	$1.05
1.42 lb Peaches						1.99/lb	$2.83
3.21 lb Green Cabbage (1)		1.49/lb				0.69/lb	$4.78

This share usually needs to be picked up between 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm on Monday, and I suspect it might prove a challenge to me with my work schedule in the future, but this week I was lucky and had the day off. We'll see how easy it is for me to meet the pick-up deadline as the season wraps up.

We were excited for our first red potatoes, and the peaches of course. The cabbage I tucked back into my refrigerator for use in my potstickers recipe in the upcoming weeks, and otherwise I forgot about it.

Recipes for Week 11:

-----Fresh Veggie Pizza-----

1 recipe pizza dough*
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 jar favorite marinara sauce (~10 oz)
1/2 medium onion, chopped coarsely
1/2 large bell pepper, chopped coarsely
2 large or 4-6 small tomatoes, sliced
1/2 lb. spicy franks, sliced**

Roll out the pizza dough to cover a cookie sheet size pan. Prick the dough with a fork and bake at 350 F for ~10 minutes until dough begins to set. Remove pizza bread from the oven and spread marinara sauce to cover. Sprinkle cheese over the pizza, then layer on the chopped onions, peppers, tomatoes, and sausages. Bake at 350 F until cheese is bubbly and begins to brown (~10-15 minutes). Serves 4.

*As you can see from the picture, my pizza dough recipe isn't worth printing. Maybe another day I'll experiment enough to get one worth posting. Or anybody who reads this can feel free to contribute!
**You can really use any meat you like, from cooked sausage to shredded chicken. I often substitute sliced spicy beef franks for the traditional pepperoni.

-----Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies-----

This recipe comes from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It, and many other delicious recipes are available online through the website for the book.

1 egg, beaten	1 c. white flour
1/2 c. butter, softened	1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. brown sugar	1/2 t. baking soda
1/3 c. honey	1/4 t. salt
1 T. vanilla	1/4 t. cinnamon
1 c. finely shredded zucchini	1/4 t. nutmeg
12 oz. chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients together (egg through vanilla) and blend well. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg) and mix well before blending it with the wet ingredient mixture. Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Drop by the spoonful onto greased baking sheets and flatten the drops with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350 F 10-15 minutes. Makes ~ 2 doz.

The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 10!

This was the last week of August and I was SURE I'd get some tomatoes - but alas, it was not to be. I can't blame the CSAs - my father has some 15 tomato plants he gave an indoor head start to and he still didn't have any ripe ones - though he's still got a great crop of green tomatoes. The very cool spring and cooler-than-usual summer we've had has meant the tomato harvest is much later than usual. At least I received some peppers!

The East Farms share included the following:

	CSA SHARE		Price(Organic)				Price ('Normal')	Value
	0.99 lb Green Peppers (2)						1.29/lb	$1.28
	1.53 lb Onion						1.99/lb	$3.05
	0.80 lb Beets						2.45/lb	$3.06
	0.74 lb Summer Squash						1.99/lb	$1.47
	0.51 lb Eggplant (Oriental)						1.59/lb (Globe)	$0.81
	0.49 lb Green Beans						5.32/lb	$2.61
	2.98 lb Corn (4 ears)						3/1.00	$1.33

Only the peppers here are new, and I quickly made plans to cook stuffed peppers at the earliest convenience. My recipe changes every time (okay all my recipes do - but cooking is more fun when I get to experiment!) but generally the stuffing is very forgiving of on-the-fly changes. This time I decided to experiment with shredded zucchini in my stuffed peppers. Killing two vegetables with one dish sounded like a great idea to me, and sure enough, it was delicious.

This is also the second week of eggplant, which I was happy for: below is my recipe for Eggplant Parmesan. I was very happy for most of the produce - we've eaten very well the past few weeks with the same veggies in our shares. The beets, however, looked at me as if to say "well NOW what are you going to do? You can't ignore us forever!" I stuck them in the back of the refrigerator with the beets from last week and promptly forgot about them.

Also, you might have noticed that this share included an onion. That weighed 1.53 lbs. It was massive - I'm sure I have nieces and nephews with smaller heads than this onion, but I am afraid I didn't get pictures before it was summarily chopped into toppings for Navajo Tacos at a family party. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures next time!

Monday rolled around quickly, as it tends to do, with another double share of delicious fruits and veggies from Borski Farms:

	CSA SHARE-A	CSA SHARE-B					Price ('Normal')	Value
	1.19 lb Eggplant (1, Globe)	1.00 lb Eggplant (1, Globe)					1.59/lb (Globe)	$3.48
	4.25 lb Cantaloupe (1)	3.11 lb Cantaloupe (1)					0.89/lb	$6.55
	1.5 lb Mixed Peppers	1.25 lb Mixed Peppers					1.99/lb	$5.47
	1.50 lb Peaches	1.44 lb Peaches					1.99/lb	$5.85
	0.25 lb Garlic	0.25 lb Garlic					1.99/lb	$1.00

By this time I must admit I was overwhelmed with produce. The two globe eggplants were perfect, the cantaloupe was wonderfully ripe, and I was excited for the first peppers of the season in my CSA - but I couldn't possibly eat it all. I made a few phone calls and then loaded up two small boxes with produce for my neighbors. Upon reflection, I added one of the edamame shares from last week as well as one of the bunches of beets. I had to keep the rest - it's part of the project! But I hoped it would buy me time to contemplate what to do with them.

I was lucky - when I delivered my boxes of produce to my neighbors, one of them stopped to talk to me about the edamame and the beets. She showed me how to pop them open and eat them fresh, and they were pretty good! Then she suggested I treat the beets the same way I had done with the potatoes - coat them with melted butter, salt, and rosemary, and roast them in the oven. This I did the very same day, mostly because I didn't want them to go bad. I cut them into uniform size pieces (some didn't need cutting, others did) and roasted two bunches, so there would be sufficient for both Craig and I for a snack before we went camping over the weekend. I am sorry to say that he never got any, but I don't feel the least bit guilty about eating them all myself. I'd do it all over again! (Yes, oven roasted beets are THAT good.)

Recipes for Week 10:

-----Eggplant Parmesan-----

This dish, at its simplest, need not be anything more complicated than drizzling marinera sauce over breaded and baked eggplant slices. My version of it is basically eggplant lasagna, having replaced the noodles with the aforementioned slices.

1-2 eggplant
3 eggs
1.5 c. breadcrumbs
2 T. parsley, chopped
1 c. mozzarella cheese
1 c. cottage cheese
Italian seasoning
1 jar (26 oz.) marinara sauce
1/2 lb ground beef or sausage, cooked (optional)

Beat 1 egg with 1 T. water in a shallow dish with a fork until uniform. Combine the parsley and breadcrumbs in a separate dish. Peel the eggplant, then cut into slices 1/4" thick. Dip the eggplant slices into the egg mixture, coating both sides, then into the breadcrumbs. Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes, then remove the sheet, turn the slices, and bake again until light brown around the edges. Meanwhile, prepare the marinara sauce by adding italian seasoning (to taste) and the meat to a small saucepan. Heat through. In a separate bowl, combine the other 2 eggs, and cheeses. Set aside.

When each set of ingredients has been prepared, layer them in a 8"x8" pan, starting with sauce, then eggplant, then cheese, then sauce again. Repeat (finish with sauce). Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes at 350 F. Then remove foil and bake another 20 minutes. Serves 4-6.

-----Zucchini-Stuffed Peppers-----

4 large green peppers
2 c. shredded zucchini
2 c. red beans
4 large tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. cumin
1 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. black pepper
1 t. salt
1/2 c. shredded Colby jack cheese

First, cut the green peppers in half lengthwise to create 8 1/2 pepper shells - these will be stuffed. Blanch each of them in salted water - this will help them retain their color. In the meantime, mix together the zucchini, beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cumin, cayenne, pepper, and salt in a saucepan, and heat through. Once the peppers have been blanched and cooled, fill each half with stuffing, and sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and brown. Serves 6.


-----Rosemary Oven Roasted Beets-----

2 Bunches young beets
3 T. butter
1 t. salt
2 T. Rosemary

Scrub the beets well, remove beet greens (stems) and tails, and discard. Cut beets into uniform size pieces, approximately 1/2" in diameter. In a 4 quart bowl, melt the butter with the salt and rosemary in the microwave. Toss the beets with the butter mixture until thoroughly coated. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake uncovered at 350 F for ~20 minutes. Remove, turn the beets, and return to bake until the beets are uniformly soft (~10-20 minutes). Serves 4.

The Great Utah CSA Experiment - Week 9!

Week 9 was the long-anticipated week of double shares - twice the produce this week from both CSAs to make up for my missed vacation week in July, for a total of $40 worth of produce. I was especially excited to see how uniform shares really are: sometimes I'm tempted to peek in the boxes and bags and take what looks best! And I was sure that by mid-August, I'd have a great crop of tomatoes waiting for me. As you'll see, both shares were very similar, but I was totally wrong about the tomatoes. Instead I got a vegetable I wasn't expecting, but it made me happy anyways: eggplant! Here's the full scoop for East Farms:

	CSA SHARE-A	CSA SHARE-B					Price ('Normal')	Value
	1.04 lb Eggplant (1, Oriental)	1.16 lb Eggplant (2, Oriental)					1.59/lb (Globe)	$3.50
	1.23 lb Cucumbers	1.84 lb Cucumbers					3.53/lb	$10.86
	0.63 lb Green Beans	0.76 lb Green Beans					5.32/lb	$7.39
	0.68 lb Beets	1.0 lb Beets					2.45/lb	$4.12
	0.98 lb Onion	0.98 lb Onion					1.99/lb	$3.90
	0.57 lb Zucchini	0.63 lb Zucchini					1.49/lb	$1.79
	2.82 lb Corn (4 ears)	2.81 lb Corn (4 ears)					3/1.00	$2.67

This is clearly more than twice the produce I can eat, particularly with the slight backlog I've had in my refrigerator. I traded a few of the corn for a large zucchini from my mother (I know, I know - I'm going to regret it!), and I loaded up a small box with corn, eggplant, beans, cucumbers, and 1 bunch of beets for my brother. But I needed to own up to the fact that I keep giving away the beets I get, which doesn't technically meet the requirements of this project. At some point I have to work with them so I kept one of the bunches. I looked at them, with their wee reddish globes and limp green stalks. They looked at me. I looked at them - They looked at me. I looked at them - They looked at me. I stuck them in the back of the refrigerator.

So no tomatoes. But! I personally love eggplant - especially in Eggplant Parmesan, though Craig's not a big fan. Well, it was the week of my birthday, not his: so I got to make what I wanted to eat! Eggplant Parmesan, Glazed Green Beans with Tomatoes, and Summer Squash Stir-Fry with Onions. This week's recipe is Eggplant Chips, the first step to making Eggplant Parmesan.

You might ask me where I keep getting the tomatoes for the Glazed Green Beans recipe. I am ashamed to admit I'm still buying at the grocery store - I had really hoped to have some in my shares but it's just too early. Even my parents, who have at least 10 tomato plants every year, do not have enough to share - though they've got a great crop of green tomatoes. So I've been anxious to find a good local source.

A few days after I received this share, a friend of mine called up and suggested we hang out together for lunch, so I invited her over and brainstormed on tomatoes. There's actually a small produce stand very close to my apartment, closer even than the very close grocery store. So I decided to start by heading that direction, and see if I could get my tomatoes locally from the stand. If not, there was always the store. Sure enough, the stand had corn and tomatoes (though rather orange tomatoes) available, as well as strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Berries are a favorite treat of mine so I purchased a few cups. Then I asked the woman at the stand where the berries were from. Her reply? Oregon.

So much for assuming that any local produce stand offers only locally grown produce! For all I know she is purchasing them at Sam's Club and selling them at a markup to clueless consumers in Holladay. I passed on the tomatoes and got some from the store. At least the blueberries were tasty, but the blackberries were a disappointment. Hopefully, next time I stop at a roadside produce stand it will offer real locally grown produce. At least now I know to ask!

A few days later, I was surprised with the first peaches of the season, more summer squash, potatoes, corn, and some funny furry-looking beans. Total haul for Borski shares:

CSA SHARE-A	CSA SHARE-B					Price ('Normal')	Value
0.85 lb Peaches	.98 lb Peaches					1.99/lb	$3.64
0.95 lb Soybeans	1.02 lb Soybeans					4.78/lb (frozen, ORGANIC)	$9.42
0.82 lb Zucchini	0.94 lb Zucchini					1.49/lb	$2.62
0.84 lb Summer Squash	0.41 lb Summer Squash					1.99/lb	$2.49
2.08 lb Golden Potatoes	1.61 lb Golden Potatoes					1.49/lb	$5.50
2.13 lb Corn (3 ears)	1.71 lb Corn (3 ears)					3/1.00	$2.00

I had a suspicion about the beans. There's a bean that Ms. Kingsolver refers to a few times in her book as Edamame - and it's a fancy name for soybeans (or sometimes it's a specific reference to a way of cooking soybeans). Sure enough, a quick Google search confirmed it. It seemed a little gross to me to think of eating these hairy pods, no matter how they are cooked. I was relieved to find that you actually only eat the beans inside the pod. Glad I didn't start any culinary experiments on them before I did my research! Even so, soybeans are another vegetable I have never approached on purpose. I looked at them, with their soft slender furry pale green pods. They looked at me. I stuck them in the back of the refrigerator.

The peaches I was very excited for. The truth is I LOVE peaches but I never ever purchase them from the grocery store anymore. When I did, what I found was that they are very hard and flavorless, and if you leave them for a few days to soften, the outer 1/2" of the peach will become soft but the inside will still be hard as a rock. If you leave them a few more days to ripen, the outer 1/2" of the peach will begin to turn brown and rot, while the inside remains rock hard. It's gross. But then a few years ago when I purchased a small bunch from the local farmer's market. They were soft when I bought them, and I fell in love all over again.

So I was excited about the six peaches in little brown sacks, but my surprise turned to shock when I noticed these pale creamy pink orbs were hard! I felt betrayed! How could they?! I could only hope that these peaches were picked 3 days out from being ripe and they would soften in time, as opposed to the grocery store variety. Luckily my hope was not in vain, and the peaches softened very nicely and were deliciously sweet. In retrospect, soft peaches would probably be all squished from the delivery in grocery store sacks jostling alongside potatoes, corn, and zucchini. So that's okay.

There was a specific reason I was looking forward to peaches, though. Craig and I have this great "Peachy Rico" shake recipe, invented after we tried its namesake at Los Hermanos in Provo. Our Peachy Ricos require only four ingredients and whip up in minutes. But of course - unless peaches are in season, it's out of the question. So every summer I look forward to fresh peaches all season. I had never thought another fruit could rival my favorite strawberries but the truth is, in season: peaches win hands-down.

Recipes for Week 9:

-----Eggplant Chips-----


1 eggplant
1 egg
1 c. breadcrumbs
2 T. parsley, chopped

Beat the egg with 1 T. water in a shallow dish with a fork until uniform. Combine the parsley and breadcrumbs in a separate dish. Peel the eggplant, then cut into slices 1/8" thick. Dip the eggplant slices into the egg mixture, coating both sides, then into the breadcrumbs. Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes, then remove the sheet, turn the slices, and bake again until light brown around the edges. Serve with warm marinara dipping sauce. Serves 2-3.

-----Peachy Ricos-----

4 fresh peaches
3/4 c. milk
2 T. frozen cranberry juice concentrate
6 ice cubes
vanilla ice cream

Slice fresh peaches into a 4 quart blender, discard pits. Add milk and blend until smooth. Add juice concentrate, then add ice cubes 1-2 at a time until all are blended in. Top off with ~4 scoops vanilla ice cream to reach desired consistency. (I like mine as thick shakes, your blender's efficiency may be the limiting factor here). Serves 4-6.