Whoo hoo! It’s CSA time again! Time to shrug off winter’s recipe rut and reign spring’s exuberance with bi-monthly boxes of vegetables (and hopefully meat).
This year’s CSA is from Brooklyn Beet CSA. Brooklyn Beet provides veggie shares from Angel Family Farm, a sustainable farm located in Orange County, NY that was created with the support of GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project; fruit shares from Hepworth Family Farm, a 250-acre NOFA-certified seventh-generation family farm in Milton, NY; baked goods from Wild Mountain Bread based in Brooklyn; and a wide variety of grass-fed beef, pasture raised pork, and other products (like other meats, cheeses, bread, flour, grains, lax-fermented vegetables, pastas and other pantry goods) from Lewis Waite Farm, which sources from over 35 local family farms.
I purchased a half share, and will be getting a box containing 6-8 vegetables (about 2 bags worth) every other week from June – October (11 shares), and plan on ordering a carnivore share box from Lewis Waite (4-6 lbs. of meat) for pickup each veggie week. I also purchased a “Challenger Share” for the season (6 deliveries total) containing odd bits like animal fats, organ meats, neck bones, shanks, and rendered lard to stretch my culinary skills. The price of my CSA averages out to $25.50 per share for veggies, plus an additional $45 per pickup week for meat/offal. This total will be accounted for in my weekly Adventures In Budget Paleo Cooking posts.
You would think by now that I’d be used to flying blind when it comes to CSA season, since they rarely seem to post previews of upcoming shares, but I’m not. At least not going into this first week. Pickup this year is on Tuesday, so it looks like another summer of alltheveggies for half a week & utilizing the stragglers before they go bad on Mondays and Tuesdays. Such is the life of a CSA devotee. Boom and bust every week (or every other week, in my case).
Brooklyn Beets 2015 CSA Box 7
2 lbs. onions
2 lbs. roma tomatoes
5 cucumbers
5 ears corn
1 bunch stevia
1 bunch lemongrass
1 huge eggplant
1 head lettuce
Lewis Waite Meat Share Box 6
1 lb. ground pork
No nitrate pork shoulder bacon
Lamb blade chops
Chicken legs
The tiniest beef eye round steak
How I Used My Share
I ate last share’s second cabbage half shredded in lunch salads with cucumber and leftover meat.
I served two ears of the corn plain cob-style with burgers, alongside some tomato.
I made a quick stir-fry of the ground pork, some leftover green pepper, carrots and celery.
I braised the chicken legs in some stock with 1 ear corn, sweet potatoes and celery.
I broiled the lamb chops and the rest of the corn.
The stevia dried up while I was thinking of something to do with it.
The lettuce went bad.
I tossed a bunch of tomatoes out.
I tossed half an onion in most things I made.
I’ve been steadily eating tomatoes with whatever I make for lunch.
Leftovers: Lamb kidneys, lamb riblets, shoulder bacon, tiny steak, cucumbers, lemongrass, some onions
My Favorite Dish From This Box
This week, my favorite was probably the braised chicken. That turned out really well and was a big hit.
Gastography 