Gastography

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 5

6 red potatoes
7 yellow potatoes
5 ears corn
2 zucchini
1 head cabbage
2 beets with greens

And they had extra fruit this week, so we got a bonus 9 peaches & a whole bunch of little yellow plum looking things

Lewis Waite Meat Share Box 4

1 lb. sweet pork sausage
2 1/2-lb. lamb leg steaks
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lb. ground turkey

I also ordered eggs

How I Used My Share

I used the balance of last box’s cucumbers combined with some mixed fruit leftover from last week – and later some of the plums and peaches from this week – in lunch salads with leftover meat.

I ate all the fruit I could as snacks.

I made a hash out of the sweet sausage, a few potatoes, 1 ear of corn, and the last of last box’s zucchini – topped with fresh eggs.

I served the second zucchini from last box as zoodles under some Instant Pot pulled pork.

I pan seared the chicken breasts and served with zucchini mashed potatoes.

I served 2 ears of corn with bunless burgers.

I made the ground turkey into a Thai-inspired bowl with half of the cabbage cut into “noodles”.

I shredded the second zucchini and fried it into fritters, which I served with some of the eggs (and some leftover bacon).

I grilled the lamb steaks and served with a spicy potato and corn salad.

I ate the last of the corn on the cob with slow cooked balsamic beef.

Waste: A few plums bit the dust before I could get to them.

Leftovers: Beets

My Favorite Dish From This Box

That sausage hash was fantastic, and I hope we get that sausage again. It was delicious. I also can’t scoff at plain old corn on the cob, since it’s such a seasonal treat. That zucchini mash was also fantastic. I had a great week 🙂

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 4

1 head lettuce
1 bunch basil
5 cucumbers
2 big yellow zucchini
5 ears corn
1 bunch young celery
1 head broccoli

Lewis Waite Meat Share Box 3

1/2 chicken
0.75 lb. lamb blade steaks (2 steaks)
2 lb. pork ribs

Lewis Waite Challenger Share 2

2 lamb kidneys
2 lamb testicles

How I Used My Share

I used the second half of last share’s collards as sandwich wrappers.

I used the second half of last share’s romaine as the base for lunch salads.

Most of my basil went bad. Boo. I used the little I could in a raw salad with 2 ears of corn, 1 cucumber and some peppers I had on hand. I served this salad with the marinated and grilled lamb steaks.

I unsuccessfully pressure cooked the ribs. I’d meant to stretch the meat for 2 meals, but it just wasn’t good (undercooked and under-flavored). At least the corn on the cob I Insta-potted was good.

I roasted the chicken alongside the broccoli and the last of the corn for a one-skillet meal.

The lettuce wilted on me.

I turned the zucchini into zoodles, which I served with some of the roasted chicken, some of the eggs I bought with my last box, and bacon.

I fried the lamb fries and served with a warm celery potato salad.

I used cucumbers in lunch and in a dinner salad.

I zoodled the second zucchini as well and served with Instant Pot pulled pork – and the zucchini-hating DH ate it! Win!

Leftovers: Lamb kidneys, 1 cucumber, a little celery

My Favorite Dish From This Box

This week, my favorite was the roasted chicken with broccoli and corn. This was a fresh, comforting and rich dish that just felt kind of decadent on a weeknight.