CSA

You are currently browsing articles tagged CSA.

End of our Summer CSA + Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe

October 24, 2014 in Food by traveleatlove | 1 comment

That very sad time has come. Our 2014 Summer CSA from Red Fire Farm is over. The 20 weeks flew by in a flash, as does the best season.  Fall and winter produce don’t excite me nearly as much as what we get in spring and summer, so we opted not to do a share again until next year.

Red Fire Farm CSA Our final share included lots of greens like lettuce, kale, and dandelion greens, along with carrots, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and pie pumpkins. One of the things I do like about fall produce is that it tends to be heartier and doesn’t need to be eaten right away. Mid-summer, with delicate tomatoes and squashes was a little more difficult and required planning on being home many nights when we might have spontaneously gone out.

We are trying really hard to eat better, move more, sleep more, and drink less, so we have been all about salads, and since I am always cold, I love to introduce some warm ingredients into salads.

This warm autumn salad is just some lettuce topped with roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and a quick vinaigrette made from balsamic, olive oil, mustard, shallot, and a dollop of honey. Some goat cheese made it a little more filling and fun. I love easy dinners like this, where I can get the veggies in the oven to roast and move on to doing other things around the house.

warm autumn salad

Another go-to fall dinner is stuffed acorn squash. There are a billion recipes for stuffed acorn squash, and I love it. It’s a way to have a fairly easy and healthy dinner that you can mix up every time. Our latest stuffed squash creation involved apples, spicy chicken sausage, cornbread, spicy peppers, and onions.

chopped apples

Typically when I am making a stuffed squash, especially a hard squash like acorn, I cut and clean it and get it started roasting, then prepare the stuffing separately. This time around I cooked down some hot peppers and red onion from our CSA in a little coconut oil. I then added in some apple pieces. Once everything was starting to soften, I started the chicken sausage in a separate pan so that it browned. Over the apple mixture, I crumbled some large chunks of cornbread, toasted that up a little, and added some flavor and moisture to it all with chicken stock.

peppers and onions for stufffing

Once that was all settled, I pulled out the acorn squash and stuffed the mixture in, cooking it all together for another eight minutes or so, just until the squash was nice and soft and the filling hot. This stuffed fall squash dish was a huge hit and made for some leftovers the next day.

stuffed acorn squash recipe

Now that we’ve made it through a full 20 week CSA, here are a few observations:

Pros

  • We got to support a Massachusetts farm for a season.
  • We really got to know the growing season in Massachusetts. I loved our weekly email from Red Fire Farm letting us know what was happening in the fields.
  • We ate a MUCH larger variety of vegetables than we usually do. Dandelion greens and kohlrabi are just two items we probably wouldn’t have purchased otherwise.
  • We always had vegetables on hand. Grocery shopping was a quick pickup of some proteins, yogurts, and work snacks.
  • We had SO MANY VEGETABLES. Many people commented on my Instagram that their CSAs did not send as much. Red Fire Farm is pretty awesome, and we are grateful for their hard work.

Cons

  • The payments were in installments early in the season, and they were pretty large chunks of money at once, understandably as it is supporting the farm for the season.
  • We had SO MANY VEGETABLES. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some weeks we shared, others we learned to eat what we were given so we didn’t waste. Still, my compost heap saw a lot of lettuce!
  • Pickup becomes a weekly constant. My poor husband was usually the one stuck with this chore since he has the car. It’s not a huge deal, but there were definitely nights it got in the way.

We will likely join a CSA next year, but I am also going full speed ahead with gardening. I am going to double the size of my garden and have already planted garlic and shallots. I have seeds for broccoli, kale, sunflowers, radishes, beets, and kohlrabi. I may have accidentally purchased 900 kohlrabi seeds, so I will be sharing if we end up with a huge crop! I will also plant potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, and basil.

I am grateful that we have access to fresh local food in so many ways and from so many places. Our CSA was a great adventure in learning more about those opportunities!

Tags: agriculture, autum recipe, autumn salads, CSA, farm, farms, Food, Massachusetts, Red Fire Farm, stuffed acorn squash, stufffed squash

CSA Friday: How is it already week 18?

October 10, 2014 in Food by traveleatlove | 1 comment

Seriously, where has the time gone? I feel like it was just the first week of our Red Fire Farm CSA and we were looking forward to 20 weeks of local produce from the CSA as well as from our garden. Our garden is still raring to go; I thought that it was dead and gone weeks ago, but a huge new tomato crop has just popped up, and I am savoring each one as it ripens on the vine.

I have to say, between our CSA share and our garden, we have gotten MUCH better at eating fruit and vegetables. I have looked forward to finding out what was in each share and trying to figure out what to do with it. We’ve decided not to do a winter share and to focus more on shopping locally at the Codman Square Winter Farmers Market which has so many great vendors, like Red’s Best for delicious Chatham cod.

Before our CSA is over, I thought I would give a quick update on what we have been getting and what I have been making. Our share from Red Fire Farm has been pretty big every week, and at the height of harvest, it was HUGE.

Even late in the summer, our share was teeming with tomatoes and basil, and we made good use of them with simple flatbreads, complete with store bought whole wheat crust. These were perfect for those endless summer evenings where cooking was not a priority.

pesto pizza

As time wore on, our CSA share became heartier, featuring lots of carrots and cabbage and onions. A quick and simple dinner of braised chicken thighs and cabbage with carrots, soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, and a bit of orange marmalade made for a nice early fall meal, maybe slightly helping me to look forward to snuggly nights in and comfort food.

 

vegetables and chicken

Our early fall shares looked a little like this. The grapes were a little different from the ones we sorted in California, but they were tart and delicious. Loads of kale turned into chips, and that amazing winter sunshine squash up front? It was part of smoothies and chili and eaten all by its sweet and delicious self.

 

Red Fire Farm CSA

Of course there have been apples, lots and lots of apples from Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown. I only like apples in the fall, and I have been loving these on their own but also in homemade apple sauce and smoothies.

apples

An overwhelming amount of shallots was shared with friends, but we also used them in dressings and slow roasted in sauces and soups.

shallots

 

homemade sauerkraut

And in homemade sauerkraut. . . that I am afraid to eat. Have you ever made sauerkraut? Every week our CSA emails us recipes, and the one for sauerkraut seemed so easy. I decided to make ours with cabbage and apples but then started to fear that I would make it improperly and kill us. So it sits waiting to be eaten. . . if you don’t hear from me for a while, come looking.   all the vegetable soup

And finally, we have the most common uses for our CSA veggies, “all the vegetable” soups and salads. I have taken to eating mixing bowls full of salad again, and it makes my body feel really good. I swear, piles of raw veggies are like a dose of caffeine for me. I am starting to find energy again and hope to keep it up even when this CSA is over. While we loved our Red Fire Farm CSA, we’re thinking next year we might go a little more local and try The Food Project. Stay tuned; I am sure there are plenty of local vegetables in our future.

Tags: CSA, farm to table, Food, fruit, local food, recipes, vegetables

CSA Week 12: Late Summer Deliciousness

September 5, 2014 in Food by traveleatlove | 2 comments

Our CSA continues to fill each week with a little bit of excitement and lots of healthy local produce. The last couple of weeks have simply been bursting with summery delights like heirloom tomatoes, peaches, and corn, possibly the best foods in the world (paired with a lovely Rosé, of course)

 

Heirloom Tomato BLT

As is often the case in the warmer months, simple was really our goal in highlighting the beautiful food provided by our local farmers. Big, juicy heirloom tomatoes and crisp local lettuce lent themselves to quick and easy, yet completely heavenly BLTs while green beans were perfect sautéed in a little olive oil, chopped garlic, and black pepper.

green beans

Each week brings its own share of greens, and I imagine that will continue once summer ends. Rainbow chard is yummy chopped and cooked down with a little olive oil, a great balsamic vinegar, and some salt and pepper. This would be a great side dish for a good cut of beef and your favorite red wine.

rainbow chard

We drooled over the fresh peaches we received, super juicy and sweet. They were more often than not eaten on their own, but once warm night called for a peach and tomato salad topped with goat cheese and a little fig balsamic. Simple and perfect.

peach and tomato salad

Finally, while we did eat plenty of corn from our CSA, the below dish is actually from my beloved Steel and Rye. Their soups are always phenomenal, and this chilled corn soup was one of my favorite dishes of the summer.

chilled corn soup

What seasonal dishes are you loving right now?

Tags: cooking at home, corn, corn soup, CSA, farm, green beans, healthy, peaches, produce, summer, tomatoes, vegetables

« Older entries

new restaurant
WordPress SEO fine-tune by Meta SEO Pack from Poradnik Webmastera