Posts Tagged ‘CSA’

Community Supported Agriculture. Let’s do it again!

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

We were so psyched about our first CSA share this winter that we decided to do it again so we signed up for a Spring share with Pete’s Greens. Our first pick-up was yesterday and the good eats just keep on coming. This week we received creme fraiche from Vermont butter and cheese, Cyrus Pringle bread from Red Hen Bakery, apples from Champlain Orchards, Butterworks whole wheat flour, frozen peppers, mixed salad shoots, potatoes, onions, garlic, celeriac and who’d have predicted I would so be glad to get 2 lbs. of parsnips! Seriously, we are all about parsnips in our house.

Try this recipe for parsnip chips/fries from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook…

Preheat the oven to 400^oF. Peel the parsnips and slice lengthwise into 1/8″ strips for chips and 1/4″ strips for fries. (If you are serving 1-2 people then 2-4 parsnips will probably do depending on their size, but this is good enough to make for a crowd so don’t be shy.) Coat with 2 tsp. of peanut oil (I toss them in a bowl) and arrange on a baking sheet. You can add more oil if you need to. Bake for 10-15 min. on each side (flipping with tongs mid-way) until slightly speckled with brown and black spots. If making fries you will cook for 5-10 min. longer. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy! I like to dip them in goat cheese, but they are great on their own, too.

Here are some pics of our plethora of goodies. The pic on the right is a close-up of celeriac!

Tags: CSA, organic, Recipes, Vermont products
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Community Supported Agriculture. Local, organic, yummy.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

As 2009 comes to a close and I think of the things I am thankful for I have to include our CSA share. We eat a lot of fresh veggies from our garden in the summer months, but once winter comes around I feel less inspired by the selection of produce at the market and the price tag on the organics so we tend to go heavy on carbs for half the year. This winter Dave and I decided to joined a CSA. The Butternut Mountain Farm store in Morrisville is a pick-up location and since Dave works for the company that makes it pretty convenient.

So each week for the past few months Pete’s Greens has delivered a variety of squash, herbs, onions, garlic, leeks, celeriac, parsnips, beets, brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes (I think you get the idea…), locally milled flour, oats, jams, cheeses, popcorn, tofu, fresh eggs, delicious breads from Elmore Mountain Bread, farm-made applesauce, pickles, coleslaw and sunflower oil, oh yeah, and did I mention greens?! We’ve had cabbage, kale, watercress, mustard & salad greens to name a few and all sorts of things I’ve never seen before. They even had pumpkin puree for us the week of Thanksgiving for pies. We receive an e-mail newsletter the night before each pick-up so we’ll know what we’re getting, but it still feels like a surprise when I see our bounty!

People always ask me what I do in my “off season” and I guess my answer to them this year would be something like, “figuring out what celeriac is and what I should do with it!” So far it has been both fun and challenging to try and use up all my produce in tasty and interesting ways. Garlicky kale with cornmeal pancakes, roasted beets, squash, eggplant & parsnips, pizzas with sauteed chard, and lots and lots of soups (I would also put my immersion blender on the list of things I am thankful for. I am not sure what I’d do without it!). It has been a real treat to see what comes home in our bags each week and I will be sad when it ends in mid-February. For now I will enjoy our local offerings for as long as they last and dream of rutabaga and radishes.

Tags: CSA, organic, Vermont products
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