Last November I told you about Amy, one of the farmers behind Skeeter Farm. I discovered Skeeter Farm, and their massive watermelons (which actually isn’t a euphemism), at my local farmers’ market last fall. I was enchanted by their story, and their produce, and so I sent an email and asked to visit the farm. I also signed up to take part in their community-supported agriculture, or CSA, program.
If you aren’t familiar with CSAs, the idea is simple. You pay a set fee for a “share” in the harvest, and then at regular intervals during the summer and fall you receive some produce. What you receive varies from week-to-week, depending on what is being harvested on the farm. If they have a bumper crop of lettuce but their corn fails, you’ll get a lot of lettuce and only a little corn. You will get more or less food depending on how their growing season goes. Much like the farmers themselves, you’re depending on the whims of nature for your veggies.
My first CSA share
This week, my first delivery arrived. I knew I would be receiving a bag full of veggies, but I had no idea what, exactly, would be in that bag. Opening it up and checking out the produce was a little bit like Christmas morning, only more vegetable-y. Unless Santa usually brings you lettuce, in which case it was exactly like Christmas morning at your house.
One of the things I liked about the Skeeter Farm CSA is that they allow you to specify two or three types of veggies you do not want to receive. I thought that this might stem the onslaught of kale a little bit, since one of the things I’ve heard from my local friends who’ve participated in CSAs is that you get a lot of kale. Because the truth is that I am pretty much the only member of my family who embraces leafy greens, and I don’t want to have to eat kale for four.
The share, all laid out
In spite of my kale fears, what intrigued me about having a CSA was the idea that I would be deciding what to eat each week based on whatever happened to be in my bag. I thought that it might give me a chance to eat a wider variety of veggies than I normally would, and maybe learn a few new recipes in the process. For the first week I took some kale (although normally I won’t), and I’m planning on trying kale chips. There were also padron peppers in the bag, which I’ve never tried before. I feel like I’m widening my palate and eating more adventurously.
The first veggie I decided to prepare, though, was bok choy. Now, I’ve eaten my share of bok choy. I live in Vancouver, after all, which has many fabulous Chinese restaurants, most of which serve bok choy in some form or another. But I’d never cooked bok choy.
The bok choy
I consulted a friend, and she suggested sauteing the bok choy in sesame oil and soy sauce. I just happened to have both on hand, so I gave it a go. The verdict? I thought it tasted great. My kids looked at it skeptically, and didn’t eat it. Jon ate a little, and then expressed concern that too much roughage would upset his stomach.
I’m hoping that the rest of my family warms to our adventures in cooking from our CSA share over the season. But even if they don’t, I’m enjoying myself. I feel like I’m making a good choice for the earth, for my community, for my own health and for my culinary abilities. If I have to eat the bok choy myself, that’s just what I’ll do.
Have you ever taken part in a CSA program? And do you have any great bok choy recipes to share? What about beets? I hear I may be getting lots of those, too. I am ready to take any and all suggestions!
We use bok choy in stir fries and I’ve put it in a minestrone soup. I took part in the grain CSA for two years, but am taking a break this year as I still have a lot of flour to use up. I almost signed up for a CSA with Glen Valley organic, but because I work at the market, I decided I wasn’t going to need a CSA – I often get given things at the end of the day and many of the vendors give a small discount to volunteers and employees at the market. As for your beets, consider pickling them. They make awesome gifts at Christmas and are dead simple to can. You can also make a really good beet and onion salad (Kale will eat this but won’t eat onions or beets on their own – go figure). Fortunately both Ross and I *love* beets so they get eaten no problem. Which is good since I planted 3 rows in our garden (what was I thinking?) You can also do beet and potato mash – Hannah and Jacob might like it because the mashed potatoes will be sweeter and be pink, which apparently is very funny.
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We do a community supported fishery program and get delicious salmon all summer. Makes me feel rather smug, if I’m being honest!
Enjoy the kale chips – we LOVE them, and they’re SO easy to make!
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We did a produce CSA a couple years ago, and it was great for getting us eating new things and discovering veggies we were previously unaware of (Kombucha anyone?).
Our best “OMG we have HOW MUCH greens to eat?” solution was pesto. If it’s green and leafy, it can be pesto’d! Any oil/nut/hard cheese/garlic/greens combo works. Freeze it in ice cube trays and pop the frozen cubes into a freezer bag to toss with meat or pasta.
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This is the best tip ever. I’ve done garlic scape pesto, but no other kinds. Now I will definitely have to try!
Love the pesto tip! We got our first CSA delivery from Skeeter Farm this week too (thanks to your blog post last year) and I absolutely love it. I’m not a huge salad person but the greens are to die for. Had a salad yesterday with the beets (roasted), some hazelnuts and the greens, delicious.
We use all the greens (even the beet top greens) in green smoothies – just blend with water and then add a banana and some frozen berries.
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That pesto idea is awesome!
I love bok choy. I put them in a large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds – then put them quickly in cold/ice water to cool down and pat dry. I whisk soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, cane sugar and olive oil in a bowl….toss to coat and enjoy!
We just had Bok Choy tonight. I cook it with garlic, olive oil (sometimes green onions), and then sprinkle a little balsamic over it. The kids won’t touch it.
I liked the surprise element of the CSA. And then I got tired of the surprise element. However, if my CSA had let me put a stop to the beets and kale overload, I would try it again. I’m buying from the local farm market this year so I’m still eating local, only I get to say no to the things I don’t want.
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My family just joined a SCA farm this spring and we have loved it! The variety of veggies we receive is great, and the surprise element of what we will receive has made preparing dinners an adventure. I have had a lot of fun experimenting with new recipes for veggies I would have never thought to buy. For bok choy, my favorite is just to chop it up and include it in a stir fry. I was very skeptical of beets. I had only tried them cold in salads and was not a fan. I found that steaming them and eating them warm off the stove was fabulous. Not very creative I suppose, but fresh hot steamed beets made me a fan.
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Whoops! That is, we joined a CSA farm. I have no idea what a SCA farm is.
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