I haven’t done a CSA post in a while, you guys. I’m not sure why, though. I’m totally in love with my new CSA, right now. And the season is in full swing, here in Pittsburgh. We’re pretty much out of that super crappy period in the beginning, where you have more greens than you could ever eat in two lifetimes. We’re getting really good stuff, now. And, I’m happily anticipating the upcoming tomato season.
Anyway, we signed up for a CSA share from a different farm, this time around. It’s still local to western PA, still organic and we still get our share delivered weekly. The CSA model, community supported agriculture, is pretty much prepaid veggies. You pay X amount at the beginning of the growing season, for what’s called a share. In our case, I think it was $500 for a regular size share. Then, all season long, you get a share of whatever the farm is growing. It’s pretty much win win. Farm gets the money up front and you get fresh local produce delivered to your neighborhood, weekly, for around 25 weeks. You also get all the warm and fuzzies that go along with spending your money in your community, supporting small family farms and eating food that doesn’t stop off in a factory, before it makes its way to your plate.
Win. Win.
Our farm is called Kreschtmann Family Organic Farm. So far, I’ve been super pleased with everything. Its a pretty big chuck, to pay up front. 500 hundred bucks. But, the value is overwhelming. Our crate is always overflowing with tons of good green stuff. You get so much food. And, I’ve really gotten serious about making sure I’m eating everything, before it goes bad. It’s really hard to throw food away when you imagine the hands that grew it and picked it and the amount of work that’s gone into getting it to you.
So, here’s what was in the box, this week:
Bibb and red leaf lettuce
Rainbow chard
Cucumbers
Basil
Green onions
Head green cabbage
Yellow squash
Beets
Green beans
Fenel
Pint of the most amazing local blueberries
And one glorious tomato
We ate the blueberries right away, in one sitting. They were delicious. I never knew berries could be creamy. They were pretty much the best thing I ever tasted. I asked Damien what he wanted for dinner and he said, he would just have blueberries. As soon as we got done eating them, I ordered 12 more pints. I’m thinking jam. If they last that long…
And I’m super excited about the beautiful head of cabbage, too. I have plans to make some Primanti Bros apple cider vinegar style coleslaw for the husband. The beets are all mine, though. I’m gonna be making myself some raw shaved beet salad I mean, I love me some roasted beets, but who can even think of tuning on the oven, in this heat?
Possibly, beet ice cream…?
We’ll see.
And, I’m on the look out for cool ways to fix this fennel.
Do you have a fennel favorite recipe to share? How are you cooking up all of your CSA veggies?
