Eating Locally -- Farm Share Week 2

Week 2 and it's another day to pick up my share of locally-grown organic produce. I still have a few things left over from last week (perishables like salad greens and onions and I still have some eggs, bread and popcorn). I'm really diggin' this CSA. I feel like I'm getting my $16 worth each week, that's for sure. In this week's bounty, my take ended up being:


Strawberries, pac-choy (like bok choy, just all green), spring onions, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, garlic scapes, some blackberry jam, a tomato, and of course, more lettuce -- beautiful red leaf and green lettuce this week. The heads were huge, so Robin and I just tore them apart to split.

I'm already plotting my grilled salmon with sauteed mushrooms and the pac-choy (sauteed with sesame oil, soy sauce and garlic) and a fantastic salad with roasted beets, goat cheese (or blue, whatever I have) and some toasted pecans (or walnuts, whatever I have in the freezer). I will say, tho, I've never bought, stored, prepped or eaten kolhrabi, so I'm looking for ideas there. I'm also not sure how I'll fix the red chard. I'll figure it out, tho.

In the meantime, anyone want some salad?

38-year-old virgin.... for rhubarb

Rhubarb is one of those mystery vegetables that just sounded weird to me as a child ("Roooobarb?! What the heck is roooooobarb?"). No one in my immediate family ever cooked with it. In my head, it was red celery. Stringy. Freak vegetable.

I also know that my palette has evolved considerably over the years. I also used to hate mushrooms, mustard, scallops, salmon, ahi tuna, etc. I still can't quite get on board with aspic, but at some point, I'll end up at a fabulous restaurant where I'll try it, then extol its virtues to anyone who will listen.

Since I'd gotten some rhubarb in my farm share this past week, I wanted to give it a whirl. How do I cook it? Do I peel it? I spent some time looking up rhubarb recipes that also used strawberries. I settled on a recipe for Rhubarb Strawberry crumble. I scrubbed my rhubarb and chopped it into 1/2 in chunks. I added 4 cups of strawberries (using up all the rhubarb and the strawberries from my farm share, plus some extra berries) that I tossed in 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1-1/2 tsp of my new favorite thing -- Vanilla Bean Paste (just vanilla seeds in liquid -- cheaper than buying vanilla beans and great flavor). I made a crumble topping with 3/4 c. flour, 2/3 c. sugar, 1/2 c. rolled oats, and 1/2 c. pecans. The recipe called for hulled hazelnuts, but I didn't have any of those. I have tons of pecans in my freezer from last year. I toasted these and chopped them coarsely. Put the rhubarb strawberry mixture into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish and topped with the crumble. Baked for 40 minutes at 375, until the topping was browned and the filling was bubbling.


I will also be the first to tell you that the equation of fruit + sugar + vanilla +
crumbly topping (equal parts butter and flour) + 45 minutes of heat = one of my favorite desserts. Peaches + gingersnaps and some lemon juice? Yummy. Blueberries and a biscuit topping? Nirvana. Apples + cinnamon? Proof that God loves us. So, I expected to like the strawberry rhubarb crumble, bubbling away in my oven. My house soon had the comforting smell of baking fruit and I couldn't wait for it to be done.


Really, all you need is a big spoon and a blob of vanilla ice cream. Rhubarb, I think you and I are going to be friends. With benefits.

A Tale of Two Eggs

I got a little ambitious this morning and decided to try a Zumba class followed immediately by a kickboxing class. Talk about sweaty! But, suffice it to say, I've gotten my exercise for the day and came home, ravenous. I stopped at the store to get some more strawberries (the quart my friend and I split doesn't quite give me enough for the rhubarb strawberry crumble I plan on trying) and headed into the house, thinking about fixing a big breakfast. I had chopped up about equal amounts of potato and onion and cooked them over medium heat in a few tablespoons of butter for about 20-25 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes. I used a slice off my loaf of whole wheat bread from the farm share for a piece of toast and decided to conduct an experiment.

I had 6 conventional eggs and 6 of the eggs from the farm share. You always read articles telling you that organic eggs are better, they have more color, etc. Not often I have the chance to do a side-by-side comparison.

Well, here you go, a tale of two eggs:



The egg on the left is the conventional egg. The egg on the right is the organic egg. Please note yolk size and color. I also noticed the white on the organic egg was not as watery as the conventional egg (and for the record, my conventional eggs have a sellby date of next week). I have been working on my egg-frying technique for a while. I've decided the real trick is to have the right spatula to flip the darn things. I have one that works, but I feel like there's probably a better one out there.

So, the eggs are fried, and added to my plate of homemade hash browns (garnished with some spring onions from my share this week) and the slab of wheat toast. Dang. Looks good, and I'm starving.



So, which is the conventional egg and which is the organic one? Once they've been fried, it was harder to tell (yes, I knew which was which in the pan, but my point to the photo is that you can't judge a book by its cover). However, as soon as I cut into one the answer was quite clear.



The egg on the left is the organic one. The egg on the right is the conventional one. Seeing the two colors side by side really does make you wonder. Tastewise, yes, they taste different. The organic egg had so much more flavor! I usually buy organic eggs, but sometimes, I decide that conventional ones will be just fine. Conducting my little experiment today means that I really do prefer organic eggs. Psychologically, I'd like to think the chickens are treated better. From a sheer cooking standpoint and taste standpoint, they just taste better.

Eating Locally -- Farm Share, Week 1

For the last three years, I've been participating in a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture). I was really impressed when I found that Lakewood, Ohio, offers a lot of choices for CSAs through several different cooperatives. City Fresh, Covered Bridge, and Geauga Family Farms are a few of the offerings through the Lakewood Earth and Food Community (LEAF). My friend Robin and I last year split a full-share and decided to do that again this year. We selected the Geauga Family Farms, LLC. They are a cooperative of 10 Amish farmers east of Cleveland in Geauga County, offering certified organic produce along with some conventionally grown fruit. They also offer things like eggs, breads, cheeses, meats, etc.

We prepaid for the season back in April. They offer a 20-week season and it ended up boiling down to about $32 a week for a full share ($16 each). We got our first bounty today. If today is any indication, I think I'm going to like this CSA.

Here's my share from this week:

I've got 2 heads of red leaf lettuce, a head of romaine, some spring onions, rhubarb, radishes, strawberries, and half a dozen eggs. Not pictured: half a loaf of homemade wheat bread and half a pound of popcorn.

My goal this summer is not to waste any of this gorgeous produce! Next step -- find a recipe for a strawberry rhubarb tart or crisp or something.