Our first CSA

I was so excited to get our first box of produce today! Everything we have tasted so far has been delicious! We shared an orange after dinner, and it was so juicy, it was wonderful, and we both found that kumquats (which neither of us have eaten in forever) were really good too!

Now we agreed when we joined this program that we would put nothing back before trying it in a few recipes first, and only if we really don't like it in anything, we would give up and use the trade box.

Well, the first interesting thing is that the box doesn't come with a packing label of what is in it, and we found that we were unsure about a few of the items above (until we got an e-mail from the grower telling us what she put in the boxes, though she said she doesn't always have a chance to do that).

When we first looked inside we easily identified all but two items. The first we thought was rhubarb, and I looked up a recipe for rhubarb muffins, and I was pretty excited about it... but the e-mail then said that it was swiss chard, which I was bit more scared about, but for no good reason... I don't think I have ever tried it before! I have a rule with my students (well... a guideline, I can't force this rule) that you can't say you don't like it unless you have tried it.

So I started cruising the internet and I found two recipes that I will decide between for my first swiss chard experiment: Stuffed Chard with Mariana and Swiss Chard and Potato Enchiladas. I'm still nervous... but I figure that some vegetables might just get a bad rap, and I like a lot of different foods, so I see no reason why I won't like it.

The beets also intimidated me at first, but now I am excited to try beet chips.

The other item we were unsure about was an herb. It looked like sage... but then we tasted it, and we both immediately thought of spearmint (like the gum). So we were going with mint, and were quite pleased with our (not that impressive :-P) detective skills when we found in the letter that it was indeed mint. I haven't completely decided what to do with this yet, but I am leaning towards tea in some form.

Everything else is easy to use:
Fruits like strawberries, oranges and kumquats will not last long at our house... I am hoping they survive the week!

Lettuce, both the red and arugula, will disappear into salads and tacos... maybe spring rolls.

The dill and chives will disappear into recipes next week, like potatoes with sour cream and chives, and dill on corn on the cob and salmon.

Avocados (when ripe) and limes have never had any trouble disappearing in our house into guacamole or tacos etc.

Zucchini, also a favorite of the house, will be sauteed on the side of a dish for dinner, or be used in vegetarian fajitas this upcoming week.

Sprouts, not a favorite of mine, will be eaten by my husband in the salad that we make with the lettuce and arugula.

Although I am a bit nervous about the swiss chard, beets and spearmint, I am excited to expand my range of vegetables that I eat, and try new exciting recipes as well. I hope that we finish this box by next Wednesday, but not so soon that I felt like we didn't get enough. Yay for fresh produce (now if only my garden would hurry up...)