Csa 5

Blake picked up the box today because I had a staff meeting at work that started late, and thus I assumed would end later (it did, but not much). We were texting back and forth about it, and I asked him how was the box, but he said it was not the best.

Once I got home, and looked for myself, I was also a bit disappointed as well, but it is not the CSA's fault. It is more just our preference... and on that point, I think the biggest disappointment is that there wasn't much that was exciting in the box this week. Many of the items that we haven't gotten the last weeks are also things that we eat very frequently anyways, and have growing in the garden already!

For example, both the carrots and the zucchini are things that we eat often, and are currently growing. The zucchini in our garden is ripening too, so we have a lot of it... and now we get more lol.

Also, I think we are a trifle bit addicted to her oranges because we were disappointed to see that there were no oranges this week. Plenty of grapefruit... but personally, I don't enjoy grapefruit, too sour for me. Blake enjoys grapefruit, but prefers oranges, but at least it won't be wasted.

The last disappointment in this week's box was the herbs. We got mint... but I still haven't used last week's mint. We got one sprig of rosemary... which actually makes me think it was a mistake and we were supposed to get more, or none at all lol. And we got parsley... which I am using to cook with more... but isn't mine or Blake's favorite.

Okay, so the whole list.
Repeats from last week:
Strawberries
Avocados (we are up to 10 in the house at various ripening stages! But we will eat some next week for sure)
Lemon
Lettuce
Mint
Radishes
Rosemary (one sprig)

Different from last week:
Carrots
Sprouts (though we would have had these last week too if we didn't trade them :-) )
Grapefruit
Zucchini
Parsley
Golden beets

I have not really had a chance to totally figure out what I am doing with all of these things yet...but here are some of the ideas that are stirring around in my head:

The radishes are going to become radish hash browns... apparently still very tasty, but a healthier option than the potato hash browns... and to work around that, a breakfast for dinner.

Some of the carrots and zucchini are going to join a (hopefully) ripe eggplant in our garden to become vegetable ragout from one of my cookbooks at home. It has tomatoes and artichoke hearts in it as well, and we typically eat it over pasta! It is really yummy, and I usually will eat it for the rest of the week in my lunches, and sometimes we even have leftovers for the freezer.

The beets are probably going to go into a salsa verde beet recipe that I have in a William Sonoma vegetable cookbook. As a bonus, it has parsley in it too. That begs for a mexican meal, and so i will probably pair that with some chicken avocado dish and maybe a bean or a rice dish to just round it out.

I am also playing with the idea of a vegetarian pizza that we have made before that has a variety of roasted vegetables on it like zucchini, tomatoes, onion, and pesto (which will use some of the plethora of basil that we have growing in our garden).

The last "plan" I have so far is to make tabbouleh with the parsley and the mint, and some fresh cucumber and tomato from the garden.

Ooh, and I am seriously considering trying to make some jelly/jam/preserves this week because my parent's blackberry bush is going crazy and producing loads, and blueberries, and raspberries are on a super sale this week at our local grocery store for a dollar a container!

The bright side is that although our initial reaction to this week's box was less than positive, we are still glad to have it, and I for one am excited about this week's meals!