Skinnyflints

The CSA Project: Pickups 8 & 9

I was out of town last week so my sweetheart picked up the CSA produce last Thursday. I was too lazy to weigh it by the time I got home, but we got a LOT so let’s assume it was 10lbs veggies and 2.5lbs fruit.
This week’s pickup:
3 kinds of peppers: 2 lbs
Garlic: 1/4 lb
Cucumber: 3/4 lb
Roma tomatoes: 1 lb
Corn: 3.5 lbs
Beets & greens: 2.5 lbs
Potatoes: 1.5 lbs
Total veggies in pickup 9: 11.5 lbs

Fruit share: peaches: 2.5 lbs

Total weight of veggies from pickups 8 & 9: 21.5 lbs
Total weight of pickups 1-7: 75.75 lbs
Cost of veggies share: $595
Total cost per pound: 595/97.25 lbs = $6.12

Total weight of fruit pickups 8 & 9: 5 lbs
Total weight of previous pickups: 6.5 lbs
Cost of fruit share: $70
Cost per pound so far: $6.09

An urban farm wife

I felt like a farm wife yesterday-i had to pickup a new CSA batch yesterday afternoon, but we still had a ton of the previous week’s produce. I didn’t want to let the old stuff go to waste, because throwing such beautiful food away would be neither thrifty, nor environmentally friendly.
To make room in the fridge’s crisper drawers for the new stuff, here is what I did:

Chopped, then blanched, shocked, drained, and froze: 1 head broccoli, 2 summer squashes, one bunch Swiss chard, and 1 bunch beet greens.

Made a cucumber salad in a quart sized canning jar with: 1.5 cucumbers, sliced with the mandoline; white vinegar; kosher salt; and vegan certified sugar.

Made a large batch of pesto from the zucchini rawsta with pesto recipe, then poured it into an ice cube tray and froze it-tomorrow, I’ll pop the cubes out of the tray and into a freezer bag for use in the fall and winter.

Sauteed 2 chopped scallions with chopped up Boston and Romaine lettuce, added water and simmered, then whirled in the blender with salt, pepper, and Herbs de Provence-lettuce soup! It’s weird but delicious-and also good cold. P.s. I didn’t even wash the blender out after making the pesto-I let the extra pesto on the bottom of the blender jar flavor my soup!

posted by K

The CSA Project: Pickup 4

Here’s this week’s bounty:

5 cucumbers (hellooooooo, refrigerator pickles!): 3 and 3/4 lb
2 zucchini: 1 and 1/4 lb
2 summer squash: 3/4 lb
1 piece broccoli: 1/2 lb
1 head romaine lettuce: 1 and 2/5 lb
bunch scallions: 3/5 lb
cilantro, parsley, and basil: 1/4 lb
mixed salad greens: 1/2 lb
beets and beet greens: 1 and 3/4 lb
swiss chard: 3/4 lb
sugar snap peas: 1 and 1/4 lb

Total weight of today’s haul: 12.75 lbs
Total weight of pickups 1 through 3: 25.9913 lbs
Cost of CSA veggie share for the season: $595
Cost per pound so far: $15.3582

Our fruit share starts next week, and I will track it separately!

The CSA Project: Pickup 3

Hooray for basil!  We got purple basil in this week’s pickup and I cannot wait to cook with this beauty!

Here’s this week’s haul:

2 zucchini: 1lb

2 cucumbers: 1 and 1/4 lbs

turnips and greens: 2lbs

head of green cabbage: 1lb

1 bunch kale: 1lb

scallions: 1/2 lb

parsley, cilantro, and purple basil: 1/4 lb total

salad greens: 1/3 lb

1 quart snap peas: 3/4 lb

1 head red Boston lettuce: 1 and 1/4 lbs

This week’s total: 9.3333lbs

Cost of a CSA share for the season: $595

Total produce from pickups 1 & 2: 16.658 lbs

Total cost per pound so far: $595/25.9913lbs =$22.89

We’ve had trouble getting through all of our greens the past two weeks, so I decided to be proactive this week.  I’m going to make kale chips, so I stripped the kale leaves off the stalks, chopped the stalks, and chopped up the turnip greens and a head of lettuce leftover from last week.  I blanched the kale stems, turnip greens, and lettuce and will freeze them together in muffin tins.  Once frozen, I’ll take the greens muffins out of the tins and freeze them together in freezer bags.  Then, in the fall and winter, when I’m making soup, I can pull a ‘muffin’ or two out of the freezer and plop them in my soup. Instant nutrition!

Posted by K

The CSA Project: Pickup 2

Here’s this week’s bounty:

1 stalk broccoli: 1 lb

1 piece kohlrabi: 1 and 1/4 lb

1 zucchini and 1 summer squash: 1 lb total

1 bunch cilantro and 1 bunch salad greens: 1/4 lb

6 garlic scapes: 1/4 lb

1 pint sugar snap peas: 3/5 lb

1 head lettuce: 1 lb

1 bunch kale: 3/4 lb

1 bunch turnips (and greens): 3/4 lb

1 bunch broccoli rabe: 3/4 lb

1 bunch napa cabbage: 1.5 lb

Total weight: 9.1lbs

Last week’s weight: 7.558lbs

Cost of CSA veggie share: $595 for the season

Total cost per pound so far: $35.719

For dinner last night, we had: roasted turnips, roasted broccoli, oven-braised greens, broccoli rabe sauteed with garlic scapes and crushed red pepper, and salad.  We had the veggies with pita bread so I made a giant dinner sandwich with mine.  We have a ton of leftovers so I had a pita and veggie sandwich for breakfast too. yum!

I also decided to try my hand at kimchi.  There was a guy talking about fermented foods on NPR’s Fresh Air a couple days ago and he gave a recipe for kimchi which sounded easy and yummy.  I washed the napa cabbage really well in several rinses of water (there were little bugs on it- a good sign because it means my CSA really doesn’t use pesticides!), then chopped it up and put it in a big bowl with two finely chopped garlic scapes and a bunch of salt.  I squished it all up with my clean hands until a lot of liquid came out of the cabbage, added some crushed red pepper and packed it into a large mason jar, then left it out overnight (covered).  It still needs to ferment a bit more, but I tried it today and it was tasty! Here it is: 

Posted by K

The CSA Project: Pickup 1

Our first CSA pickup was today!!  I am on a quest to calculate how much money we will save by buying our produce via our CSA this year, so I’m going to track what we get in every pickup.

Here’s today’s haul:

1 zuchini & 1 summer squash: 1.5lbs total

1 large head of lettuce: 1lb

1 bunch tatsoi & 1 handful cilantro: 1/3 lb total

1 bunch kale: 3/4 lb

1 stalk broccoli: 3/5 lb

1 piece kohlrabi (with greens): 7/8 lb

1 bunch turnips (with greens): 1 and 1/4 lbs

1 bunch radishes (with greens): 1 and 1/4 lbs

Total weight: 7.558lbs

Cost of CSA veggie share: $595 for the season (usually 23 weeks but this week was a bonus week because Spring was early this year so 24 weeks!)

Total cost per pound (so far): $78.72

Tonight’s dinner will be: Tatsoi, Lettuce, Radish, and Cilantro salad with homemade ginger-sesame-soy dressing & a baguette from Tom Cat Bakery

Posted by K