Don’t throw a few sugar snap peas into your purse or backpack to snack on because throughout the course of the day as you take other things out, the sugar snaps will latch on and soon you will have them on the floor of your office, up your sleeve, on your desk…who knew they could be so messy?
Entering Week 2 – More Greens
I did pretty well with last week’s share. It included a taste test of bokchoy and tatsoi (we preferred tatsoi, but I can’t put to words why…). Here are the other items I made:
-Collard Green sandwich with garlic scape cream cheese (a dip that was a hit with coworkers too), roasted red peppers and melted provolone. Side of sauteed simple swiss chard.
-Kale, collard green and white bean soup
-Spinach salad with poppy seed dressing
-Bokchoy and tatsoi stir fry with dumplings
-Lots of green salad. Lots.
I have spent years resisting a farm share because I don’t want a dozen turnips every week. What will I do with them week after week? But my very insistent fiancee talked me into it, for bettor or worse. I’m trying to focus on the “better” side of it. Let me explain how:
With the farm share we’re participating in, we get some choice in what we bring home, and there’s an added bonus of ‘pick-your-own’ products each week. So I’ve changed my tune and am embracing the farm share as a challenge. It’s a challenge not only to relinquish some control over what food is coming into my kitchen, but an attempt to make it interesting and unusual as well. Moreover, I am trying to embody the philosophy of the farm providing the produce: Take what you will use. So minimizing waste is also part of my agenda. I used to choose a country to focus on each week or make decisions based on what was on sale at the grocery store. No longer.
Today the farm sent an email with an estimate of what will be in this week’s share. It’s very similar to last week – leafy greens, leafy greens and more, yes, you guessed it – leafy greens. I guess it’s time to face my fears of repetitive produce. More greens? Didn’t I eat enough for a lifetime last week? Won’t I get too much Vitamin B12 and iron? Mother Nature disagrees. It’s time for big leafy springtime greens. And so the challenge begins. First on the agenda: Collard Green Chips. Can’t wait!
The First Farm Share Distribution – June 9, 2009
We got our first farm share distribution today, and boy do we have a lot of leafy greens! There are a couple items I’ve never worked with before, so my first challenge was to identify them and investigate recipe options. Garlic scape turns out to simply be the greens of a garlic bulb, which is less spicy and pungent than the garlic head. Another new-to-me item is tatsoi, which is an asian green. We’ll see what I end up doing with these throughout the week.
Other items in the share are spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, collard greens, a few sugar snaps.