CSA 2014 Weeks 4, 5, and 6

 

Continuing the CSA saga, above is the photo of my last pick up in June. Pictured are kale, turnips, chives, broccoli, peas, red cabbage, two red leaf lettuce, and escarole. Please note that there are two chives, as I felt compelled to swap my fennel for a chive from the swap box. I am not ready to try fennel yet as it smells like licorice which is not my favorite flavor. I will try it some day, however, when my resolve grows steelier, or when I steal it (my resolve that is, not the fennel). Also note, there is no kohlrabi. This was an oversight, as I was supposed to collect it, but it got missed because I was scatterbrained. Possibly the effect of the fennel.

 

My cat would like to introduce this next CSA photo. Pictured here is the first week of July's haul. There is 1/2 gallon of apple cider, basil, two lettuce,cauliflower, zucchini, spicy leaf lettuce blend in a bag, green cabbage, garlic scapes, green onions, radicchio and blue and raspberries (mostly eaten on the way home by the troupe). Not seen here are some Blackcurrants, which were not enough to turn into anything jammish and I'm not really sure what to do with. Also, note that there are now three kohlrabi. I asked nicely about getting one since I had missed it the week before, and the kindly young lady brought me three. I thought she meant for me to pick one of them, but she put all three in my bag. Included in the picture is a hidden secret. That Cooler everything is on? It's totally packed with peas. That week was all you could pick peas included in the share! We would have picked more except we had to go to another engagement. We ate quite a bit of those peas fresh, and the rest I blanched and froze for stirfry.

Here's some pictures of the family doing U-pick that weekend:

 The following weekend, last weekend, I made a stop at Meadowbrook farms and picked up some (hopefully) fertilized eggs for my mother's broody hen to sit on. The funny thing is that Meadowbrook is the farm that adopted our roosters! So the eggs might be their progeny.

My Mom's Broody Hen

Ducky, Lord Ruler Supreme...

...not to be confused with Ducks.

 Then I went to the other farm. The Fishkill Farms one. I U-picked (I-Picked?) the blueberries (one pint) and the green beans. I picked up red onions, kale, radicchio, red lettuce, green lettuce, leaf celery, carrots, 2 zukes, and a few apricots. They came home in a basket next to me in the van. I will bring the basket again next week as it was much easier to transport than the bags.

Other things I did, but are not pictured here- I went to Ithaca with Kalah and we went to a little farm market. Among other sundries, I bought a bushel of pickling cukes, which I turned into... pickles, 10 quarts. Kalah and I made an attempt at turning much of the remaining CSA produce into more veggie pickles this evening. 5 quarts of those. We'll see how it all tastes after a few weeks mellowing out in the pantry!