CSA Hooray! Week 1

A few weeks ago, a friend from the gym reached out to me ... for something totally unexpected.  It turned out that she was going on a multi-week road trip with her family, and needed someone to dump her 1/2 share CSA on while she was gone.

Say what?  Fresh grown produce? 

Of course I'm down!

And so, Friday 6/27 I received this beautiful bounty (queue singing angels):

In case you're wondering, that is an assortment of: Kale, Panisse Head Lettuce, Pac Choi, Vitamin Greens, Cilantro, Summer Squash, Scallions, Kohlrabis, and Spinach.

Ok, ok.  Let's back track a second.  The above is a photo of a FULL SHARE of from the CSA.  I was willed a HALF SHARE.  Imagine the above cut in half (and missing the spinach, which I'm guessing I didn't get due to a bum crop or something).  And FYI, I'm not belittling the size of my share - it was very generous and definitely plenty for my husband and I to eat before it would end up going bad anyway.

So, what did I do with all this goodness?  Well, here goes!

- Made a wonderful salad of panisse head lettuce, turkey, blue cheese crumbles and a yogurt based Blue Cheese salad dressing made by Bolthouse Farms (read more about that dressing here)

- Using this recipe as a jumping point, I asked my husband to use the bok choy in a chicken stir fry (served with rice).  Despite seeming amazingly simple, this turned out to be quite delicious.  I would actually make it again, and expect it to become part of my usual dinner rotation

- Made a dinner of grilled brats served with steamed/sautéed vitamin greens with garlic, and kohlrabi sliced and grilled with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper
     **note - I recommend peeling the kohlrabi prior to grilling,
          the skin was a little tough/woody and was not very appetizing

- Finished off the summer squash and scallions by tossing them in olive oil and Italian seasoning and grilling them in a basket

- Had a breakfast smoothie that included ALL of the kale, a banana, a green apple, hydrated chia seeds, 2 cups of unsweetened almond milk and two heaping spoonfuls of natural peanut butter,

And that was it!  In pretty much 5 days, everything was gone. 

Amazingly, nothing went bad before we could use it (except the cilantro, which unfortunately didn't fair well and was already wilted day 2).  I was truly worried about using everything before it went bad - and quite honestly that is why I've never signed up for a CSA before.  But, obviously, that was NOT a problem. 

I think it really says something about how much my diet has changed over the last 5 years that I could eat all that produce and then some in a week, and have no problem doing it.

I'm already looking forward to week 2, and wonder what I'll get this time!  More to follow...

PS: Read more about the CSA origins at Easy Bean Farm by checking out their website or Facebook page.