I got Kohlrabi in my Mariquita box and after reading up on all sortso f recipes - was very careful to peel & trim it and it still came out woody, not exciting or interesting for flavor or texture. I'm pretty sure I'm not going out of my way to grow this in the garden or to buy it again.
Do you have a passion for kohlrabi? How do you prepare it?
Showing posts with label CSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSA. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Cardoon Pot Pies
First date with cardoon from Mariquita box - made into pot pies, along with english peas, new potatoes, cardoon, red onion, spring garlic, carrots, sweet potato and seitan. I also made a cardoon and new potato bisque. Both dishes came out fabulous - reminding me how much I enjoy both pot pies and new potatoes. Cardoon has a delicious artichoke-like flavor but without all the leaves! I'll definitely try cardoon again, esp for soups and pot pies.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Heirloom Tomatoes - U-pick - 50 cents/pound!
Tomato Upick 2009: Mariquita has a great event this Saturday - which, alas, I will not be able to enjoy since I will be otherwise engaged. If you want to get down to Hollister, you can pick tomatoes for 50 cents/pound, bring your own boxes.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bye Bye CSA
I have canceled my CSA account for now. Though Farm Fresh To You permits customization and uses a very clear labeling system -- it's in English and the packing room does not really read the labels very well. You'd think that they could print them in English/Spanish but this has resulted in a lot of management on my side. In addition, the box often comes late -- which wouldn't be a problem if everything wasn't quite so ripe. I have had a lot of very overripe stuff in my boxes -- put strawberries in the fridge on Friday and on Sunday they are moldy and mushy. That's not good.
Today I got basil -- which I thought was on my "do not send" list -- which was dry and crunchy on the bottom with black tips on the leaves. It looks nothing like the gorgeous basil I picked in my garden last night. I'm going to start going to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Tuesdays or the Temescal market on Sundays -- I hate the crowds but I'm going to have to go do my own shopping now. Bah!
Today I got basil -- which I thought was on my "do not send" list -- which was dry and crunchy on the bottom with black tips on the leaves. It looks nothing like the gorgeous basil I picked in my garden last night. I'm going to start going to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Tuesdays or the Temescal market on Sundays -- I hate the crowds but I'm going to have to go do my own shopping now. Bah!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Garden Update
GARDEN: The tomato plants seem happy - I have to get out there and check on the grow, re-tie them to stakes and such. The basil is starting to take off. I picked up a few small plants on Sunday - zucchini, lettuce, a red bell and a habanero pepper and planted them all before work on Wednesday. The peppers went into pots and I put the zucchini by the fence on the driveway so it can spread out -- I want to have some yummy fried, stuffed zucchini blossoms since James won't let me eat his!
Lettuces are slowly starting, container garden not as big as ground garden.
CSA: The CSA is coming along with problems every week -- they allow customization and print these great labels, but the team in the packing room disregards the labels. I keep getting stuff that is on my "do not send" list. Today, I got more summer squash (still have some from last week), rosemary (two plants is enough, thanks!), and lettuce (I still have some from James' garden). And I did not get strawberries or plums which were on the list to go to my house. One more week -- if next week has too many problems, I'm going to give up and go shopping at the store or Farmer's Market for my produce like I did before. Boo!
Zucchinis taking off, but the ladybugs are sticking around!
Lettuces are slowly starting, container garden not as big as ground garden.
Tomatoes are growing like gangbusters!
CSA: The CSA is coming along with problems every week -- they allow customization and print these great labels, but the team in the packing room disregards the labels. I keep getting stuff that is on my "do not send" list. Today, I got more summer squash (still have some from last week), rosemary (two plants is enough, thanks!), and lettuce (I still have some from James' garden). And I did not get strawberries or plums which were on the list to go to my house. One more week -- if next week has too many problems, I'm going to give up and go shopping at the store or Farmer's Market for my produce like I did before. Boo!
Friday, June 13, 2008
CSA Box for June 13
Pretty good combination - some fruit to make up for the overripe fruit I got last Friday (cherries had mold on them, peaches were brown and mushy).
Lavender was in this week's box - something else to strike from my list as I have some growing in the yard (and almost 1# dried lavender blossoms from my herbs purchase!)
Dobson inspected the box and we were both puzzled that my request for "no plastic" resulted in every item being enclosed in plastic!
Customer service was very good - she is going to make sure that it's all in paper next week. Click on the photo for more pictures of Dobson's CSA inspection process.
Lavender was in this week's box - something else to strike from my list as I have some growing in the yard (and almost 1# dried lavender blossoms from my herbs purchase!)
Dobson inspected the box and we were both puzzled that my request for "no plastic" resulted in every item being enclosed in plastic!
Customer service was very good - she is going to make sure that it's all in paper next week. Click on the photo for more pictures of Dobson's CSA inspection process.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Vegetable Revelations
A bouquet of collard greens is good for over 1 week in a Hull beanpot - then some of the leaves get kinda yellow, so I chopped up the rest of the leaves and made some killer collard greens on Monday night (thanks Erin & Dave!).
I paired the collard greens with a really decent curry (and tumeric/bharat seasoned quinoa) that included all my leftover veggies from the party weekend before last and stuff from Friday's CSA box: Nantes carrots, green beans, peas, 1/4 of a cauliflower, two small yellow potatoes, a red onion, mushrooms, raw cashews (browned), garlic, and the remaining 4 frozen cubes of tomato juice and 4 TB of frozen tomato paste. I added a pile of garam masala, a bit of hot curry powder, chili flakes and a bit of water at the end to simmer and soften up the carrots and potatoes more. It turned out fantastic. That was lunch and dinner yesterday, and lunch today.
I also used up the radishes from the CSA box and the red leaf lettuce to make up four salads for lunch for the week -- turns out that Dobson really really likes radishes. My cats keep acting like they are starving -- Dobson is going to the corner house and entering the kitchen when their door is open to eat dog food (much to the astonishment of Frankie, a small black dog about Dobs' size but much taller due to his long skinny legs) and George is foraging around backyard grills and bringing back chop and steak bones (into the HOUSE!).
After I made the salads for the week, I left a pile of radish, lettuce and carrot peels for Dobs - it was all gone by morning.
This evening, I wanted to have some fruit juice -- but I didn't have any in the house. Sitting in my fridge was a small yellow watermelon -- it was a bit overripe when I got it, hauling it to Black Sand Beach and back on Sunday probably didn't help. I cleaned it and put it in the blender with water and agave, strained half of it and now have a pitcher of gorgeous refresco. Though my favorite is agua de melon, I'm very happy with my yellow agua de sandia!
Tonight's dinner was pasta with sauce - I used up some olive tapenade, 8 oz of cremini mushrooms, a small shallot, garlic and a can of plain 365 tomato sauce. I threw in a couple of cubes of frozen arugula-basil pesto and - voila! Killer pasta sauce in under 30 minutes. The key is to carmelize the onions and mushrooms first -- that makes the sauce rich and tasty. Much cheaper than buying a jar of prepared sauce. Pictures forthcoming...
Garden is coming along nicely - the tomato plants that went in a few weeks ago are really picking up steam. I'm a bit worried about the pepper sprouts and the other tomato sprouts - they don't seem to be doing quite so well (yet). The basil sprouts are also looking poorly. I found something to put over the parsley seeds to keep the boys from digging them up again. The catnip plant is high up on top of my shed in a pot -- my mom suggested growing it in a hanging basket -- might make more sense given the agility of the kitty who was most attracted to the fresh catnip -- George is a leaper.
The chard is really perking up and the arugula is just a day or two away from being a salad or pesto. Time to put in more arugula seeds!
I paired the collard greens with a really decent curry (and tumeric/bharat seasoned quinoa) that included all my leftover veggies from the party weekend before last and stuff from Friday's CSA box: Nantes carrots, green beans, peas, 1/4 of a cauliflower, two small yellow potatoes, a red onion, mushrooms, raw cashews (browned), garlic, and the remaining 4 frozen cubes of tomato juice and 4 TB of frozen tomato paste. I added a pile of garam masala, a bit of hot curry powder, chili flakes and a bit of water at the end to simmer and soften up the carrots and potatoes more. It turned out fantastic. That was lunch and dinner yesterday, and lunch today.
I also used up the radishes from the CSA box and the red leaf lettuce to make up four salads for lunch for the week -- turns out that Dobson really really likes radishes. My cats keep acting like they are starving -- Dobson is going to the corner house and entering the kitchen when their door is open to eat dog food (much to the astonishment of Frankie, a small black dog about Dobs' size but much taller due to his long skinny legs) and George is foraging around backyard grills and bringing back chop and steak bones (into the HOUSE!).
After I made the salads for the week, I left a pile of radish, lettuce and carrot peels for Dobs - it was all gone by morning.
This evening, I wanted to have some fruit juice -- but I didn't have any in the house. Sitting in my fridge was a small yellow watermelon -- it was a bit overripe when I got it, hauling it to Black Sand Beach and back on Sunday probably didn't help. I cleaned it and put it in the blender with water and agave, strained half of it and now have a pitcher of gorgeous refresco. Though my favorite is agua de melon, I'm very happy with my yellow agua de sandia!
Tonight's dinner was pasta with sauce - I used up some olive tapenade, 8 oz of cremini mushrooms, a small shallot, garlic and a can of plain 365 tomato sauce. I threw in a couple of cubes of frozen arugula-basil pesto and - voila! Killer pasta sauce in under 30 minutes. The key is to carmelize the onions and mushrooms first -- that makes the sauce rich and tasty. Much cheaper than buying a jar of prepared sauce. Pictures forthcoming...
Garden is coming along nicely - the tomato plants that went in a few weeks ago are really picking up steam. I'm a bit worried about the pepper sprouts and the other tomato sprouts - they don't seem to be doing quite so well (yet). The basil sprouts are also looking poorly. I found something to put over the parsley seeds to keep the boys from digging them up again. The catnip plant is high up on top of my shed in a pot -- my mom suggested growing it in a hanging basket -- might make more sense given the agility of the kitty who was most attracted to the fresh catnip -- George is a leaper.
The chard is really perking up and the arugula is just a day or two away from being a salad or pesto. Time to put in more arugula seeds!
Friday, May 16, 2008
First CSA Box!
Today I recieved my first CSA delivery from Farm Fresh to You in Capay Valley.
It had lots of good stuff:
Baby Lettuce (8 oz)
Baby Fennel (1 small)
Strawberries (1 pint)
Carrots (1 bunch)
Cilantro (1 bunch)
Napa Cabbage (1 head)
Broccoli (1 bunch)
Haas Avocadoes (4)
Rhubarb (.5 lb or 2 sticks)
Italian Parsley (1 bunch)
Onions (2)
Minneola Oranges (2 lb or 6)
The newsletter was great -- it talks about our new best friend: Aphids. They've been a problem all over the place, apparently. I learned that Aphids especially like chard. My chard are barely germinating so hopefully the ladybugs will get the aphids under control before they start developing more.
Today I came across a blog review of different CSAs -- it makes me think that perhaps I need to give this one a trial and check out some others. For $29, I admit I did expect a bit more produce though they do deliver it right to my door.
It had lots of good stuff:
Baby Lettuce (8 oz)
Baby Fennel (1 small)
Strawberries (1 pint)
Carrots (1 bunch)
Cilantro (1 bunch)
Napa Cabbage (1 head)
Broccoli (1 bunch)
Haas Avocadoes (4)
Rhubarb (.5 lb or 2 sticks)
Italian Parsley (1 bunch)
Onions (2)
Minneola Oranges (2 lb or 6)
The newsletter was great -- it talks about our new best friend: Aphids. They've been a problem all over the place, apparently. I learned that Aphids especially like chard. My chard are barely germinating so hopefully the ladybugs will get the aphids under control before they start developing more.
Today I came across a blog review of different CSAs -- it makes me think that perhaps I need to give this one a trial and check out some others. For $29, I admit I did expect a bit more produce though they do deliver it right to my door.
Friday, May 02, 2008
CSAs
I'm looking at CSA options -- I want to go half-sies with James on one and am trying to find options in my area. So far, I've got:
1. Full Belly Farm Guinda, CA - $25 per week, pick up from a spot in the neighborhood.
2. Farm Fresh to You Capay, CA - $29 per week, delivered. I met these folks at Green Festival last fall, they seem really nice and looks like the best option so far.
3. Terra Firma Farm Winters, CA - $25 per week, pick up.
I know there must be others but I can't find them easily... thoughts?
1. Full Belly Farm Guinda, CA - $25 per week, pick up from a spot in the neighborhood.
2. Farm Fresh to You Capay, CA - $29 per week, delivered. I met these folks at Green Festival last fall, they seem really nice and looks like the best option so far.
3. Terra Firma Farm Winters, CA - $25 per week, pick up.
I know there must be others but I can't find them easily... thoughts?
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