CSA day: my favorite day

Last week we signed up for a partial share at Prairie Bottom Farm in Coupeville. Now, every Tuesday, I drive the 15-20 minutes to pick up our share, chat with the farmers, say hello to the chickens and begin foraging the “u-pick” item of the week.

While we’ve barely been here for a month, I will say that I look forward to Tuesdays. For a girl who works from home (and whose office is in the basement), getting out is important. The drive down Hwy. 525 isn’t a long one and once I drive up to the farm there are chickens clucking, roosters crowing and other members gathering their own share of the weekly crop.

Last week our share included green garlic, salad greens, cardoon, garlic scapes, and squash greens. Our u-pick items included items in the herb garden and a pint of raspberries. This week, I feel like we hit the jackpot with our share. I was happy to see the green garlic again, because, well, I have a healthy addiction to the herb, but there were more goodies in my CSA bag this week: kolrabi, green onions, fresh spinach and broccoli. And this week, I was allowed two pints of raspberries (yum!).

In the months leading up to our move, I experimented and then grew dependent on meals in a box. Plated became my new personal grocery shopper and recipe planner.  It opened up my Sunday to pack or visit with friends rather than go to the store for the week and plan a menu. Gathering groceries and menu planning is a task that I usually love, but as our move date grew closer, time became more and more limited. It was honestly a lifesaver, but now, on the island, we have access to fresh produce through either our CSA or one of four (or probably more) farmer’s markets. It doesn’t seem feasible to continue our Plated subscription now that life is slowing down a bit. And I want to start experiment cooking with as many of the vegetables as possible.

Tonight I went to work, assessing what was already in the fridge, the pantry and what I brought home from Prairie Bottom. Dinner became a saute of green garlic, oregano, and sage with the broccoli, shitakes and fresh spinach. From there, I tossed in some local fresh Alfredo sauce we found in Langley last week and some porcini pasta. Top it with a touch of Parmesan cheese and dinner. is. served.

Planning meals to align with your CSA share can be challenging. It is likely, you are going to get a vegetable or two you know nothing about. To be honest, I had never heard of a Cardoon before, but I enjoy the opportunity these veggies give me to reach outside my culinary wheelhouse.

And if I get a vegetable I don’t like? Well, that’s not likely, but if it happens this week, I still have raspberries.