2009

Saturday was the last weekend for our market.  They will be open noon-4pm on Wednesday to sell baked goods and last minute vegetables for the holiday, but then it’s oven until May.  Sigh.  

Since I was worried about being able to fit everything for Thanksgiving into my fridge already, I restricted myself to buying things that I actually needed for the week instead of my usual craziness and experimentation.  I got a dozen eggs for various baked goods, gala apples for stuffing/dressing, broccoli for the loaded baked potato soup, and potatoes for the soup and mashed potatoes.  

And, yes, I did manage to fit everything into the fridge after grocery shopping today.  Phew!  (Well, I did have to put some stuff into Lance’s Pepsi fridge…)

And this was the final week of our CSA experience!  Sadly, I was out of town so Art had to pick up our CSA box without me.  After this we’ve only got two more days of the market, one is this Saturday and then the market is open the day before Thanksgiving for last minute shopping.  

This week the box contained lettuce, sweet potatoes, turnips, cress, butternut squashes, sweet and hot peppers, and bok choy.  I’ve already used the bok choy in a salmon dish and I’ve baked all the sweet potatoes (as well as ones from previous weeks) for mashing, freezing, and future baking.

Apparently I was wrong about last week being the final week of the CSA!  Oh happy day!  It seems that we still had 1-2 weeks left.  So it’s either this week that’s the last week or next week that is.  I’m pretty bad at keeping track of things like this.  I do know that the last Sunday of the market is the 22nd of November but they have a special market day on the 25th so that people can get last might Thanksgiving goodies.  

The CSA box was glorious this week.  Starting in the top leftish, we received turnip greens, turnips, eggs, salad mix, radish, spinach!!, bell peppers, a hubbard squash, green tomatoes, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, and sweet potatoes.

I plan to bake all of the sweet potatoes I’ve collected so far, scoop them out, mash them, and store them in the freezer for future use.  I just need to make the time to do this and haven’t found it yet.  Maybe I’ll be able to get that taken care of on Thursday.  

I have accumulated three spaghetti squashes so far and I’m going to use them to remake a dish I made a few months ago that was delicious.  I’m pretty excited about that!  

Elsewhere at the market I picked up more kohlrabi, turnips, an extra bag of salad greens, and some lovely bright green beans.

This was the last week of the CSA which means that it was 24 weeks since we missed the first week.  I’ll be posting a CSA Recap post in the next few days, overall it has been a fantastic experience and I look forward to enjoying it again next year!  

This week’s box was very green.  We received turnip greens, cress, dill, salad greens, radishes, turnips, sweet potatoes, sweet and hot pepper, butternut squash, and bok choy.

Elsewhere at the market I picked up cabbage, potatoes, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, onions, and a jar of elderberry jam.  The green thing in the middle is kohlrabi which is a vegetable I’ve never even seen, much less eaten.

This is our 22nd week with our CSA and next week will be the last week.  Our farmer, being amazing, gave us another full share to make up for a week that we missed.  Getting full shares two weeks in a row has definitely reaffirmed my decision to go with a half share.  There is no way that we could use up that many vegetables each and every week! 

This week we received more kale which we hope to give to a good home on our street.  In all the weeks of our CSA experiment, kale has really been one of the only three things we just don’t care for.  We also got two more bags of delicious salad greens, a little acorn squash, and two bunches of radishes.  This will be a big salad week, I hope!

Also in our CSA box we received turnips (in the top left corner).  I believe the winter squash to the right of the turnips is a “delicata.”  In the back is a bag of lima beans still in the shells.  Then there are two bags of baby bok choy, lots of peppers, and then two tubers.  I believe the ones closest to the turnips are sweet potatoes but I’m not entirely sure what the ones in the front are and I foolishly forgot to ask my farmer since she was helping another customer.  I think they’re either a variety of yam or sweet potato.  Edit: Art called our farmer.  Apparently they are white sweet potatoes!

We also picked up our weekly dozen eggs from our CSA farmer and, elsewhere at the farm we found broccoli, a mostly red bell pepper, small tomatoes, a “sunshine” winter squash, and apples!  From front to back the apple varieties are Crispin, Jonagold, Empire, Stayman, and Rome.  We’re going to have an apple tasting party tomorrow.

Sadly we missed the last two weeks of the market due to other obligations.  Our farmer, however, is awesome and gave us a full share of veggies to compensate!  As you will see, we’re knee deep in green stuff as the market season slows.  We’ve only got two weeks of the CSA left and, I think, three weeks beyond that of the market.  
Our CSA box started with a huge amount of baby boy choi, two buttercup squashes, and a pound of so of turnips that you can see peeking out in the upper right.

The pile of greens in the back of the picture is kale.  Going clockwise I’ve also got eggplant, a heaping pile of dill and parsley, Chinese long beans, and eggs.  I’ve already got ideas for stir-fry bouncing around in my head.  

In the front of this picture you can see two lovely bunches of radishes.  Beyond those are green tomatoes and two bags full of salad greens!  It’s so great to see salad back in our box!

And last, but not least, we also received sweet potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, and a fair amount of Tatsoi.  

Elsewhere at the market we got regular potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, two jars of jam, and acorn squash.  

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it all!

Art and I ended our mini-vacation with a trip to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market.  We had been looking forward to this for the entire trip and we were extremely impressed and awed!  The market covered an area that felt like a good block and had at least 30 different farmers.  It was HUGE and bustling with people.  I was glad that there was an ATM for my bank about 10 feet away since I was not prepared for all of the things I wanted to buy!  

As you can see, what I did buy was lots and lots of cheese.  The market had goat cheese and sheep cheese and cow cheese in every sort of variety imaginable.  I couldn’t choose so we came home with Fresh Ricotta, Fresh Mozzarella, and Burrata from one farmer.  From another we got the two tubs in the middle – one is similar to cream cheese and the other is similar to mozzarella, both from grass fed, happy cows.  Then we got sheep cheese from the Shenandoah region.  One wedge is called Piedmont which is sort of similar to cheddar if I recall correctly.  The other is Tomato Torta.  Then there’s the sheep cheese from the Allegheny area.  One is a chèvre and the other is sort of like a Brie with a little blue in the rind.  

Since tomato season was almost over, I just had to get three of these Mr. Stripey tomatoes.  Sadly two got a bit smooshed in the car, but that just meant I had to eat them first.  Oh no!  

Then we got meats.  Two packages of bacon and, just beyond, are two small buffalo flank steaks.  

I have no idea at all what I’ll do with all of this cheese.  I guess we could just have cheese plates for dinner a few nights? All of the farmers were giving tastes of all of their cheeses and I just couldn’t resist.  Yum.  

And while I didn’t actually buy any, here’s a picture of some beautiful young, fresh ginger that I just had to share.  

Winter vegetables are coming in strong with winter squash, winter greens, and sweet potatoes.  I guess it’s a good thing that my freezer is packed to the brim since tomato season is winding down!  

Art arranged the vegetables for their photo shoot this week.  I suppose that means they’re arranged artfully?  In the first photograph you can see tomatoes, salad greens, kale, lima beans in their shells, potatoes, onions, and eggplant.  There is also bok choy peaking out in the back.

In this picture, which is the same arrangement just from a different angle, you can see the potatoes, butternut squash, some peppers, and some Chinese long beans between the kale and boy choy.   

The CSA box contained the salad greens, eggplant, peppers, butternut squash, boy choy, kale, Chinese long beans, and lima beans.

Lots of green in our box this week!  Starting at the top is a bag of mustard greens.  Then I’ve got wax beans, radishes, eggplant, okra, hot and sweet peppers, and baby bok choy.  Right in the middle is an acorn squash!  I love winter squashes.  Not as much as I love tomatoes, but I still love them.

My freezer is currently stuffed, so I can’t get anymore tomatoes for roasting.  Sigh.  I did get some small tomatoes for salads and guacamole plus some larger ones for burgers and Caprese.  Since I only got one acorn squash in my CSA box, I picked up another one so that all three of us could have a half.  Then I picked up onions, tomatoes, and summer squash.  

I also got eggs this week, but completely forgot to get a picture of them.

I just noticed, as I started to type up week 16, that I managed to completely forget to write and post week 15!  I guess this just illustrates what a crazy week last week ended up being.  

Our CSA box included peppers both hot and sweet, okra, arugula, radishes, potatoes, and Tatsoi.  The arugula is going to be used tomorrow for a lunchtime salad.  The potatoes were used in Chicken Vesuvio and the Tatsoi was used in Brown Butter Tatsoi Pasta.  Everything was delicious!

I also picked up some red bell peppers which were roasted and frozen, sweet potatoes for a Sweet Potato Cake, and in the back is some low-sugar peach jam.  I tend to find storebought jams and jellies to be too sweet, so I always look for low-sugar options at the market.  

And, of course, tomatoes.  The large ones were all roasted for freezing and the small ones went into delicious salads.  I think I might cry when tomato season is over.