Member Diary | Southside CSA

Jonathan + Kristie Member Diary - Week of June 22

Posted on June 29, 2015 by ryanlachica

# Distribution

Kristie and I live with two dogs, Bijoux and Roux. They don’t get much of the share, although Roux was pretty into the sugarsnap pea we gave her. We share a half-share of veggies and of orchard (which hasn’t started yet). This doesn’t seem like much, but it can still be challenging to store and cook all this food.

Pro tip: occasionally you can buy extras like loose cartons of eggs or a spare chicken. This is a great way to sample tasty new CSA eats, and figure out if you’re ready to sign up for a share the next season.

Our schedules are pretty busy and we eat out or order in a *lot* for the sake of convenience, but one of the reasons we do CSA is to slow down and try to cook and eat more together, in the house. I *love* leafy greens, so this weeks share was pretty exciting: spinach, rainbow chard, mizuna, radishes, garlic, garlic scapes, lettuce, snap peas, and broccoli rabe. We also scored some Maple Syrup samples from the [Circle C Maple Farm][] in Pine Bush NY. Thanks guys!

I had distribution duty this week and was handing out the meat share. It wasn’t long before I was wishing we’d ordered some; luckily there was a spare chicken, so we picked that up (along with a loose carton of eggs).

By the time distribution was done it was a little late to cook and eat, so we grabbed a bite at Landhaus (the grill at the back of The Woods). After eating, we shlepped our haul home.

*Pro Tip: we’ve got a ton of tote bags, but we set aside the orange ones (with a few extra plastic bags stowed inside) for CSA. This makes them easy to find and grab.* Continue reading →

Filed under: Member Diary, Recipes | Tagged: chicken, grilling, salad, sauces, swiss chard | Leave a comment »

Laura + Merav Member Diary for Week of June 15th

Posted on June 22, 2015 by ryan la chica

Hey guys! This blog post is coming at you from Laura and Merav. We are friends and roommates and this is our second season doing the CSA. We get a bi-weekly egg and veggie share. We share groceries and cook a lot of meals together so sharing the CSA works out really well for us. We were super excited for veggies to start and this week was definitely all about the greens. This week of cooking has basically been all about shoving greens into anything and everything that we make.

Here’s a rundown of some meals that we’ve made and how we’ve been using our shares.

After picking up our share on Monday, I decided to make a giant salad using a lot of those salad greens since those tend to perish more quickly than some of the sturdier greens we got. Continue reading →

Filed under: Member Diary, MimoMex Farm Shares, Share Care, Yellow Bell Egg Share | Tagged: asian cooking, carrot, Egg, kale, mint, mizuna, parsley, pasta, radish, salad, Savory Ideas, spinach, swiss chard | Leave a comment »

Raptor Member Diary for Week 5 (June 1)

Posted on June 12, 2015 by ryanlachica

Behold, our berry share and egg share for the week! (The two of us also have the veg share, but that hasn’t started yet this year.) We thought asparagus season was over so it was a nice surprise to get another bunch in addition to the four—count ‘em, one-two-three-four—quarts of strawberries.

We usually transport everything easily from the Woods with some cloth bags. Berry transportation, however, is tricky. It was especially tricky in the rain last week with a soggy cardboard box. We usually store our asparagus standing up on the counter in a little bit of water, but we pounced right on the asparagus for dinner on Monday night.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Member Diary, Recipes, Share Care | Tagged: asparagus, breakfast fun, Egg, Savory Ideas, strawberry, wok | Leave a comment »

Week #3 Member Diary - Fox Force 5

Posted on May 25, 2015 by ryanlachica

ASPARAGUS SEASON! May means we are knee deep into Asparagus season. This week’s distribution was another 2 pounds. We also get an Egg Share and a Large Meat Share. Our household tends to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner most days so we have get full shares of everything.

Having been spoiled by the super fresh asparagus we get from Greig Farm, we really only eat asparagus during the month of May when it is in season here in NY. Store bought spears shipped from thousands of miles away just doesn’t compare. So for the month of May we tend to eat asparagus for every meal. Continue reading →

Filed under: Greig Farm Berry Share, Member Diary, Northwind Farm Meat Share, Recipes, Yellow Bell Egg Share | Tagged: asparagus, breakfast fun, chicken, Egg, pasta, sandwiches, Savory Ideas | Leave a comment »

Week #1 Member Diary - Stephanie J

Posted on May 12, 2015 by ryan la chica

Stephanie J. Member Diary

Happy start of the season, all! I’m excited for all the veggies, meats, berries, and eggs that lie ahead for me these next few months. I signed up for half shares of each this season for me and my partner, Brian. For this first distribution, we received only the “berry” share and egg share: 2 lbs. of asparagus and 1 dozen eggs.

The first step was to store the asparagus well, especially since this would be a busy week for me and I knew I wouldn’t have much time to cook. I stored the asparagus like a bouquet of flowers—upright in a glass storage container with water—in the fridge and covered loosely with plastic. Continue reading →

Filed under: Greig Farm Berry Share, Member Diary, Recipes, Share Care, Winter Share, Winter Sun Farm Share, Yellow Bell Egg Share | Tagged: asparagus, cauliflower, collard Greens, Egg, OMELETTE, pasta, pork sausage, TO- GO BREAKFAST | Leave a comment »

COUGAR Member Diary

Posted on November 3, 2014 by ryan la chica

In the five years we’ve been Southside CSA members, we’ve frequently planned a fall dinner party in order to share some of our haul and try out some more ambitious dishes to share in our blog post. This year we did have a party, but one of an entirely different sort. Since we welcomed Elias, our seven month old, into our family, our meals need to be fast and ideally sharable with a baby. We still like to entertain, though, so our recipes this week will feature two meals from the beginning of the weak meant to take us through a few days, a few lightning fast meals, baby friendly treats, and some party food from the Halloween bash we threw for Elias’s buddies and their parents.

This week’s share

We pick up bi-weekly, and we have the veggie, orchard, berry, egg, and meat shares. We began the week with several (still fresh!) leftover items from our previous week’s pickup due to some busy schedules, stomach viruses, and time spent out of town with our families. So, some items featured in this week’s meals are from the prior week.

Included in this week’s pickup: Apples, apple cider, red and yellow onions, decorative gourds (‘tis the season), popping corn, Swiss chard, two bunches of spinach, mustard greens, and a head of cabbage.

Beginning of the week meals

We began each of the last two weeks with soups.

Last week, we used up some of our CSA veggies with a corn chowder.

For this chowder we used:

Olive Oil
3 strips of bacon
2 onions (CSA)
6 cups of chicken stock (we used a stock made from the scraps of a Northwind Farm chicken, veggie scraps, and some CSA lemongrass for kick)
4 ears of corn, kernels off the cob, and two ears reserved for the soup
3 waxy potatoes (store bought)
2 Cups of Cream
Salt and Pepper

We cooked the bacon in a bit of olive oil, then took it out of the pan.
Then, we sautéed up a few small onions
When those were soft, we added the stock and the corn. We threw in the cobs for extra flavor
Then we added the potatoes. When everything was cooked through, we added cream and salt and pepper to taste.

This lasted us through three dinners! Continue reading →

Filed under: Greig Farm Berry Share, Member Diary, MimoMex Farm Shares, Northwind Farm Meat Share, NY Orchard Share, Recipes, Yellow Bell Egg Share | Tagged: arugula, baby led weaning - csa style, basil, carrot, chicken, cilantro, corn, Egg, frozen berries, garlic, onion, potato, radish, Savory Ideas, serrano pepper, soup, spinach, squash, stock, swiss chard, tomatillos, turkey | Leave a comment »

Stephanie Member Diary

Posted on October 27, 2014 by ryan la chica

Holy greens this week! This is what my partner, Brian, and I got in our MimoMex Veggie and Orchard half shares: mustard greens, red mustard greens, arugula, mizuna, spinach, broccoli, cilantro, onions, baby pumpkins, a Sugar Baby pumpkin, Empire apples, apple cider.

Monday:

Usually I try to clear out the fridge before my pickup so that there’s room for CSA goods and we don’t have any leftovers to eat (which would discourage us from cooking). That didn’t happen this weekend…we had guests over and ordered a ton of takeout one night instead of cooking, so not only did we have all those leftovers, we had a bunch of veggies that I’d been planning to cook. No room in the fridge!

Steps I took to clear out the fridge and store the share goods:

1. Drank the last of some white wine to get rid of the bottle. Need to start somewhere!

2. Finished up some takeout for dinner. No cooking tonight; clearing/storing only.

3. Cut our losses and traded some wilting cilantro for this week’s lively cilantro. Put the new cilantro in a glass with water (like a bouquet of flowers) and with a small plastic bag over the top. Old cilantro went in a bin for composting.

4. To help the rest of the greens last longer and reduce their bulk: picked out the wilted ones, trimmed off the stems, washed and spun the leaves, and packed them in plastic containers lined and layered with paper towels. Way laborious but worth it.

5. Consolidated carrots and celery with some radishes from a previous share in a FoodSaver container since they’re all supposed to be stored the same way anyway (with moisture and the air vents closed) and none of them produce ethylene.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Greig Farm Berry Share, Member Diary, MimoMex Farm Shares, NY Orchard Share, Recipes, Share Care | Tagged: apple, apple cider, asian cooking, berries, broccoli, cilantro, cleaning greens, Egg, garlic, kale, mustard greens, onion, parsley, potatoes, pumpkin, salad, smoothies, soup, spinach, storing your share | Leave a comment »

Laura & Merav Member Diary

Posted on October 20, 2014 by ryan la chica

My roommate and I share our CSA which is a half share of veggies, eggs, and orchard. This is our first year doing a CSA and we have been loving it! Here’s how we’ve been using the share this week:

Monday: After picking up the share, we decided to make a quiche with the spinach, corn, red onion (from two weeks ago), and eggs from the share. I just used a quick store bought crust, then I just sauteed up the veggies and added them to the crust. Then poured a mixture of 4 whisked eggs and about a half cup of milk plus salt and pepper on top. We added some shredded cheddar cheese and cilantro on top, then baked. This is a quick and easy meal that also makes great breakfasts or lunches throughout the week. We served the quiche with a salad using the Asian mixed greens and the radishes.

Tuesday: Today we had vegetarian black bean tacos. I just used some simmered black beans and served the tacos with a salad using an ear of roasted corn, cilantro, red onion from 2 weeks ago, and a non-CSA tomato. On top I used a tomatillo salsa that I had from last week that is the recipe that you guys posted a few weeks ago. It is really yummy!

Wednesday: Tonight we had Asian rice bowls (although I served it on a plate!), kind of a mix between Japanese and Korean flavors. This meal is also a good way to use up any random vegetables you may have lying around as you can pretty much throw whatever you want in here. The base is steamed Japanese sushi rice, then I added: steamed mustard greens, sliced radishes, and a soft boiled egg all from the share, plus some sliced avocado, kimchi from a jar that I had in the fridge, and chopped scallions. I just made a dressing with miso paste, rice vinegar, and sesame oil and drizzled that on top.

Thursday: Dinner was Was leftovers tonight but I did get around to roasting my pumpkin from two weeks ago. Just roasted in the over then pureed in the food processor. I saved it in ziplocks and will keep in the freezer until I’m ready to make a pie!

Friday and Saturday we didn’t cook. Sunday we made a soup with the other bunch of mustard greens and lamb sausage as well as some other random veggies thrown in. We served it with bread and cheese!!

So that’s our menu for the week. We still have some greens and cilantro that we’ll use up this coming week!

Filed under: Member Diary, MimoMex Farm Shares, NY Orchard Share, Recipes, Share Care, Yellow Bell Egg Share | Tagged: asian mixed greens, cilantro, corn, eat local, Egg, mustard greens, pumpkin, pumpkin puree, radish, red onion, salad, soup, spinach, tomatillo, tomato | Leave a comment »

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