COUGAR Member Diary

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

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This lasted us through three dinners! Continue reading

Laura & Merav Member Diary

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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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!!

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

FUNCORE Member Diary - Week of August 11th

This week we received:

  • 1 head red leaf lettuce
  • 1 bunch green beans
  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 1 quart blueberries
  • 1 bunch radishes
  • 1 bunch spinach
  • 4 ears corn
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 2 summer squash
  • 3 cucumbers
  • 1 bunch of sage

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We were going camping this weekend so we needed to strategize a bit in order to make sure we had a weeks worth of delicious lunches to bring to work, as well as 3 meals to contribute to the camping trip.

For lunch during the week, we made easy pita pockets filled with chicken breast, and thin slices of radishes, carrots and cucumber. Top it all off with homemade Goddess dressing- delicious and so easy!. Check out this neat trick I learned to help your pita keep it’s shape. Simply cut off a silver from the top then use the silver to wedge the pita open while it toasts. Voila! Life Hack!

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Here is the recipe to make your own version of Goddess dressing at home:

2 tablespoons safflower or canola oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup tahini
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup roughly chopped scallions (about 2-3 big ones)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus a healthy dash of tamari (or whatever soy saucy kinda thing you roll with)
3 garlic cloves
some salt and pepper to taste

Put it all in a blender or food processor and whizz it until its smooth. Better make a double batch though, cause you might just drink it out of the bottle.

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For our camping trip, we prepared in advance some whole wheat pesto pasta using ramp pesto that we had made last year and stored in the freezer. We served it with simply sauteed tomatoes, squash, carrots and green beans- a sort of rustic take on ratatouille. Continue reading

Wills & Sarah Member Diary - Week of Aug 25th

Wills and Sarah Share - On a mission to eat it all

Except for the eggplants. What can I say, I dont like em. They are very pretty though, and the neighbors love em.
Here is the take for the week. Gorgeous!

Continue reading

December Winter Share Distribution

With these whirlwind weeks of holiday cooking and new years celebrations, it seems like it was just yesterday but it was actually a few weeks ago on December 17th that we had our first distribution of our 5 month Winter season. We figured before we start posting all the amazing things we have been cooking/baking/preserving, it was about time we did an informational post about the December shares….

Dec 2013 Winter Sun Vegetable Share

Dec 2013 Winter Sun Vegetable Share

Winter Sun Vegetable Share

This month’s distribution included 6 frozen items. Typically we get 5 items plus a fresh bag of pea shoots. Unfortunately, early December was a hard one for pea shoots. The farm that we get our pea shoots from, Little Seed Gardens in Chatham, NY, was hit particularly hard with a cold snap and they lost their pea shoots. (The plan as it stands is to have pea shoots again in January and in subsequent months.) Therefore, in December we all got an extra frozen item in place of the pea shoots.

The December share included the following:

  • 24 oz jar of Tomato Puree from Taliaferro Farm & Williams Farm
  • Butternut Squash Puree from Black Horse Farm in Coxsackie, NY
  • Winterbor Kale from Stoneledge Farm in South Cairo, NY
  • Blueberries from Mead Orchards Farm in Tivoli, NY
  • Green Beans from Markristo Farm in Hillsdale, NY
  • Diced Peppers from Hepworth Farm in Milton, NY
  • Sweet Corn from Gills Farm in Hurley, NY
Montrose guarding the eggs

Montrose guarding the eggs

Egg Share

Members picked up their dozen’s of gorgeous eggs…..

Dec 2013 Whole Meat Share

Dec 2013 Whole Meat Share

Northwind Farm Meat Shares

Half Share - The average weight comes to 7.7 lbs per share

  • Barbary Duck
  • Ground Turkey Meat
  • Chicken split Breast
  • Breakfast Sausage
  • Rib Steak

Whole Share - The average weight total comes to 11lbs per share

  • Barbary Duck
  • Turkey Drumsticks
  • Breakfast Sausage
  • Ground Turkey
  • Turkey Tenderloins
  • Rib Steak
Tasting of beers n' hot sauces

Tasting of beers n’ hot sauces

Broken Stove Beer Tasting Club

This month’s selection of homebrew goodness:

3 22 ounce bottles of the following -

  • Dunkelweisen
  • Scotch Ale
  • Smoked Porter

Still time to get in on our winter shares. Prices to join will be updated on the blog later today…..

Corn Soup - 2 ways!

MimoMex Corn. Aug 2013

Winter Share Sweet Corn!

Winter Share Sweet Corn!

Corn is one of my favorite “vegetables”. I count down the days till the fresh corn arrives in our CSA. And then do the happy dance when they arrive in the Winter Share. Not much beats a sweet corn soup in the dark days of Winter. Cleaning out the inbox I found a Member Diary which somehow never got posted. Whoops! Plus, gearing up for our first distribution of frozen delights from Winter Sun, I was cruising through pics of meals we rocked last year. We loooooooove corn soup! Corn Soup_Step 3 (1)

Continue reading

Sugar Ladies Member Diary for the Week of Oct 14th

The shared: Pears, Butternut squash, Acorn squash, Carrots, Parsnips, Parsley, and Greens Galore (Kale, lettuce, arugula, and other green things I don’t know the proper name for).

The sharers: We are three sweet female roommates (i.e., sugar ladies).

granola crisp pic by Beth ArnoldThere are two approaches to cooking. The first is scientific, i.e., following a recipe. The other is improvisational, i.e., “winging it.” This week, we did a little of both. Continue reading

FUNCORE Member Diary Week #22 (Sept 23)

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This week from our share we picked up the following:

  • 1 doz egg
  • 3 potatoes
  • 1 bunch parsley
  • 1 bunch radishes
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 3 green peppers
  • 1 bunch lettuce
  • 4 ears corn
  • 14 apples
  • 2 poblano peppers
  • 1 pumpkin plus a mini guy

We usually make 4 to 5 things a week with what we pick up, but this week was the week we were due to have a baby- AND WE DID! Our little man joined the world on Sept. 26th and while we are so excited to have him in our lives, we still need to eat. So we kept it simple, but big on flavor and still used everything in our weekly pick up.

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Early in the week we made a big bowl of veggie and quinoa salad. Continue reading