COUGAR Member Diary

Cougar 1

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.

Cougar 2

This lasted us through three dinners! Continue reading

Stephanie Member Diary

photo 1
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!
photo 2
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

Dillen Member Diary

IMG_1440

This is our friend Yvonne doing her distribution service on Oct.06th. She is the one who introduced us to the Southside CSA. She gave us her share on week while she was out of town and we were blown away!

Our family is 3 people- two adults and a 4 year old. The share we got from Yvonne was a full share with Veggies, Berries, Orchard, Meat and Eggs. It was the 4th of July weekend and we had way more food than we could handle. We had a bbq party and ate all we could of the amazing food.

We signed up right away!

Knowing that we couldn’t manage the massive amount of food, we asked our friends who are the same size family as us, to split a share. We chose to sign up for Veggies, Berries, Orchard and eggs.

We go to every distribution and split it up on the spot. every week we alternate who gets the eggs.

IMG_1454

 

This is our split. Half a bunch of red mizuna each 🙂 some times we just pick who wants what more.. We will take the spinach and they take the arugula..Depends on the mood.

Monday night distro has also turned into our daughters favorite night of the week. she sees her friends, stays out late,- drinks fancy virgin cocktails. Nice energy and great light in the Woods.

So for Oct.06 share: we took home corn, radishes, red mizuna, spinach, tomatillos, poblano peppers, cilantro, a half pound of Chilliquita peppers, apples, gourds, a pumpkin and mustard greens- not our week for the eggs.

 

IMG_1441 IMG_1442 IMG_1443 IMG_1448 IMG_1460

IMG_1526

We live in manhattan - its a bit of a haul. we just got a car.

So for the week of eats> Continue reading

Tomatillo Recipes from Swift Johnson Share

tasty tomatillos

Tomatillos can be a challenge for those not used to cooking with them. Share family Swift Johnson shares their favorite recipes in this Special Tomatillo edition of the Member Diary

Here are a couple of tomatillo recipes!!
tomatillos

tomatillo salsa

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Total Time: 15 min

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos
  • 5 fresh serrano chiles
  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
  • 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons coarse salt

Preparation

  • Preheat broiler.
  • Remove tomatillo husks and rinse under warm water to remove stickiness. Broil chiles, garlic, and tomatillos on rack of a broiler pan 1 to 2 inches from heat, turning once, until tomatillos are softened and slightly charred, about 7 minutes.
  • Peel garlic and pull off tops of chiles. Purée all ingredients in a blender.
  • Salsa can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

fried tomatillos

Fried Tomatillos

These are SO DELICIOUS as an appetizer. Lemony and fried and super tasty! Great served with marinara or any other sauce for dipping.

Ingredients:

  • Tomatillos
  • Flour
  • Egg
  • Breadcrumbs or cornmeal
  • Salt and pepper

Preparation:

  1. Mix salt and pepper into a cup or two of flour
  2. Whisk a couple of eggs
  3. Fill a small bowl or plate with breadcrumbs or cornmeal.
  4. Slice tomatillos into 1/4 inch slices
  5. Dip tomatillo slices in flour on both sides then shake off the excess. Then dip in egg on both sides.
  6. Finally, dip both sides in bread crumbs or cornmeal and fry in vegetable oil.
  7. Eat while hot!

 

Meeshka Member Diary

berry
We split a Half Monty Deluxe between three households. Two of us have been part of the Southside CSA, so we generally know that once the blueberries start, you are in blueberry heaven for a few weeks, so we use a quick recipe to make some easy breakfast muffins.

meeshka 1-page-001

Continue reading

Member Diary for Nadia A Shares for Week of July 14

image_4

This is what we made with our vegetable and egg share….a kind of Turkish savory pancake.

image_4
Continue reading

Wallace Shawn Member Diary - Week of June 23rd

Spread

We are Maria, Quentin, and Hawkins (the cat). This is the first summer we’ve signed up for a CSA and we couldn’t love it more! The two of us pick up full berry and vegetable shares (orchard share to come!!).

This week we got four quarts of strawberries, four stalks garlic, two stalks of red onion, three stalks of white onion, a cute plastic bag of flor de calabaza, one bunch mizuna and one of Swiss chard, two pounds of snap peas (one from Greig Farm and one from Miromex) and a pound of mixed salad greens. We ran through most of it this week save for some leftover onions and garlic. And we’ve been able to lug everything back to our home in Ridgewood in three canvas tote bags.

Though we’ve planning to make strawberry preserves the way Maria’s grandmother likes to, this time we ate through all 4 quarts by Wednesday afternoon! Last week, we somehow managed to restrain ourselves enough to save a quart for a batch of strawberry biscuits… but not this time around.

scrambled eggs

For breakfast, we often make scrambled eggs served on tortillas with some scraps of green veggies. This week we used cilantro and sugar snap peas. Both of us bring lunch to work during weekdays and we’ve been happily throwing the mixed salad greens on our turkey sandwiches for extra crunch. Yum! Continue reading

Marcel Forrest Member Diary - Week of June 16

jason_and_marcel

Marcel Forrest - We have a half share of veggies and eggs that feeds me (Jason) and my boyfriend (Marcel). I was so excited as this is my first year as a member of the CSA and my first share of veggies! I came to distribution not sure what to expect and was delighted by the variety.

This week’s haul
● 1/2 lb lettuce
● 1/2 lb baby bok choy
● 1/2 lb english peas
● 1/2 pound garlic scrapes (yea!)
● 1 bunch swiss chard
● 1 bunch cilantro
● 1 bunch garlic (4 pieces)

the_haul

One bag is enough to carry everything home.

share_transportation

Continue reading

June 23 - B week - week 8 of 30

MimoMex Vegetable Share
1lb sweet peas
1bag flor de calabaza (squash blossoms) (use them in a frittata, a soup, quesadillas, or stuffed with cheese, battered and fried)
2 white onions
3 green onions
4 garlic bulbs
1 bunch mizuna
1 bunch sweet chard
1 lb salad mix

Greig Farm Berry Share
4 quarts strawberries

Yellow Bell Egg Share
1 dozen
Yellow Bell Chicken Share
1 pack chicken thighs
1pk split shell chicken breast
Northwind Farm Meat Share
1pack chorizo
1porterhouse steak

1 pack chicken thighs

1 split chicken breast

small beef shank

20140623-192054-69654430.jpg

20140623-192053-69653149.jpg

20140623-192053-69653791.jpg

20140623-192050-69650702.jpg

20140623-192051-69651900.jpg

20140623-192051-69651287.jpg

20140623-192055-69655062.jpg

20140623-192052-69652511.jpg

20140623-192056-69656325.jpg

20140623-192057-69657123.jpg

20140623-192055-69655688.jpg

Southside CSA distribution June 16th

MimoMex Veggie Share:
1/2 pound salad mix
1/2 pound bok choy
1/2 pound sweet peas
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch of 4 pieces of garlic
1/2 pound of garlic scapes

20140616-183349-66829037.jpg

20140616-183346-66826604.jpg

20140616-183348-66828440.jpg

20140616-183347-66827219.jpg

20140616-183349-66829806.jpg

20140616-183347-66827818.jpg

20140616-183345-66825833.jpg

Greig Farm Berry Share:
4 Qts of Strawberries
1 lb Sweet Peas

20140616-183607-66967081.jpg

20140616-183606-66966484.jpg

Northwind Farm Meat Share:
Sweet Italian Sauasage
Shell Chicken
Pork Chops
Hot Italian Sausage
Steak

20140616-183706-67026431.jpg

Yellow Bell Egg Share

20140616-184107-67267657.jpg

Yellow Bell Chicken Share:

20140616-184201-67321677.jpg