CSA begins

For those of you unfamiliar with a CSA, this is a great way to get local veggies! 

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Long ago when I was getting into healthy eating and discovered Weston A Price, the issue of raw milk and local produce entered my realm. Actually I found out about my local raw milk from my local Price foundation and the raw milk seller told me about a little husband and wife couple who just bought a farm and were starting up a CSA. I had no idea I could have access to this. I mean I know it was around but I didn't know it was so available! Cue my (now) 5th year with a CSA and countless other years before hand going to local markets. 

Basically you prepay for a season, here in Florida that's about November through May. Then once a week or once every other week you go to a predetermined site and pick up your veggies.

Updates, yo.

I think I have a seaweed problem. This is all the seaweed I own. Love it!

Watermelon+ginger+lime juice+peppercorns+basil+club soda=YUM!

Directions: place evrything but club soda in blender and blend. Strain. Add soda. Done!

Papaya salad. I was going for GREEN papaya salad but I guess it wasnt green enough. Still yum.

Dry-fried green beans. With little dreid shrimps. Umami here I come!

Full english brekkie! Starting at the toast: toast, fried tomato, fried mushrooms, hash (potatoes, apple and sage), sausage, bacon, beans (the english kind... more tomatoey) and my eggs are hidden under there somewhere. Lets not forget the tea.

I have been living a ridiculously tomatoey life, and love it.

I probably eat about 3 tomatoes a day. I cant help it. They are SO good. Between my plants, the CSA and my dads garden, I just really dont have a choice. Darn. Here is what Ive been doing with them. Mostly sammies, but some salads and stir fries as well.

Perfect makins for a perfect sammie: Fried sprouted bread (in BUTTER), counrty dijon, raw cheddar and a tomato.

Tomatoes with EVOO, pepper, basil.

Green zebras and yellow tomatoes on goat cheese.

More sammie awesome.

I think the goldies are my fave. A close second: striped german. YUMMY!!!

Fresh tomato tart and CSA picnic.

For black pepper parmesan pastry (adapted from epicurious)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons VERY cold unsalted butter, grated
• 2 tablespoons cold lard
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

1. Blend all ingredients except water.

2. Add water very slowly until it holds form.

3. Press into tart shell and bake at 375F for about 30 min.

For filling

6 oz goat cheese, blended with 2 T chopped tarragon and 2 t country dijon.

About 4 sliced tomatoes (I used lillians yellow and red slicers)

Tarragon, pepper and parmesan for garnish.

1. Slice tomatoes and set in strainer so extra juice flows out.

2. Spread goat cheese mix in bottom of tart shell, gently!

3. Top with tomatoes.

4. Garnish... done!

Pics of the farm:

Rows of cabbages.

Onion curing area.

Me being vain. :)

Pretty flowers everywhere.

Little sisters Bday cake.

Sarah turned 8. I made her cake.

It consisted of chocolate cake, raspberry cake, chocolate buttercream, raspberry buttercream, royal icing decorations and all kinds of fresh, pink flowers from Emily and Ben at Mile Creek Farm (CSA providers).

I made the cake and buttercream ahead and assembled it the night before, then did the tiers and decorations before the party. I also made the royal icing decorations (with sparkle powder) the night before so they had time to harden.

Gazpacho with roasted tomatillos and basil cream.

3 tomatillos, roasted at 400 for about 20 min.

3 med tomatoes

half a bell pepper

half a cucumber

half an onion

1 garlic clove

dash tabasco
1. Add everything to blender... blend!

Basil Cream

1 cup cream

1 cup basil

1. I used a stick blender but you can use a food processor.

Serve: Spoon gazpacho into bowl, drizzle with basil cream and mix in some avocado chunks! YUM.

Pesce spada alla Norma.

Pasta alla Norma, but with swordfish. YUM.

Pesce Spada alla Norma

1 4 or 5oz swordfish steak, cooked however you want (I broiled mine with some lemon).

1 eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, salted, drained and pat dry.

1 small red onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

4 celery tops, minced

1 cup basil leaves, cut in chiffonade

2 T tomato paste

Sprinkle of oregano

Goat cheese

1. Het some lard in a nonstick pan over medhigh heat. Fry eggplant in lard until soft and golden. Make sure the lard is good and hot so the eggplant wont just sop it all up. Having the eggplant WELL drained and pat VERY dry also helps. I used about 2 T lard and had some left when the eggplant was done. Trust me, if you do it right, you wont have oil sponge eggplant yuck.

2. At the last few seconds, sprinkle oregano onto eggplant so it wakes up a little. Remove eggplant from pan.

3. Turn heat to med. Add onion to pan, cook for about 2 min. Add tomato, garlic and celery tops to pan. Let cook about 10 min until tomato is soft and breaking up.

4. Add tomato paste and a little water to dissolve. Heat for a couple mins.

5. Add basil leaves at the last minute and serve. I put in on top of swordfish steaks but you can do whatever sounds yummy! Sprinkle goat cheese on top (supposed to be ricotta salata but I really like goat cheese).

CSA Week 10

Vegetarian soft rolls with peanut sauce.

Fillings:

Napa, red pepper, scallions, basil, mint, cilantro, cucumber, wakame, avocado.

Sauce:

Peanuts, shoyu, fish sauce, sesame oil, water, onion.

Rolling tutorial here!

Date and tamarind squares. Sweet corny milk :)

So this is definetly a 20% post. For those of you wh o have no oide what that means, it is basically "Ill do really well with my diet 80% of the time, and have some sweet snacks 20% of the time."

Date/tamarind/hazelnut/coconut squares
Add into a food processor:
about 15 dates
2 handfuls of hazelnuts
about 2 T tamarind paste (available at indian or latin markets)
I added a pinch of cardamom, but you could leave that out or do anther spice.

1. Blitz in food processor until pastey.
2. Sprinkle shredded, unsweetened coconut into a pie plate. Dump paste in there and flatten out to about 1 cm thickness. Sprinkle with more coconut.
3. Place in fridge overnight (or just until hardened).
4. Remove flattened and coconutted disk. Using a sharp chefs knife, slice into small squares (about 3/4 in square).
5. Use more coconut and toss the squares in the coconut, so it sticks to the cut sides.
6. Done! Store in fridge, lasts for a while.

Sweet corn and milk drink! It was so intriguing I HAD to try it! It was VERY VERY yummy. In fact, Im thinking there may be a 20% in this drinks future... we shall see.

Beets? Yes, beets.

Beet bottoms, post roast!

Cold beet soup. So pretty.

Beet and cabbage slaw.

Cold beet soup for summertime. I used tarragon instead of dill.

Beet and cabbage slaw.

CSA catch up. Post computer virus shuffle.

Week 6: candy onions, scallions, collards, broccoli, lettuce, yellow squash, patty pan squash, cucumber.

Week 7: zucchini, carrots, lettuce, onions, candy onions, cucumbers, broccoli, yellow tomato (1st of the season).

Week 8: kale, basil, purple potatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, patty pans, carrots, candy onions, cucumber, green beans, yellow tomatoes and GARLIC. I also included some bells of ireland in the pic (flowers in the right corner) because I lovelovelove them and Ben and Emily (the CSA farmers) provided them for me after an email I sent. Thanks guys!

I have a ton of recipes coming, so Im going to get started on that. I must say though, that the cukes Ive gotten from the CSA are super yummy! They are really crunchy and awesome. The garlic... ohmagod it was good!!! Well, everything is good but I have never had garlic that wasn't from meijer or something.

Stevia how I love thee...

This is how not to grow stevia: This is how to grow stevia:

Lesson: Stevia apparently does NOT like bright sun. It withered away like me from my workouts. I hope the second go works! Emily and Ben- sorry I killed the plant you grew. Hopefully I learned my lesson!

Herbs de CSA. Basil (CSA), Sage (CSA), Tarragon (Amish people @ 2nd street market).