itchy mcgoo wrote:I almost did the Angelic thing last summer but it was too late in the season.

I worry that I don't cook well enough or cook enough to make this worth the money. It's a more worthy an expenditure than many, many things so maybe that shouldn't be a bother.

mmmaybe I should look into again...

You can always give away the surplus to neighbors. Better than letting it go to waste and you kill two good deed birds with one stone.

I'd never even heard of this before looking at this thread. Now I find out that there's a CSA with a distribution point in DUMBO not far from our apartment. I'm pretty sure we're going to buy a half-share now. Thanks for the heads-up!

tmbgitw and i look at this each spring and then decide not to do it. this is because we're already tremendously spoiled by being within walking distance of green grocer chicago, the wicker park farmer's market, the lincoln park farmer's market, etc. if these resources weren't available to us, we'd hop on the CSA in a second.

I've mentioned it before, but this cookbook rules. The chapters are organized by fruit/vegetable, so if you happen to get way too much okra, you go to the "okra" section and read about how to prepare it, whether it can be canned or frozen, and find a bunch of delicious okracentric recipes to use. It also provides information about the plants, including seasonality, how to how to plant and care for the crop, when to harvest, etc. This is useful if you are a gardener but also nice in a situation such as this where one might want to know when to expect a massive batch of beans to arrive.

Also, in addition to giving excess food away to neighbours and friends, you can also freeze and store some of the ingredients. If you have the room, invest in a small chest freezer and you'll have nearly fresh produce in the autumn and winter. Even though it's frozen, stuff from a garden still tastes ten times better than any frozen vegetable you buy at the store. It's also incredibly easy to do.

If you feel extra-adventurous, I'd recommend canning, especially with tomato sauce and a large batch of salsa. The tomato sauce is terrific to have for everything from lasagna to chili and there's nothing like cracking open a bottle of homemade salsa while watching a football game in December.

Ty Webb wrote:I'm pretty sure we're going to buy a half-share now. Thanks for the heads-up!

I wish I could find people near me to go in on a half-share.

Mandroid2.0 wrote:I've mentioned it before, but this cookbook rules.

A hearty second, the book is nearly a must if you belong to a decent coop farm. My wife and I have been members of The Foodbank Farm of Western MA for going on 10 years. I couldn't recommend it more; support for locals, great deal, palate expanding variety, unlimited herbs. CSA's fucking rock.

burun wrote:

Ty Webb wrote:I'm pretty sure we're going to buy a half-share now. Thanks for the heads-up!

I wish I could find people near me to go in on a half-share.

The pick-up spot is just down the street from the F train and the distribution is on Tuesdays. Isn't that your day off? Maybe you could get to Brooklyn once a week?

We'll keep you posted if we decide to sign up. Deadline is May 23.
http://www.dumbocsa.org/

So, I got my first delivery last week. Greens greens greens. Lettuce, spinach, choi, arugula (which I hate, actually), zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, radishes, garlic scape, sage, parsley.

This week I get beets, chard, kohlrabi, basil...

I haven't eaten this much salad in ages. I made a huge spinach/rice thing tonight, which has fed 3 people and is only half gone. I should have gone with the half-share.

We signed up for the DUMBO chapter. It's worked out great so far, as it's given us just the right amount of produce to supplement our week. I've eaten 3 vegetarian meals this week, which is 3 more than usual.

The quality of the food is always good-to-excellent.

ebeam wrote:So, I got my first delivery last week. Greens greens greens. Lettuce, spinach, choi, arugula (which I hate, actually), zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, radishes, garlic scape, sage, parsley.

This week I get beets, chard, kohlrabi, basil...

I haven't eaten this much salad in ages. I made a huge spinach/rice thing tonight, which has fed 3 people and is only half gone. I should have gone with the half-share.

You might want to try the arugula in a pesto with other greens or red peppers to cut the strong peppery taste. You can also freeze pesto and fresh herbs. I've been doing this in an ice cube tray this summer which works very well.

You are going to learn to get very creative with cooking this summer. If all else fails, soup is always a no-fail option for using up copious amounts of produce and you can freeze that as well.

Try pureeing the roasted or steamed kohlrabi and mixing it into some mashed potatoes. That's my favourite mashed potato recipe in the world, especially with a bit of garlic thrown in.

The beet greens and chard work really well with one another in a lot of recipes and can often replace spinach in things like casseroles or quiches.

Yay! No arugula this week. Everything looks fantastic.

I'm no stranger to creative cooking. I grew up eating out of the garden for almost every meal, so this is actually kind of fun for me. I've succeeded in eating everything from last week except the arugula and one head of lettuce. The arugula is still good though, so I might try out the pesto idea. Thanks. Also, we always just ate kohlrabi raw, but your mashed potato idea sounds good too.