Lettuce Begin

I picked up our first box of produce from the CSA we joined this year! Our box contained mostly salad greens. The 13 year old was over telling one friend our fridge looks like a “rabbit food store”. There was a beautiful huge head of red leaf lettuce, some spinach and something pretty with curly leaves I didn’t recognize. A big bunch of scallions has me thinking scallion bread is in our future. In addition, we received a heap of snap peas, nature’s perfect dip dippers. I left those out on the counter, hoping the less adventurous eaters would at least try them.

I realized how little experience my kids have with fresh grown produce when they would not eat the strawberries. The berries tasted wonderful however, they looked like alien berries, misshapen, not perfectly red. I cut them up and froze them for future use. I think they will wind up in a strawberry sorbet recipe I want to try.

I was hoping not to have to buy produce from the grocery store. That plan is not going to work for our family. Elizabeth from Wild Onion Farms pointed out in her newsletter:

This is an admittedly weird way to most of eating. You will get a box each week of the best of what I am harvesting off the farm that week, depending on the season. That is very different for most to what you might buy every week from the grocery store. Before I had a bounty of fresh, seasonal vegetables available out my back door, I can remember shopping lists out of the produce department…potatoes, onions, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, maybe an orange or an avocado. None of that grows together at the same time in the same place for a simultaneous harvest, unless perhaps you live in California . Some of it does not even grow in this climate at all.

We like out of season produce so I will still be getting items like avocados and potatoes at the grocery store. There is not enough fruit to get my fruit loving family through the week, fruit  will remain on my weekly shopping list.

I’m not sure is the CSA will save us money in the long run but as a family that like good food, I’m thinking shrimp salad with that beautiful red lettuce, and pasta with garlic, olive oil and spinach , cheddar cheese and chive bread, it is looking to be a good week to be a foodie at our house.