CSA Adventure: Now For the Nitty Gritty

This has not been a great vegetable week.  I have discovered I am very spoiled.  I’m used to vegetables being the mindless part of dinner.  Open a bag, microwave, done.  Fresh-off-the-farm vegetables require more attention.  They are also more random in both appearance and taste when compared to grocery store vegetables.  You have to store them right, and clean them thoroughly. 

Farm fresh vegetables are gritty.  I have washed, and washed, and washed the lettuce and spinach.  Still there is that gritty texture, which while different, is not awful.  What is awful is that grit tastes bad. 

For some reason the red lettuce was bitter.  I talked to the farmer about it today when I picked up my third box of produce.  He didn’t know why that was so.  I wondered if I had stored the lettuce wrong, or had waited to long to use it.  Lettuce evidently is a gamble in the produce world.  Washing and drying lettuce and spinach takes more time and attention than I want to give to vegetable prep when making dinner.  I admit, I am spoiled.  I like being spoiled.  

We did enjoy the snow peas we received in our previous boxes.  This week we have sugar snap peas. You can not get me to willingly eat cooked peas unless politeness compels me to, (I will not eat a mushroom for any reason short of the threat of pain).  Fresh sugar snap peas are a revelation.  They are wonderful.  If the girls don’t get up soon, I will have eaten the whole bowl by myself.  They are like natures potatoes chips.  Crunchy, add a dash of salt...perfect.  

We received the funniest looking carrots.  I am going to use some in a salad and roast the rest.  The onions are also going into a salad and I’m going to fry some to go with the steaks we are planning to grill this week.  We received some butter leaf lettuce that I am going to use up quickly in a salad and on sandwiches.  If we join the CSA next year, I think a salad spinner would come in handy.  Strawberries again this week!  I do like being spoiled.  .