I joined my CSA this year fully expecting that I’d be confronted with unfamiliar produce. That was actually one of the big draws.
I wanted to not only get farm-fresh veggies already in our diet, I wanted to be exposed to new foods and new ways to prepare them.
We definitely got our chance to try plenty of new things this season, including our recent eggplant lasagna. I’d eaten eggplant of course. But this was my first time cooking it.
Also new to us (to the point that we’ll seek it out), thanks to King’s Hill Farm: torpedo onions, Napa cabbage, beet greens (huge hit), multiple varieties of delicious squash, celeriac, savoy cabbage and some of the most beautiful heirloom tomatoes I’ve ever seen.
Still, if we do this again (we probably will), I’ll need to do more food storage research. I hate throwing food away, yet I found myself doing way too much of that in the weeks following a share pickup.
Out of desperation, at one point I threw a load of veggies that were on the verge of waste into a crock pot and made veggie stock.
But I also tossed too many rotting veggies into the garbage pail.
At the end of the season, I got better about blanching or roasting and freezing.
We have plenty of leftover corn. And we’re set for the winter with our roasted sweet mystery pepper (cubanelles maybe) and roasted poblanos.
But I don’t want to do this again without setting aside time to prep the produce for storage. Oh…and we need to set up a compost.
That would help.
Virtual Farmgirl 