Now that we’re into the winter portion of our CSA share, pick ups are every other week. It’s a bit of a mental adjustment for me and I feel like I should be planning 2 weeks of meals when I plan my menu, instead of one. So far I haven’t been successful in this department, but maybe December will prove otherwise. Without a 2 week plan it’s hard to decide what produce to get and how much we’ll need of certain ingredients, plus we now get 20 items per pick up which seems like an awful lot when you’re at the farm. We’ve done pretty well using up what’ve gotten thus far, but we’re really intentional about it.
So, what’d we get?
First Pick Up (First week of November):
Cabbage, bok choy, spinach, eggs, apples, acorn squash, butternut squash, onions, carrots, potatoes, beets, garlic, sweet potatoes
Second Pick Up (Third week of November):
Butternut squash, kale, spinach, apples, acorn squash, celeriac, eggs, beets, potatoes, onions, carrots
Since we were headed to Maine for Thanksgiving (and therefore weren’t going to be home for 5 days), our selection changed a bit. We got several items worth of potatoes, onions and apples and gave some to my parents. The kale was also for them. For the remaining items we focused on getting things that would last the full 2 weeks if we didn’t use them before we left. At this point we have the celeriac (which I really need a use for), a few carrots, 1 butternut squash and some potatoes and onions left. That list seemed a lot shorter before I typed it out, but most of it will be gone before our next pickup this weekend.
As far as how we used all that produce, it’s a little hard for me to say. We had incredibly purple cabbage soup and teff crepes, both of which made good use of CSA items. Other than that, I’m not sure where it all went because I apparently decided to stop taking pictures of the meals I cooked this month. It wasn’t intentional, but I have very few food photos from November. Some of that is due to the fact that it didn’t get used in very interesting ways: we ate carrot sticks and apples as snacks and roasted squash or beets were frequent side dishes. Hopefully next month’s report will feature more photos and ideas!