Long, Hot Days of Summer

We made our third visit to the CSA farm last Friday to claim our veggies, and the smell of fresh "green" living things combined with the thick humid air almost stopped me in my tracks when we got out of the car: this is what our ancestors who settled on the prairie endured day in and day out without modern convenience. You wanted food to eat? You worked in the fields and fed your animals, and complaining wasn't really an option. Powerful people, those settlers!

I was wondering how our take for the week would be since we had about three days of heavy rains prior to the harvest...the big bummer was that the planned u-pick green bean "experience" had to be postponed because of seriously muddy fields. (In our family, fresh green beans might just be the perfect food!) Our baskets were still pretty full, but we had a greater percentage of lower-bulk "normal" items: tomatoes (which made me crazy since I still have not a single red one in my own garden!), carrots, cucumber, yellow squash, hot yellow peppers scallions, green cabbage, more beets (!), and swiss chard. And potatoes. Perfect, round, small new potatoes. Yum....

We made a fresh asian-style slaw of cabbage and carrots the first night: dressed in equal parts soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and oil mixed with sugar, salt, and pepper to taste I loved it, DH was okay with it (he prefers sweeter slaw) and DS was, well, not super pleased. The next adventure was roasted and grilled beets: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grilled-Beets-in-Rosemary-Vinegar/Detail.aspx

Now, I will say that a beet no more wants to be peeled and sliced than it wants to be grated (see my previous entry for the gory details!) but it does take marinade very nicely and the results were super tasty to both of the adults. DS - not a fan of beets. Or of vinegar. So - that should have been a no-brainer, right? We will definitely do this recipe again for the grown-ups!

In the protein department, we thawed and grilled our new york strip steaks this week - absolutely amazing to look at the steaks before cooking!

 DH debated on how much fat to leave on or trim off...and maybe still left too much. While we had enough flare-ups that I didn't take an "after" picture (read: burny-looking char on the top), the insides were still amazingly tasty and juicy. Mmmm...meat that remembers, well, being meat. We still have chickens and more ground beef to experiment with before we meet up with farmer Beth and her cooler-of-protein next Friday...maybe more pictures to be added soon!

Stay cool - eat local - and enjoy the summer!

Welcome to a CSA

For our family, we always joke about the danger of inertia. It usually seems to hold us in our places (like the inertia generated by the warm, comfy couch which keeps us lying there watching the end of "The Matrix" for about the thirtieth time); but, once broken, it can propel us into exciting and sometimes tiring patterns of new behaviors (like a daily effort to fend off the clutter which would otherwise build up on our countertop.) I will be the first to admit that I am resistant to change -- and my DH (Dear Husband) would heartily agree with that statement!

So...imagine my surprise when, after a short fast-track course in Environmental Biology (read: How The World Will Fall Into Irreversible Distress If We Don't Act Fast!) I decided that it was time for me to step outside my comfort zone and initiate some changes rather than wait for changes to be thrust upon me. Searching for more sustainable products, manufactured by more sustainably run companies, limiting household waste -- these kinds of conversations were not typical in our house B.B.C. (Before Biology Class). Now, well...they are the tip of the iceberg.

And now, to the present. This Father's Day, DS (Dear Son - catch on to the pattern?) and I offered fairly lame tribute -- homemade chocolate chip cookie bars, a new waterproof watch, and the age-old invitation to pick out something yummy to cook for a special dinner. DH's choice was to grill grass-fed beef burgers, a never-before prepared item in our food repertoire. We have experimented with organic and less-processed meats with good results, but usually we shop based on what looks best for the best price. So, grass-fed beef was certainly not in our usual grocery cart.

Those burgers were delicious. Not just tender, but also with a fresher flavor and a finer texture. We were finishing up dinner dishes and talking about how we could afford to keep grass-fed beef in the family line-up when one of us discussed the fact that, as residents of the Great Midwest there surely should be a semi-local farm that we could make arrangements with to purchase a quarter-side of beef. That was all it took - DH sped off to the laptop and in about an hour had researched not only local farms offering freezer meats, but also CSAs offering meats and veggies from local farms at reasonable prices.

For those of you who are new to this term, CSA stands for Consumer Supported Agriculture, and it represents the idea that food can come from a farm to your table without a middle man or three (packagers, shippers, marketers). CSAs operate in different ways - some require you to volunteer, some require you to pick up your food, some will deliver, some require a season commitment, and some a shorter term order. But, the purpose is the same: to match consumers with their food as it should be - farm-fresh and local.

So, after comparing costs to what we usually purchase from the grocery store and valuing for freshness and quality, we took a very new plunge and signed on for a whole season's worth of organic veggies from one very local pick-it-up-yourself farm and a three-month agreement with a semi-local pasture-and-grain meat farm which delivers from about 90 minutes away. DS (who is 8, and a fairly adventurous eater - especially of veggies) was intrigued with the idea that we would be mainly eating whatever came in the shipments rather than shopping for "favorite" veggies and meats, and he agreed that the would try everything with no complaining. I felt a bit like a rebel - sticking it to the big grocers - until I started chatting with some friends and immediately wondered if they would think we had lost our marbles. After all, I didn't know anyone else who used CSAs: what if we ended up with a whole bag of green stuff that no one knew how to cook?

Last Friday was our first veggie installment - you can see in the picture that our bounty was huge! Lettuce, snap peas (super yum!), Chinese cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, summer squash (yum!), radishes (not so yum), harukai turnips (surprisingly good) and garlic scapes (???) nearly covered our table...and then covered every single shelf in our fridge...and filled every drawer...maybe this plan wasn't so well thought out! So far, we have been enjoying the harvest, and almost everything has been well received by everyone in the house, including my mom from out-of-town. Biggest hit: fresh, steamed sugar snap peas... Massaged Kale Salad (a favorite of my sister (well, technically sister-in-law, but not in spirit) was also a great try (although it might need more massaging next time!)

I have plans in future posts to document favorite meals, so stay tuned. The meat box for the month arrives on Friday, so I will share that haul as well.