CSA Week 2

(What does CSA mean? Community Supported Agriculture. Taken from flagcsa.com: 'Community Supported Agriculture is a direct connection between a local farmer and the people who eat the food they produce.' Basically, I pay money to a farmer who lives two hours away so that they can plant and maintain a family-run organic farm and I get food directly from it once a week. To get more information, visit Local Harvest. Read about Week 1 here.)

I definitely feel like we got more greens this week, and it shows in our fridge!

We don't typically have a huge box of wine taking up our fridge, it was leftover from camping!

We were able to eat all of the veggies from last week, even the wilted lettuce, and hopefully we can finish them again this week! The lettuce went pretty droopy after two or three days, which is pretty fast compared to supermarket lettuce, so today I'm going to rinse it all and break it up into a big bowl and make a salad. I know that when there is a salad already prepared it will be eaten immediately by Vince and I, so there will be no chance of it going bad!

Here's our 'harvest':

1 bag of kale, 3 oranges, 1 bunch baby beets, 2 heads of lettuce, 1 bunch collard greens, 1 bunch carrots, 1 container peas, and 1 bunch chard

Last week Vince kept telling me to make 'collie greens' (it's so freaking cute when he says it, my heart melts) and I kept saying, 'We don't have collard greens, it's chard!' But this week? We got ourselves some collard greens and I can now make it! I was thinking this recipe or this one. Let me know if you have any good recipes!

Vince loves what I do with the chard, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I adapted it from a recipe I found online a couple of years ago and don't know where I found the original, but it's pretty basic.

Garlic Chard with a Balsamic Vinaigrette Reduction

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2-4 tablespoon olive oil

10-12 pieces chard, cut up into small strips (you can use just the leaves and get rid of the stalk or use the whole thing like I do)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Let the garlic sauté for only a minute or two until it smells garlicy. You don't want the garlic to be cooked to its 'full potential' because it will still be cooking with the chard. IMMEDIATELY add the chard and put a lid on it. Let the chard cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently, until it is soft and wilted. If it looks like the chard or the pan is too dry, add more olive oil. Remove the pan from heat and add the balsamic vinegar. Serve right away! 

We got some more chard and I plan on making this again...it's so delicious! I think it will be great over some quinoa as a snack.

As for the carrots and beets, I plan on juicing them! My juicer should be here today (even though UPS said it should have been here yesterday) and I can't wait to try it out. I still have that huge bag of carrots in my fridge!

Lastly, the peas are great to snack on. While they would be delicious in a stir fry, I love snapping off the ends and picking the peas out before eating the shell!