The CSA Challenge
I am growing frustrated. I want to be incredibly supportive of my local farms and I know that community supported agriculture is a great way to do that. But every two weeks I get a box of veggies delivered to my door, and every two weeks I find myself making room for those veggies in the fridge by throwing away the old rotting veggies I didn’t have time to use.
I feel awful about it and I was JUST about to go to the website and cancel my subscription and instead I turned to you, blog. Instead, I decided I need to change my behavior and do a better job with my veggies and so I have decided to begin (drumroll…) The CSA Challenge. Every two weeks, on Tuesday, I am going to detail exactly what I received in my CSA box. And I will plan a menu around that box. We will plan a menu together. And then I will blog about each of those recipes, throughout the two weeks. I’m hoping the planfullness (sure, I make up words) will be helpful to me. And the blogfulness will hold me accountable to follow through. And maybe even it will be of use to you, fellow Bay Area (and elsewhere) eaters who are looking for cooking inspiration every time your CSA box rolls in. So now… I begin!
This week’s box contains:
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3 turnips
1 medium butternut squash
3 persimmons
2 pomegranates
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
3 medium leeks
6 medium carrots
3 heads bok choy
1 head raddichio
1 bunch arugula
Here is my bounty, in all of it’s glory (before fridge):
So here is how this CSA Challenge will go. Tuesdays (every other, as that is how often my box comes) I will post the contents of that week’s box. Wednesday I will post my recipe plan and inspiration. And throughout the remaining days before the next box arrives I will post entries for each meal. If you have inspiration or thoughts for recipes, please share them in the comments section. If you have thoughts on how you have fared (or struggled) with managing your own CSA box, please share those thoughts too.
I am grappling with my desire to support local agriculture in a way that seems ideal — sustained buying direct from producers. But this ideal has butted heads with my unfortunate ingrained shopping habits that have gotten me used to purchasing exactly what I need whenever I want it. Philosophically I jumped on the bandwagon of supporting local agriculture years ago, but I am finding more and more that I need to fundamentally alter my habits of purchasing and making food. I need to be more planful, and less impulsive, and I need to make time for food. I find, often, that my plans to cook dinner five nights a week get derailed as I stay at work late and go off to second and third jobs and more often than not come home and collapse exhausted on the couch, thoughts of cooking healthy vegetable-rich meals far from my overscheduled mind. And thus my poor veggies grow increasingly sodden in my fridge. SO. Here is the beginning of me putting an end to it all. Send me your ideas on menu planning in the comments. Bonus incentive: Local Bay Area commenters stand to win a prize!
Hola Stepho,
So this is where I have the distinct advantage of being a terrible cook with no intuition. I’m in a slightly different scenario since I collect my veggies weekly, but I use it as an excuse to figure out exactly what the heck I’m dealing with and just find something to do with it, knowing I’ll force myself to eat it regardless. More often than not I’m pleased with the results, but I’ve set the standards fairly low (gotta learn somehow, right?).
I’m very excited to hear what you come up with though! Hopefully it will help me with my own meals. I also try to plan around the expiration of the vegetables, so that things like leafy greens get eaten a lot sooner than say squash and potatoes. Oh and when in doubt, stirfry, soups, and stews! But I’m sure that’s all old hat to you.
Good luck!
Hey Alex! Lovely to hear from you. I think the menu will be a lot of soups, in the end. Good thing I love me some soups…. Wish you were closer so you could come over and eat them with us!
I took have long since been struggling with this issue. Going to the grocery store buying what looks good at the moment, getting home and realizing I only bought ingredient to go with my veggies but didn’t plan out my meals. Far too often I’m far too busy to actually prepare a full meal and end up eating something quick, leaving my bounty of veggies to go to waste. I am going to join the challenge and start creating weekly menus and cooking ahead of time.
I love it! I hope you’ll come back and share some of your weekly menus and inspiration, hopefully our veggies will eventually stop going to waste AND our bellies will be happy. Double win. Stay tuned this evening, I’m almost done with my menu planning and I’ll have the menu up tonight!
YES! I will engage in a coast-to-coast battle with you. First question: how in the WORLD did you find a CSA that doesn’t deliver KALE?
A recent CSA triumph was in shepherd’s pie – brown some meat (or no meat), then saute whatever veggies (we did onions, carrots, kale, and a BUNCH of cauliflower) with some tomato paste + red wine… top with mashed potatoes (preferably enriched with cheese and egg yolks) and bake!
A great excuse to have the oven on in the cold/rain, and twas delicous – I should know since I’ve eaten it for the past three days…
Yes!!! Coast-to-coast battle… let it begin! Is this shepherd’s pie like the amazing biscuit-topped pie you made me that I still swoon over? I like all of these things. Perhaps this weekend shall be a comfort-food-fest with shepherd’s pie and blankets on the menu. Pie for eating, blankets for spooning. Will you come??
Oh, Steph! This is something that Ian and I struggle with every two weeks as well, but we’ve had increased success with pretty limited planning ahead of time. It’s so funny though; I spend all day working with food, and by the time I come home I often have no idea what I want to cook for dinner. We’ve found that it helps to have a few staple pantry items on hand; our go to list includes pancetta, capricho de cabra cheese, eggs, umbrian farro, and shallots. Anyway, if I were you I’d make some version of the following dishes:
-A farro dish with walnuts, roasted butternut squash & leeks, tossed with pomegranate seeds. You could serve this as a one dish meal, over arugula. Dress the farro salad with a simple vinaigrette if you wish.
-A huuuugge salad with the persimmons in it. They’re amazing with little gems, spinach, arugula, italian parsley, & goat cheese.
I’d then probably roast the turnips to be a side dish, or maybe make them into a soup. We also looove sauteing any sort of green in a mixture of anchovies & garlic that have been slowly cooked in olive oil and mashed into an aromatic deliciousness.
I’m getting hungry typing this so i have to move along to the kitchen, but I wish you luck! I’ll be checking in…
Ummm I love all these ideas. I was JUST posting the weeks menu as I got this comment but I may just have to go back and change a few things. I found this crazy recipe for persimmon bread (and another for persimmon MOJITOS… clearly must try that) but I love the idea of them in a delicious salad. The first (and only) time I’ve been to Chez Panisse I had this unforgettable salad with chicory, fennel, persimmons and hazelnuts. Maybe I’ll try to recreate that… Also — maybe this should be an excuse to (finally) get together for dinner one of these nights! Thanks for all the awesome ideas. xx, steph
Planning will make a lot of difference for you. I plan once the deliver arrives. You have a lot of mild greens there that can be used raw, cooked, in smoothies or juiced. I used to juice on the nice before my delivery – anything that I hadn’t used up. This year I’ve frozen quite a bit too – eggplant, squash, etc. Good luck. Look forward to watching your progress.