The Last Farm Box

I might be taking a hiatus from the farm boxes for the rest of winter. I still really like them; however, I'm also wasting a lot food. For example, after picking up my box tonight, I came home and had to toss a whole head of wilty lettuce, dandelion greens, parsley, two soft radishes, wilty sage, and chard to make room in the frig for the new stuff. That's A LOT of food going to waste because I was too lazy to cook and instead ate Trader Joe's wasabi peas and sesame sticks for dinner every night last week.

This week's box contained:

Beets (4)

Carrots (4)

1/2 lb Dragon Tongue Shelling Beans (oooh. preeeetty.)

Delicata (2)

Chard

Lettuce (LOTS of it)

Napa Cabbage

Spinach (LOTS of it)

Parsley

Braising Mix (LOTS...)

Sprouts

Rosemary, sage, thyme, mix bunch

Microgreens

Dandelion Greens

First of all, what the cuss should I do with Dandelion Greens!? They don't taste like anything but bitterness. Bleck. If you have a recipe for Dandelion Greens pleeeeeeease share because if I don't use this bunch it will be the 3rd batch that goes to waste. And, what am I going to do with all these other greens? Cabbage and lettuce and spinach and braising mix? (What the f is that?): I need new recipes and I don't want them to be salads- I'm so sick of salads I could punch them (if they had faces).

On the plus side, I am excited about trying the Dragon Tongue beans; they have purple and white marbles shells. I've never seen anything like them. I'll let you know what they're like and share some pics.

Please post some recipes or ideas for me here about my farm box contents so that I don't waste any more food.

Happy Holidays

3 Green Farm Box Meals

Literally green. In color... not "earth-friendly green." Though I'm sure they're that too. So here they are... and oh, they're tasty. If they weren't, I wouldn't be posting them. Duh.

Summer Squash and Broccoli Soup


1 medium head of broccoli
1 medium summer squash, cubed
3/4 c green onion
6 fingerling potatoes
2 garlic cloves
cream or soy creamer (to taste)
1/2 c water or broth of choice
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a medium sized soup pot, saute the garlic, onion, squash and broccoli in a little extra virgin olive oil for about 8 minutes then add 1/2 cup water or broth and cover until everything is nice and mushy. Add salt and pepper and any other spices you might like. Add more water or broth if it begins to dry out. Will probably take about 15-20 minutes. Once everything can be smooshed down with a hand-held potato masher, it's ready to mill. Turn off the heat. Using a blender or hand-mill puree the hot veggies. Add the soy milk creamer or cream and puree more until it's the consistency you like.

Next up... Farm Box Surprise



1 small head of broccoli
1 baby bok choy
1 small eggplant
2 delicata zepplin squash
2 c collard greens (or more if you want...they cook waaaay down)
fresh basil (to taste)
fresh cilantro (to taste)
1-2 cloves chopped garlic
1-2 each of red ruffled pimentos, corno di toro and antohi sweet peppers, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 link of chopped spicy Tofurky or 1 c tempeh

Chop everything. Throw all in a big saute pan with some extra virgin olive oil and saute until everything is al dente. DO NOT OVERCOOK it will turn into a big, pile of ugly black veggies. I ate this over Trader Joe's Three Grains Blend: rice, barley and spelt with some black and kidney beans thrown in. It was delish!

And finally... Kale Berry Smoothie


3-5 fresh leaves of kale, roughly chopped
1-2 cups frozen fruit (I like mixed berries, but peaches are good too)
1 banana
1 tbs organic chia seeds (by Navitas Naturals at Henry's)
2 tsp maca powder (also by Navitas)
1-2 cups almond milk, sweetened or unsweetened
agave nectar to taste
ice

Throw it all in a blender and let 'er rip until it's nice and green and smooth... unless you like chunky.


This is the summer squash from the first recipe. I took the seeds out, salted and baked them at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. They were really tasty and I felt good for not letting them go to wasty.

Farm Box, Here We Go

The beautiful mess above is what I picked up from the OB farmer's market on Wednesday:

That's right. What. the. cuss.
It's so much food!

I immediately panicked at the thought of how much food I might be potentially wasting. Then I stopped cussing my pants and turned on the oven. I decided to start with the kale.

It's a flat leaf variety and good for making kale chips out of...at least that's what my teacher friend Patti does. She makes it sound easy enough, So why not? thought I. I washed and dried the leaves, massaged them with olive oil, dusted them with Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals (from Trader Joe's of course), laid them on the baking sheet and popped them in the oven. This was the first batch going into the oven:

This was it coming out of the oven:
Cuss.
Turns out you need to watch them like a hawk or they'll burn to a bloody crisp. (And believe me, bloody crisp is not tasty.)

Second batch turned out a bit better and much more tasty, except I think I ate too many of the burned ones because I started to feel sick at this point. They were crispier than they look in this pic.

While the first batch of kale was burning in the oven, I was staring at the little, yellow watermelon, the massive tangle of basil, two stalks of fennel and a box of yellow tomatoes on the counter. I decided, why not? and combined them all into a "melon fennel salad." I added a little fresh ginger and white balsamic vinegar and... it was OK. The basil added some freshness, the melon was seriously delicious, and the ginger and white balsamic vinegar were a surprisingly good combo. However, I realized that I don't like fennel. It tastes like black licorice--if you've never had it--and it just made me want to take Yager shots. Plus, what do you do with all the stalky ferny stuff at the top of fennel? There has to be a use for it, right? (do you know?) Please share a good fennel recipe if you have one-- preferably one that involves cooking it somehow.

So, Day One Assessment of My Cooking Abilities and Farm Box Contents are hereby rated as "Pathetic but Promising"

The next day, I tackled the ridiculous amount of green and wax beans, bell peppers and eggplants. After cutting into, what I thought was just an elongated red bell pepper, and taking a nice big slice to chew on, I slowly and painfully began to realize that I was not chewing a bell pepper, but one of either the padron peppers or Hungarian hot wax peppers...I'm leaning toward the Hungarian variety. This stuff doesn't come with labels or stickers on it...so novices like me have to be careful. Granted, I'm a weakling when it comes to spicy, but I also took a big honkin' bite.
Carefulness: Noted.
Tomorrow: Buy more milk. (Chugged it all to stop the burning.)

After the tears, I chopped the real bell peppers and the garden beans and a small, white eggplant. I decided that I wanted to cook them, of course, but I also wanted to taste them in their most natural form. I'd been planning all day to use Soyaki (my fav!) to saute them, but I changed my mind at the last second, put my faith in the freshness of Suzie, and used just a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt, pepper and sesame seeds. I sauteed until they were softish and some were browned on one side, then put this mishmash over some black and pinto beans I'd made in the crock pot a couple days ago.

Fresh veggies really are more delicious and flavorful than the genetically modified or shipped-from-across-the-world versions. (Except the eggplant. That tasted like cuss.) Go figure.

Day Two Assessment of Farm Box Contents and My Cooking Abilities: Rated as "Proficient but still Pathetic"

List of all contents in Farm Box #1:
Radish Bunch
Eggplant (apple green 4-3, Italian 1-2, Thai 2-4 or Rosa Bianca 3-4)
Head of Lettuce
Yellow Cherry Tomato Basket
Armenian Cucumbers
Fennel
Tejas, Nardello, Corno di Toros, Double Up, and Red Antohi Peppers (Sweet)
Kale
Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers
Melon
Basil Bunch
Green or Yellow Wax Beans
Summer Squash
Padron Peppers
Micro Arugula

Incoming

Lots of incomings going on right now. School starts on Tuesday (I'm a high school teacher) so I'll get a whole new load of incoming freshman and soon to be outgoing seniors... (more than I've ever had before because of budget cuts. 200 students... but that's a post for a different blog.)

Second incoming is that of MONEY. Fiiiiiiiinally. After two months (technically considered one month even though it's 59 consecutive days) the first pay check at the end of summer break feels like a million bucks. This sudden influx of cash flow again means I can check off the number one thing on my To Do List. Which leads us to...

The final incoming: my Suzie's Farm Box! It's official. I signed up and paid for a two trial boxes--I pick up my first one at the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market on Wednesday. I know, I know... CSA programs and co-ops are nothing new, but they are for me and I'm so excited to be on this particular bandwagon.

Since I'm in such a good mood about this, here is my newest Cute Garden Thing to celebrate.



I was so sad when I chipped (beyond hope of repair) my favoritest mug as I was unloading the dishwasher. I set it on the kitchen counter and stared at it for a few days because I couldn't bring myself to toss it. Me and that mug go way back. Like a whole school year... lots of good memories drinking my morning brew at the podium while trying to ignore spastic teenagers.

As I was staring at my mug-friend I realized it'd make a cute little starter cup for herbs... so, I switched from coffee to chamomile. Just remember, that unless you are talented enough to drill a hole through the ceramic or porcelain bottom of a mug, lack of drainage will eventually kill the sproutings...so once they get about an inch high, transplant into the ground, garden box or proper pot.