CSA Week 1: It’s that time again.

Yes, beloveds, we have stepped once more unto the breach of local veggies and have purchased a share in One Straw Farm’s harvest! These roundups will probably be shorter than last year’s (did you actually read those? Good for you!) because we’re doing a half-share instead of a full one. Like I told you at the conclusion of 2010’s CSA, a full share occasionally left us with unused and deeply unloved produce (fuck off and die, endless heads of lettuce). As an added bonus, our pickup site is the 32^nd Street Market, so a half-share gives us room to browse other vendors and pick up extra produce that looks good without feeling overwhelmed or wasteful. The farmer’s market on a Saturday morning is chaos itself, but we like it. (Actually, we did not like this week’s experience at all, but you have to wait for that story.)

Here’s our first haul:


The garlic scapes, chard, broccoli, and kale are all from One Straw. The best part of the half-share is that we can choose our veggies, so we left all the lettuce behind. The strawberries were a little present they were giving out, and they were much appreciated! They were very small, but tasty. Red reports that they were delicious frozen. We also picked up some local apples (I am trying to love them, but it’s hard when I’m hooked on really tart, crunchy Granny Smiths), tomatoes, and coffee from Zeke’s, which is a Baltimore roastery. They have fair-trade!

So, what did we do with this stuff? I don’t have any pics of the broccoli, because Red sautéed it to perfection and you all know what sautéed broccoli looks like. I tell you what, my man can work a skillet. He also sautéed the kale with garlic, and we ate that with Veganomicon’s chard-rice-chickpeas extravaganza (you probably think I make that twice a month, and some months you are not far wrong).


Because Red was curious, we tried Field Roast’s Mexican Chipotle sausage. Kids, it is SPICY. I gave it one bite and nudged it off the plate and into a storage container for Red to eat later. However, I can report that diced small and added to a tofu scramble, it sort of redeems itself. Also, as we cooked it, we both succumbed to a wicked coughing fit. I don’t know what’s in it that’s released into the air when it hits the pan, but we ingested it.

In happier recipe news, our garlic scapes and tomatoes ended up in this salad:


This is a take on a salad from Barbara Lauterbach’s Pasta Salad: 50 Favorite Recipes. The book is totally not vegan and I have no idea where I got it from, but it has a few recipes that I’ve tweaked and fallen in love with. This one calls for couscous, but I subbed quinoa this time for a bigger protein punch. I subbed the garlic scapes for the scallions and garlic, and you should always feel free to do that, because it works out great. I had some leftover spinach from something pre-CSA, so that’s in there too. Also, pine nuts are freakin’ pricey, so I always use walnuts in this salad. It keeps well and you’ll be nomming on it for a week.

It is also entirely possible that we had spaghetti during the week. That’s our go-to “oh shit, we didn’t buy enough food” meal, and it does not bode well that I can’t remember if we’re already at that stage of CSA-dom. Whatever, spaghetti’s never wrong.