Week 3 (Green Stuff!)

Third week, and the second pick up in some pretty wet weather. Thank goodness for their tents.
This week includes lots of green stuff:

• Kale (left side of pic)
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce (Yeah!)
• Pea Tendrils (in the plastic bag)
• Napa Cabbage (right side of pic)

Rain caused tonight's 'photo session' to be inside & in poor lighting.

Kale was the one choice item. I think the other options were turnips. This week, I am looking forward to the Kale (I have never had it) and the Kohlrabi. It seems you can do some really neat things with this vegetable. I am hopeful Stella likes the pea tendrils. She LOVES sweet peas, so maybe?? She ate a piece of lettuce this evening with her dinner. Then she started crying. I am not sure if the two were related. I hope not.

We did the standard routing of washing the lettuce down when we got home.

Stella helping

I have already eaten a big bowl of the lettuce this evening. I just added some cherry tomatoes, feta, the rest of the scallions from week one, and some dressing. It was very Yummy!

For the Kohlrabi, you should separate the globe and the greens for storage. (This book, recommended by FDC, was very helpful this evening!). I included it in the water bath with the lettuce to clean it up, then removed the greens from the bulb and stored the bulb in the fridge. It should last for at least 2 weeks (I hope). The leaves can be used with other greens, so I added them to my salad this evening.  I did remove the center stem from the leaves as it just seemed really thick. (I later learned this is called the "center rib". 2 + points for google).

Kohlrabi at the depot (I remembered to take a picture this time)
in the water bath getting clean,
greens and bulb separated,
and on the living room floor (Stella helped unpack)

I was definitely able to tell which greens in my salad were the Kohlrabi as they were much thicker & stronger. I am glad that I mixed them with all of the lettuce, because I think I was at my max with the amount I could eat. I didn't dislike them, but I would not want an entire bowl of them. At least raw - I have a feeling they would be very good sauteed. But raw was easy and yummy this evening!

Taking a break from lettuce washing

Week 1

Week 1! My sister sent me an email the day before telling me what she received (she has a large share, so she gets more). 

• Broccoli
• Scallions
• 2 heads of lettuce (red leaf and green leaf)
• Hakurei turnips (similar to potato turnips)
• garlic leeks (look like thick scallions but they are leeks)
• radishes

I took the above list to Google, and discovered this awesome sounding Potato - Leek - Cheesy - Crock pot soup (The weather was still crap-tastic here in Boston, so a warm soup sounded just perfect). 

Doesn't this look good?? (Recipe found here)

I did not make this!

Also, I knew there were a few potatoes that needed to be used asap -- which just shows you how often I cook -- so Stella and I went to the store Wednesday night to get the few things for the soup that I did not have on had (evaporated milk and an immersion blender).

On Thursday the Monsoon season that we have been having here continued. All day. By the time I arrived at the coop tents, they were pretty muddy. I signed in at the administration tent, she showed me the small vegetable share tent and walked me through the process. Since it was so rainy and muddy, I had to hold Stella (all 28 pounds) and the bags as well. Suffice it to say, I did not linger. I grabbed and ran. I did notice right away that there were no garlic leeks available. 

What I ended up with:

• One MASSIVE head of Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Scallions
• Hakurei Turnips

Look at that huge head of lettuce!

Lettuce

When I got home, I immediately washed the head of lettuce. (Great tip from my sister). A lot of dirt washed down the drain. I took out my salad spinner.... and after opening the package (whoops, guess I never used it before) I spun that lettuce like I was it's boss. Stella actually really enjoyed this. She kept wanted to watch it spin. Once it was all dry, I broke it up and placed it in a container in the fridge for salads during the week. The next day, my lunch was just lettuce, croutons I had on hand and some dressing. It was one of the best salads I ever had. The lettuce was almost buttery, with this really subtle umami flavor (Yes, I watch top chef). I want more lettuce!

Hakurei Turnips

These are still in a plastic bad in my fridge. Not sure what to do with them, that I will like. Everyone is saying to just slice them and put them in your salad, they are like radishes / turnips. Both of which I am not a fan of. So, they sit in the crisper.

Broccoli & Scallions

The scallions reminded me of Fido

These both went into the crock pot soup. I decided, even though I did not get the garlic leeks, I was going to make the soup anyway. (That picture before makes it look damn good, doesn't it?)

Substitutions made: Broccoli instead of celery & carrots, and Scallions, along with some frozen chopped onion we had, instead of Garlic Leeks. Should be totally fine, right?

The night before, I 'prepped" everything and stuck it in the fridge. Since my husband leaves after me for work, I asked him to put everything in the crock pot before he left for work. I also asked him to add about 8 cups of chicken broth. Apparently, I only bought four and a half though. I did not know this until I asked him how much he ended up putting in, and he told me I can't do math (the broth I bought was labeled in ounces). Whoops.

Before

I was a little late getting home, since I ended up picking up some plant shares and delivering them, instead of coming straight home. The crock pot was still standing though, and the house smelled great. This was also the first day the sun was out in FOREVER.

I used the immersion blender in the crock pot, added the milk, and waited 30 minutes to try it,

After

The first night, it was really good. Almost like a creamy potato, broccoli soup. Almost. The turkey bacon I 'garnished' the soup with left a little to be desired, though. I wish I skipped that step. The extra chopped scallions on the top were perfect. Had a nice, sweet crunch. I have a love affair with onions - I probably could have just eaten them without the soup. (I did also add some scallions to my salads, which were great.) 

Stella tried a few spoonfuls of the soup, but she was not a big fan.

The next day, the soup was way to thick. I felt like I was eating a giant bowl of green mashed potatoes. The proper amount of broth would have helped this, I am sure.

The shares the first few weeks are apparently a little smaller; the upcoming weeks when more is in season will be a little more plentiful. 

So far, a successful week!