CSA 2020 Basket #1

If you don't know what a CSA is, here's a post I wrote about it a few years ago.  The farm we bought our share from in the first few years we lived here has closed (Wisconsin leads the nation in farm bankruptcies and I find this to be a sad statistic), so a couple of years ago we switched to a different farm that's a bit further away, but still delivers our shares within walkable distance. I used to be really good about writing a post every week to show off our CSA, but I do not promise that this year. I'll just do an occasional update on what we're getting.  

Not much has really changed on our end with the CSA process because of the Covid crisis. Our farm sends regular updates about the changes the owners and employees are making on their end, but I have literally done nothing different.  I signed up for the CSA in December and sent in my check. We bought a small share (because there are only two of us) which cost us $425 for 20 weeks.  We also purchased an egg share which cost $55 that gets us a dozen eggs every other week.  

On Saturdays, we can log in to the farm website and view what vegetables are in our box that week. If there's something we don't like or need, we can swap it out for something else.  This week, for instance, I didn't want basil, so I swapped it out for some turnips.  On Wednesdays we can go pick up our shares at a house that's a few blocks from our home between the hours of 3 - 6:30pm.  Because of social distancing, we're supposed to make sure we wait for anyone already getting their vegetables to finish gathering all their stuff before we enter the "staging" area. It's rare that we see anyone, but it was a nice reminder from the farm.* I walk over there with the dog and a bag and then find the box with my name on it. I unpack the box, putting everything into my own bag, break down the box, and head off.  Easy peasy.

This week we got:

1 dozen eggs

Salad turnips

Kale

Mustard greens

Bibb lettuce

Choy som

Chard

Chives

I don't have a spectacularly good plan this week.

I'll eat the turnips raw. They're delicious.  

I'll saute the choy som and mustard greens with the chives for lunch sides.

We'll use either the kale or chard with the eggs (and some goat cheese and black olives) for a frittata.

I bought some ground beef at the farmers' market last week and we'll use the lettuce on burgers and probably some salads. *heavy sigh* I don't love a lettuce salad.

With whatever we don't use in the frittata (the chard or kale), I'll probably use as a base for a vegetable stock I'm going to make. I have been diligently saving my vegetable scraps in the freezer and intend on making some stock. Or I'll saute it up as a side. 

And this is the end of my endless prattling about vegetables. Yay for CSA season!!!

*The owners also sent an email that said if we were sick, we should NOT go to the pick-up site, but to call the farm and if we aren't able to find someone to get the basket for us, they would deliver it to our home. I almost cried when I read this. It was so sweet - these farmers make hardly any money and here they are, volunteering time and extra resources to help community help.