nature's bounty

We've been getting vegetables from our CSA for six weeks now. It has been a really interesting experience. You sign up months ahead of time and agree to pay a certain amount for months of fresh, seasonal, organic produce, but you never know, beyond a general understanding of what's in season at any given time, exactly what you'll be getting or how much.

We're splitting our share of produce with a friend of mine, so the amount we're getting is pretty manageable, most of the time, and sometimes not enough (for example, splitting an average-sized bunch of asparagus in half, where one half goes to a solo person and the other half goes to my family of four often leaves us wanting more). Up to this point, the spring and early summer have been heavy with leafy green vegetables. I have to tell you, we are eating more leafy green vegetables than ever before, including some things we've never seen or heard of. At first it was a little intimidating and overwhelming, but now that I've gotten used to this abundance of green, I'm wondering what I'll do when it's over for the season.

We've gotten plenty of common produce items: asparagus, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, peas in pods, rhubarb, thyme, chives, onions, dill, carrots, radishes. But we've gotten some more unusual items as well. The photo above is of one of the first salads I made this year, created entirely with our farm vegetables. It features two kinds of lettuce, spinach, edible weeds (such as purslane, chick weed and lambsquarter -- I still am not sure what any of those look or taste like, even after eating them), radishes, and chive blossoms. Did you know chive blossoms are edible? They taste very much like concentrated, intense chive flavor, and, much like a strong red onion, will leave a taste in your mouth for hours after eating.

Other new-to-us foods that we've received include watercress, mizuna, bok choi, Chinese cabbage, parsnips, tarragon, pea greens (the leaves from pea plants), garlic scapes, garlic greens, radicchio, senposai, and arugula. Chances are, if you've never heard of something on that list, it's probably a leafy green vegetable.

It's exciting, learning what to do with all these new foods. I'm glad, too, that my kids are getting used to eating all manner of green and/or unusual things in all kinds of dishes, and that, for the most part, they do so willingly. And the fact that everything we're eating from the farm is organic is just a bonus.

As soon as I get some photos uploaded, you'll get to hear about our second trip to the farm, where we got to learn more about where the food on our plates is coming from.