For those of you not interested in fresh produce and the cooking thereof, you may skip down to my latest post on The Geography of Literature.

Although I have enjoyed all of our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce since it started for the season on May 12th, this past week’s pick-up really made my eyes light up and my mouth water. It was also the first week of our fruit share.

Besides the usual salads and such, I’ve had a lot of fun playing with the produce this week. I made fava beans with mint that was delicious and made me wish I had gotten more favas. And then yesterday I made a fantastic warm German pototato salad using the new potatoes, the onions, and some of the dill from last week. I used the same dressing to wilt the radicchio. Yummy.

Organic unsweetened applesauce, two kinds of lettuce, a bulb of fennel, broccoli, salad greens new pototatoes, fava beans, onions, head of radicchio, mint, cherries.       

    
Getting a share in a Community Supported Agriculture group was one of the best things I have ever done. Each wednesday we go pick up a mystery box of fresh, local, organic produce. So far this season we have had lots of greens but that appears to be transitioning into things like zucchini and beets. Can’t wait for tomato season. We also bought a fruit share, which won’t begin until this coming week.

There are some CSAs here in the DC area that are quite sophisticated, they let you go online each week and order what you want. But I chose a CSA that offers the mystery box because otherwise I end up buying the same thing every week. Plus I am finding that I enjoy the challenge of figuring out tasty ways to use everything in the box. I also seem to enjoy the challenge of not letting any of it rot. When I get produce from the grocery store I feel like I often end up throwing half of it away.

So here is this week’s box.

From back left: collard greens, curly endive, lacinato kale, dill, spring onions, zucchini, mushrooms, portabella mushrooms