Wordless Wednesday

I thought I would participate in this one, I've seen it on others blogs.  On Wednesday's you post photos but don't put any words or descriptions on them.  I think these speak for themselves. :)

CSA produce week 4

This weeks box gave us: tomatoes, 3 varieties of squash, onions, garlic, 2 kinds of cucumbers, bell pepper, hot peppers, broccoli, carrots, and red skin potatoes.  I gave some of it to my neighbor Casey since our shared garden is not thriving.  I feel bad that they put their time, effort, and money into our garden only to have it be a bust.  It's probably the soil, but we don't have time to look into that now.  Maybe next year we can take a soil sample to the farmer's co-op and have them test it.  

So I am thankful that we decided to join the CSA this year since we probably won't be getting anything out of our garden.  And our farmer's market is in their new location now, which is only about 4 miles from our house.  So I go there to pick up my CSA box, and I can shop around for any other produce I may want or need.  Plus some of the farmer's have other things to sell too, like flowers, preserves, breads, sweet breads, homemade soaps and lip balm, etc.  I love going to the farmer's market!

CSA produce week 3

In this weeks box we received: cabbage, green beans, broccoli, tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, bell pepper, cucumber, and two kinds of hot peppers.  Last night I made a stir fry using the cabbage, squash, broccoli, and onions.  I added chicken to it.  It was very tasty!  I make my own sauce that I use from a Rachael Ray recipe that I made one time.  It has Tamari, dry Sherry, ginger, and a bit of sugar.  I don't really measure, just kind of toss it in and stir.

Later this week I will make a shepherd's pie using more squash, and the onions.  It uses sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.  We love this dish!  We will also do salads this week using the tomatoes and cucumber.  And we'll cook up the green beans as a side to something else.  Maybe grilled rib eye steaks.  Yum!

Here's what's for dinner tonight!

I am making this for dinner tonight using my cabbage from the CSA.  I am substituting pasta sauce for the tomato sauce and paste since that is what I have in my pantry.

Ground Beef and Cabbage Skillet

Ingredients

1lb Ground Beef(ground turkey works very well)

1/2 head of cabbage roughly chopped(if the cabbage is huge, use a 1/4)

1/2 med onion diced(about 1/2 cup this isn’t critical)

1 cup uncooked rice

1 15 oz can of tomato sauce

 1 6oz can of tomato paste

 2 cups water

 1/2 tsp salt – pepper to taste

 1/2 tsp dried thyme

 optional 1 bay leaf (I’m not a huge fan of bay leaves)

Optional Additions

diced bell pepper

frozen corn

kidney beans

 

Directions

 Heat a large pot over medium heat, add the ground beef or turkey and cook until no longer pink. Be sure to use your spatula to break up any large chunks. Drain the fat off. Add the onion and cook for another two minutes or so. Stir in the cabbage, rice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, and seasoning. Add any extras at this time, too. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 20 – 25 minutes stirring occasionally.

CSA produce week 2

This week's bounty consists of: new potatoes, cucumbers, a tomato, lettuce, beets, onions, par-cel, squash, and cabbage.  Looking forward to that tomato!  And those potatoes!

I didn't make anything super special last week.  I just sauted the squash and swiss chard, and roasted the kale in the oven.  The onions are great, nice and sweet.  The beets were good too, but the small ones were a tad bitter.  I do have to figure out what to do with the cabbage though, so I need some ideas.  I have to cook it since eating it raw can cause baby gas since I am breastfeeding.  So send your cooked cabbage ideas my way!

CSA produce week 1

Okay, so I am sort of following in the footsteps of my friend Amy by blogging about my adventures with a CSA co-op.  Click on her name to visit her blog; her last post about her CSA adventure is quite comical. :)

The above photos show what we received in our box this week.  Lettuce, sweet onions, cabbage, garlic, summer squash, kale, swiss chard, beets, and par-cel (a cross between parsley and celery).  So now I am forced to "step outside the box" of what I am used to cooking for meals.  Because I certainly don't want anything to go to waste, but I will have to get creative when it comes to preparing things with some of the produce that is "new" to me.

Feel free to share any of your favorites with me if you see something here that you like to cook with.

Gardens and CSA co-ops

We finally got our garden in two weeks ago.  Our neighbors Kelvin and Casey are sharing the garden with us this year.  We will share the labor and the harvest, it has been fun!  In the photo above Kelvin is tilling, he and Ron took turns.  And Ronnie and Blaise helped plant, but I didn't get any photos of that.  The beans, beets, and carrots have sprouted.  They were planted from seed two weeks ago, so it is nice to see some progress.

In the meantime while we wait for our harvest later this summer, I am starting a CSA co-op next week.  I am so excited!!  It is a local organic farm, and each week for 10 weeks we will receive a half bushel box full of fresh produce.  Yummy!!  I am so thankful to be a part of this CSA as they were one of the unfortunate ones who had the tornado rip through their property in April.  It tore up their greenhouses, chicken shed, and another small out building.  But God provided and they had many helpers come and get things cleaned up and helped get it in order.  And we had no frost hit after that either, so their exposed plants were spared, which has allowed them to continue with the summer CSA.  God is good!  And I look forward to tasting the bounty of this harvest where God obviously had His protective hand on them.