WEEK 6
For week six we got many of the same things again. Cucumbers, CORN, zucchini, summer squash, BLUEBERRIES, arugula, green pepper, tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, white eggplant, and a globe eggplant. Usually I go with my dad to pick it up and then we hang out so he can spend time with his favorite grand daughter (and also his favorite daughter) but since I am a very generous person I had shared my evil cold with everyone I know and my dad was the latest to fall victim to it. So me and my daughter Charlotte went by ourselves to the farm stand to pick up our box. Before I went I got a text from my dad saying NO MORE CUCUMBERS. He had more cucumbers than he and my mom could handle and could I please trade them in for something different like some kale or beans or something. So when I picked up my box and the very friendly lady was going through this week’s haul and telling me about the “take it or leave it” box I said “yeah no more cucumbers” and she told me to put them in the box and take something that “will be a smile on my face.” 🙂 I took three large cucumbers out of our box and put it in the take it or leave it box and grabbed another bundle of arugula so we could each get a bundle. We could also take 2 choices from several boxes on what I have dubbed the “choice table.” On the choice table was a bunch of things I didnt think my parents would want. MORE cucumbers, zucchini which I was pretty sure they had a ton of, lots of varieties of peppers but my mom is a certified pepper hater, and Swiss chard which I think we were all sick of. That left potatoes so I got potatoes for both me and my husband and my parents. Then we headed home. When I got home and delved deeper into the box I discovered a BOUNTY OF CUCUMBERS. Uh-oh. I knew my parents didn’t want many so I took out one for them and threw the rest in my fridge for my husband and I with the idea that we HAD to make pickles. In fact most of the ones I found were pickling cucumbers anyways.
homegrown cukes and a jalapeno
Just in case we didnt have enough cucumbers in our CSA we also had some growing in our garden. We have 4 raised beds next to our house. They are in a sad state because we don’t really get any sun over there so we pretty much stink at growing things. We do however have a few bedraggled cucumber plants and some jalapenos that seem like they will actually bear a few fruits. So indeed this week I had to harvest some cukes from our own garden.
I wonder if I eat all these cucumbers in my possession if I will actually turn into a cucumber?????
cucumbers, potatoes, corn, and a Field Roast vegan sausage
I started just slicing them up for dinner and eating them with a wee bit of salt sprinkled on them. For the potatoes we grilled them up and steamed some corn too. The potatoes were REALLY yummy. They were like almost creamy. The corn was pretty good too, we are about to hit the high point of corn season i think.
Lemon Blueberry Loaf
We still had the previous week’s blueberries in our fridge and now had more blueberries from this week. We both ate some on some cereal but I decided to make the  Lemon Blueberry Loaf from Isa Does It. It came out REALLY well. It was very lemony and fresh tasting. We already ate half of it. I really hope we continue getting more blueberries so I can make this again. That’s how yummy it is! There is actually an optional glaze that goes on it and I never made it because I was too lazy/impatient. Doesn’t even need the glaze!
the inside of a Chiogga beet.
We had a backlog of beets. We had a bunch from a few weeks ago and then I had inadvertantly left a weeks worth at my parents house. So once I had them all I just chopped them up and roasted them. Somehow we acquired a big ol yellow beet. Not even sure what week that is from but I found it in my fridge. We’ll probably just toss them on salads and hopefully eat them all that way. There is quite a lot of them. I was happy not to get any this week.
so pretty. Chiogga, Forono, and one yellow beet
Moroccan Zucchini and Chikpeas over couscous
I took the GIANT ZUCCHINI that came in this week’s box and made Moroccan chikpeas and Zucchini from my Appetite for Reduction cookbook. I served it over couscous. I also cut up one of the summer squashes we had and tossed that in to use it up.
It was really yummy and of course we served it with one of the 100 salads we’ve been eating using our CSA lettuce, arugula, green pepper, tomato, and cukes.
Speaking of cucumbers……
garlic dill pickles
We have A LOT of cucumbers. I had found a whole bunch of pickling cucumbers at the bottom of this week’s box after putting three in the take it or leave it box and giving one to my parents. It was PICKLE TIME. We decided to not only make pickles but to actually can them, as opposed to refrigerator pickles. Our canning experience is limited but we have all the supplies and pickles are hard to screw up. I just googled a dill pickle recipe and used this one because it used dill seed which I had instead of fresh dill which I did not have. It’s a relatively easy process so hopefully they came out well. We haven’t tried them yet as we’re waiting for them to soak up all the flavor and become pickley.
baba ganoush
With my one small eggplant I made some baba ganoush. I actually had never made baba ganoush before even though I make homemade hummus pretty much weekly. Im actually not even sure of the last time I ate baba ganoush so I dont know what to compare mine too in terms of flavor. I thought it was pretty good. Maybe a tad on the mild side which is to be expected. If I made it again I would add a lot more garlic.
That was all I made this week with our CSA stuff. We always also have salads but no one wants to see 1000 pictures of a salad. I ended the week with a couple cukes, a tomato, half a head of lettuce, half a green pepper, and tons of roasted beets. They are still sitting in my fridge. Must get on that.
I was actually pretty mad at myself this week. I am the main cook and meal planner in the house. I am the one with the dietary restrictions and I also LOVE to cook and bake and since Im a stay at home mom right now it makes the most sense for me to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day. I try to plan meals every week but this week I couldnt get my act together and was so unmotivated. In the end I had to buy some produce at the grocery store, some of which I could have picked up at the farm stand if I had the foresight to plan early. I ended up with really sad Stop and Shop green beans that looked like they had come on a truck from Timbuktu. That majorly kicked my butt into gear and I am ready with next week’s meal plan and a shopping list for the farm stand for tomorrow’s pick up!
crazypiggielady 