What’s in my CSA – week 11

Well, it has been a few weeks since I have updated my CSA journey!

(What's a CSA, you ask? Click here!)

Our summer has been flying by.  We have been enjoying the weather…playing tennis, golf, swimming, just relaxing.

We have hosted several guests, even one from France.  We had such fun showing him around Chicago for his first time to the area!

I have been loving every week of my CSA, I just haven't had time to write about it!

One thing I have learned is that in the summer, I don't cook many fancy recipes.  I just take seasonal ingredients and do simple things.

Such as steamed broccoli with butter and sea salt.  Or sliced raw kohlrabi as a snack.  Or a fresh green salad with fresh cukes, carrots, onions and peppers.

When produce is fresh from the local garden, you don't really need a whole lot of fancy prep work!  Julia Child really did say it best!

I did want to give an update.  That fermented beet-kohlrabi kraut I made in Week 7….OMG!  Amazeballs!  If you are a fermenter you must try it!

This past week, I received:

• Carrots
• Head Lettuce
• New Red Potatoes
• Swiss Chard
• Basil
• Broccoli
• Snap Peas (on-farm pickup sites only)*
• Zucchini (off-farm pickup sites only)*
• Asian Cooking Greens (Hon Tsai Tai)
• Cucumbers
• Blueberries
• Sweet Cherries
• Yogurt Sampler from Sugar River Dairy of Albany, WI
  • Strawberry
  • Raspberry
  • Peach or Blueberry
• Cheese Sampler from Roth Käse of Monroe, WI
  • Grand Cru Gruyère
  • Buttermilk Blue Affinée
  • GranQueso (inspired by Spanish Manchego)Wow!  The yogurt and cheese just got eaten!

Well, I still have some cheeses….It has been hard to keep up with the cheese.  But, cheese lasts for so long, I am not worried about it.  I will say the GranQueso was DELICIOUS!!!

What else did we make?

The lettuce, carrots and snap peas were just eaten in salads or as snacks.  As was the much of the fruit!

We don't eat a lot of potatoes, so we are still waiting to use those.

I did make a fabulous dill cucumber salad from She Wears Many Hats.  I used the yogurt cheese from making whey.  It was fabulous.  I have so much dill in my garden, it was a good use of it!

I made this amazing ‘zucchini hamburger‘ dish with the zucchini.  WOWZERS!  My daughter cleaned her plate and asked for seconds.

I also fermented some zucchini slices and that was a real hit.  I even used that as a recipe in a fermenting class I taught at Studio Lotus.

I made this delicious broccoli and chickpea curry that was so light and refreshing!

For our French guest, I made two yummy dessert type dishes.  I am going gluten free right now and I found 2 keeper recipes!   I used the blueberries and made these gluten free blueberry lemon muffins.  They were a hit!  And I also made this Cherry Crisp using a mixture of the sweet cherries and some sour cherries from the week before! (I liked this one so much I made it again tonight only I used a mix of raspberries from our bushes and blueberries!)

I still have the Asian greens and Swiss chard in the crisper.  They are getting a bit limp and will need to be used soon!  Will let you know what I did with those next week!

What have you been doing with your CSA bounty?

Have you missed my CSA posts?  You can see them here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 7