Happy anniversary to my veggies

We made it. Phew.


It has been one year since we started getting the box of organic produce from Abundant Harvest Organics.


I can't believe how much this box of veggies has transformed our lives.


I have always been mildly interested in eating organic foods. We used to shop the farmer's marked for much of our produce, but the farmer's market, at least in my town, is expensive! Once is a while there is something at the peak of its season that the farmer is interested in unloading for cheap, but mostly we would spend $50-60 each time we were there. And then still round out our purchases with more produce from the grocery store. While at the grocery store, I would have a little debate in my mind... organic onions? Or half-as-expensive onions?


After we started getting our AHO box, though, I got even more interested in the idea of eating organic. Partly because it was sitting there in my kitchen, piquing my interest. Partly because once I started talking about the veggies I had to deal with week after week, other people gave me tips, information, articles, recipes, recommendations, and books. Partly because I now had so many odd vegetables, that as I looked up recipes for them, I found myself on blogs and websites that promote an organic lifestyle. Once you start researching something, the snowball grows. Each article links to other articles, or references books, or quotes movies. I would follow those leads to find more leads.


I also found blogs and books, documents and documentaries that promote vegan eating, raw eating, local eating, gluten-free eating, foraged-foods eating, and all kinds of other sub-groups. They want me to choose raw milk, raw honey, raw food. Soaked grains, soaked almonds, and soaked seeds. Heirloom turkeys and heirloom tomatoes. Pastured eggs and beef, unpasteurized milk and yogurt. Some of these sources of information are interesting because they make a good point. Others... are good entertainment. 


I am still muddling my way through what changes are worth making and what ideas are silly. I am also trying to work my way through what I can physically accomplish in the 24 hours a day I have to work with.


There are so many factors to consider:
Buy local! It's good for the environment and the small farmers.
Buy heirloom! It's good for the future of the species. We are losing the variety in our diets that our great-grandmothers had.
Make your own! It's good for you. You will cut out preservatives, sodium, and sugar in vast quantities.
Buy organic! It's good for you and for the environment. Neither your body or the earth needs those pesticides.
Buy free-range! It's good for the chicken. 
No, buy pastured! It's better for you.
No, really you should buy pastured and organic, grain fed! It's better for the chicken and for you!


Just the other day I read this article about Whole Foods stores. In it, the author explains that while it is hard to find fault with the ideals of Whole Foods, it is all a matter of perspective. They offer organic choices, but at the cost of not offering local, small farm-grown choices. The question is, which is better? Do I need to worry more about my own immune system or our country's? Should I spend my money and my appetite on making sure the food and the farm workers aren't being exposed to dangerous chemicals? Should I worry more that the world is suffering from fossil fuels, and although the market has organic tomatoes, they traveled all the way from Ecuador? Should I worry that if South American farmers can undercut our farmers' prices, we will lose our farmland to condominium complexes? Should I worry that I am spending more on organic food, which means less money for other things like vacations? Do my kids need to see the world or eat better? 


These are just the types of questions I have found myself wondering all this past year. I don't have many answers yet, but I think I am on the right track. At any rate, I can say that the change in our eating lifestyle has been enormously positive in this past year. It is by no means perfect, but we are closing the gap a tiny bit.


1.  We eat far more fruits and vegetables. Whereas I used to buy a few veggies at the market each week, now we get a huge box of beautiful produce. Every week, I wonder what in heaven's name I am going to do with it all, and yet somehow we manage to get it out of the fridge and into our mouths.


2. We eat better fruits and vegetables. I see "local"defined differently in different places. Some say within 100 miles, others say within the state. My produce now all comes from a group of farms that is about 150 miles away from us. Whether it counts as local or not, it is certainly a far cry from the stuff we can get at the grocery store, which often comes from South America. Our produce is all grown organically, and it is all picked a mere two days before we receive it. That means that when I bite into an apple out of my box on Saturday morning, it was hanging on a tree on Thursday. You can't do much better than that unless you are the farmer.


3. We eat much much much more variety of fruits and vegetables. I have posted recipes involving 68 different fruits and vegetables. I know there are a few more I haven't written about as well. I never counted my fruits and veggies before this, but I would guess that I wasn't eating even half that. There are several that I had never eaten before this year (brussels sprouts, bok choy, collard greens, etc.) and quite a few that I had never even heard of (daikon radish, lamb's quarter, fava beans, etc.). One thing that I hear pretty consistently is that one of the best ways to make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need is to eat a variety of foods. I guess we have a ways to go, but we are getting much better!


4. Because we have to find ways to eat all of the vegetables in the box, that doesn't leave much room for eating other stuff... Our dinner plate is largely filled directly from the Abundant Harvest box. Last might, for example, we had broccoli-onion-carrot stir fry, cooked with garlic and plum sauce (made out of plums form the box). The only thing I had to buy was the rice and a little oil for the frying. By doing that for most of our meals, my grocery bill has gone down. And that's always a good thing.


5. Likewise, our consumption of processed foods has gone down. We cook so many more things from scratch now, that we aren't buying so many cans and boxes at the grocery store. That means less sodium, less sugar, less preservatives. One of the most memorable quotes, to me, from the movie "Food Inc" is 
"You know, I would venture to guess if you go and look on the supermarket shelf, I'll bet you 90% of
them would contain either a corn or soybean ingredient, and most of the time will contain both." What?? That means that no matter how many different boxes or bags or cans of food I buy, no matter what flavor or shape or consistency it is, it's really just corn and soy? I am sure glad I'm eating less of that stuff. Less of that means more real food.


6. It also doesn't leave much room for dining out. And that bill has gone WAY down. 


7. It has opened my eyes to being more selective about the other things we eat too. We now buy organic milk, organic eggs, and organic meats. They cost a lot more per pound, that's for sure. However, like I said before, we aren't buying as much milk or meat as we used to. I never tracked how much we spent on milk, eggs, and meat before, but I would venture to guess that we are pretty close to even. Perhaps even a little less.


8. I have gained much more confidence and interest in cooking. I am having a ton of fun investigating and researching recipes and trying new things. There are still flops, of course, but they are happening less and less often. My kids are getting more interested in trying to cook too.


9. Abundant Harvest Organics provides a way to eat both local and organic. Which is the benefit of almost any CSA. It gives the farmers a guaranteed income, it gives me a consistent price for fresh produce, and it all is grown without pesticide right here in my home state. I understand that, as far as fresh produce goes, I am very lucky to live in the state of California. A lot of what I ate this year was available to people across the country... but for me I could still count it as eating locally.


10.  I also supported small, independent farms. I am grateful to Vern Peterson for creating Abundant Harvest Organics. He is a farmer with an amazing brain for business. If it weren't for him, there might be a few more farmers who had to give up their farms. I don't think it's good for me, or good for America if we continue to lose options. If the small farms continue to get swallowed up, we will be left with no choice but the corn and soy products available in the supermarket. That's the bulk of what the huge corporate farms are growing. I'm glad Abundant Harvest exists, and I can only imagine the farmers are even more so.






One final note... The main reason I even realize this is our one-year box anniversary is that I will be leaving today for the Susan G. Komen three-day walk for a breast cancer cure. It was while I was gone on the walk last year that my husband and kids surpassed me by picking up our first box.


Wish me luck! If you want to wish me specific luck, wish for no blisters and no rain. I'll be walking 20 miles a day and sleeping in a tent for three days, and rain and blisters both tend to make that a less pleasant experience. 

Forget a silver lining, I want a salted rim.

I'm thinking of turning this blog into an advice column. Not one where people can come to get advice, mind you. One where I wonder what the heck to do with different vegetables, and you give me advice. That would be a nice service for me to provide, don't you think?

I jest, of course.

I'll figure out what to do with this stuff.

Like these green leaves:

April Fools! They're really red leaves, turned over.

More specifically, by process of elimination, I have gathered that they are mustard greens. Which I suppose I will be... all together now... sautéing in olive oil.  sigh.

I am pretty sure the good folks at AHOrganics are trying to pull one over on me with this stuff:

They think they can give me their grass clippings and watch me suffer as I figure out how to convince my kids to eat grass!  Okay, I believe this is "garlic chives." I take it that means it's a cross between garlic and a chive? Both of those are good, so maybe that will be a fun one to try after all.

And then there is this:

Fennel. I have only cooked with fennel once before, and the soup I made that time didn't seem to have any fennel flavor to it at all. It should prove interesting to try this one too!

I apologize for how negative I sound! I think I am overwhelmed by all these new things this week. There are plenty of old favorites too... carrots, potatoes, spinach, broccoli, lemons, oranges. 

There is also some very very good news this week! 

Lettuce! I am so happy!! I love salads, and truth be told, I was ready for a break from spinach salads.

Also... 

More asparagus! And it is just the way I like it... nice and skinny and tender. Yay!

Also, and this is my very favorite thing of them all so far...

These beautiful avocados need to ripen for a few days, but I am so excited! I love love love avocados. There are four of these beauties, and I just can't wait to make some guacamole.

Who's coming over for a margarita?

Susanus of the Boxus

I like to think of myself as on a par with Carolus Linneaus. You know old Carolus. He was the first guy to classify living things, and put them in categories. (Maybe you remember him as Carl, from before he changed his name.) At any rate, when I unpack my box each week, I like to put my fruits and vegetables in categories as well. However, where our buddy Carolus was more concerned with such trivial matters as genus and species, I have more distinguishing categories:

1. Things I have had before and I am quite happy to see them again.
2. Things I have had before and I am not at all happy to see them again.
3. Surprises that make me smile.
4. Surprises that absolutely stupefy me as to what they are, and/or how in the world I am supposed to eat them.

The items in the box fit neatly into the above categories. (And when you consider the example of the duck-billed platypus, you will have to concede that my categories are much more useful than Carolus's).

Category one: Old friends who have come back again

There were more oranges, mandarin oranges, carrots, and spinach. And that was good. I have developed a working rhythm with these items, and I was ready to restock them. More broccoli means that I had best get on the ball and finish last week's broccoli, but I can do that. Ditto for the onions. There were also more potatoes, and so I stuck them in the bowl that has last week's leftover potatoes. I am always happy to see a potato, though. Who doesn't love a potato?


Category two: Obviously these guys don't realize the fates of their forerunners

I got more collard greens this week. Even though it has been a couple of weeks since I had collard greens, I wasn't ready for more. Way back at the beginning of this whole CSA box lifestyle, I made lots of mistakes. One of those mistakes has become legendary amongst some of my friends, and is called the "collard green-turnip-carrot-parsnip-lasagna." A lasagna of which there are still frozen family-sized portions waiting to see the light of day. What can I say? I was enthusiastic, if not skilled. So anyway, I am not too thrilled to see the new bundle of collard greens.

Category three: What a wonderful surprise! Do come in!

A new fruit! Just when I thought I might actually turn into an orange, a la Violet Beauregarde, I was so happy to see grapefruit. As a matter of fact, I took a short break from unpacking the box,  cut open the above featured grapefruit, and ate it up.  I also may or may not have made a cocktail this evening with one of the grapefruits. 

They make a nice centerpiece as well, no?

I was also thrilled to see these babies:

I don't call them babies flippantly. It's baby garlic. YUM!

Finally, I was most excited about this cabbage:

Isn't this the most cabbage-y cabbage you ever saw? I love this cabbage! I was really only vaguely aware that cabbages look like this.  By the time the cabbage hits the grocery store, all of those great outer leaves have been removed. And I, for one, love those leaves. Of course, the first thing I did was take them off and throw them out before I chopped up the cute little guy into tiny shreds. But I liked them before I did that. 

Finally we have category four: What do you expect me to do with you? 

This week, I have only one item that fits here. And thankfully, it's a small item. 

Short of opening a small diner, and garnishing tired plates of tepid eggs and limp bacon, I am really not sure what I am going to do with parsley. 

Any suggestions?

One man's trash is another man's meal

I thought it was quite sweet that the good farmers of Abundant Harvest Organics sent me flowers this week. It almost made me feel a little bashful.

Until, that is, I read the newsletter. Of course, these aren't meant to be a lovely centerpiece for my dining table. They are meant to be used in the dishes that I serve on the table.

Readers, meet the arugula flower. I myself met it for the first time yesterday. According to my newsletter, I will soon get to experience this flower added to salads, cooked into soups, or as a garnish. I'll let you know soon how that pans out.

The rest of the box contained more expected items... the usual excess of oranges and tangerines, more potatoes, more carrots. I was optimistically hoping that we were nearing the end of the root vegetable season, but alas, I hoped too soon.

Not only did I get the potatoes and carrots again, I also got more parsnips (and if you recall, I have a hate/hate relationship with parsnips). I don't feel good about it, but if these here parsnips don't get a new home soon, they are likely going to end up, just as they are, in the composting bin. Anyone want them? They're fresh! And organic! And there are only five left! Grab them now while you have a chance!

And to top it all off, I got not one, but two new root veggies this week. Say hi to my new beets!

And say hi to my new beet tops! ('Cause apparently, according to that darn newsletter, I am supposed to eat both the root and the leaves.)

Speaking of leaves, I also got these babies:

 What are they, you ask? I don't know if I should let you in on the secret. Mostly because my friends, the farmers of AHO, didn't let me in on the secret. These particular green and red leaves came in a bag, with lots of other kinds of leaves, called "stir-fry mix." I completely understand what I am supposed to do with it, but it's kind of a bummer that I can't brag about the exotic things I am eating. Being able to say "I stir-fried some baby vegitula, the leaves of a farmiosa,  and some horticoptia for dinner," sounds so much more impressive than saying "I stir-fried some stuff for dinner."

In happier news, I also got some baby artichokes. I can't wait to find a recipe for a fabulous dip! Who's coming over for cocktails and appetizers? You don't need to bring a thing! (except a bag to take home your new parsnips.)

I believe that you can learn from any situation, if you are open to it. And here is what I learned this week:

Vegetables are something that plants produce. Like this broccoli...

... but why stop there? You don't have to limit yourself to just the vegetable that comes from the plant. You can also eat the plant itself... the leaves, the roots, and even the flowers are all up for grabs. Shoot, at some point you might even find me fashioning clothes and carving tools from the parts that remain. 

This week's box

I got my box this morning, and it was sure a welcome sight. After a couple of days of eating primarily out of cans and boxes, it is nice to see food that doesn't come with labels or marketing. It is nice to see the food itself, not a picture of the food as it is displayed in a "serving suggestion."

I got some of the old stand-by veggies and fruits:

cauliflower

carrots

loads of spinach

Some of it never even made it into the fridge. I had a yummy salad for lunch.

potatoes

(What ever am I going to do with these?)

and enough oranges to keep the British army from getting scurvy.

I also got some new items that I am very happy to see!

lemons...

which I will use up right away either flavoring the other stuff, or just enjoying a glass of lemonade in all the sunshine we have been getting lately.

asparagus

Yum! One of my favorites. I can't wait to fire up the grill!

thyme 

This will be great fresh, and will dry nicely to last... forever, I guess!

shallots

 As far as I can tell, I can use these almost as a direct substitute for onions... and I have used them in a few Thai recipes. Yum!

And then.

We aren't done unpacking yet. There are a couple more items.

There is this one, for example.

chard

I have no idea what to do with this stuff.

And then there is this... this...

this other green stuff. I get a list of the contents of my box each week, and this must be the pea tendrils. I am guess because of these cute little curly cues:

And finally, there was this stuff:

By process of elimination, it must be sorrel. What? Sorrel?

Has anyone ever heard of sorrel? Is it an herb? A vegetable? (and while we are on the topic, what is the difference, exactly, between an herb and a vegetable? The amount you use of it?)

I am not exactly sure what I am going to do with this here sorrel, but I am sure it will be an adventure. As will the cooking of the chard and the pea tendrils.

Wish me luck!

My box this week

So, I got the new box yesterday. This was my 13th box, and I have to say, I feel no less anxiety the thirteenth box than I did with the first box. However, once I started digging into it, I felt a little bit better. There was nothing I didn't recognize, and nothing that I don't like. For that matter, there was nothing green and bitter, either. Maybe we are starting to see the summertime light at the end of the long winter tunnel.

It's just that there is so much of it all. This week, we got a HUGE cauliflower, a little bit of broccoli, about 8 potatoes, a couple dozen brussels sprouts, a few onions, about 12 carrots, some green garlic, a bunch of kiwis, and a ton of oranges, tangerines, mandarin oranges, and tangelos. Don't ask me which are which.

Sounds pretty good, right? It is, except that I have onions and potatoes left over from last week, the week before, and the week before that. And last week I did my best to use up a bunch of potatoes just because I was experiencing potato stress. As of this exact moment, I have 24 LARGE potatoes mocking me. And I am sure I will get more next week. What am I ever going to do with all those potatoes???

I am sure that you all have heard about the whole concept of hiding vegetables in your kids' food so they will eat them without even knowing it. In principle, I am opposed. I think that my kids should know what they are eating. I'm going with the concept that if they see that the vegetables are not malicious, and if they try them enough times, eventually they will like some of them. At least that is what all my parenting magazines tell me.

Side note here... I realize that when I say "you all," that there is no real you. And certainly not enough to address you ALL. Maybe some day someone will read my little blog? Probably not. There are plenty of food blogs written by people who actually know how to cook. Why read about someone who can only tell you what not to do? At any rate, I have to have an imaginary you, or I don't know how to write.


Okay, back to refusing to hide the veggies. A couple of nights ago I had to run from the first grade Presidents' Day choral presentation, to piano lessons, to the dentist.  I threw together a pot of chili for dinner. It was pretty healthy, it could sit there ready until dinner time, and they all like it. But as I stirred the pot, I realized that I wasn't using up any of the godforsaken produce that is spilling out of my fridge, filling my countertop, and overflowing from my fruit basket. Have I mentioned that I have some extra potatoes? It occurred to me that if I had some carrot or squash puree ready to go, I could stir it in, use up some vegetables, make it that little bit healthier, and no one would mind. For that matter, I could shred or chop some veggies to go in the chili too. But remember how I was running around all afternoon? I had no time to shred carrots or anything else.

So, when I got this new box, with tons of carrots, I decided to throw out my principles. I went ahead and pureed and froze the carrots (as well as a few that were still in my fridge from last week). I haven't tried hiding the carrots in anything yet, but I'll let you know what happens when I do! The best part, though, is the fact that those carrots went from box to freezer without overfilling my crisper drawers. No carrot stress this week... those babies aren't going to rot on my watch. I may just be able to fit the rest of it in the fridge yet.

In case you (You? There I go again... ) wanted to know how to do it, here is how I pureed my carrots:

1. Scrub the carrots (you can peel them if you like, but I figure there is no reason to throw away part of a perfectly good carrot), and cut them into chunks about an inch long.
2. Steam the carrot chunks either on the stovetop or microwave until they give a little when you press on them (about 10 minutes). Put the steamed carrot chunks and a bit of the water you used for steaming (about a 1/4 cup or so) into your food processor, and blend until they are a smooth, pasty consistency.
3. You're done! This all took me about 30 minutes or so.
4. To freeze it, I put the puree into a muffin tin. With about 15 carrots, I had enough to fill 12 muffin cups just to the top. I froze the muffin tin for a couple of hours, until the carrots were pretty hard. Then, I dipped the tin into warm water to loosen the cute little orange hockey pucks. I popped them out, put them in a freezer bag, and now I can pull out one or two carrot pucks to throw into spaghetti sauce, chili, etc.

I didn't think about it at the time, but in the future I might measure the carrot puree and freeze it in exact cup or half-cup amounts, so that I can know how much to defrost for particular recipes.