I am in love...

I have a new love. It comes once a week. I pick it up at our co-op and bring it home in a 15 gallon plastic tub... Can you guess? Well, here it is! This was our CSA (community supported agriculture) Box from  this week! 

This week's delivery

David and I recently purchased a 30 week farm share from Sauvie Island Organics. Every Thursday I head to our local Co-op around 4:30, check my name off the list, do my other grocery shopping and then head home with a box full of wonderful, local, vegetables.

Beautiful spinach waiting to be turned into a warm spinach and bacon salad

Sauvie Island Organics emails me on Tuesday with a list of what will be in the box that week, along with the amount of each vegetable. Enclosed in the email, they also include a link to their blog which holds recipes that correspond to the veggies that each farm share holder will receive that week! When the email comes in on Tuesday, I always make a point of getting a cup of tea, gathering my cookbooks and laptop and setting up shop at the kitchen table to menu plan for the following week... no forgotten greens in the back of the crisper drawer for us... I want to be sure to use up all those wonderful veggies!

Beet Greens: Any green that has a tougher stem and greens that should be added later in cooking gets prepped this way. Leafy greens on the bottom and tougher stems on top to add to cooking first, separated by a little cloth.

When Thursday, our pick-up day, rolls around, I have already made my grocery shopping list as well as my menu plan. So, when I get to the co-op I can pick up any extras that I will need for the week (which usually isn't much after our meat share, CSA Box, and Azure order). I think one of my favorite parts of this schedule is that I don't need to head to the store on the weekend with everyone else... I get to stay home and relax!

Scallions: washed, cut in half and roots removed for  easy grabbing

Once home, I unload everything and take a good look at all the lovely-ness :) Then I snap back into reality and realize that I need to get all these vegetables prepped! I always wash, trim and chop the produce right away so that it is easier to use up during the week. At this time I feel like quite the prep cook, and I love it! 

Chopped Parsley: about two tablespoons added to each slot, topped with water and placed in the freezer, once frozen, they will be removed and placed in a freezer container to be added to soups and grain salads later in the winter

All the salad greens get torn, washed and stored in a gallon glass jar (I place a cloth on top, right under the lid, to help with the humidity throughout the week... the greens stay fresh all week!). Any root vegetables like radishes, turnips or beets, get their greens removed and saved for another dish, and the roots themselves go into another large square glass container that I always keep in our crisper drawer. Everything else gets prepped for whatever I am going to use it for that week... all this work up front sure pays off later in the week! I usually spend about an hour and half from start to finish prepping the box.

Everything in it's place and ready for a week of cookery!

Also, while I am chopping and spinning in the salad spinner, I always have my food processor out and on the counter. Into this goes all the extra scappy bits that would otherwise go in the compost. Once my prepping is completed, I give these less desirable bits a whirl in the processor, dump them into a large tupperware and top it with a scoop of cracked corn. I have now made chicken treats for the whole week! Each morning the girls get a hand full of chopped greens and corn added to their run. They scratch around keeping themselves busy being all chicken-ey all day... all the while turning their run so I don't have too!

Ready to be whirred into chicken treats!

Our CSA subscription has been a blast so far. We love having the fresh produce throughout the week and thoroughly enjoy supporting local farmers making a living off the land. I always feel like I am opening a gift box each week... lucky me! Here's to many more weeks of wonderful eats to come!