csa haul: week one

In the, er, glory days of high school, my friends and I eschewed the cafeteria in favor of a stretch of linoleum outside the math department, where we’d sit with our backs against the lockers and eat lunch. It was a quiet place to talk and people-watch, a pursuit that was especially rewarding on the days that my junior-year math teacher made an appearance. He’d saunter out of the math department toward the water fountain, where he’d wash produce for his lunch. And by “produce,” we’re not talking about a baggie of baby carrots; more like entire heads of lettuce. Or whole cucumbers. Or a bunch of radishes, if he was feeling especially whimsical. (To put this all into context, I should add that he was a regular wearer of Hawaiian shirts, and a ukulele player who used a Kermit the Frog puppet as the singing dummy to his ventriloquist.)

Last Thursday, I felt a flashback to those math-teacher moments of old, as I myself stood at the sink washing a entire bagful of vegetables. But I had a good excuse! I’d just picked up the bounty that was my first CSA share.

Signing up for a CSA program (community-supported agriculture) means you receive weekly deliveries of produce from a local farm based on whatever’s blooming, and this marks my first year as a subscriber. (What can I say? Local produce tastes good, and now there’s no way to avoid eating my greens. Plus, I like a good kitchen challenge.) Graceland Farm’s summer program began last Thursday, and it’s been a vegetable-infused whirlwind! I thought I’d let you in, dear readers, on some of the fun—and, okay, the utter craziness—of it all.

We got an e-mail from Graceland’s Farmer John on Tuesday night that listed the bounty to come, which I read with excitement…and a bit of unhinged panic. (What is qingdao, and how can I make it edible?) But after picking up the heavy bag of greens from our area drop-off point, I calmed down a bit. Ted and I discovered a fun, relaxing CSA routine, which I stole from another CSA subscriber and you should steal, too, if you ever find yourself with armfuls of qingdao. We stood at the sink with glasses of wine and our new salad spinner at hand, then began washing and spin-drying it all. That way, it’d all be ready to use throughout the week, cutting prep-time and leaving more room for creativity and enjoyment. When you pass the time brainstorming delicious recipes for the week, frosty beverage in hand, it’s actually a fun and calming routine. And you will need calming (plus some serious strategizing) when presented with the reality of qingdao.

As CSA Week One ends, I’m happy to say that we ate almost every scrap of vegetable matter that Farmer John bestowed upon us! One key trick, though, in order to avoid feeling like rabbits? We “hid” the veggies in most recipes, making Jessica Seinfeld proud, so that we could munch on copious amounts of salad without feeling like every single other meal was based around vegetables. Here’s where all the greenery went:

- Qingdao (Chinese cabbage): Boiled and wrapped into golubtsy, or Russian stuffed cabbage leaves (stay tuned for that recipe!).
- Arugula: Spun through the Cuisinart to infuse a Parmesan-y pasta salad with its peppery flavor.
- Radishes: “Quick-pickled” and mixed into a bowl of noodles with scallion-ginger sauce.
- Japanese red mustard greens: Starred in the tomato sauce that topped Indian-spiced flatbread pizzas with goat cheese. The rest was sautéed and stirred into the noodles mentioned above.
- Red-leaf lettuce: One word: saladified.
- Romaine lettuce: See above. (Does anyone have a remedy for The Most Boring Salad Ever, which is to say lettuce topped with red peppers, cucumber, and vinaigrette? I have my eye on this version for lunch.)
- Scallions: Intensified the scallion-ginger sauce of the aforementioned noodles.

Whew! My belly is full, but I feel healthier already. Would you ever go to such lengths to get your greens? Or would you just wind up feeling like a crazy, vegetable-wielding math teacher?