csa haul: week five

I have two competing sides of my personality: the antsy one that craves new adventures, and the homey one that wants nothing more than to live life as a series of comforting routines. It’s a yin-and-yang dynamic that shoots me off on a road trip one weekend, then renders me homebound the next. I imagine it’s not uncommon to find this sort of split personality, the kind that makes you use all your energy on something exciting but requires a battery recharge before your next attempt.

After a solid five weeks as a CSA subscriber, I’ve realized that getting my weekly produce share complements both sides of my personality. There’s a fair bit of comforting sameness as the weeks fold in and out of each other; every Tuesday, I read through the weekly e-mail from Farmer John, telling us what to expect in that week’s bag. On Thursday, I swing by my local dropoff point after work, thumb through the offerings, and enjoy a quiet night of veggie-washing, wine-sipping and recipe-procuring with Ted. And with so many raw ingredients to work with, I’m able to content myself with lots of calm puttering around the kitchen. At the same time: having your weekly vegetable allotment dictated to you? It’s a challenge, and we’re constantly hunting down ideas and recipes that will use up our entire share without requiring us to give up our social lives. Never before have I made this many new dishes in a week, or eschewed “dinners” of peanut butter and toast for so long, or learned so many new cooking techniques. Belonging to a CSA program has asked a lot of me, and it’s given a lot back. It calls me to expend mental and physical energy, and then it recharges me with the best food I’ve ever had.

But enough with the philosophical musings. Here’s how I used my veggies this week:

- Scallions: Chopped and folded into a batch of delicious Mexican-spiced black bean burgers, which I really recommend. Top them with lime juice, avocado slices, and piquant salsa, and believe me, you won’t miss the meat.
- Roma beans: We served these alongside the burgers, after a long, slow turn in olive oil, and sprinkled them liberally with salt and pepper. I was tempted to cook them quickly and leave some crunchiness, but they tasted so sweet after twenty minutes on the stovetop. Seriously, you know you’ve done something right when Roma beans taste like French fries.
- Turnips: Oh, I feel so bad. I couldn’t bring myself to eat these, not after my last brush with turnips. Sorry, little vegetables, but—shudder.
- Cucumbers: Sliced and eaten plain. This variety is so sweet and refreshing, I could subsist on nothing but CSA cucumbers all summer. (That is, if my body could overcome a pesky concept called “nutritional requirements.”)
- Kale: Sautéed with spicy Italian sausage and stirred into tomato sauce, then served atop a pile of spaghetti. The rest was snacked on in the form of crunchy kale chips.
- Lettuce: Eaten as workday lunchtime salads, which I’ve grown rather fond of. This week’s head of lettuce was pretty small, though; spring greens like arugula have disappeared from the share, and all things leafy seem similarly endangered. I’ll admit, I was scared when my first CSA share was an entire bag filled with greens, but I really will miss them.
- Zucchini: Roasted alongside red bell pepper slices, then folded into a summery pesto pasta salad.
- Basil: The base for a successful homemade pesto. We didn’t eat much of the stuff growing up, so I was giddy at how fresh and bright it tasted! It was stunning on top of the aforementioned pasta salad.
- Mint: Mint chip ice cream. Enough said.

Check back next week for another CSA recap! There are some very delicious things in the works, I can promise you that much.