CSA share: week 20. The final share of the season!
This is it, kids, the final share of the season! I can’t believe that 20 weeks have flown by already. I’m going to miss visiting the farm every Friday and finding out what’s new, and taking this picture. My friends will miss hearing me complain that I can’t close my refrigerator door, and can they please help me out by taking some veggies off my hands. Geez, now I’ll have to go back to Whole Paycheck for organic produce. (But it’s not the same.)
What did you like in the share, and what did you not like? I’m going to go against the flow and say that I loved all the greens this season. It’s hard to find a variety of fresh greens in the stores, and I’ve really enjoyed them. The turnips, meh. The heirloom tomatoes were worth the trip to the farmers market. Wish I had signed up for an egg share, because organic eggs from the grocery are just not the same.
This blog was the first season that I documented the shares and the ebb and flow of events on Bee Heaven Farm and in Redland. I wanted to do a lot more than I managed to find time and energy for. During the off-season lull, I hope to get caught up on some blog posts I’ve been working on. What do you want more news about, and what do you want less of? Do you want farm news, area news, farmer/intern interviews, politics, recipes, information about different foods, what’s available at market, various related events, rants and rambles, or …?
Your responses are very interesting to me, and based on what I hear, may help shape the direction of the blog (as long as it doesn’t stray too far from original mission of writing about Redland Organics growers, CSA members, the issues that affect them, and the farm area). Would love to hear your thoughts! Let’s get a conversation going! I know you’re out there…
Redland Rambles 
Hello darling, I love your blog and how it keeps me in the loop about what’s going on in my own backyard. I like info about the farms, the area, the politics but also some suggestions are always good as to what one can do to get more involved if they want! I don’t like to just hear the snarking (that’s not what YOU do but loads of people complain but hardly DO anything!) I also don’t care a hoot about restaurant reviews, too many people doing them, I can’t afford many of them.
I’d like to know more about how what to cook/use during the off growing season of Southern Florida. Recipes are always good for suggestions.
I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to get down to the farm one Friday to meet you!
I missed the sugar cane this year. But I missed five weeks so maybe it made it in one of those? I was looking forward to making Vietnamese prawn paste on sugar cane or CHẠO TÔM.
I liked experimenting with the betel leaves but still, the cravings for it eludes me.
I not only cooked radishes and their tops for the first time but roasted them and found them to be quite sweet and actually looked forward to getting them instead of giving them away. By the way, I will be demonstrating my elevation of the lowly radish on Sat. at Fairchild garden at 2pm! Come and see what I do with them, they are delicious!
I am coming to grips with not only utilizing radish, turnip and beet but look forward to cooking with them. Nothing beats caramelized roasted beets salad with Hani’s goat cheese and pine nuts!
I liked all the greens though found it challenging to use them all up straightaway while they were still fresh and not withered after a few days. I would have liked to see more carrots! And parsnips! Can we grow corn here?
Great job Marian!
Darling Laura, thanks so much for your thoughtful response and kind words! Yes, I’ll write more about the farm and day-to-day doings. That kind of got pushed aside as other issues hit my radar. That’s a good suggestion to pass along information about what one can do to get more involved if they want. But it might be more along the lines of “Margie is short-handed this week and needs help packing shares on Friday morning.” I don’t do snark — but I am blunt and honest. And I don’t do restaurant reviews. There’s plenty enough good writers doing an excellent job with that. The focus of this blog remains on the growers, the food, the land, the issues — behind-the-scenes stuff that we city folk don’t realize goes into getting those yummy beets onto our plates.
There was no sugar cane this year, not sure why. Will ask Margie if she will have some available. Glad you made friends with radishes! I’ve grown up eating them sliced on rye bread with real butter and a bit of salt, yum! Will stop by a moment to see what you’re up to at the Fairchild festival. As for greens, they will keep for several days to a week, and will not wilt as fast if you store them in a closed plastic bag. You can refresh greens by soaking them in a pan of cool water for a while before you wash, chop, cook.
Am not the world’s best cook, quick and simple is my style, so I’ve hesitated posting my recipes or cooking suggestions. There are several food bloggers who write about their CSA shares and do a great job of it. Was repeatedly amazed by what Bill of Tinkering With Dinner and Caroline of Occasional Omnivore came up with! Did notice that recipes and suggestions about preparing unusual things consistently got more attention, so I will continue providing information and cooking suggestions from the growers.
As for the summer, Bee Heaven will have fruit-egg-honey sales from time to time, as they become available. Will visit and write about the area, but maybe not every week. It is, after all, the off-season…
Marian —
I’ve appreciated your commentary, since it seems to offer some education and interpretation that Margie and the other farmers don’t have time to provide. And your pictures are great!
About the CSA this year — if I could have one complaint and one praise, the first would be “too much celery!@!!!*#!” and the second would be “over all, nice balance, considering the weather challenges.”
Seriously, other than celery soup and celery dressing in the Thanksgiving turkey, and a stalk cut up in your daily salad, what can you do with all of that (if you’re allergic to PB, that is)? Fortunately, it seems to be keeping pretty well.
And then, all in all, not too many leafy greens in any one week, and no daikon! I’m wondering if people complained about that last year? I didn’t even see it at the Farmer’s Market. It’s a good vegetable, if you get about one per year ;-p.
Thanks for all your efforts this year — look forward to next!
Karen, thanks for your comments. Will try to explain more about what goes on with the farm and the food as it grows. Glad you like the pictures! You’re right, Margie was pretty busy during the season and didn’t have as much time or energy to post on this blog or on the Bee Heaven Farm blog.
Completely agree with the abundance of celery. I’ve done all that you described, and I still have the last bunch and a half hanging around. Time to bring cut up pieces to work for snacks. It’ll keep me away from the vending machines! And yes, I missed daikon, make a kim chee with it. Still have a bit left hanging around in the back of the frig. Worden Farm, as I recall, raises it, but I don’t know why we didn’t get more. Maybe Margie can chime in?
This is so exciting, Marian! Glad I ran into you @ Fairchild. A blog like this is long overdue. As for your celery problem…. only one solution — chicken wings!
Funny… every year, it seems that some particular item sticks in people’s minds. This year, it’s celery (even though it never came two weeks in a row!). In years past it’s been, variously, radishes (even when varied by type, including daikons), turnips, yellow squash, mustard greens…
As to what to do with celery, my grandma taught me always to include celery in potato salad or egg salad (I also add chopped apple and I use little or no mayonnaise)- Waldorf salad anyone? I also make a relish with fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped celery, and walnuts or pecans (why limit it to Thanksgiving?) – good either cooked or raw. If you can’t have PB, then use cream cheese instead, or almond butter!
Daikon, for some reason, was a ‘forgotten’ crop this season – some got planted, but not that much – the crazy cold messed with a lot of plans. Some planned crops didn’t get off the starting line – there were no leeks this season, because the starts didn’t get planted in the quantity ordered. (Worden Farm sometimes uses a certified organic wholesale plant starts service located in South Florida for some of the crops to reduce labor and greenhouse needs.) So they only had a small amount for their CSA, and none for us. Ditto with the celery at Worden Farm (aren’t you glad of that?), and, though we got some potatoes, it wasn’t nearly the normal amount…
Every year is a surpise!
Hey Kell, good to see you at Fairchild! Glad you like my blog. I welcome any help or suggestions you might want to offer re my writing. There’s always room for improvement… 😉
I just thought of another celery idea: the Cajun trinity! Most dishes start out with bell pepper, onion and celery browned and added to a roux. With my tomatoes and some shrimp, I’m going to put together some kinda gumbo etoufee!