Keeping it FRESH!

Our veggie share from Angelic Organics.

This spring, I *loved* going out in our yard to harvest lettuce for salads and I ate healthier because I had fresh food at my fingertips. I've kept it fresh this summer with organic goodies through Angelic Organics.  Our pick-up day is Saturday and my husband and I look forward to heading to our local site to see what's 'in store' this week. It's always a great variety and number.

We walk home with canvas bags full of onions, sweet corn, kale, potatoes, zucchini, peppers, lettuces and whatever else was just picked and figure out meals for the week ahead. We invite friends and family over - because it's best to eat it at it's freshest - and most nutritious - and we like to share. Some of our best summer nights were spent on our back porch eating meals made with our fresh organic food. 

We've been involved with a CSA - which stands for 'community supported agriculture' - since we first heard about them around 2000 and we've learned some things along the way, and gotten better at cooking and eating our veggies too! 

CSA's are catching on around the country, and some have gone beyond veggies to include fruit, egg, dairy and/or meat shares. On the LocalHarvest site, you can search by city or zip code to find CSA's near you; I was surprised to see 52 listings in the Chicago area! 

Some variations of the CSA concept do custom orders - and you can see details of how and where the food is grown on the website  - it's all about organic and local. Some even do home delivery, including Irv and Shelly's Fresh Picks and, the one we use for meat, cheese and eggs (so much better than store-bought eggs!), Farm Fresh Foodstuffs. 

The initial idea of the farm share is each shareholder pays the farmer up front to cover costs and gets an equal amount (or share) of items harvested each week - so it's picked and eaten at its optimal time and gives a good variety of fresh, local and organic produce. But not everyone likes kale and  some people can't eat certain things like cucumbers or (pity!) tomatoes so for some people, the boxes can be a bit intimidating at first.

In past years, we've had challenges getting through all the veggies. There may have been 3 types of greens, such as kale, bokchoy or mustard greens, and we got overwhelmed figuring out how to cook and eat all of them. There may have been too many herbs or things we didn't like in a box. Or, worst of all, we got a ton of tomatoes at once - and we ate until we got canker sores but couldn't get through them all. 

In an ideal week, we'd follow our meal plans and use up all the veggies at their best. But, I must admit there were times when we failed and food spoiled before we could eat it. There is guilt here, of an organic variety, and each time I would recommit to my pledge of 'zero waste.' 

One thing we learned was that my husband and I cannot eat a full box of veggies every week, even if we were vegetarians. Luckily for us, Angelic Organics and other CSA's (we were with another one for a while) offer HALF-SHARES. Generally, this is a full box every OTHER week rather than a small box every week - which makes it easier to have fewer pick-up days as well. 

Also helpful toward our goal to eat fresh is the "exchange box" at our pick-up site. People leave items they don't or can't eat for whatever reason (no judgment) and pick up items they do want, whether it's ears of corn, bulbs of onions or bunches of dill. Each week, we've exchanged at least one item, because we had too many cucumbers already or had a busy week and didn't think we could cook a big eggplant plus a bunch of squashes.  

When we go out of town, as we did last week for a wedding on the east coast, we bequeathed our veggie box to our good friends that we know cook a lot and would put it to good use. One other time, a friend forgot to get the veggies on the right day. In that case, the host site (which in our case is Stone Soup Cooperative) will use the veggies or donate them to a local food bank.

When we got back the following weekend, we missed the fresh greens, squashes and tomatoes from the last box, but felt better knowing the food was eaten and not rotting in our refrigerator - to be tossed into our compost bin later on. No waste = no guilt! 

I did have a tomato casualty: the Roma tomato - the only fruit on the plant I got from my aunt - fell down and rotted while we were away. That broke my heart a bit. But the cherry tomatoes were rocking and I harvested 2 dozen. I eat them every day, sliced, with sea salt and pepper: delish! 

My goal now is to keep it fresh into fall and winter. We got an extended veggie share through October so we'll have squashes, potatoes, onions, carrots and so forth, as we head into colder months. These should last a while in a cool place like our pantry.

Our custom-built raised lettuce bed.

I just planted a fall crop of lettuces, which grow best in cooler weather, not the high heat of summer. We get most lettuces in spring or early summer CSA boxes, but it's great to have fresh in fall when tomatoes, cucumbers and other goodies are in, too. If we're lucky, these will grow into October or as long as we go without having a hard frost.

$9 worth of farmer's markets tomatoes. DEAL!

But that leaves a problem: fresh tomatoes! Store -bought tomatoes are not the same as fresh grown. My solution is CANNING. I've already frozen a few dozen whole tomatoes (just blanched, cored and peeled, put in ziploc bags and frozen). These will work for soups, stews and chili but I want more yummy tomatoes over the winter months ahead.

Since tomatoes are in prime season, I plan to start Sat. after we get our veggie box. My neighbor loaned me her canning pot, we've got jars and lids, tongs and tools, and I picked up luscious-looking tomatoes from the farmer's market yesterday. Can you believe baskets of 7 or 8 of these beauties were only $3?!. And I have FoodInJars.com to show me the canning way. 

Stay tuned to see how it goes... canning those tomatoes!!