CSA, Week 6

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Week 6. A bag of arugula, red and purple potatoes, blueberries, pistou basil, napa cabbage, cipollini onions, zucchini, and cucumbers. Lots of possibilities. I was hoping we’d get to some tomatoes this week, so I was rather sad to see that was not the case. Maybe next week? But there was still plenty to be very happy about this week. The zucchini keeps on coming, which is great. There are long months to endure with no zucchini, so I have been happy each time it’s in the CSA share. And those cucumbers are so sweet. My four year old loves them, so my husband and I don’t usually take more than a bite or two. But we sure enjoy those bites! The arugula has a lot of bite this week. I added some finely chopped napa cabbage to the arugula, which worked out pretty well. If the cabbages keep coming, I’ll try to make some kimchi.

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Another week of sweet pick-your-own blueberries.

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Look at this beautiful pistou basil and its diminutive leaves. Looks like a little bouquet.

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Sweet little cipollini onions. I only wish there were more!

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Earthy red and purple potatoes, a thin layer of soil still clinging to their colorful peels. My grandmother used to talk sometimes about boiling fresh baby potatoes, adding fresh peas, and topping with butter as a simple pleasure of summer. I’ll probably end up roasting these ones with the onions and some chicken, but her reminiscence about that simple dish has never left me. If we get more potatoes in the coming weeks, I’ll find some fresh peas and make it.

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CSA, Week 5

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Week 5. Hard to believe it’s been five weeks. The produce gets more exciting every week. This week: scallions, summer squash, chard, carrots (with all their glorious greens), thai basil, a quart of pick-your-own raspberries and blueberries (there are a lot of beautiful blueberries under there…), cucumbers, more summer squash (or is it zucchini?), and lettuce (red leaf salanova?). Maybe a Thai curry in there? We’ll see….

For the pick-your-own option this week, we could pick a quart of blueberries, raspberries, and/or red currants. We went with a mix of the first two. Last week’s raspberries were so delicious, and we had been looking forward to the blueberries. My daughter lost steam again—another hot day—so my husband and I got to work to fill that quart-size basket. The berries on the blueberry bushes were the loveliest shades of lavender and blue:

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As the basket filled up, we ambled over to the raspberry patch:

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My daughter loved last week’s raspberries, so she got almost all of the pint-sized basket to herself. This week, I’m gonna have to sneak a few of these treats for myself.

Some close-ups:

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