cabbage – rachel leff

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.

Another week of sweet pick-your-own blueberries.

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

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

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.

This CSA share is really starting to heat up. This week, we got garlic scapes, kale, salad turnips, basil (yes!), pick-your-own raspberries (yes!), yellow and green zucchini, two types of salanova lettuce, and cabbage.

We’ve had quite a heat wave this week, so picking our own fruit was a pretty sweaty undertaking. But it was well worth it for a pint of perfect raspberries. I mean perfect. My daughter was very unhappy in the heat—who can blame her? As she wilted in the heat, my husband and I gathered berries. The discomfort was worth it, and based on how many my daughter has eaten, she thought it was worth the temporary discomfort as well.

No filter on those pics…just perfectly ripe raspberries in all their glory. As I said to my husband as we walked back to the car from the fields—I’d probably never buy a pint of perfect organic raspberries. Lovely as they are, it’s just not the kind of thing I’d splurge on. So it felt like I was taking home some precious gift.

And speaking of gifts: wow, that basil! There will be some homemade pesto this week. And those garlic scapes? My daughter loves to wrap them around herself: her arms, her neck, her legs…she can see how ornamental they are. I love that. And not to be too produce-crazy, but the salanova lettuce is just gorgeous. They look like flowers.

The yellow zucchini are enormous. I think maybe they’ll get stuffed. And we got salad turnips again. Two weeks ago, I sauteed them as well as the greens and they were great—the turnips had a subtle sweetness. These week, the greens were already a feast for some bugs, so they wound up in the trash. But the turnips will get sauteed or roasted any day now.

This week, our share also included cabbage. I love cabbage, but it’s pretty un-sexy. But this round, tight little head of cabbage was better looking than any I’ve purchased at the store. And last but not least, we got another head of kale. As someone or other once said, kale is the Kardashian of the greens world—really overhyped and overexposed, showing up in way more places than it should. But that’s not kale’s fault, is it? It’s still crazy healthy and can be really delicious. Check out these purple stems:

Quite a bit to work with this week. And I caught a glimpse of list of the expected crops due next week—blueberries and cherry tomatoes! I’ve heard from others who’ve done this CSA that I will be drowning in heirloom tomatoes this summer. I’m counting the days….

Tag: cabbage

CSA, Week 6

CSA, Week 4