Farm share (Fall 2011): Week 1

I'm posting this a bit late -- I just received my week 4 share, but that just means I can make the fun last past the end of this brief fall season.

In the mid-summer I grew more and more interested in local food and CSA (community supported agriculture). I dubbed CSA "farm share" as a quick, easy way to explain the concept to my 4-year-old and other people unfamiliar with the term CSA. I was just in time to sign up for Potomac Vegetable Farm's fall program, which is 7 weeks long.

I had my first pick-up in late September. The bag contained a big bunch of kale, 2 beets, a bag of green beans, a bag of carrots, a small butternut squash, 4 mini-eggplants, and a clove of garlic. All that was a "mini" share.

With it, I made:

• Pasta w/ (farmers market) sausage & kale
• Coconut Curry Tofu (eggplant, kale)
• Roasted organic chicken thighs with roasted root veggies and squash
• Chickpea Meatball (with the farmers market sausage) Soup with kale
• "Sunny" pasta (with olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, sunflower seeds, the clove of garlic, and the green beans)