Thank goodness, a Tuesday without rain! Sunny weather makes the garden pickup much more pleasant. My box was waiting at the farm today, with kale, sweet potato greens, chives, mixed salad greens, new potatoes, garlic, slicing tomatoes, green beans, and green banana peppers. The weather is chilly this week, so I am planning […]
Local Harvest
CSA week 13: warm and cool crops
Today’s City Commons box includes wonderful summer produce: red ripe slicing tomatoes, a quart of yellow cherry tomatoes, chard, hot peppers, and basil. I’m seeing cool weather crops again, as well: kohlrabi, beets, kale, and peppery arugula. Altogether, it’s a lovely box. I’m planning to freeze kale for fall and winter soups. […]
CSA week 12: hints of fall to come
No rain today – at least, none this afternoon, and I barely got my toes wet fetching the CSA box. We have the first hints of the fall produce: a lovely orange winter squash. There are also basil, broccoli rabe, slender little green beans, slicing and cherry tomatoes, arugula, red onions, […]
CSA week 11: jalapeños
What is it with rain every Tuesday? I got today’s basket under cover just in time; the rain was sudden and strong. No matter! This week I have an abundance of jalapeño peppers, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, Swiss chard, kale, lovely little red cabbages, oregano, basil, and cranberry beans in their pods. […]
CSA wk 10: halfway done!
I beat the rain today for my City Commons pickup – hooray for staying dry. This is week 10, which is the midpoint of the CSA season. This week’s box included basil and chives, carrots, cucumbers, both slicing and cherry tomatoes, varicolored beans, jalapeño peppers, and garlic. It almost seems a shame […]
CSA week 9: the flood
Yep, we had us some rain: “drenched” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The photo above shows a freeway intersection right near my house with about 15 feet of water under the overpass. We had word from our plucky farmers at City Commons. It was too rainy to harvest on Monday, but they were […]
CSA week 8: tomato season begins
The tomatoes are here! Starting with very sweet ripe cherry tomatoes in red, purple, and gold, I’m looking forward to all the tomatoes to come. There can never be too many for me. Week 8’s box also includes cucumbers, new potatoes, mixed herbs, Swiss chard, carrots, garlic, jalapeño peppers, and […]
CSA week 7: abundance!
I love pickup days at City Commons CSA. I walk to the cooler shed, open the door, and find a stack of many boxes. What exactly will be in the one I choose? This week, my share (also called my treasure box) contains Swiss chard, purple onions, Kirby cucumbers, a bundle of […]
CSA week 6: the first tomatoes!
I wait for them all year: the first tomatoes of summer. I’m likely to take a big bite of one right there next to where it came off the vine. Warm from the summer sun, the juices drip down my chin, and their exquisite flavor sings in my mouth. This […]
CSA week 5: summer produce arrives
Finally, we see summer veggies! And this week I know what everything is, even if the beans are unexpectedly purple. Such a pretty color! This week’s box includes green and purple beans, more garlic, yellow summer squash, cucumbers, frisee or escarole, kohlrabi, a huge bunch of basil and a tidy bundle […]
CSA week 4: roots and leaves
Week 4’s distribution is, as the folks at CSA Commons say, all about roots and leaves, except for the radish pods, which I’ve never eaten before, and which are going to become a fabulous pre-dinner snack. Shown in the photo, and in this week’s box: those radish pods, carrots, little […]
CSA week 3: spring is definitely here
I just picked up my CSA distribution for week 3. You can see that there is more in the box every week – this means that I need to spend time every Tuesday thinking about how I’ll use the bounty. This week’s box contained tender young lettuce and edible nasturtium petals, basil, oregano, kohlrabi, daikon radish, 2 heads […]