CSA - What's in your basket? [General]

2015 Jun 23
I thought it might be fun to start a CSA thread to see what we all get from the different CSAs. We joined a CSA this year, Our Little Farm, based in l'Ange-Gardien. They farm organically and are certified by Ecocert Canada. We opted to get a basket every two weeks rather than weekly so we could test how quickly we could consume what we received. Today we received out first basket and it contained: parsley, garlic scrapes, green onions, hakurei turnips, cabbage, a broccoli partly hidden by the cabbage, bok choi and another bunch of haikuri. They bring an extra box containing items you received in your box plus some that aren't, e.g. spinach, so that you can exchange something you don't want for something that you do. I got lucky because the fellow who got there before me does not like hakurei turnips so I took those and put my Swiss chard in the exchange box. We love those turnips, hence we have two bunches. Everything is so nice and fresh and it all looks good! I hope you will share what you are getting in your baskets!

2015 Jun 23
We joined that aquaponics farm in Edelweiss.

It's early yet, but we got some kind of onions, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes . . .

2015 Jun 24
We just joined the biweekly program with Juniper Farm in Wakefield and received the following in our first basket:

- baby spinach, kale, Boston lettuce, green onions, beets, radishes, a type of salad that looks like dandelion greens but is milder, and cilantro.

We went biweekly to begin with to see how fast we can get through the basket and how well we would incorporate the veggies into our meals and so far so good. We can really taste the freshness! There is an optional mushroom share add on.

2015 Jun 24
Our tomatoes were awesome. There is no comparison between freshly picked tomatoes and grocery store ones. We got radishes too.

Everything is delayed this year because of the cold spring.

2015 Jun 29
Got the second basket today, more stuff than the first. Lots of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes . . .

2015 Jun 30
Francis, how about a picture? We are bi-weekly so won't get another one until next week. We are enjoying what we have received in the first basket.

2015 Jun 30
My wife sorted it and put it in the fridge. I'll take a picture next week.

2015 Jul 2
This week,our CSA basket from Juniper included the following (from left, clockwise):

- kohlrabi
- 2 lettuces
- collard greens
- Nappa cabbage
- green onions
- carrots
- cucumber
- snap peas
- mini zucchinis

Anyone has ideas of how to cook kohlrabi?

2015 Jul 2
RiceLover, that's a nice basket you have there. Apparently there will be kohlrabi in mine next week and I have never dealt with one before. Any suggestions? Collard greens are yummy though. If you need a recipe for those, let me know.

2015 Jul 2
I just peel the bulb and eat it fresh in slices. very nice flavor similar to broccoli stalks.

cooking it seems wierd!

2015 Jul 2
@felinefan I have never cooked collard greens. I would like some recipes, please.

I heard you can stir fry the kohlrabi with minced meat. Or make a sort of scalloped kohlrabi but I guess I will try it raw too. :)

It's fun to try different vegetables! And they taste so good being so fresh!

2015 Jul 2
@RiceLover, I seem some patty pan squash there too . . . dang I should have planted some this year. They are great when small and tender like that. Those are amazing carrots for this early in the year. Locally grown ? How ?

2015 Jul 3
RiceLover, I have sent you a PM.

2015 Jul 3
you can treat kolrahbi like you would a turnip. I like it roasted with other root veggies

2015 Jul 4
I made a carrot kohlrabi slaw with the kohlrabi. It went well with the rest of dinner, a walnut, green onions, mustard and honey panko crusted salmon. :-)

2015 Jul 6
Wow, I didn't think I'd see things like carrots showing up on local CSA's in July considering the cold spring we had.

2015 Jul 6
I don't know how but those carrots were grown in Wakefield, Qc!

2015 Jul 7
I may be a little late for this but if anyone eats a kolrahbi again you can eat it raw. Just peel off the tough outer skin, slice, and eat sprinkled with a little salt.

2015 Jul 7
Here is today's basket: hakurie turnips, bok Choy, broccoli, kohlrabi, garlic scrapes, cilantro, basil, a beautiful lettuce and green onions. I did get Swiss chard but I exchanged it for the bok choy. Everything is so nice and fresh! One mistake I won't make again is to let the turnip greens go blah. From the last basket, I rescued the ones that were not too bad, gave them a good soak in cold water, rinsed them and lo and behold they were refreshed as the nice perky leaves they were when I first got them. They were delicious.

2015 Jul 16
This week's. Everything is bigger now and I can barely fit everything in my fridge. :-)

Two types of lettuce
Cucumbers
Zucchinis
Beets with greens
Swiss Chard
Broccoli
Flat leaf Parsley
Snap peas
Onions
A kind of turnip

2015 Jul 17
Those look like hakurie turnips although I have never seen red ones. They are delicious and very mild tasting. The greens are also excellent. There is a recipe on epicurious that you might like to try that utilizes both the greens and the turnip in the same dish. If you are interested, I can post the link. Very nice basket.

2015 Jul 17
Yes please. I like to try new recipes in any case!

2015 Jul 17
www.epicurious.com

Here you go. It doesn't look like much, that's for sure, but it is delicious. I mispelled it, it is as you can see, hakurie, not hakurie.

2015 Jul 17
Are you sure you didn't mean hakurie?

2015 Jul 17
Let's try this again . It is hakurei not hakurie.

2015 Jul 21
Here is today's basket. Red onions, patty pan squash, zucchini, beets with greens, swiss chard, green beans, snap peas, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, Italian basil and Thai basil. There was an eggplant that I traded for the broccoli. Everything looks amazing.

Francis, what have you been getting in yours? Our basket this week is very similar to RiceLover's.

2015 Jul 30
This week's basket:

Lettuce
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Beans
Kale
Carrots
Fennel
Basil
Tomatoes
Onions
Pattypan squashes

We continue love the fresh smell and flavour of everything!

2015 Jul 31
I guess I have a mixed review of our baskets from the aquaponics place in Edelweiss.

First of all the aquaponics isn't going yet, so this is produce from the garden.

Second, the quantities were less than we expected.

Third some of it should not have been delivered: bolted lettuce that we couldn't eat, radishes that were hollow . . .

But the farm is run by a nice young couple and I realize organic farmers are at the mercy of the weather and probably need a few years to really get going. If we don't support local organic farms . . . what's left? Monsanto?

Anyway we will see out the year, and decide at that point . . .


2015 Jul 31
My wife found another organic farm in the Outaouais that delivers baskets and has been in operation 20 years, and doing great:

www.fermehlf.com/

www.facebook.com

I think we will give them a try . . .

2015 Aug 3
Francis, it's too bad that you are a bit disappointed in what you have been given. Are you able to change your CSA in mid-steam, so to speak? Or are you looking at the new place for next year? We have been very pleased so far. I am picking up another basket tomorrow but will be skipping the next one as we will be away.

2015 Aug 3
I think we will stick with them for the rest of this season and decide then. The HLF place looks pretty good and we will try that next year too.

We we were away we asked the vegetables to be delivered to the neighbour across the street, but I know other people just skip a basket and ask for a bit more on downstream deliveries.

It wasn't all disappointing from the aquaponics. We got very tasty tomatoes and some nice beet roots that were really sweet and crunchy. I thought they were large radishes at first because they were both white and read inside. We really liked those.

2015 Aug 3
Those red and white beets are called candy cane or at least I have seen them called that. Those and the yellow ones are really good too. They are milder tasting than the red beet which my husband appreciates as he does not care for the red ones at all but loves the other two.

2015 Aug 4
Here is today's basket. We have lettuce, tomatoes, yellow beans, basil, carrots, a green pepper, cucumbers, a pattypan squash, a couple of jalapeņos, zucchini and onions.

2015 Aug 13
Nothing. No basket this week and no response to two emails. We are supposed to get baskets weekly till the end of October. Guess we wasted our money.

2015 Aug 13
That sucks.

2015 Aug 14
This week's from Juniper Farm:

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Carrots
Summer Turnip
Watermelon
Eggplant
Swiss Chard
Oregano
Garlic bulbs

I am glad to have a little break from lettuce. I like occasional salad, not too often.

2015 Aug 25
Still nothing from aquaponics. Rumor has it his wife left him for a client, he has a new gf, and we are still not getting vegetables! We paid $500 and maybe got $50 worth, if that. If the crops are in maybe the customers should gobup to Edelweiss for a "pick your own".

2015 Aug 27
Today's haul. Leeks, tomatoes, carrots, beans, fennel, cucumbers, peppers, mini squash, potatoes and broccoli.

2015 Sep 8
Oopsie! I took a picture of last week's basket and forgot to post it. I got an eggplant in that basket and it is something I generally don't care for. I googled around and found a recipe for balsamic roasted vegetables with basil and thyme which called for the eggplant, zucchini, red onion and red, yellow and orange peppers. I have to say the dish was very good.........but despite how good it was, I still don't like eggplant.

2015 Sep 16
This was yesterday's basket. I'm pretty happy with what is in there, although I would have liked more garlic.

2015 Sep 20
I forgot to take a picture this week but I would say my basket from Juniper Farm was very similar to yours, Feline Fan! I had some dill and a small bag of leafy greens too but no garlic.

2015 Sep 24
This week's basket contained:

Celeriac
Leeks
Onions
Eggplants
Lettuce
Spaghetti squash
Radishes
Red peppers

Anyone has ideas on what to do with the celeriac?

2015 Sep 25
Oooh, yes. Jamie Oliver's book Save With Jamie has a recipe for whole roasted celeriac that is divine. He HAD the recipe on his website, but I guess it was taken down recently.

I did find a riff on it though eatsimplyeatwell.blogspot.ca

2015 Sep 25
Celeriac can be peeled and eaten raw as well. You can julienne it and toss it in salads or coated with a simple vinaigrette and eaten as a side dish. You can also make a celeriac remoulade which is a personal favourite. I usually use mayo, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard eyeballing all ingredients but if you would like to follow a recipe this one is pretty well like the way I do it: www.davidlebovitz.com

2015 Sep 25
One of my favourite recipes for celeriac is this Celery Root and Apple Soup: www.epicurious.com
I first saw the recipe in Laura Robin's Deadline Dinners column in the Ottawa Citizen. It was her favourite soup of the previous year and she said you can skip the chive oil except for company but don't skip the pancetta. Well when I didn't have pancetta or bacon or chives I've still enjoyed it dressed with green onions, sheep feta and black pepper. If the soup needs thinning some stock, milk, cider and/or some white wine all do nicely.
RiceLover, I find it best to use the celeriac up fairly quickly as they don't keep really well.

2015 Sep 29
I just picked up my basket which is the last one of the season. I have a dumb question. What are the two green bunches on each of the far sides and what are the purple things in the middle? Celeriac? These are items I would not normally buy.

2015 Sep 30
I've seen people make celeriac chips-that would be good.

For eggplant there is a salad where you roast the eggplant and then add vinegar,garlic,tomato and red pepper and eat that cold.
Cedar's grocery sells it and they called it Mamaghanoush? but it is really a salad that also has another name.

What about eggplant parmesan?

2015 Oct 14
Here's by first basket from Bluegrass Farm, they offer a Winter Veggie CSA share.

Our first basket was delivered last night and it looks awesome! It's got chard, spinach, bok choy, arugula, leeks, beets, radish, onions, carrots, garlic, dill, kohlrabi, and a sugar pumpkin.

There are 10 deliveries every 2 weeks, starting now.

For our family, buying this share each year is a great way for us to procrastinate on building cold storage to store our own veggies in.

www.bluegrassfarm.ca

2015 Oct 15
Juniper Farm's Fall Veggie basket included: Onions, Potatoes, delicata Squash, Pumpkin, Bok Choi, Arugula/Mizuna, Green Peppers, Daikon Radish, Brussel Sprouts, cilantro

2016 Jan 20
I keep forgetting to post! Got my 7th veggie basket from Bluegrass yesterday.

Two bags of greens, carrots, onions, rutabaga, turnip, potatoes, beets and radish. Yum!

2016 Feb 23
Local food cheaper . . .

www.ctvnews.ca