I'm not big on New Years resolutions but my husband, Rahm and I both agreed that we would like to make an effort to eat locally and seasonally this year. To aid us in sticking to that "resolution", we reinstated our subscription to EatWell Farm's CSA. Eatwell is a 65-acre organic farm located in Dixon, CA in the Sacramento Valley - they've been farming there since 1993.
Thanks to northern California's mild climate, the growing season lasts year-round here so it is totally feasible to begin a venture like this in the middle of the winter! We are now signed up to receive a box of locally-grown, organic produce once every two weeks (we had felt a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of produce when we were receiving a box each week and figured this would be a more manageable amount for us.)
Yesterday, I picked up our first box on the sunporch of a little Berkeley bungalow located a few blocks from our house. Here is a pic of the wintertime bounty - not too shabby, eh?
The box contained: spinach (a bit muddy from the rain but very sweet), lettuce, arugala, bok choy, red kale, turnips, onions, watermelon daikon radishes (the rainbow is on the inside...), white turnips, mandarin oranges (those are from Terra Firma farm), and a whole bunch of little kiwis (did you know they grow on VINES?)
The box also contained the adorable Eatwell Farm newsletter which may actually be my favorite part.
I just love their updates from the farm. Nigel and the rest of the crew at Eatwell are just so committed to farming, to treating the land well, and to producing delicious, healthy food and it shows in every line of their newsletter and in their blog (also one of my favorites - you can view it at: http://www.eatwellfarm.typepad.com/), not to mention in every bit of the food we receive. What luck to find a farmer who also happens to be a good writer and communicator!
No doubt that some of these veggies will require us to get a little more creative in our cooking than we normally would be. I figure this will be a good challenge for us/me.
Keep an eye out for upcoming Eatwell Farm-inspired recipes -- I will try to post roughly one a week.
I'd like to hear what you do with those turnips. I made zucchini bread on Saturday and it wasn't all that tasty in the end. It didn't come alive somehow. I used Mark Bitman's recipe from how to cook everything with a little applesauce addition of my own, because I had a lot left over from latke season. Do you know a good zucchini bread recipe or trick? I like nuts in it too.
yeah, turnips are one of the veggies that will require some creativity. I am thinking either roasted (they get very sweet), in soup or maybe braised... I suspect we may be getting turnips for a little while yet so maybe we'll do all of those things. I also found a very nice sounding recipe in the Chez Panisse Cooking book for pickled turnips which sounded good for snacking. As for zucchini bread, I have used 2 recipes with success - first one is just from the joy of cooking and always turns out fine. the other one is from the Silver Palate cookbook (it's on page 250 if you have that one). It is also nice - mixes oil and butter and includes walnuts. So maybe give that a try next time.
I'm not big on New Years resolutions but my husband, Rahm and I both agreed that we would like to make an effort to eat locally and seasonally this year. To aid us in sticking to that "resolution", we reinstated our subscription to EatWell Farm's CSA. Eatwell is a 65-acre organic farm located in Dixon, CA in the Sacramento Valley - they've been farming there since 1993.
Thanks to northern California's mild climate, the growing season lasts year-round here so it is totally feasible to begin a venture like this in the middle of the winter! We are now signed up to receive a box of locally-grown, organic produce once every two weeks (we had felt a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of produce when we were receiving a box each week and figured this would be a more manageable amount for us.)
Yesterday, I picked up our first box on the sunporch of a little Berkeley bungalow located a few blocks from our house. Here is a pic of the wintertime bounty - not too shabby, eh?
The box contained: spinach (a bit muddy from the rain but very sweet), lettuce, arugala, bok choy, red kale, turnips, onions, watermelon daikon radishes (the rainbow is on the inside...), white turnips, mandarin oranges (those are from Terra Firma farm), and a whole bunch of little kiwis (did you know they grow on VINES?)
The box also contained the adorable Eatwell Farm newsletter which may actually be my favorite part.
I just love their updates from the farm. Nigel and the rest of the crew at Eatwell are just so committed to farming, to treating the land well, and to producing delicious, healthy food and it shows in every line of their newsletter and in their blog (also one of my favorites - you can view it at: http://www.eatwellfarm.typepad.com/), not to mention in every bit of the food we receive. What luck to find a farmer who also happens to be a good writer and communicator!
No doubt that some of these veggies will require us to get a little more creative in our cooking than we normally would be. I figure this will be a good challenge for us/me.
Keep an eye out for upcoming Eatwell Farm-inspired recipes -- I will try to post roughly one a week.
I'd like to hear what you do with those turnips. I made zucchini bread on Saturday and it wasn't all that tasty in the end. It didn't come alive somehow. I used Mark Bitman's recipe from how to cook everything with a little applesauce addition of my own, because I had a lot left over from latke season. Do you know a good zucchini bread recipe or trick? I like nuts in it too.
yeah, turnips are one of the veggies that will require some creativity. I am thinking either roasted (they get very sweet), in soup or maybe braised... I suspect we may be getting turnips for a little while yet so maybe we'll do all of those things. I also found a very nice sounding recipe in the Chez Panisse Cooking book for pickled turnips which sounded good for snacking. As for zucchini bread, I have used 2 recipes with success - first one is just from the joy of cooking and always turns out fine. the other one is from the Silver Palate cookbook (it's on page 250 if you have that one). It is also nice - mixes oil and butter and includes walnuts. So maybe give that a try next time.
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I'd like to hear what you do with those turnips. I made zucchini bread on Saturday and it wasn't all that tasty in the end. It didn't come alive somehow. I used Mark Bitman's recipe from how to cook everything with a little applesauce addition of my own, because I had a lot left over from latke season. Do you know a good zucchini bread recipe or trick? I like nuts in it too.
yeah, turnips are one of the veggies that will require some creativity. I am thinking either roasted (they get very sweet), in soup or maybe braised... I suspect we may be getting turnips for a little while yet so maybe we'll do all of those things. I also found a very nice sounding recipe in the Chez Panisse Cooking book for pickled turnips which sounded good for snacking.
As for zucchini bread, I have used 2 recipes with success - first one is just from the joy of cooking and always turns out fine. the other one is from the Silver Palate cookbook (it's on page 250 if you have that one). It is also nice - mixes oil and butter and includes walnuts. So maybe give that a try next time.
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