Survivor’s Guide to Your First CSA: Part I

So, I hear a lot of you guys have joined CSAs this year.  Congratulations!!  I’m so proud.  I’d like to think it was all thanks to me, so I’m just going to keep on thinking that no matter what you say. 

A couple of you have asked if I had any advice for how to survive the onslaught of deliciousness that’s about to ensue.  Indeed I do.  Adopt some children.  Here are some other thoughts:

• Start cooking as soon as you get home.  Just kidding (not really).

• There will be bugs.  And holes in the leaves from the bugs.  It’s annoying—let’s not pretend that it isn’t.  But they’re just bugs.  They don’t cause cancer or birth defects, and you can see where they are so they’re about a million times better than invisible, toxic chemicals.  But, I’m sure you already knew this.

• There will also be dirt.  You may realize this in theory, but, in practice, you may forget to add extra time for washing and prepping your vegetables.  Everything takes a little longer in the beginning, but you’ll get used to it.  In the meantime, tell your impatient family to pipe down.  Or better yet, put them to work.

• Cook stuff in the order in which it wilts.  Usually, the green, leafy stuff wilts first, but you’ll find out soon enough.  The crisper really does keep stuff crisper (I thought it was just a cute name).  Use it.

• It’s entirely possible that everyone in your farmshare is a better cook than you.  Take advantage.  If there’s something you’ve never cooked before, ask.  The best way to do this, I’ve found, so you don’t have to admit your ignorance, is to say things like, “God, I hate [insert vegetable here].”  There will be audible gasps, and then everyone will try to outdo each other with the best way to prepare said vegetable.  Take careful mental notes while making comments like “Tell me you’re kidding” and “Gross!” every so often so they know you’re paying attention.  Then go home and make something awesome as if you came up with it yourself.  Incidentally, this is also a good way to make friends.

More to come tomorrow.  Feel free to share your own advice, too (as long as it's not the same stuff I'm posting about tomorrow).  (I'm serious, I'm going to be pissed if I have to rewrite that post.)

Comments

[Heather]

(I just Wiki the vegetable and see what other people use it for, then I use it in a similar application and pretend I invented it.)

[Ann]

I am sitting here trying to decide what to do with the veggies in my crisper right now... before I have to go get MORE on Saturday. A radish sandwich sounds like a good start.

[Alecto]

After I finished picking out the grass from my first batch of greens I had to ask myself, would they really notice if I just left it in there next time?

[Jess]

Week 2-3: First you wonder how much salad you can eat without turning green and leafy. Then you fill the sink with water and Green A, swish, and walk away to deal with the six summer squash and gigantic head of cauliflower. Return to sink, place magenta lettuce in a spinner and spin. Repeat with romaine, spinach, tropicana, butter, boston, etc. (Seriously, who knew there was so much lettuce!) Eat all the sugar peas (don't share, sharing is for sissies) while you're staring at the garlic scapes and all of their twistiness. Weep over the strawberries. Lament over the last of the radishes until fall. Start cooking with the leftovers from last week so no one will know you forgot about the green onions. Did I say six squash? I think there were 12.

[Fetch me the wheel hoe!]

Two things:

1. By and large, your vegetables will never look as nice as the ones from the store, but they will taste better.

2. If you go into joining a CSA thinking that there's going to be all sorts of hippie sex and free love, man, are you going to be disappointed.

[What A Card]

Whoa, there's the potential for hippie sex and free love? Dude! I didn't know that there was a possibility at all. Now I will be disappointed.

Our CSA starts this week. I'm pretty excited. Thankfully I'd been prepared by your blog so when I started noticing how pretty our farmer was, I just brushed it off as normal.

[Tammy]

What A Card: Yay! And he/she is bound to get prettier once the food starts rolling in.

Fetch: Speak for yourself. (P.S. That's not what I heard about Lindentree.)

Jess: That sounds about right. But you mentioned salad, which is in my forthcoming second post, so now you're in big trouble!

Alecto: There's only one way to find out. Were these greens from your garden?

Ann: Baguette, butter, fleur de sel. The French know what they're doing with a radish.

Heather: The Internet was practically invented just for CSAs. To the Internet!

[anita]

Dude, I am *so* linking to this from my Daily Green column next week. This is both hilarious and useful.

Here's my contribution:

take the vegetables you *really* don't like (not just the ones you're pretending not to like to get recipe ideas) to the office. One of your co-workers probably loves rhubarb or pattypan squash or salsify. If not, the cleaning ladies will take it at the end of the day.

But do give everything a try a few times before you write it off completely. I used to hate beets until I'd had good fresh ones, f'zample.

[Courtney]

How funny - I was showing my husband the holes in the leaves of our spinach and bok choy. I was all "are you sure it's okay to eat" and he was all "it's better than pesticides and toxins" - more than enough to convince me! A little tiny bug even crawled out of my spinach. But the spinach, the bok choy, the salad greens all taste SO good!

[Lily VS]

I used to work in a small bakery kitchen with a very charming Brazilian man who would make all sorts of salads. My favorite was julienned uncooked kale (or collard greens) tossed with chopped tomato and onion, and dressed with white vinegar, a drop of oil, salt and pepper. A few slices of garlic is good too.

Apparently it is quite good for the liver, but really I just eat it because it can be made in minutes and the stove doesn't have to be fired up.

I love kale but I just can't bear to make kale soup in the summer.

[Tammy]

Lily VS: Wow, uncooked kale. I've never had anything of the sort. I shall try it. Love, love, love kale (and collards).

Courtney: I know. Why do CSA vegetables taste so good? No wonder the bugs can't get enough.

Anita: Link away! And good tip. I didn't think I loved mustard greens or broccoli rabe until I tried the CSA versions.

[Belle]

We have a garden instead of a CSA but the principle is the same. I often cook dinner by taking a bowl and scissors outside and looking to see what is ready to eat.

Here are a few of my rules. All hearty greens are delicious cooked with onions, garlic, some kind of canned bean and some balsamic vinegar.

Any root vegetable is delicious roasted in the oven. Throw some balsamic vinegar on it for the last ten minutes or so and it makes it really good.

Vegetables can be made into salads with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. For example I made a salad the other day with chick peas, radishes and onions.

So the secret is, buy alot of balsamic vinegar!

[Ana]

To add to Belle's comment above about the secret of buying a lot of balsamic-- yes! Another good trick is also having some good smoky soy sauce on hand to do up your greens with when sauteeing them. Kale, collards, and other greens can be sauteed with onions, olive oil and soy sauce (and a little white wine too, if you so desire).