CSA Recap: Week 1

For the past few years that I’ve been in Burlington, I’ve worked out a routine that allows me to support local farmers while still taking advantage of all the in-season produce. In the summer, I frequent the two farmers’ markets in the area and during the fall & winter months I sign up for a CSA Share. For those unfamiliar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. At the beginning of the season, you sign up for a ‘share’ which provides the farmers with money to grow their produce. The supporters reap the benefits in harvest time where they receive the fresh & local produce.

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I get my CSA Shares through Plan B Organic Farms (serving the Hamilton-Oakville area). I’ve signed up for a bi-weekly share so every other week I receive a big box full of all local AND organic produce! Since it’s just Mac and I consuming the produce, I went with the ‘small’ box option, though there is a ‘large’ box available too. The small box is $30 and contains 8-10 items. There are also options to add various ‘extras’ such as: spelt wraps, fruit, eggs, & coffee. You can also choose to get a local & imported share which includes a few more ‘exotic’ items. All in all, I absolutely love this program and I encourage anyone that’s interested to check it out! It’s such an awesome way to support local farmers and still reap the benefits of fresh vegetables year round.

Week 1 Haul:

I just picked up my first share of the season this week – check it out!

Item Breakdown:

Because I’m super nerdy, and numbers/facts excite me, I weighed & recorded everything so I can compare stats throughout the season.

Recipe Plans:

Andrea’sDetox Salad (featuring Sweet Potatoes, Arugula & Beets) looks wonderful! I have a bunch of beets leftover from when my co-worker brought me in a huge bag last week from his garden, & this pairing of flavours seems wonderful!

You’d better believe I’m planning on trying my hand at making pumpkin puree from scratch. I’ll also be diving head-first into Angela’sPumpkin Butter recipe too! Doesn’t it just SCREAM fall??! While I’m at it with the pumpkin, I’m also going to try roasting the seeds! (Angela has a tutorial for that too). I’m thinking they’d be excellent with smoked paprika & cumin.

The kale & romaine lettuce will be heavily relied upon for smoothies and salads. And I’ll likely caramelize an onion (or two) to put on top of.. well… everything! Those babies are delicious!!

I’ve already managed to make a huge dent in the stash of potatoes. I just chopped them, sprinkled with a bit of oil, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. Then I roasted them at 425F for 25 minutes or so. Definitely boyfriend approved! Mac couldn’t stop picking at them even after we had finished dinner!

I had a bit of a sweet potato baking night last night and whipped up Richa’sSweet Potato Blondies and Ilene’sSweet Potato Cookies! So much yum!! (I’ll likely do a recap of these in another edition of Other People’s Recipes soon).

I can’t wait to see what I get next time!