We Ate Swiss Chard and Didn't Die

When we first started this CSA I vowed to use everything, experiment with new vegetable and recipes, and improve our health. Two out of three ain't bad. We have tried new things and have definitely been eating better, but the compost had also been benefiting from our veggies.

Now that summer is waning and we have more spare time ( things at CWRC have calmed down a bit), I'm going to try again! My husband is a meatetarian, and I'm a wannabe vegetarian ( really an omnivore!)..and we meet somewhere in the middle.

For several months now we've gotten random bunches of Swiss chard, which have either gone in the compost or got "hidden" in stews. Tonight we ate it by itself ( ok, sauteed with butter and garlic) and we didn't die! It was actually pretty good, kind of peppery. If I can get up the nerve to try beets this week I'll be at the dawn of a new era.

As always, the variety in our box gives me lots to work with, this week: Swiss chard, beets, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, Napa cabbage, garlic, cilantro, zucchini and green beans. My lunch tomorrow will be TT ( totally Taproot) and is a great salad of greens, tomato, cucumber and Napa cabbage. The owner of Taproot Farms, Josh Oulton, posted on facebook that Napa cabbage is good raw in salad, we'll see!

Epicurious as always

Moi

Doesn't Get Much Better Than This!

We knew when the summer came our variety would broaden so check out this week: celery, blueberries, carrots, green bell pepper, sweet corn, red lettuce, lettuce mix, basil, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and jalapeno peppers. We've been eating corn non-stop since August started, buying both from Taproot and from Riverbreeze here in Truro, never gets old! I feel a yummy salad coming on tomorrow. Who can I pawn my celery off to :)?

August 6 Veggie Share

Meat Free Monday, Taproot Tuesday ....

That title sounds like a line from Big Bang Theory, we just need a title and food theme for the rest of the week. Seriously though, we fell off the Meat Free Monday wagon for a while because planning meals had gone right out the window with activities at CWRC filling up every spare moment.

This week from Taproot we got fennel, lettuce, garlic, zucchini, snap peas, cilantro and basil. I also bought a 10 bag of apples to help feed the pile of beasts we currently have in house that eat apples. They are golden delicious and they are HUGE. Great deal for $6. Local and yummy.

We also get a meat share every 2 weeks and this week we got a whole...duck. Hmmm, stay tuned to find out what I'm gonna do with that. Do I feed it to our bald eagle or should I be brave and cook it? If you have a good recipe for duck, I'm all ears.

Epicurious as always,

Moi

July Jumble

It's taproot Tuesday. This week featured spinach, snap peas, bunched carrots, green onion, kolrabi, strawberries and parsley. Already thawing my honey garlic sausages from the meat share for tomorrow night (other items in the meat share included a chicken and some steak). BBQ anyone? :)

Bonanza - June 18 Abundance

This week is challenging our fridge space but so much goodness. We regularly get a veggie share weekly and a meat share twice monthly, but when I saw strawberries in the fruit share I had to buy in. 

What did I get for an $8 appetizer fruit share? Lots! We got a bag of Empire apples, a container of strawberries ( first ones for the year, YUM!) and a bottle of blueberry juice. Well worth it methinks :)

Our veggie share this week had some new things to try, in particular kale and a bottle of dilly beans. I am not a huge lover of preserves but for some reason I want to learn how to do it, so I'll let you know how they are. We also got green onions, beet greens ( porcupine jumped on them as soon as I put them in her enclosure), radish, lettuce and carrots. I feel a big salad coming on this week. 

For meat we got bacon ( this stuff is amazing), 1/2 a chicken ( free range) and ....duck legs. Haven't decided yet whether I will eat the duck legs or feed them to one of the rehab animals, but since we have 3 ducks in rehab I may have to pass them on. I promised myself to be more adventurous, considering Taproot will provide some non-traditional meats ( rabbit, duck, goose). I can at least promise it won't go to waste. 

Two nights ago I made honey garlic chicken with the chicken we got two weeks ago. It was great and nice to know the animals were free range. 

Till next time,

Helene

Bring on the Fresh! June 11

We're now starting to get some fresh grown items from Taproot. Bring it on!

This week we had beet greens, Japanese turnips, cabbage, purple potatoes, tomatoes, and two little sprigs of fresh oregano and thyme. June is an insane time at our house so if it can't be cooked on the barbecue or eaten raw it's not gonna get used. On that note, one thing I discovered is porcupines like beet greens :)

Also a shout out to purple potatoes, they have a pretty intense flavour and I think I like them better than regular potatoes. They are a pretty interesting Play Doh colour when you mash them, if you can ignore that you're good to go. We're definitely eating better, and that's a good thing.

Joyous June

Some familiar yummies and some new things to try. This week features bok choy, asparagus, carrots, beet greens, mustard greens, stinging nettle, rainbow carrots and onions. I'm not sure why I feel more excited about veggies I buy from Taproot vs the big box stores but I really try to use everything we get. This has brought me to some new recipe adventures. We'll have yummy grilled asparagus and bok choy tomorrow night and I vow to try to do something with the stinging nettle this week.

We also bought into a meat share which comes every other week and this week we got chicken, pork chops and ground beef. Feels great to know that our meat is local and ethically raised. Two thumbs up for everything so far from the meat share, and the best by far was the bacon. I can never go back to the uber-salty packaged type, this is a good thing. Stay tuned  :)

End of May CSA

Getting more and more interesting veggies to try and starting to see more fresh things. Earlier in the CSA it was mostly stored items, but growing season is in full swing and we will benefit. This week we had stinging nettle ( Ok, I'll admit I didn't use that but will try it the next time!), mixed greens, radish, fingerling potatoes, japanese turnips ( yum!), green onions and pea shoots.  Was a crazy week here so we used as much as we could and being more adventurous with the grill. 

Beauteous Bok Choy

Most people only know bok choy as a vague vegetable in chinese food. I've always liked it and tried to play with it in recipes. Found a recipe for grilling it on the BBQ and tried it. YUM. Just wash, brush with either melted butter or olive oil and herbs/garlic of your choice. The BBQ seems to produce a result that is just the right tenderness. We'll do this often

Beauteous Bok Choy

Best CSA yet, May 21

Ok, I'm going to chalk this one up as the tastiest CSA share yet! Rainbow carrots, alfalfa sprouts, bok choy, asparagus, chives, beet greens and turnip. I highly recommend grilled bok choy. Tried it for the first time last night and was amazing. We didn't even get to it or the asparagus for a week and it was still fresh.

CSA May 14

Catching up here as May was a whirlwind here. Great box of stuff plus I added a fruit share of apples, tomatoes and a cucumber. Regular veggie share was rhubarb, fiddleheads, radish, leeks, asian greens, pea shoots and jerusalem artichoke. Looking back I had to toss the fiddleheads and greens as I barely had time to breathe...onwards and upwards :)

One month in and loving it!

So we're one month in on our journey with Taproot and Tuesdays are still pretty exciting when we get to see what's in our CSA box. We get a message on the Friday before to let us know what's coming for planning purposes so that helps too. I won't pretend I've kept up 100% and I have lots of veggies in my fridge to choose from, but we are definitely eating better.

This week featured pea shoots, leeks, dandelion greens, frozen peppers, squash, mushrooms ( very excited to be getting these locally!) and yummy apple cider. I've also started keeping a list on my fridge so I can remember exactly what's in there veggie-wise...so they don't become victims of "buried in the crisper" syndrome.  I'm thinking Potato Leek soup tomorrow, yum!

Epicurious as always...Moi

Week 4 CSA

Bonanza Week! For veggies we got turnip, carrots, potatoes, cucumber, spinach and alfalfa sprouts. Our meat share ( comes every other week) included free range chicken, honey garlic sausages, bacon and ribs. I decided to buy a bouquet of daffodils as an add on. I'm used to buying them every year from the Cancer Society but haven't seen them around. To me they mean spring has sprung!

CSA: Week 3 and we're keeping up with it!

This week we had onions, parsnips, sweet potatoes, beets( help!) and what appears to be a large brain...but is actually cabbage. Off to find beet recipes :)

Taproot Meat Share

Happy Sunday Morning!
As part of our buy local plan, we also bought a meat share (delivered every other week). For our first week we got a free range chicken, pasture fed beef, and apple breakfast sausages (see below, we'll let you know how they taste).

Itttttt's Taproot Tuesday!

Here we are at Taproot Week #2. This week for your viewing pleasure we have a honkin' Hubbard squash, rainbow carrots, fresh spinach, a rutabaga, organic pea shoots and alfalfa sprouts. Going to have the spinach and sprouts for supper tonight.

This is also the first week we got our meat share. I thought it came fresh ( it came frozen!) so we won't be having the free range chicken I planned to have tonight. The rest of the share consisted of apple breakfast sausages and lean ground beef.

Taproot also has a section where you can purchase extras or " add ons", so I bought a spinach mushroom quiche for next week's Meat-Free Monday. This would kill two ummm, food goals with one stone :). Looks like we're having it for supper tonight though as my free range chicken needs to defrost for tomorrow.

Now...what to do with that big honkin,' squash...

And So It Begins...

Welcome to my fun ( hopefully) and indulgent journey into the world of food and nutrition. 

Food is a fuel, part of many social and cultural gatherings and can also be fun to prepare. I admit it... I love all of the culture around food, trying new recipes, cookbooks, and the social aspects of eating and cooking. 

In the past few years I have tried to align this with making food part of a healthy lifestyle. It's going to be a lifelong journey so I decided to start this blog...to keep myself accountable if nothing else. If others find some of this interesting, all the better.

I have also made a commitment since Sept 2012, to participate in Meat Free Mondays. We dabbled in eating at least one meat free meal per week a few times and didn't stick to it. Having it be a particular day helps with planning and so far so good. I won't say we've been perfect, a few times due to rushed days and lack of planning, we agreed to move it to another night and then didn't honour it, but it's now Apr 2013 and for the most part, we stick with it. Want to know more? Check out the website

Meat Free Mondays

Starting this month we also made a commitment to find  most of our foods locally, both to decrease our impact on the environment and support a local farmer. We looked around for a while and finally settled on Taproot Farms out of Port Williams, Nova Scotia. You can check the website and see what they do but it's basically a Community Shared Agriculture ( CSA) venture. What this means basically is we have committed and invested a monthly sum to this farm, and in return we get a box of fresh veggies weekly, and a box of meat twice monthly. More on that as I go but we got our first box this week, and I've even managed to talk two work colleagues into jumping in with us.  Below you can see our first produce: frozen tomatoes, onions, apples, celeriac ( not sure what to do with that yet since I don't like celery!), carrots and potatoes. The choices each week depend on what's being harvested on the farm, and late spring gives us a lot of things that were stored since last year. I'm thinking in the next few months the share will look a lot different.  Very excited about this!

Epicurious as always.....Me

Week One Taproot CSA Share