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.