My family has really enjoyed being a part of a CSA this summer. Our weekly deliveries seem to jumpstart my kitchen creativity and have broadened my garden cooking. It's been fun to get our surprise package on Friday, then see if I can come up with a complete meal for that night with only its contents and what I already have on hand. I've been delighted with the variety each week.
There have been a few duplications with the CSA delivery and what I have in my own garden, like squash and salad greens, but never in such quantities that I've felt buried. And I've welcomed the bags of delicious, fresh green beans -- indeed, in my view, right up there with tomatoes for the main reason to grow a garden -- because my slowpoke vines haven't even put out blossoms yet. To salvage my growing experience in this way, the CSA is handily proving its worth.
Here's a look at my last few weeks:
Week 4 (pictured above): Six ears of corn (delectable!), bag of apricots, bag of green beans, pint container of raspberries, three bulbs of garlic, two cucumbers.
Week 5: Two zucchini, two yellow squash, bunch of golden beets, six ears of corn, bag of green beans, two cucumbers.
Week 6: Not pictured, because my camera was in Yellowstone having a much funner summer than I am. (My husband and son were there, too, having enough vacation for the rest of us, I guess!) Anyway, this week's delivery was a paper lunch sack of new potatoes, six ears of corn, three cucumbers, three zucchini, bag of green beans and six yellow peppers (banana variety, I believe).
Week 7: One humongous onion, three cucumbers, five peaches (which may or may not last long enough to be made into cobbler tonight), eight potatoes and another big bag of green beans.
I'd love to learn of your yummy cucumber recipes. My family teases me for my lifelong dislike of raw cukes (even though I gamely keep tasting them in an attempt to reverse this condition). Yet I'm having to give away several to neighbors, because no one in my family is eating them either. Hypocrites. I've sampled great cucumber slush and cold soup in the past, I just haven't stumbled on the right recipes in my repeated forays.
~Jennifer
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I like this gazpacho soup-
ReplyDeleteIn a blender mix:
1 peeled cucumber, chopped enough to fit in blender
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped enough to fit in blender
1/2 red onion, chopped enough to fit in blender
1 cup (or 12 oz can) V-8 juice (I've left this out before and it's been fine)
1/4 c olive oil
1/3 c red wine vinegar
5-10 dashes of Tabasco
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
If your blender is big enough, you can also add:
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
(mine wasn't big enough so I pureed the canned tomatoes separately) - of if you have enough from your garden, use fresh!
mix all together and add:
4 oz (or bigger) jar of pimentos
served chilled
I like to eat it with cheese & crackers.
Julie, that sounds so good. I'm going to have to try it.
ReplyDeleteI still try about every other cuke out of the garden thinking it will taste better but blahhh every time. I like them in turkey sandwiches instead of lettuce, for about one sandwich a week. That soup sounds good.
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