CSA Pickup 1

So, last night I picked up our first pickup from the CSA. You'll probably recognize some of the veggies... The upper left big leaf veggies are collard greens (1 bunch), to the right of that is all simply lettuce greens that I piled into a bowl (.5 lb), and the last on the top right with the yellow flowers is the Hon Tsai Tai. The bottom row from left is lettuce (1 bunch), and then broccoli with the leaves still on (.5lb). So, I love collard greens already, so I was excited to see them in this week's share. They look far fresher and better than the grocery store version. All I do is rinse them off, rip all the leafy part off, discard the stem, rip up the leaves into smaller pieces, and sautee it in olive oil for about 5 minutes, then season with salt and pepper. So, last night I was making a chicken piccata, so I had it will collard greens and a little side salad made out of the lettuce mix and lettuce head that we received, with some small fixings on top. Everything was delish! Strangely, as I was watching the Bachelorette on demand, I kept thinking about wanting to try the Hon Tsai Tai, which I had never cooked or eaten. I did some research online on how to cook it, season it, etc. Basically every part of the plant is edible-stems, leaves, flowers. So I took a few pieces, and snapped off the bottom stems (similar to asparagus) and chopped it all up on a cutting board, and threw it into a sautee pan with olive oil. I basically seasoned it the same as the collard greens, with salt and pepper. So I had a little Hon Tsai Tai at 930pm :)It was pretty good! I liked it and look forward to eating it again.

Anyways, I am finding myself wondering how I can incorporate the veggies into my breakfast...that could be interesting. AND I was feeling somewhat disappointed that I was having a lunch meeting today, as it meant I couldn't expirement more with my veggies. Ha! On the bright side, I recall thinking when we decided to buy the CSA that it would help me eat more veggies, and it's already working-tonight I will definitely have some of my veggies with dinner, and will make a salad with lunch tomorrow...good things for sure! :)

A Veggie Tale Adventure

It’s been such a very long time since I’ve written in my blog. I’ve been living in Philadelphia now for 10 months and it seems my blog has fallen on the back burner. I decided to write today on a subject that’s pretty random (not travel related), but something of an adventure nonetheless. While Matt was very excited to grow his garden again, but had less space than last year, we began to look into some community gardens in the area. We found one but realized it would be more of a hassle to have to go somewhere to a plot of land to grow things and water them on our way home from work, etc. I also thought it would be fun to grow some plants/veggies of my own, but unfortunately live in the city on a third floor apartment, with no in-ground growing space. My Dad warned me not to plant too many potted plants on my roof, as I might cause the roof to cave in…! So, I found a CSA near us that seemed like an affordable option. CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, you pay an amount for a small or large share of a farm. Essentially, you own a portion of the farm/its output. A small share was described as enough for two people, and cost $400 for 24 weeks (six months). So, that comes out to about $16/week. Matt and I are sharing it, so it’s $8/week/person. Not so bad! So, this week is our first share pickup! And it just so happens that this week we are picking up our share on Tuesday rather than Friday, due to the long weekend. A fellow shareholder offered to switch her Tuesday pickup with our Friday pickup (thanks Gina!) so today is our first pickup. I am oddly very excited over this vegetable pickup…a sure sign I’m becoming either a dork or old lady. I’m probably already a dork, so we’ll go with old lady. It’s rumored (through the newsletter that the CSA put out yesterday) that some of the vegetables we may be getting today are collard greens, Hakurei turnips, lettuce heads, lettuce mix, and Asian flowering greens: Tat Soi, Hon Stai Tai, and Bok Choi. I’ve never cooked turnips or any of the Asian flowering greens..time to look up some recipes! Anyways, stay tuned for the first CSA pickup info later on… :)