This week brought quite a nice bit of good news: the program will continue for another 8 weeks (yeay!), albeit on an every-other-week schedule. So, my Adventures in CSA will continue into the winter with veggie boxes delivered to work. Yee-haw! The schedule will change a little, since the veggie boxes will arrive on Tuesdays. Thus, price comparisons will come days after the box contents are announced and planning the meals will be a little more of a scramble…but hey, we’ll figure it out.
I love Fridays right now. You have to picture this: It’s after 2:30pm and I head to a set of banquet tables near the company cafeteria that’s covered with veggie boxes for all of us who are participating in the program. You come for your pickup and peek into the boxes to see which one tickles your fancy the most. For the most part, they are all filled with the same basic ingredients, but today, the first box I picked up had a special surprise. I knew we were getting kale (yeay – more kale chips!)…but the box I opened had PURPLE KALE. Not only will I have yummy kale chips, they will be purple. That’s so fantastic, I just can’t even tell you.
Lovin' the colors in this week's box...
Today’s box also included pea greens. I’d never even seen these out in the open (I truly doubt we’ll be able to find these at our grocery store). I can also vouch for their yumminess; a small amount of them went into an omelet tonight with bacon, CSA tomato and shredded cheese (monterey jack & cheddar). The omelet TOTALLY WORKED. I also accompanied it with toast that I had lightly coated with CSA honey from the week 4 box. Wow. For anyone who hasn’t yet tried wild flower honey, it does blow clover honey out of the water. The flavor is both subtler and richer, smoother and fuller. Brinner infused with CSA = WIN.
Week 5 box contents:
- Purple kale
- Scallions
- Pea greens
- Carrots
- Macintosh apples
- Corn
- Green peppers
- White onion
- Italian eggplant
- Asian pears
- Tomatoes
Given what I now know about some of these items, I can make some predictions about how this week’s price comparison will go. The Asian pears alone should have a big impact on things, given their price of $2 apiece from a few weeks ago. If I had to guess, I’m going to go with a minimum $3 savings this week vs grocery store prices.
As for what to make with all of this yumminess…that’s where I’ll have to come up with some inspiration. I’m kinda sad that the sweet potatoes advertised in the heads-up e-mail from the CSA folks didn’t materialize, but they do warn you that actual contents may vary from what they hope to get in the box. The purple kale will definitely be turned into kale chips, and I may try to do something in a skillet with the pea greens and scallions. It just seems like those two would go nicely together in a pan. With a smidge of olive oil. And maybe some chicken. Mmm…
