And so we begin again: a new cycle has started and now we’re in the Winter veggie box program. This one runs every other week, so these posts will be a little more spaced out. That’s okay – given the weather and all of the coordination/events around dd’s 5th birthday, I’m a little spaced out, too.

The fun of opening each box is in trying to figure out A) what’s in it and B) what you’re going to make with what’s in it. The difficulty of opening each box is much the same – a general exhale of “What on earth is THAT?!” and “Are those…{insert guessed fruit/veggie here}…?!” Between our cookbooks, the interwebs, and our grocery store, we typically can ID things before the week is out. Finding things to do with everything: now THAT’S a challenge. As it is, we currently have a glut of apples and winter squash in the fridge; this is mostly due to timing fiascos related to box arrival dates, apple picking, untimely nor’easters and other such shenanigans. At this point, I’m ready to start cutting things up and just throwing them into the crock pot wholesale, just to use up the boxes and see if any of the creations can work. I’m guessing they will, but I’d still like to be a tad bit more orderly about it if I can.

Welcome to Winter...

So, here’s what came in this week’s veggie box, our first of the winter share:

• Purple Kale
• Carrots
• Bok Choi
• Comice Pears
• Red Potatoes
• Parsnips
• Butternut Squash
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Macintosh Apples
• Yellow Onion

The bok choi already got partially used in Bok-os, and the pears, apples, carrots, and some of the potatoes are crock pot-bound this week. Some of the other items may end up going into crock pots or other dishes as part of next weekend’s continued birthday festivities. It’s always so hard for me to think of squash as “party food”, but I’m sure I can rally if rallying is what’s required.

I will continue price-checking with this CSA, as with the Fall box program. The price is still the same – $20 per box. So, that’s my baseline. I ended up getting 1 box pretty much for free out of the Fall CSA, so I wonder if I can get about half a box for free out of this four-box program? Given the more pedestrian contents, I’m guessing that won’t be the case, but I’d like to try to be optimistic.