Tag Archives: eat local

Adventures in CSA (week 3): The price gap narrows…barely

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Last week, the price difference (the savings by going with the CSA) was driven primarily by the Asian Pears – which only now appear to have ripened! This week, the more pedestrian items in the box kept the savings down to a minimum BUT I have to note a couple of caveats: 1) My grocery store doesn’t carry rainbow carrots or Italian eggplant, so in both cases I had to price out the nearest equivalent, and 2) in both of those cases, I’m sure that the nearest equivalent was cheaper than the actual item would have been in the store.

Here’s how it came out:

Week 3 CSA

Weight
(lb)

Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)

 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Tomatoes 1.12 $2.79 $3.12
Eggplant 0.83 $1.59 $1.32
Italian Eggplant** 0.68 $1.59 $1.08
Radishes* 1.00 $0.99 $0.99
Green Peppers 0.71 $1.59 $1.13
White Onion 1.19 $0.99 $1.18
Macintosh Apples 0.79 $1.59 $1.25
Rainbow Carrots** 1.05 $1.59 $1.66
Cucumbers* 3.00 $0.89 $2.67
Acorn Squash 1.75 $1.79 $3.13
Corn* 3.00 $0.60 $1.80
White Potatoes 1.01 $0.99 $1.00
Grocery Store Total Cost $20.33
Week 3 Savings (Deficit) $0.33
Program-to-Date Savings (Deficit) $10.61
Notes:
* Items are priced by the unit or bunch; I checked for rough equivalency (and they were close enough).
** Exact matches weren’t available. Closest equivalent was priced, but these prices are likely to be lower than actual if the exact item was in-store.

So, there is still a (very) modest savings by going the CSA route versus the grocery store. Furthermore, the variety of the items in the box outmatched the grocery store. That was probably what surprised me the most – that I got two items my grocery store didn’t even have. I had considered going to the nearest Whole Foods to see if they had the Italian eggplant or the rainbow carrots, but I decided against it; if the idea is to compare the CSA against where I shop normally, then the only fair comparison is against my regular grocery store. Feel free to put your own store to the test and see how they do…

Crock Pot Beef with Beets

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Beets? No. BEETS? No…well, okay. Yes, beets. Really, beets? YES, I MADE SOMETHING WITH BEETS.

I’ve never been a fan. Beets always seemed too odd, too “that thing that comes in cans in a sliced form that looks no more appetizing than that cranberry gel everyone hauls out at Thanksgiving“. So, I’ve avoided beets. However, when beets showed up in my Week 2 CSA box, I realized that I was on the spot to make something beety happen. *Cue nail-biting*

Beets are a root vegetable, and what do I love to do with root vegetables? Say it with me: PUT THEM IN THE CROCK POT. So, yes, these beets went into the crock pot. And what was the verdict? Could’ve used even more beets! HA! What a surprise. Not only did the beets come out well, but the beef I paired them with came out even a little sweeter than usual, thanks to the yummy sweetness of the beets. And, even better, you can cook this dish for 8-10hrs or you can stretch it out longer if you need to (as I did, since we had to leave the crock pot on for closer to 11hrs).

Other things of note:

  • If you’re trying to find something to do with the beet greens, since you don’t necessarily want to waste them, just wash and dry them, then toss them in a skillet over medium heat and a small amount of olive oil for a few minutes to wilt them. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and you have a great, crunchy, green accompaniment to your meal!
  • This dish pairs nicely with just about any starchy side; we had it with egg noodles one night and rice another night.

 

Crock Pot Beef with Beets

Beet-tastic!

 

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 8-10hrs on LOW

Serves: 4

 

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb stew beef, cut into chunks or bite-sized pieces

1 bunch of medium-small beets, greens removed

1-1/4 cups reduced sodium beef broth

1/4 cup red wine

2 Tb red wine vinegar

1 Tb cornstarch

water

2 tsp garlic powder

Non-stick cooking spray

 

Make it Happen

1. Spray the inside of a 4qt crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Wash the beets well and cut off the stems and roots. Chop the beets into quarters. Add the beets to the crock pot to make a bed for the beef.

3. Add the beef to the crock pot.

4. In a measuring cup or bowl, stir to combine the beef broth, red wine and red wine vinegar, then pour over the beef and beets. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10hrs.

5. Just before serving, remove the beef and beets from the crock, leaving the liquid in the crock. Add the garlic powder to the crock and stir to combine.

6. In a small bowl, stir water into the cornstarch until the cornstarch has dissolved. Add the cornstarch/water mixture to the crock and stir to combine.

7. Put the liquid into a gravy boat and serve atop the beef and beets.

Adventures in CSA (week 3): New frontiers

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This week should prove more of a challenge for me than the prior two weeks, for two reasons: 1) radishes, and 2) eggplant. I’ve never been a fan of radishes, and I’ve only ever really seen them deployed as extra color and crunch in salads. Eggplant’s never been a favorite of mine because the consistency hasn’t ever really worked for me. So, as DH pointed out, this will be our first “stretch” week: really branching out and trying stuff that neither of us have taken to. Still, I have to say that this is the most colorful week we’ve had yet, thanks in part to the gorgeous rainbow carrots. The picture below doesn’t really do them full justice, since I was trying to get everything in the shot, but the carrots range from a yummy light orange to a light yellow to a pale yellow that borders on white. I can’t WAIT to dig into those guys! (And the corn’s already been eaten. You bring corn into this house, and it’s gone in less than 24hrs.)

 

CSA Week 3

Ooh! Pretty colors...!

 

Contents of this week’s box:

  • Tomatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Radishes
  • Green Peppers
  • White Onion
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Cucumbers
  • Acorn Squash
  • Corn
  • White Potatoes

I’m not entirely sure whether the potatoes will go the way of their predecessors (week 1: rosemary-garlic french fries; week 2: hash browns), but both are really winning formulas. The squash may get roasted, or turned into risotto, or roasted and then turned into risotto…it’s all pretty open right now.

And, as always, I’ll post the cost comparison after I’ve had the chance to go to the grocery store. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen Italian eggplant or rainbow carrots at my grocery store, so this one may get a little tricky. Just as this gives me a chance to explore new foods, it also gives me an opportunity to test out the variety of what’s in my grocery store. They haven’t been beaten by the CSA on variety yet. Yet.

Of course, there’s always the question of quality. The CSA carrots have been quite good thus far (although the ones that my sister has shared from her CSA have been even sweeter), and the corn hasn’t been as good as the stuff from our local farmstand. Still, comparing CSA to CSA to farmstand (that has its own CSA) is really not the right comparison. Comparing the quality to the stuff from the grocery store, I can say that the tomatoes have been more flavorful, and that’s one area where flavor can be hard to come by in the grocery store varieties. The Macs have been as good as what we get from the orchard, and they are comparable to those from the grocery store (we’re lucky enough to have plenty of local orchards to supply our grocer).

In other words, what I’m seeing (and tasting) is a variably better product at a better price. So far. Whether or not all of that holds up as we go through the remaining 5 weeks, I’m not quite sure. But, so far I’ve been very pleased with what we’ve gotten, and I love picking up my box o’veggies every Friday afternoon. For a person who used to hate vegetables as a kid, I think that’s a pretty fantastic thing!