I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Three trips in the past four or five weeks and I’m going away again on Sunday. The weekend before last, I got almost caught up veg-wise. Last week I left for Michigan on Thursday, the day after picking up the share, and as a result the fridge is still pretty full of veggies and the fruit basket is overflowing with apples and pears. I’m thinking about making a pie or perhaps some pear jam but that requires me to actually be home and to feel good, which I don’t right now. I feel pretty darn crummy. I haven’t been sleeping very much, I have a terrible headache, and I just feel generally run down. I need to pull it all together before my next trip. Woof.

Here’s last week’s share:

Acorn Winter Squash-2
Butternut Winter Squash-1
Siberian Kale-1 bunch
Garlic-2 heads
Red Cabbage-1 head
Orange Carrots-2 pounds
Celariac-1 head
Sage-1 bunch
Broccoli-2 bunches

Bosc Pears, Golden Delicious Apples, Cortland Apples, Empire Apples

I’ve eaten some of the carrots, but that’s about all so far. I need to get back in the kitchen.

Delicata Winter Squash-2
Winterbor Kale-1 bunch
Black Radish-1 (sometimes called Spanish Radish)
Blue Potatoes-2 pounds
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Onions-4
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley-1 bunch
Broccoli-2

honey crisp, golden crisp, cortland and anjou pears

I have a large cardboard box with a bunch of plastic bags in it that I use every week when picking up my CSA share. On Wednesday, I went to collect the share and put my box down on the floor, as I usually do. I picked out some squash and put them in my box. I picked out some carrots and put them in my box. Same actions repeated with daikon, collards, shallots, etc. I had everything in my box and when I went to pick it up, I noticed that there was an extra daikon in my box. I thought that was very strange. One of the people working the shift said something about maybe someone confused it with the swap box. I didn’t think anything of it and I put the daikon back in the daikon pile.

When I got home, I unpacked everything and laid things out on the counter so that I could take a photo. It didn’t look right. It looked like I was missing something. Why? Because I was! If I’m giving the benefit of the doubt, then indeed, someone confused my box with the swap box (which is a large blue plastic laundry hamper, so how did that happen?) and I had no yellow carrots. I was wracked with anger and torment. I really wanted the carrots because a) I’ve never had yellow carrots, and b)I was planning to roast the yellow carrots with some orange carrots for a pretty dish. I’m pretty sure someone must have seen this swapping take place. Couldn’t they have said something to stop the person or warn me?

I wasn’t certain that if I did go back downtown, that there’d be any carrots left. Usually there’s just enough of each veg for every share. Bill smartly pointed out that I would make myself crazy if I didn’t go check, so I hopped in the car and quickly made my way back to the pickup site, as it was almost closing time. There were quite a few shares that hadn’t been picked up yet, so there were plenty of carrots and I was able to get my bunch after all. In case you’re wondering, if there are any shares left at the end of the day, they go to our charity partner.

And now, here’s the share for week 17.

Acorn Winter Squash-2
Carnival Winter Squash-1
Yellow Carrots-1 bunch
Cauliflower-1 head
Collard Greens-1 bunch
Diakon Radish-1
Shallots-3
Apple Mint-1 bunch

Anjou Pears
Honey Crisp, Cortland, Macoun Apples
raspberries

I was out recruiting during Week 15, so no photos. Jeremie did pick up the share and put all the vegetables away, which was very nice of him.
Here’s what we got last Wednesday, for week 16.

Delicata Winter Squash-2
Carrots-1 bunch
Red Ace Beets-1 bunch
Scallions-1 bunch
Rosemary
Broccoli-2 heads
Turnip Greens-1 bunch
Blue Potatoes-2 pounds
Green Winter Cabbage-1 head
Hot Peppers

Bosc Pears
Honey Crisp and Macoun Apples
Long John Plums

We’re getting in to the veggies that will hold for awhile, which is good. Sunday night I made roasted vegetables: carrots and cauliflower from the csa and some parsnips that I picked up at the farmers market on Saturday. I’ll probably make another onion pie since I have two weeks’ worth of scallions in the fridge and a few shallots hanging around.

Now, lets talk about beets. 4 bunches of beets. This is a substantial amount of beets. I like raw beet salads but I’m the only one in the house who does, so a little goes a long way. It’s been too hot to be in the mood for roasted beets until very recently, and the beets were starting to pile up so I started to look for other ways to use beets. Like baking! I used up three bunches of beets making chocolate beet cake and chocolate chip beet bread (same recipe as my chocolate chip zucchini bread, but with beets instead of zucchini).

clockwise from top left: chocolate chip beet bread in the mixer, chocolate chip beet bread – finished, chocolate beet cake – finished, chocolate chip beet bread – cut

Yes, I’m backfilling a bit.

1 head cabbage
2 pounds Norland red potatoes
4 gourds-just for decoration
4 Pablanos
2 pounds tomatoes
1 bunch leeks
3 heads broccoli
1 head lettuce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch Siberian kale
3 Lipstick Sweet peppers

Concord Grapes
Mac and Gala apples
Seckle pears

What did I make?
What can I remember?
Potato Leek soup, oven roasted tomato confit, pasta with kale and chicken sausage, cabbage salad, bulgur with tomatoes and parsley. Oh, and a pear cake with the seckle pears. Here’s a picture of that and a picture of the giant bowl of pesto I made with basil from my garden.

I harvested an incredible amount of basil. I should have taken a picture of it.