If you’ve been to our house, and you read that headline, you’re likely thinking: “But KK, you have a HUGE garden in your yard, why would you join a farm share?”
Great question! Mr. KK asked me the same thing.
First, while yes, we do have a big garden, the offerings in that garden are a little limited. Though we did branch out a bit this year. This year’s crop list included:
- Tomatoes (a variety)
- Cucumbers
- Zucchini (which did not do as well as they usually do)
- Yellow Squash (which we had coming out of our ears)
- Eggplant (one of my least favorite vegetables to cook with or eat)
- String Beans (which did surprisingly well)
- Yellow Peppers (which took their sweet time turning ripening – we harvested unripened peppers in November)
While that is a hefty list, it should be noted that the upkeep of the garden become difficult during a busy summer. I would have to be a full-time farmer to keep the weeds at bay. And since I have a day job, weeding was relegated to the weekends (the ones we weren’t away or busy) and it was like hacking through a jungle.
Also? I wanted some variety and the chance to incorporate new vegetables in our daily routine.
We joined a CSA from a farm one town over on the recommendation of a friend. It was only about 10 minutes from our house and I selected a Saturday pick up (Wednesday was also available). I have driven to this CSA every week since early June, and I still need GPS to get there. I have such a mental block on the directions to this farm; that, plus GPS takes me 5 different ways each time I go. This is the last week of the CSA and I still get get myself there without satellite help.
What we got in our CSA
The offerings in the CSA varied a bit week to week, but you could tell the farm had an abundance of certain crops. On pick up day, you are allowed to switch out one item from your box with any goodies on the table.
Early in the season we enjoyed:
- Strawberries
- Lettuces (also includes: 5 pounds of sand)
- Greens (of the leafy variety)
We then transitioned into:
- String beans (Little Mister’s favorite vegetable)
- Corn
- Beets (Mr. KK loves them but boy are they a pain to cook)
- Zucchini (this took the place of our zucchini which had some weird disease)
- Eggplant (SO.MUCH.EGGPLANT.)
- Cabbage
- Turnips
- Tomatoes
- Arugula
As we entered fall:
- More Mystery Greens
- Apples (this renewed Little Mister’s love of apples so for that I’m grateful)
- Broccoli rabe
- Spaghetti Squash
- Butternut Squash
- Honeynut Squash
What did we do with all this produce?
We only signed up for a half share, which was plenty of vegetables. If I did the math it equated to about $19.50 on vegetables each week, which is close to what I would spend at the grocery store. Between our garden and this farm share, I didn’t have to substitute too much from the store.
Some weeks we ate everything. Other weeks, the timing was just off and we were left with vegetables that we weren’t able to cook. I traveled for a bit in October and those weeks we didn’t get through everything.
We ate a lot of salads after salad spinning the sand out of the lettuce five times (no exaggeration). The arugula was so peppery and fresh, I’m ruined for all other arugulas. We ate lots of corn, which was sweet and delicious most weeks.
I used the greens in soups. It was October, light chill in the air, a lazy Sunday spent in front of the stove.
First, I made Italian Wedding Soup.
I loosely followed this recipe for the basics, but used my own personal recipe for the meatballs.
This soup was so good, I ate it every day for lunch for a week!
The following week, I made Ina’s Minestrone soup.
Not only did I use the next installment of my mystery greens for this soup, I also diced up the butternut squash from the share as well.
We had eggplant coming out of our ears
Between our garden – which had 2 varieties of eggplant – and the eggplant from the share (which I traded out when I could because how much eggplant could two people eat?) we were deep in eggplant. We used some, but it was so much. I brought eggplant as a hostess gift when we visited friends. I gave some to both mothers. And we still had a ton leftover.
I mentioned earlier, eggplant is not one of my favorite foods. But the one way I DO like eggplant, is when it’s fried!
I made a ridiculous amount of fried eggplant this summer. We ate it stacked with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella as a light dinner. I made eggplant parmesan not once, but twice this year (that is 2 more times than I have made eggplant parm in the last 20 years). I still have fried eggplant in our freezer.
If you meet 10 people and ask them about their eggplant parm recipe, you will likely get 10 different recipes (most handed down from Nonna’s and the hills of Italy). I like my eggplant crispy, so I used a mix of panko and Italian breadcrumbs to bread mine. For someone who doesn’t make eggplant, my eggplant was on point.
Our eggplant stacks were delicious! Those are yellow tomatoes from our garden, too!
Will we do a CSA farm share again?
I think the answer is yes. I liked getting some new veggies (and mystery greens), loved having fresh arugula and lettuces, Little Mister is eating apples again (and has declared he will only eat FARM apples which I find hilarious), and I think I ended up saving money (a little bit?) at the grocery store. Little Mister enjoyed coming and picking out the flavored honey sticks that they sold and playing on the playground.
Next year, however, I am going to work on memorizing how to actually get to the farm.
Life of kk 