It's CSA day!

I'd been saying that I was going to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Well this was the year we finally did it! We joined the Growing Community CSA. They provide organic and naturally grown produce. We chose this one in particular because they have a pick-up site near where we live. Most of the ones we found had pick ups at the farmer's market Downtown.

One of the main reasons we wanted to sign up for a CSA, besides supporting local farmers, was to force culinary exploration. We really don't mind trying new things, but rarely ever do. We believed that getting a new batch of produce each week would force us to eat what was in season. We were worried. Neither one of us had really eaten that many greens, which we understood to be a staple in the shares you get from these things. Being from a southern family in a rural area, my experience with greens was limited to collards swimming in "pot liquor." This was the food that my parents served each New Year's Day and swore that I would have bad luck all year if I didn't eat them. (just so you know, I didn't and my luck was just fine) My husband's family was from Pennsylvania and didn't like many vegetables so his exposure was even less than mine.

Well that's all changed. In the 4 or so odd weeks that we've gotten shares we experienced lots of different things, mainly greens. We've had to do a little detective work - you see they don't really tell you what you have in your bag. I'm not sure if most are like this, but the emails we get from Growing Community aren't very specific. Usually the emails will say we're getting greens, but no specifics. The Internet has been very helpful with identification.

Here's what we received in our bag this week.

You can see the turnips front and center. I haven't had any turnips before (I told you I was going for a culinary adventure here). I plan on pairing them with some potatoes in a turnip potato mash. I saw Ina Garten do this once on The Barefoot Contessa on Food Network so I think that should be good.

These guys are new. We haven't seen them in our bag before. The bag says Braising Mix. Apparently they are a mix of dandelion, mustard, chard chicories and Asian greens. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet.

The email actually did let us know we would be getting them and suggested we saute' them in a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

This bag is full of pea shoots. When we first got these, I thought they were watercress. We used them in an Orange Salad with Blue Cheese. Yum!

I have no idea what these are. Bok Choy maybe?

This is a familiar site. It's kale. What we've found is that most kale recipes are soups. We made a particularly yummy kale and chorizo soup with our last few shares.

Well that's what we got this week. I'll update later on the unidentified vegetable.