Why to eat local

And why I miss my Silver Lake Farms CSA.  Local food economies as a pre-problem solution.
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Feels like Fall

The clouds and the chill tell me we've officially transitioned from Summer Spring to Fall.

I got a Kabocha Squash from Silverlake Farms on Friday. I'm going to oven-roast it tonight (work) tomorrow night (work) Thursday night (again) Friday night (jesus. worrrrrrk) Saturday morning? maybe? If it's not spoiled yet? like this. nom nom.

And our sartorially-inclined pal Scott Schuman says it's time to transition to light jackets and long legs. I say he's right.

Lay the beets down

I made a roasted beet salad with purslane, capers, red wine vinaigrette and crumbled feta for my dad's birthday get together. The beets and purslane are courtesy of Silverlake Farms CSA.

I had never even heard of purslane before Tara offered it as part of our share. It's a nice mild alternative to leafy greens, with a slightly spongy (but not in a disgusting way) texture. I looked it up and it turns out it's actually a succulent. Another name the portulaca oleracea goes by is "Little Hogweed." Sounds like a character from a Mark Twain short.

Veggies

Tomorrow is another Silverlake Farms CSA pickup. The last time around, my mom and I went to my sister Noreen's house where she, Bryn and Stephen helped us cook.

Stephen loves capes (and as of that Saturday morning, we now know he loves tempeh marinated in Braggs) and Bryn loves my iPhone. After the last leaf of baby bok choy was sauteed, we downloaded the Monkey Flight app and I passed out. That last picture is what it looks like when you go out Friday night, wake up at 7:30 the next morning, and cook for four hours.

Side note: We tried this simple baked kale recipe I ran across on smitten kitchen. So good.

Sunday Cook-Off

I couldn't sneak out of work for my inaugural CSA pickup on Friday, so Ryan was nice enough to go for me. Walking into my kitchen Friday night, I found that my share was inspiring, and kind of overwhelming, to be honest. Farmer Tara hooked it up. The question was how to cook it all so it wouldn't go bad before I could eat it.

Who better to look to for help than your mom, right? I asked mine if she'd be interested in spending her Sunday afternoon cooking this amazing collection of veggies with me. And that we did.

Her first order of business was to resuscitate the two day old and rapidly wilting leafy greens. I'm not going to lie, I was amazed by the result. She snipped off the bottoms of all the greens, dropped them in a sink full of water, and by the time we were ready to start chopping, every leaf had perked up even more than when I first saw them Friday night.

We made three dishes.

1. Frittata - based on Slake Farms' recipe from a couple weeks ago. Eggs, mustard greens, broccoli raab (rapini), red onion, garlic, grated Manchego and Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

2. Stew - we (and by 'we' i mean 'she') winged it on this one and the next. Cubed red and golden beets and turnips, cauliflower, green garlic, tempeh marinated in Brags and salt & pepper, turmeric, water.

3. Sauté. we sauteed a hodgepodge of kohlrabi bulb and leaves, green onion, arugula, chiccoria, adolescent romaine, tempeh marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, and cilantro.

Every year that goes by, I am more and more appreciative of growing up with a nutritionist as a mother. She can throw a bunch of vitamin- and nutrient-packed one- or two-ingredient foods into a pan and end up with a really tasty, complex, satisfying dish. I like to think that some of that has rubbed off on me.

Here's us. Yes, that's a french flag apron I'm wearing. Deep in conversation with my dad about either replacing the windows in their house or high school volleyball. The veggies pictured make up maybe 1/3 of the share. Silverlake Farms CSA is awesome.

I'm In!

At long last, my name has made it above the fold for Silver Lake Farm's CSA. Because I'm working a lot right now and I don't want my veggies going bad, I'm starting with the half share (two boxes a month). My first pickup is this Friday.

One great part of Silver Lake Farm's CSA is that they have an accompanying blog that suggests a couple ways to prepare the current harvest. Don't know what to do with a box full of nettles? Me neither. How about nettles soup, nettles gnocchi, or nettles pesto? yes plz.