Week 5: A Quick CSA Primer

THIS WEEK’S HITS: Vegetarian “Cajun” Collards and Chard, Chickpeas and Feta

Broadly speaking, Community Supported Agriculture is a system of shared risk. You pay in advance for a share of the harvest and you assume some of the farmer’s risks in growing it.

There are different models for this. Some CSA programs are run by a single farm; others are cooperatives. Some operate in an Iron Chef mode: Your bag of “secret ingredients” is revealed each week. Others offer credits or “free choice” so you can bag your own mix of produce from the available harvest. Still others require members to work on the farm as part of their share.

What’s available from a CSA, in terms of quantity and variety, can vary considerably, depending on weather, critters, Acts of God, and the farm’s commitments to retail outlets. It’s not necessarily a money-saver -- though I certainly squirreled away a lot of food last fall. It’s more about eating well and supporting local agriculture.

I love our CSA program, and it’s a good fit for us. It helps that The Programmer and I like vegetables, like to cook, and are willing to experiment with unfamiliar food. I know where my vegetables are being grown and I know the guy who’s growing them.

That’s a benefit also offered by farmers’ markets and farm stands. If a CSA share is not a practical option for you (and you know who you are), I encourage you to patronize your local growers for fresh, seasonal produce. Local food is good eating!

The past week was a light one for our CSA, which is still recovering from a gloomy June. We received Swiss chard, beets, Boston and red leaf lettuce, collard greens, sage plants for our own garden, and a voucher for pick-your-own fruit later this season. Still, it was a good week of dinners. Chard, Chickpeas and Feta was a side dish to baked cod. Several recipes are available on the Web; I started with the one here, substituting red onion for green. I pickled the beets in a mustard vinaigrette and I roasted chicken with parsley, thyme, and our newly acquired sage.

Collard greens were a new one for us. (Yes, The Programmer grew up in Florida, but his Miami upbringing was closer in spirit to New York than anywhere in the Deep South.)

Unlike many traditional recipes for collards, this one – slightly modified from one found on About.com -- includes no pork and has a fairly short cooking time. I served the greens with the roasted chicken. They were even better reheated the next day.

Vegetarian “Cajun” Collards

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Olive oil, for sauteeing
1 bunch collard greens, rinsed, stemmed, and chopped
1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved
Reserved tomato liquid plus water to make 3/4 cup
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat a little olive oil in a Dutch oven and sauté the onions and garlic until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add the collard greens and the reserved tomato liquid and water. Cook, covered, for about 8 minutes, or until the greens have softened slightly. Add the tomato pieces and spices and simmer, covered, for another 8 minutes or until the greens are done to your liking. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Week 4: To Market, To Market

THIS WEEK'S HIT: Chimichurri

It was dinner for 10 last Friday evening (July 3), and I had decided on a meal of fish, pasta, and peas. So when I picked up my CSA share midday Friday, I took stock of my goodies:

• Greens -- Enough to feed the Massachusetts National Guard

• Peas -- Enough to feed a family of four, with one child abstaining

I could have held onto the peas for another day, but since I had my heart set on serving them, I did the natural thing: I bought some more. Which is kind of funny, considering how overwhelmed I sometimes feel on Friday afternoons looking at the week’s load of vegetables.

One risk with our type of CSA is that you might not get what you want when you want it. (Other farms operate differently; I intend to discuss this in a future post.) Culinary flexibility helps. But even last summer, when we essentially lived off of cukes, zukes, squash, chard, tomatoes, and corn, we still had to pick up some produce. (They just don’t grow bananas here.)

So it was steamed peas Friday night, and I had just the right mix of leftovers from dinner for a tasty pasta salad later in the week.

Overall it was a good week for experimentation. Fresh bunches of cilantro and parsley led us to try chimichurri, an Argentine sauce similar to pesto. Since chimichurri typically accompanies grilled meat, we made beef shish kebab using the first zucchinis from the farm; for a twist, the Programmer threw a head of romaine lettuce onto the grill, too. Pickled beets and a "sweet and savory" kale recipe rounded out the week.

The chimichurri recipe was adapted from one featured recently in USA Weekend magazine.

Chimichurri

Ingredients

4 cloves of garlic
2 cups (packed) parsley leaves
1 cup (packed) cilantro leaves
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (or substitute fresh hot pepper)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (could certainly use less, depending on the consistency you want)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste

Directions

Mince garlic and herbs in a food processor. Add remaining ingredients and process until pureed.

Week 3: It's Not for the Squeamish

THIS WEEK'S HIT: Chicken With Rhubarb, Raisins, and Green Olives

Our farm practices Integrated Pest Management. Which is to say, the pests are integrated with the vegetables. I think it's a small price to pay for the quality and freshness of the produce, but it markedly distinguishes farm purchases from supermarket purchases: You get dirt and you get bugs. Sometimes in great quantity. And you get good in washing everything v-e-r-y carefully.

This week, I washed three heads of lettuce and our first bunch of Swiss chard (whoo-hoo) leaf by leaf. And it was worth it, though time consuming. The chard was sauteed with garlic and onion. The lettuce became salad and stir fry, as in past weeks. And we also enjoyed fresh peas, strawberries, and radishes.

With rhubarb from a neighbor's garden we tried this chicken dish. The recipe was clipped a few years back from the Boston Globe's Sunday Magazine.

Chicken With Rhubarb, Raisins, and Green Olives

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup white wine
1 cup stock or water
4 large stalks rhubarb, thinly sliced
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped [I substituted about 1 Tbsp minced ginger]
2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1/2 cup green olives
1 Tbsp fresh thyme
6 bone-in chicken breasts
Additional olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Set the oven to 500 degrees. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil and cook the onion over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for half a minute.

Pour the wine into the pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium and reduce the liquid to one-half cup.

Add the stock (or water), rhubarb, ginger, sugar, raisins, olives and thyme. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, arrange the chicken, skin side up, in a baking pan large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Rub the chicken with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken for 20 minutes, then decrease the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Turn the chicken over. Spoon the rhubarb mixture on top and return dish to oven. Cook for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken skin side up again and cook another 10 minutes or until it is cooked through.

Serves 4 to 6.

Week 2: Salad Days

THIS WEEK'S HIT: Beans and Greens Soup

When the CSA gives you lettuce, you make salad. And stir-fry. And maybe cooked lettuce and peas, but only once.

This week's basket was similar to last week's, with lettuce, strawberries, radishes, and rhubarb, plus baby beet greens and Tuscan kale. The baby beet greens I sauteed with onions and shitake mushrooms and served over pasta (yumm); the rhubarb and some of the strawberries went into a crisp (Moosewood Cookbook; highly recommended); and the kale went into a hearty soup that makes a nice meal with a side salad. After all, we had a lot of salad available.

I received the soup recipe a year or two ago in the mail with a supermarket promotion that credits it to "the Taste for Life test kitchen." The paraphased version:

Beans and Greens Soup

Ingredients

olive oil, for sauteeing
1 large onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced [I used more]
4 cups broth or water [I used about 6 cups of water to accommodate the large head of greens that I had]
salt and pepper to taste [you can add other spices or herbs, of course]
2 cans (15 ounce) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch greens (kale, collards, spinach, etc.), cleaned and sliced or chopped
Parmesan cheese, for garnish, optional

Directions

In a large soup pot, saute onion, tomato, celery, carrot, and garlic until the vegetables begin to soften and the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes more. Stir in beans and greens. Cook until the greens are just tender, 5 to 15 minutes depending on variety. Serve in bowls and top with cheese if desired.

Week 1: Lettuce Begin

THIS WEEK'S HIT: Stir-Fried Garlic Lettuce

We picked up our first CSA basket of the season last Friday, and it was very green: four huge heads of lettuce (Boston, green leaf, red leaf, and romaine).

To be fair, it was also red, with beets, radishes, strawberries, and a couple of hothouse tomatoes. And in keeping with the color scheme, there was a bunch of green and red rhubarb.

The strawberries barely made it to the fridge. We ate those out of hand and saved the rhubarb for a couple of savory treatments: a nice chutney and a modified version of a lentil dish by Mark Bittman (which needed further modification). The beets were roasted and eaten with salad. Lots of salad. Luckily for us, we had friends over for dinner one night, so we were able to make a dent in the abundant greens. And the romaine made a nice stir fry mid-week.