Maple Creek Farm Share 2010

Here is a slideshow of the share produce for 2010. My thoughts on this year's share follow the slideshow.



The CSA season is over and I must admit I am not too disappointed about it.

For some reason, I found the share to be more stressful for me this year. I didn't feel in the mood every Wednesday to pick up the share, clean and store the veggies and then prep them for use during the week or to store them in the freezer for use during winter. Last year was the opposite, I felt like every Wednesday was like Christmas picking up my share.

It wasn't that I felt the quality of the share was any less than last year, because I thought it was good considering they hardly had any rain all summer.  We got A LOT of peppers, I would guess it was because it was what they had to give us considering the difficulties with rain.  The tomatoes we got this year were FANTASTIC!!  We had fun eating the many varieties we got through the season.

I am not sure if I am going to be a member of Maple Creek or any share next year for a few reasons. One, I feel like a break.  Two, I go to the farmer's market every week anyway, so I can just pick up what I really wanted there without all the stress of getting things I do not feel like cooking each week.  And Thirdly, we enlarged our garden (which we lovingly refer to as Tuscany, since it is a garden on a hill) for next year and I think we will get a decent amount of produce out of it next summer.  But time will tell, and I will be sure to let you know!

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 13

The weather was already telling me that fall was here and today's share proved it. We got our first acorn and butternut squash.

The basil smelled wonderful and smelled up the whole porch at our pickup site! I already made some yummy pesto out of it.

Everything else looks absolutely fabulously fresh (how's that for too many adjectives) and I can't wait to cook with it this week!

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 12

Week 12 Looks Good!  I've already chopped the peppers for freezing, made pesto out of the lemon basil and chopped and frozen the cilantro in one of those little frozen herb cube trays from Trader Joes.

It was a nice surprise to get some apples today and the Swiss Chard looks absolutely gorgeous.  I treated those watermelons like crystal because the last time we got them I split one open by accident by setting it on the counter (the sign of a truly ripe melon).

I must admit I was happy to not get any green beans.  They tasted really good, but it is not my favorite vegetable and I will be happy to something else as a side for the coming week.

The zucchini is piling up and I must do something with it soon.  I don't have problems thinking of things to do with all my zucchini, I have problems finding the time to do something with it.  Feels like just can't find enough time the last couple of weeks.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 11

Wow, is the only word I can use to describe this week's share!  Look at all of that goodness!  Melons, tomatoes, onions, squash, green beans, corn, peppers, kohlrabi (yeah!), basil and cabbages.  And don't they all look gorgeous!?!



The kids are back at school, and although I love them to pieces, I was very excited to pick up the share without them because their job was to pick out our share of tomatoes and they always liked to find the smallest ones they could.  It was nice to have the freedom to choose my own size tomatoes this week!

The tomatoes alone make this week's share worth the money we spent on the share.  Last weekend at Whole Foods my husband saw an old heirloom tomato that he wanted to try.  At $3.99/lb that one tomato cost us about $7!

I hope you are all enjoying the bounty of the season as well!  Guten Appetit!

Share Roundup, Week 8, 9 & 10

August has gone so fast.  I haven't forgotten about taking my share pictures, I just haven't gotten around to posting them.  Here are the pictures from the last three weeks.  Week 8's picture is a little weak because I was in Traverse City  and my husband picked up the share and took the picture with his Blackberry.

Week 8




Week 9




Week 10

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 7

Yum!  This week we got some goodies that we have already enjoyed.

Corn - Had some for dinner last night, will have some more tonight.


Zucchini- Made some grilled cheese sandwiches with this.  We sliced it thin and put it right inside with the cheese.  Very good.


Peppers - Not sure what I am going to do with these.  Will probably make some veggie dip so we can dip them in it for snacks.


Onions - Saving them for use during the week.


Cabbage - Will store and use for a salad later on in the week.


Cucumbers - Made a Salad with it and the ....


Tomatoes - My daughter thought it was fun to pick the smallest tomatoes out ;-)  Ohh well.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 6

This week we got:

Lettuce: Will use for salads during the week.

Tomatoes: Will eat on our salads or give to the kids for a snack during the week.  I always ask them if they want it cut up like a "farmers market sample" which means I chop it up and give them toothpicks to eat it with.

Potatoes: Yum!  These were good I slow roasted them in my mini-slow cooker.  Had a few leftover that I will put in the kid's eggs in the morning.

Green Beans: Will use as a side veggie for dinner.  This Peanut Butter Green Bean Recipe is a fun side dish that is pretty kid-friendly that I have made in the past.

Broccoli:  Will use as a side veggie for dinner.  I usually just steam them.

Green Peppers:  Not sure what I am going to do with these, the black bean soup recipe from How to Eat Supper is AMAZING and calls for green peppers, I might chop them up and freeze them for use with the recipe over winter.

Onions: I put them in my storage bin and will use them through the week for cooking as needed.  I just bought some of these vegetable keepers from reuseablebags.com that are in the mail.  I can't wait to get them and hang them up in my kitchen to store my garlic, onions, and potatoes in!

Mentioned Products:
  

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 5

This week we got:

Chinese (Napa) Cabbage.  Will probably make an Asian-themed salad with almonds, rice vinegar, sesame oil, onions.

Bok Choy.  Probably with stir fry it with some mushrooms and soy sauce.

Tomatoes. Use in salads through the week.

Zucchini. Opps...I forgot to take the picture until after I had sliced and eaten some.

Onions. Store for use in the coming weeks.

Lettuce. Salads for the week.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 4

This week we got:

Two Types of Kale. We had some of the Kale for dinner tonight as sauted greens. It was very good. I think I will have some with my eggs at breakfast tomorrow morning.

Onions.

Fresh Garlic.

Zucchini. I saw this post on The kitchn, 15 Spectacular Recipes for Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Pattypan & More. All of the recipes look very good, not sure which one I will try, but I feel like trying something new.

Tomatoes.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 3

This week we got:

Lots of Lettuce: We will use this for salads throughout the week.

Kohlrabi: purple and white. I sliced it into matchsticks and put it in our salad and sliced some and just ate them. It was very good. My husband really liked it because he remembers eating this as a child.

Fresh Garlic: I am going to cure these because I have a clove of last week's garlic still hanging around.

Kale: I made some Kale chips out of the Kale, but now I use coconut oil instead of Olive Oil, VERY good!

Update on last week: 

A few people asked about the garlic scape pesto, well I tried this recipe from a Michigan Garlic farmer and it was so good.  We had it on pasta and with the leftovers, I put it on our eggs one time and another, mixed in some olive oil and vinegar and made a vinaigrette out of it.  

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 2

We got tomatoes, LOTS of lettuce (good thing we like salads), some garlic scapes, some onions, and some garlic.

I used a clove of the garlic in a salad dressing I made this evening for dinner, it was very good!

Thinking I will make some salsa with the tomatoes and green onions. I have some cilantro growing in my garden that will be nice in the fresh salsa. The tomato was very good. We had one in our salad this evening.

We will use the lettuce up in our daily lunch salads, and probably have some salads with dinner this week too.

I think I will try making some garlic scape pesto with the garlic scapes this week. Probably won't use it right away, but will freeze some for use later in the year.

Maple Creek Farm Share ~ Week 1

Yeah! My kids have been out of school for a couple of weeks now, but it hasn't really felt like summer until today, when I picked up my first Maple Creek Farm share.

Lots of lettuce for our lunchtime salads, some Kale that I will probably make some Kale chips out of, purple onions, Garlic scapes that I will use to make the white bean dip from the New York Times, and some radishes, which of all the things we get in our share is the hardest for me to use, because they really aren't my favorite....but we'll eat them just the same :-)

So happy that my share has started and so has summer.