Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tantre farm share, week 1

Last year I became incredibly curious what a week-to-week farm share looked like. I enjoyed reading about the creative uses the Gastronomical 3 ladies were doing with their split Tantre share and I loved Mary's Community Farm Kitchen blog (she not only lists the weekly full share, but if you are a part of her Kitchen CSA, she tells you how she will be preparing it for you).

If any of you are as curious as I was as to what a full-share looks like, I plan to post a photo of my weekly share from Tantre Farm. I also plan to briefly mention what recipes I intend to use to consume all this produce and would love to hear if you have any creative thoughts of what you would do (particularly when I inevitably get stumped by a vegetable!)

If you have a farm share that you'd be willing to photograph weekly, please let me know. I'd love to peek at your haul! I went with Tantre this year because one of the farmer-owners, Deb, came into my picky boy critter's class when he was in 2nd grade and actually got the kid to taste a tiny nibble of raw sorrel. I figure she must be magical because I haven't been able to pry his jaws apart for any leafy green in years and a magical farmer sounded like a good place to start.

So here is the photo of week 1 of my Tantre farm share:
The haul, from left to right: purple lettuce, green lettuce, some over-wintered fingerling potatoes, mizuna, asparagus, huge bag of spinach, french radishes, globe radishes, spring onions, chives

plus some rhubarb that sneaked out of the photo (rhubarb is sneaky like that):

What I plan to do with it:
  • Lettuce: salad (duh)
  • Fingerlings: roasted with olive oil, fresh rosemary and fleur de sel
  • Mizuna and some of the spinach: Warda's Spicy Greens with Bulgur (Tchicha bel Khoubiz) probably served with something lamb based, maybe some kofte
  • Asparagus: there are just a few beautiful spears (apparently some slugs have been having a field day with the asparagus crop this year) so I might supplement these with some from the store. I want to make a broiled miso asparagus dish called Dengaku
  • rest of the spinach: goma ae (I'll share my basic recipe soon), probably served some variation of miso soup
  • French radishes: my favorite cold soup, Chlodnik
  • Globe radishes: roasted radishes with radish greens (Yes, you can eat the greens like, well, greens! And this bunch has gorgeous greens.)
  • Spring onions: a couple saved for salad, the rest roasted along with the fingerlings
  • Chives: I already used up some in a chive-ricotta omelet as soon as I came home. The rest will be used for more omelets and as garnish for the Chlodnik soup
  • Rhubarb: pie (which will make my husband very, very happy since he knew he'd be getting lots of healthy food out of this farm share thingy, but didn't anticipate his favorite pie!)
Thoughts? Plans? Ideas?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh how I wish I had money for a farm share! I'll have to live vicariously through my friends!!

May I recommend trying a rhubarb crumble? Jeff doesn't care for most healthy food, but likes my rhubarb crumble. I posted the recipe on my blog.

Anamaria (bookstogether) said...

Any interest in photos of what a Northern Virginia farm share looks like? I'm counting on you to help me figure out what to do with all my vegetables and hoping VA is not too far ahead of MI. Our first box arrives Tuesday (they deliver!).

Roja734 said...

I'm more curious HOW you got a Tantre farms share! I've tried to sign up the past couple of years but have been told they're full. They put me on a waiting list, but no dice. I'm jealous! Your haul looks lovely.

Sun Runner said...

As a fellow Tantré shareholder and lover, I, too, welcomed the return of my weekly share box. The day I picked it up I used my asparagus in a pasta dish and the next night I had sauteed radishes and wilted radish greens for dinner. Tonight it's going to be spinach, spinach, and more spinach.

Alex Harrison said...

I got some of Tantre's tasty little radishes this week as well...they are so good with butter and salt!

Stef said...

I've posted pictures of my Tantre share on my blog. I'm not sure I'll be diligent enough to do this every week, but it's a great idea to document the haul.

I can't wait to try your goma ae recipe...mmm...