Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Well hello there! (aka Tantre Farm Share, week 1)

After blogging for 5+ years, I needed a little break.  For the last few months when I thought of blogging I felt tired. And frankly my life was going relatively smoothly, but there weren't a whole lot of interesting things to write about. We all were just plugging along, getting stuff done without a whole lot of drama.

I thought about shutting down the blog, I thought about starting a new one with a more accurate name since the things I was obsessed with 5+ years ago have shifted and changed but coming up with a blog name that encompassed cooking, reading and writing YA fiction, house renovation, and the occasional parenting fiasco was too high a hurdle. Something like "Ephemera" sounded a little too snooty. "Aggle Flaggle" would be accurate for the mental nonsense realm, but hard to spell. So here we are! Back in the same old place.

This morning I picked up my farm share this morning and there is nothing like a big box of beautiful organic produce to reinvigorate my urge to share.  If you were wondering what would possibly grow in the crazy amount of rain we've been getting, I have the answer: spinach! Lots and lots of spinach.

Top row: 4 huge bunches of spinach, tatsoi, scallions, asparagus
Bottom row: chives and blossoms, spicy greens mix, red russian kale, 2 green leaf lettuces, radishes and some over-wintered fingerling potatoes.

And here's the plan:

  • The asparagus is already gone. I couldn't resist; before I even finished unpacking the box I had a pot of water on to boil so I could make this for my lunch:


asparagus topped with a poached egg, olive oil, shards of parmesan, chive flowers, fleur de sel, black pepper and lemon juice.  Oh my was it tasty!
  • With all that spinach (and some of the scallions) how could I not make spanikopita? Besides I have some left-over grilled leg of lamb and yogurt cucumber salad that will be so good with it.
  • The tatsoi and some more scallions will get the thai noodle treatment with a little ground pork and tofu.
  • I'm going to make some homemade blue cheese dressing for a salad with the lettuce, radishes and chives. It'll probably go with something simple like turkey burgers.
  • That leaves me with kale, spicy greens mix and potatoes so I might try to combine them into some sort of gratin with gruyere, if the weather is conducive to turning on the oven. If it is hot and  that sounds dopey then the greens will just get the classic garlic, olive oil and lemon treatment.

6 comments:

To Write said...

So glad you didn't change your blog site. I've noticed you have been silent lately, but knew you had been working on your writing. I've been waiting patiently hoping you would start up again. Thanks for your inspirations, we have many of the same enjoyments. I'm not much for blogging yet, but hope that comes as well. Nice to have you back.

Melanie said...

Welcome back. I followed all your farm share posts last year. We'll pick up our first one next week and I'm so excited. So I'm counting on you for good recipes :) And if you have any tips for remodeling a kitchen, I'll take those too :)

Kate said...

Melanie, my kitchen is one of the few (only?) parts of my house that we already renovated! We did it about 8 years ago so my memories are a little rusty. Pretty much every other room in the house needs work...

Sun Runner said...

I am about to head out to the farm myself to pick up my share! I'm going to make saag for dinner.

Margie said...

I'm new here, but glad to read about your first farm box of the season. I'm in WI and still waiting patiently for my first box. Your asparagus lunch looked so elegant with that plump asparagus. Can't wait to hear what you do with the greens.

Edward Vielmetti said...

Hi Kate! Looks like a great boxful.