Freaks of the CSA

Introducing the freaks of the week:

They are Egyptian Spinach, a Gold Cylindra Beet, and Ground Cherries. 

I don't know what "Ground Cherries" are, but they taste kind of like really sweet tomatoes.

Any suggestions for that spinach?

Last night's root beer float

Frozen mugs, cold root beer, and fresh vanilla ice cream on a hot summer evening.

The only thing that made it better was sharing the experience.

 (P.S. Mom -- reminds me of The Good Steer!!)

Cole Slaw

Finding things to do with all the cabbage we get in our CSA each week.

Egg Sandwiches

I love egg sandwiches.  Especially bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches with really crispy bacon.

Luckily our first morning in Portland, Oregon found us enjoying egg sandwiches on homemade biscuits.

They were amazing and I went on to eat bacon for the next four days.  Now that's a good vacation!

Pine State Biscuits

More of our trip to Oregon!

Worth the mess

:)

Sunday afternoon blueberry cobbler

Kitchen mess-making in the works ;)

Pops in DuPont

Enjoying a few Summer Peach Popsicles on this 100 degree day.  DuPont Farmers Market from our dear friend Brian at Pleasant Pops!

Potato packets

Love having guests for the night! Prepping potato packets for the grill...

Dinner date at The Vintage

We spent our first evening in Eugene, Oregon enjoying dinner in the front garden at The Vintage. 

Crazy eyes and rosé.

There was a funny yard sale going on across the street.  A yard sale on a Wednesday night at 7pm... guess Eugene is just a yard sale kind of place.  

I wanted to buy a little collection of heavy brass ducks that I saw for $7, but I second-guessed the purchase and didn't get them.  Now I am so mad I didn't!  It would have been the perfect souvenir from Eugene, home of the Oregon Ducks.

Pics taken with Instagram.

Twins!

More of our trip to Oregon!

Mitered cloth napkins

Lunch today at the Wildflower Grill on the Oregon Coast.

More of our trip to Oregon!

Our first CSA pickup!

Have you ever heard of a CSA? It stands for Community-supported agriculture.  How it works is people in your geographic area will purchase half or full shares of vegetables from local farms.  Each week, the farms will assemble boxes of whatever crop is ready for harvest, and bring them to a common location for pickup by shareholders.  As a shareholder, you don't have a choice of what vegetables you get; you just get what you get each week.  Shareholders pay for their half or full share at the beginning of the season -- if there is no rain or the crops are low for another reason, you might be out of luck.

I have always wanted to participate in a CSA, but in the past I traveled often and did not think I could eat all of the vegetables I would receive.  Now that Justin and I are living together in Arlington, I decided to shop around for a CSA and participate by purchasing a half-share of vegetables each week.

Several CSAs in the Arlington area were already completely full by the time I started looking (early May), so our veggies have to travel a little further to get here from Pennsylvania.  They come from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, which gathers fresh foods from the local Amish farmers and delivers them to us!

 Here's our first batch:

 

For our first pickup last week, here's the list they sent me the morning of my pickup:

1 Pint Strawberries - Certified Organic - Liberty Acres

Click here for strawberry storage information.

1 Bunch Baby Scarlet Turnips - Certified Organic - Outback Farm

Click here for turnip storage information.

1 Bag Loose Sparkler Radishes - Certified Organic - Maple Lawn Organics

Click here for radish storage information.

1 Bunch Red Kale - Certified Organic - Maple Lawn Organics

Click here for kale storage information.

1 Bunch Collards - Certified Organic - Coyote Run Organics

Click here for collard storage information.

1 Package Portobello Caps - Certified Organic - Mother Earth Organics

Click here for mushroom storage information.

1 Bunch Fresh White Pearl Onions - Certified Organic - Liberty Branch Farm

Click here for onion storage information.

There were a few items in there that I had to learn how to cook (Kale, Collards, and Radishes), but all in all I would say it was a successful week.

The second batch we picked up this week was more familiar and a lot easier for me:

1 Bunch Asparagus - Certified Organic - Farmdale Organics OR Lancaster Farmacy

Click here for asparagus storage information.

1 Bag Snow Peas - Certified Organic - White Swan Acres

Click here for snow pea storage information.

1 Bunch Garlic Scapes - Certified Organic - Coyote Run Organics

Store unwashed garlic scapes in a loosely wrapped plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

  

1 Head Broccoli - Certified Organic - Farmdale Organics

Click here for broccoli storage information.

1 Head Red Leaf Lettuce - Certified Organic - Railroad Organics

Click here for leaf lettuce storage information.

1 Bag Mini Bok Choy - Certified Organic - Riverview Organics

Click here for bok choy storage information. 

....Except what the heck is a Garlic Scape??  It looks like the green part of a scallion and I have yet to Google what I should do with it.  I also may have cooked the bok choy to death on accident in my stir fry -- oops!

update: Karen over at The Art of Doing Stuff must be reading my mind... 

a Fredericksburg kind of day.

I was in Fredericksburg, VA for a quick visit on Saturday.

The morning was spent with my beautiful, sweet, adorable, incredible jewelry designer cousin - Maryellen Kim of Twist Style. She was doing a trunk show at a cute little shop in Freddy named Two Sister's Boutique. If you're ever down that way, stop in at the shop to say hello to the ladies - they are all so nice! While Maryellen was working away setting up her display and jotting down custom orders, I was the lucky girl kissing her cute baby's little cheeks off.

Here's Maryellen with her tiny new baby, Leo

After Maryellen and I said our goodbyes that afternoon, I headed downtown to meet up with a good friend. She and I were roommates for three years in college and we're both still living sort of nearby, so we make the effort to see each other every once in awhile! Usually when we're getting together, there are 8 of us. We missed the other girls, but I think we both enjoyed having some one-on-one time this weekend.


For our late lunch/early dinner, we met at J Brian's tap room. This is a funky little place that plays great music and has a great little patio. The whole reason I chose J. Brian's was for a quesadilla dinner that I remembered involving portabello mushrooms. Unfortunately, they don't seem to serve it anymore, so we had crab dip and nachos instead.

All in all, it was a great day. Sometimes it is just so nice to escape the chaos of Arlington. It must have tired me out just the same, though, because I managed to sleep through my alarm and miss out on my Sunday plans! Oh well, it ended up being a super relaxing day. I managed to read this entire book. Loved it, of course.

Mountain pie maker

Have you ever heard of a mountain pie? Well, coming from a family that does about as much camping as we do traveling to the moon, I had never heard of one. And if you've never heard of a mountain pie, then you surely have never heard of a mountain pie maker. One of my roommates introduced them to me a few weeks ago, and let me tell you - I have been seriously missing out!