Rosy Radishes

The Moose Hill CSA had its first distribution this week, and I picked up my tatsoi, arugula and radishes.  Yay!  I'm always excited when the farm starts up each year and the fresh veggies come in.  The guinea pigs aren't excited, but they will be once they start receiving the stems and leafy ends of whatever I don't eat.

Aren't those radishes a pretty color?  Huzzah for spring!

Acorn Squash with Orzo

I got tons of winter squash from the CSA this year.  It's a lot of squash for one person to cook, mash and eat.  So I decided to be a little creative and try some new recipes.  I've been considering some pasta recipes;  a friend of mine just made a delicious butternut squash lasagna.  Then I came across a recipe in this month's Yoga Journal for orzo-stuffed squash.  It looked tasty and I had most of the ingredients on hand.

Do I ever follow directions?  My mother was over last weekend, and we joked about how I learned that from her.  I had two huge acorn squashes, so I used them instead of delicata.  I skipped the pomegranate seeds and forgot the parsley.  I also shredded the sage leaves small and didn't strain them out of the butter.  They smelled so wonderful, it seemed a shame to toss them.

Pumpkin and Squash

Butternut squash in 1/2 cup portions

We got a wonderful selection of winter squash this year from the Moose Hill CSA.  My share of the loot was three sugar pumpkins, nine butternut squash, two acorn squash and a delicata.  I spent Saturday afternoon roasting the pumpkins and three of the butternuts.  I discovered I have an allergy to butternut squash skin.  I guess I've never peeled that many at once.  It did fascinating things to my hand (it's back to normal, now).

I ended up with about four pounds of pureed pumpkin.  I've already used half of it.  Once I pureed the butternut squash, I put half-cup portions in one of my muffin tins and froze them.  It's the first time I've tried that.  Seemed like they'd be good for single portions or for cooking.  Once frozen, they easily popped out of the muffin tin and I stuffed them into a gallon bag for the freezer.

And, of course, there were pumpkin seeds to toast.  The seeds weren't as plump as I like them, but they're not bad.

Hampers and Cuddle Cups

Too many serious posts about my pigs lately.  So today, I'm going to focus on some recent cute.

On Wednesday I brought in the pigs' laundry hamper to the CSA to collect corn husks.  Unfortunately, they've implemented a no-shuck zone around the barn.  I mostly got just outer leaves.  The distribution volunteers were kind enough to set aside husks that had pulled loose from the cobs.  Most of it was not good for drying.  Bummer.  I'm going to try for husks at the Farmer's Market next week as long as they allow shucking on the Walpole green.

Corn Husks

Sweet corn isn't good for guinea pigs because it's high in sugar and starch.  However, the husks are high in fiber and nutritionally similar to grass or hay.  Even the silks are good to eat and are a traditional herbal remedy for urinary tract issues. 

Bertie and Pinniped go crazy for corn husks.  Unfortunately, there's only so much corn the two humans in this household can eat and most grocery stores in the area no longer allow people to husk corn at the store.  But if they do, I disregard the strange looks I get from others and dive head-first into the husk bin.  Well, maybe I'm not quite that enthusiastic - but I usually garner a few quizzical looks at my joy in stuffing a bag full of husks.

Gobs of Greens

Look at all those veggies!  I was amazed at my CSA haul this week, my half of a half-share.  Granted, I augmented it a little from the extras bin (full half-share of red choi, kale beets and a few carrots).

The guinea pigs are happy with their carrot tops.  They'll also get a few ends of the kale.  Rob says they can have the carrots, too, but that's just because he doesn't want me cooking them up and hiding them in his dinner. 

I see salads, greens stew, stuffed squash and zucchini bread or fritters in my near future.  I just need to find the time to prepare it all.

Piles of Peas

It may not look like much, but this is good stuff:  snow peas.  My half of this week's CSA haul included a couple of quarts of peas.  We've gotten a pint or so each week for the last few weeks, but this week when I showed up, they handed me a gallon-sized bucket and told me I could fill the whole thing.  Woot!  We haven't had this many since the first year of the Moose Hill CSA, when we got buried in shelling peas.  They had underestimated the crop yield and haven't made that mistake again (too bad).

I spent this evening prepping them for the freezer.  I had to dig out my instructions for parboiling (these got par-steamed).  I like to use the snack-sized bags for single servings.  But those bags are thin and don't seal well, so I put a few snack bags in a quart-sized freezer bag before popping them into the freezer.  It has worked well for beets.  I hope the peas do as well.

Bertie and Pinniped got to pig out on pea-ends.  I did several taste-tests.  Happiness all around!

Eggplant Curry

More eggplant, tomatoes and peppers this week from the CSA.  Add to this a bag of spinach for a meal I never quite got around to making...  once again I was looking for a recipe to use them all.

I love Google for recipe hunting.  I often cobble together several recipes that I find, picking what I like best out of each one.  I have stuck to a single recipe for my last few discoveries (e.g. the vegetable chili or my recent zucchini chocolate cake.  Yum!).  This time I stumbled across Eggplant and Spinach Curry.  I adjusted slightly to fit what I had on hand (less spinach, more eggplant and some squash), but overall, it came out pretty well.  And it should freeze well.

The girls were happy, too.  They got all of the spinach stems, bell pepper and tomato trimmings.  It's always good when mama shares the veggies!

CSA Chili

I was amazed what I brought home from the Moosehill CSA this week: 3 ears of corn, half a melon, a zucchini, an eggplant, cherry tomatoes, 6 huge tomatoes, a bunch of mizuna, a hot pepper, 2 bell peppers and some other sweet pepper, carrots, beets, cucumbers.  Did I remember everything?  And that's only my half of a half-share!  I even managed to snag a few small tomatoes for the guinea pigs out of the "seconds" bin.  They're happy I thought of them.

It weighed a ton.  I picked up the entire half-share and needed to go back to the car for another bag because it didn't all fit in one.  And they are not small shopping bags!

What to do with all that produce?  Make veggie chili, of course.  My last attempt was at chili was passable; I switched recipes this time.  Much better.  I pulled this one from The New Basics Cookbook.  I swapped in eggplant for zucchini and added the hot pepper, but otherwise followed the recipe.  Definitely a keeper.

What do you do with your bumper crop bounty?

Start of the Summer Bounty

I split a single share at a local CSA with a co-worker.  I picked up veggies for the both of us last night and couldn't believe how full the bag was.  Zucchini and summer squash already?  Onions, the first of the beets and beans, big leafy sprig of basil and a couple of huge bunches of greens (mizuna and arugula, I think).

I see fresh baked zucchini bread in my future!  Or maybe zucchini fritters?  And if the girls are really good, they may get a green bean or two.