Now that summer is in full swing, our CSAs are finally starting to fill out with more than just kale and arugula.
Not that we're complaining, but it's actually getting hard to keep up with all the produce! Our fridge is filled to capacity and we can see that it will soon become challenging to keep meals interesting when we're having zucchini for the fourth night in a row.
Here are a few tips we've come up with for keeping our CSA manageable and--most importantly--fun!
Seven Tips for Managing Your CSA
1. Deal with everything right away. We pick up our CSA on Saturday afternoons, which means we have no excuse not to aside some time over the weekend to sort, cook, and organize. If you pick yours up during the week, it's a good strategy to plan on an hour or two that evening and make it part of your routine.
2. Make a list of what you have. It's easy to shove your bundle of five radishes into the back of a drawer and forget about it until things get smelly. We like to keep this list posted right on the fridge so we see what's in there and cross things off as we use them.
3. Take a seat and plan out your meals. Meal planning for the week is a good strategy anyway, but it's even more handy when you're trying to use up your CSA and avoid making the same stir-fry night after night.
4. Organize your fridge. Group together the foods that go together: greens in one place, salad fixings in another--whatever works for you. We cut off the tops of beets and put the bulbs in a separate space from the leaves. We also like to trim and discard or compost any parts of the vegetable that we know we won't be using, like the tops of leaks (unless we're making stock!).
5. Wilt down greens right away. Since the leafy greens take up the most space and usually get wilted down anyway, why not wilt them down to begin with? An armful of chard wilts down to about a cup, which can then be stored in a container and added to dishes as needed.
6. Save what you can. Often we'll get very small amounts of something--a pint of blueberries or a handful of ramps--that aren't quite enough for a whole recipe. Since you're likely to get another pint the next week, try to determine if your first batch will keep that long and then combine them.
7. Freeze what you can. If all else fails and food is backing up, turn to your freezer. Berries freeze very well, as do many vegetables like beans and corn. If you have time, we recommend blanching vegetables until barely al dente before freezing them. This helps preserve the color and decrease cooking time on the other end.
Granted, this is a pretty Type A list! But we've found that being organized actually frees us up to be creative in our cooking and enjoy our produce each week.
We're curious what other strategies you've come up with for making sure your CSA doesn't go to waste?
Related: Good Idea: Frozen Veg in Plastic Water Bottles
(Image: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
These are great tips, I never thought about wilting down greens right away. I also trim my veggies right away - beet greens, carrot tops, etc and feed the trimming to my guinea pigs. (Yes I know you can eat beet greens, but I really don't care for them)
I write my "local inventory" on a post-it and stick it on the front of the fridge. This helps A LOT.
Also, the Moosewood cookbooks are really great resources for using up these veggies. You can adapt them to use meat if you like. The Daily Special is my favorite.
view ilovebutter's profile
I absolutely agree that dealing with everything right away is important to making sure nothing gets accidentally wasted.
And I stand by my salad spinner as absolutely KEY in the battle against sandy CSA greens.
view missginsu's profile
Last year, my CSA would send out an email the morning of pickup day (pickup was Wednesday evening) listing what was in the baskets. It was really helpful to have a heads-up on the contents, so I could browse through recipes beforehand.
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
Wow I don't think I'll ever be able to do this
view missmimichi's profile
Missmimichi, it does sound overwhelming but when you get into the rhythm of what's in season it gets easier - you have more time to scout for recipes if you know you're getting an item for a few weeks in a row at least. Also, you can do what my family calls "food show": make a display of all the food and enjoy the colors and textures, then it gets your creative juices going!
view MargaretR's profile
We were too late to get into the CSA this year and we're just making a regular trips to the farmers' markets. We were pleased to find out that the prices got down (or store prices went up, so the market's prices seem ok). Either way, I think we're going to stick with the market. We only buy what we like, want and plan on using. And in case we're away we should not worry about rotting veggies. I think unless you are really into vegetables and/or have enough people to share them with - it just does not worth it ($10-20/wk spent on farmers' market vs $50 /wk CSA share)
view Nudik's profile
What I love most about my CSA veggies is freezing them to stock up for the winter. I take out what my husband and I can eat during the week, and the rest gets blanched (including swiss chard, kale, etc.) and frozen. Then all winter long we have a supply of organic veggies ready to go.
view amarrano's profile
My biggest issue with my CSA is all the lettuces i get. My bf doesn't really eat them and there's only so many salads i can eat before they wilt in 2 days!
Any ideas?
view mh330's profile
So right, about #1 especially. After an epic vegetable cleaning and prep session before weeknight cooking last week (dinner was served, on the coffee table, at 10:30), we instituted a new policy of washing and prepping (ends off green beans, stems out of mesclun mix) on Saturday right after the pick-up. The great part about this is building excitement for what to do with the great, fresh veggies on "cooking night" Tuesday. It also gives us time to plan.
BTW, Nudik, our CSA works out to about $10/week for a big box of veggies from Wayward Seed Farm given the long growing season in Ohio. Sure it means a whole lot of "what the heck do we do with all this Napa cabbage?" but it also introduced us to turnips (I know, the shame!). Plus, the CSA model allows for more market-resistant and risk-taking farming from our local farmers.
Our CSA just added a peak season option. Maybe that's a good way to get one's feet wet without the big commitment?
http://www.waywardseed.com/
view jeffzelli's profile
mh330 -- Firmer lettuce actually makes a decent soup, just substitue it in any cabbage soup recipe. Softer lettuce makes a great base to steam dumplings on.
As far as getting sand out goes, I don't have a salad spinner, but I do have a neat trick: I fill my sink with water and dump in as many greens as it will hold. The sand falls to the bottom and I pull out sand-free leaves. Sometime with kale or leeks it will take two rounds, but it always works well.
view Minerva of the Airship's profile