This week I'm ensconced at a conference in scorching Austin, Texas. It also happens to be when many CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms in my area are kicking off their season. So in lieu of writing something of my own, I asked Kate McDonough, author of The City Cook, a recent book on cooking at home in the city, to share some of her tips on cooking from a CSA box.
What's a CSA? It's really the only way city-dweller and participate regularly in a local farm's harvest aside from shopping at a farmers' market or a farm stand. It's basically a co-op system in which the buyers provide capital upfront for the farmer to plant the farm. You are in essence a shareholder in the farm.
If that doesn't inspire you to cook, I don't know what will.
The City Cook (Simon & Schuster, 2010) is a straightforward approach to cooking more at home, aimed specifically at people living in small spaces in urban settings. From how to set up your pantry and get the best meat from your local butcher, to recipes and an appendix you'll actually use, this book holds your hand through that messy break-up with take-out and leads you to the light of cooking more at home.
You can see why I love it.
5 Tips for Getting More Out of Your CSA Share
By Kate McDonough, Author of The City Cook: Big City, Small Kitchen. Limitless Ingredients, No Time. More than 90 recipes so delicious you'll want to toss your takeout menus and Editor of TheCityCook.com
The first time I purchased a CSA membership I smugly congratulated myself for a case of culinary doing good while doing well. I could feel good about supporting a local farmer because by pre-paying for my fruits and vegetables the farmer got income early. And I'd do well because every week I'd get really wonderful ingredients.
While both of these were true, once the season started I got humbled. I hadn't anticipated the challenge of planning meals around what the farmer harvested instead of what I wanted to cook. Or how to work with a share's uneven quantities (Parsley? Again? And what am I supposed to do with only these two small beets?). And having to spend more of my grocery budget filling in the ingredient gaps for essentials like onions or garlic. And then there was the boredom: weeks of zucchini and yellow squash when what I really wanted was red peppers and tomatoes.
CSA newbies can get discouraged by expecting the same food we'd buy at the farmer's market but delivered in a different way, only to find that it's more like having to cook from what we grow in our back yards. Certainly for the urban home cook who has never grown a potted tomato plant, this is a radical concept.
But we shouldn't give up nor feel enslaved to a box of vegetables.
Here are a few ways I've learned to enjoy cooking from a CSA share:
1. Most of us usually plan a menu, sketch a shopping list, and then buy our groceries. That's because we cook from the recipe, not from its ingredients. With CSA cooking we need to start from the opposite direction, planning your meals after you pick up your share. At first this can seem limiting and even annoying. But all it really means is cooking with what's in season, and it's a good habit to have even without a CSA share.
2. View a week's fruits and vegetables in both major and minor recipe roles. For example, one of the most common CSA complaints is that shares include lots of lettuce; more than you can eat before it rots. That's easy to happen if we only use lettuce in a salad. But if you add it to pea and lettuce soup, or make lettuce wraps, or add it to stir fries, you can quickly use up that lettuce.
Likewise that other CSA bounty: zucchini. Use it with pasta or in risotto, in gratins and lasagna, shredded into fritters, in a sweet tea bread, or in soup. One of my favorite uses for the uniquely tender and sweet zucchini that comes in my CSA is raw in a simple salad with curls of Parmesan and a squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle of olive oil, served in a way that Italians call zucchini carpaccio.
3. If you get something in small amounts, treat it as a kind of garnish. For example, those two small beets can be cooked and cut into matchsticks and tossed with a salad. Or store them carefully because next week you may get more, as often a crop will arrive gradually and the first time you get a little of something may be a prediction of more to come. Be supple.
4. Freezing and canning can be a solution but unless you have a huge freezer or lots of storage space for all those glass jars, think about which ingredients make sense to preserve. Plus if you're going through all the effort of pickling and canning, you may need to buy more of an ingredient than your share will provide as I found to be the case with both strawberries and sour cherries. Also you can freeze foods both raw or after they're cooked. For example, that overload of zucchini can be shredded and frozen, but it may be a better idea to make zucchini and rice soup or loaves of zucchini bread and freeze those instead.
Being used to buying my produce in more "normal" amounts, I wasn't prepared for my share's uneven quantities, from tiny to huge. But it's the harvest that determines how much you get. So your week's share may include beautiful basil, but not enough to make a full portion of pesto. That means you need another use for those two stems of fragrant green leaves, such as adding them to Caprese salad with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Or else make your pesto by supplementing your CSA basil with more bought from the farmer's market.
Be ready for your share to increase as the summer goes on. At the start of most CSAs, the first deliveries can seem skimpy. But by the end of the harvest, things will be coming at you in full force and you'll go from one shopping bag to three. This may be the best time to do your freezing and canning.
5. A final choice: give it away and share. Make jars of red pepper jelly, bake a spicy pumpkin bread, or share some cold borscht made with golden beets and a sprig of CSA dill. Or simply hand over your eggplant overflow; its amazing flavor just may inspire a future CSA member.
• For more from Kate McDonough, check out her book, The City Cook: Big City, Small Kitchen. Limitless Ingredients, No Time. More than 90 recipes so delicious you'll want to toss your takeout menus and her website, TheCityCook.com
(Images: Dana Velden)
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I am in the midst of participating in my very first CSA and I'm loving it! So far I've learned I actually do like turnips, I can turn almost any greens into a yummy pesto and "killed lettuce & onions" is a guilty pleasure! Thanks for the tips!
What a great post. While living in a third world country and never having ingredients be all that reliably available, I learned then to cook according to indredient rather than by recipe. I've never gone back from that either, even though I'm back to living in the US now. Its also a much more seasonal and inexpensive way of cooking!
This article was a nice little reminder. I'm in a bit of a CSA rut (swiss chard? again?) and was really trying to get my act together before going for the pick up tonight. Gotta think outside the box!
One of the best articles EVER. thank you!
I realized when I was in a CSA that I really had a lot to learn about what was seasonal - it was so valuable, and changed the way I buy produce forever. Like Kate, it also really expanded my pesto repertoire!
I'm in love with my CSA. It's made me more imaginative with vegetables, and helped me see the potential in some things I'd never tried to cook before. It's even helped Mr. Twistie get past some of his old vegetable hangups.
Before we signed up, he kept telling me how much he hated kale and collard greens. Now when I say we're having one of those formerly hated greens, he says it sounds great to him. I think part of is was that he'd never had really, really fresh versions, and part of it was the only times he'd tried them they were badly over cooked.
Left to my own devices, I never bought either because I knew Mr. Twistie had issues. But with the box forcing my hand a little bit, I found ways Mr. Twistie would enjoy eating them.
One day I will get him to give Brussels sprouts another try. His memory of them from the one time he ate them when he was eight was that they were mushy and flavorless. That's not Brussels sprouts, that's bad cooking!
Wonderful post!
Working backwards from the box for menu planning is incredibly important to learn. I use my Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food as a bible for this!
I've actually never planned a week's worth of menus. Maybe that's because I don't have kids and have always lived in a city (daily grocery shopping). So, cooking based on last-minute inspiration has always been how I go about things. I also find that the interweb is highly useful for finding recipes based on what's in my fridge.
We'll be starting our first CSA this month though and I'm super excited about it. It's great to see some tips on how to handle it!
Last year was my first sign up for a CSA. I loved it. One share was enough for two people they said, but I am only one. I ate everything! All organic and healthy---I actually dropped some unwanted pounds! Maybe one small eggplant went bad before I got to it, but I kept up on everything and enjoyed looking up recipes for whatever came my way, especially items I'd never had before! I never had a potato with so much flavor as came from my farmers and there were several varieties. I used my last of the CSA items in March, when I took the last container of homemade borscht from the freezer. I'm looking forward to this year's start up in a couple of weeks! ~Sparky
I would love to get one, but I feel like I would constantly have things go bad if I didn't throw parties every weekend, since I end up eating leftovers for days after making anything of substance! I do get a bi-weekly small bin of produce, but even that is hard to tackle completely!
I Always share my CSA Eggplant (I just cannot STAND the Stuff) and neither does the hubby. :)
I love the suggestion to share. That has been my reason for not joining a CSA. I live in a smaller town, but I'm not healthy enough to care for more than a couple of container plants. I grew up on garden produce but we only grew what we liked to eat. Now I finally have no excuse not to join one :)
I mean ...share the foods I'm not fond of or cannot eat due to health issues.
I'm with Tessa Morales on this one; me and eggplant just don't get along. Oh sure, we're civil if we meet up unexpectedly; but we try to stay away from each other as much as possible. It's for the best. Really. So I too give it away when I get it.
This is my first year with a CSA. Currently, I'm awash in parsley and basil. The switch from recipe based cooking to ingredient based cooking is harder than I thought it would be. It now takes me longer to formulate a menu; but it's worth it. The trip (by bus) to the pick-up-point is the only thing about the CSA worth complaining about.
@Tessa and @Ketherian... i used to be like u in regards to eggplants. Actually, to this day, I need to be in the mood to want to eat it. However, I always seem to be in the mood to eat eggplant when it's fried...
http://karmafreecooking.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/eggplant-milanese/
THANK YOU for addressing the lettuce glut. This has been my biggest problem for the past couple years.
In an effort to convince my boss and coworker to eat better we went in 3-ways to a full CSA share. We figured that if one person wanted less or more of something the others would take it on. This will be our first year. Thank you for the post!
Another way to use things, especially greens & mild tasting vegetables, is to use them in smoothies.
Adding chard, lettuce, kale, or spinach to a frozen banana & OJ smoothie is delicious!
It's a great way to eat lots & lots of greens. They cut the sweetness of the smoothie a bit but otherwise aren't noticeable.
These are great tips, especially the one to consider small-quantity produce as a garnish.
For freezing, it's helpful to think of the impact/space ratio. High-flavor produce that will be out of season in winter? I freeze that. I also preserve summer basil by chopping or processing it to a rough paste, mixing it with oil, and freezing it in a jar or tub --- sort of like pesto without the nuts and cheese. I also make seasoned butters with all of the abundant herbs of summer, so I can revel in them all winter long.
Also consider what will shrink down to freeze. Huge bundles of chard and other greens, for example, shrink down to nothing after blanching: you get a huge amount of greens for a tiny amount of freezer space! In the glut seasons, I always stash some greens in the freezer. I wash it well, blanch it, shock in ice water, then drain it. Then squeeeeeze it dry, pack it air-tight, write the date on it, and freeze it.
I use summertime greens all winter long in soup, pasta, frittata, whatever. I don't even thaw it to use: just slice some off the frozen bundle with a knife to saute in a pan, or drop the whole bundle in boiling salted water to cook briefly, then drain.
My CSA share starts on the 13th and I'm sooooooo exciiiiited.
Looooove my CSA. One thing I started doing is adding veggies to my breakfast. I often do eggs in the morning, so some sauted zuchinnis and red onions or a bit of wilted swiss chard or spinich goes great on the side. I can not wait to pick up my first share this year.
My husband and I are doing 1 1/2 shares this year, because we regularly polish off a box in two days (we're vegetarians at home, which I think helps). This will be our seventh year of participating in a CSA. For me, it works best to follow recipes in winter. During the summer, I just make sure I have staples on hand (pine nuts for pesto, beans, an interesting cheese, olive oil, etc.) and on any given night improvise with whatever vegetables look like they're on their way out.
Also, I find that a crisp glass of wine can make even two beets and lettuce (again) feel like a feast!
I'm several months in to my CSA. I like it just fine but I'm getting tired of all the lettuce - and I eat salad almost every day! Love the kale, swiss chard, beets and turnips.
I've finally found a way I like eggplant -- cubed and roasted with tomatoes, garlic cloves, whatever's on hand (with oo and s&p), then whizzed with the immersion blender and served over pasta with fresh herbs, nuts, ricotta salata (again, whatever). 8 years with a CSA made me determined to find a preparation we liked.
I've found that after having my CSA, I dislike not having my veggies help me decide what my meals will be! During the winter, there are too many options at the grocery store and I can never decide what to have for dinnners for the week. With the CSA, I have direction, and my meals are more creative because I have to figure out what to do with each iteam before the next weeks box arrives. I love it! I have a white board on my fridge which I write each item on, check them off when I use them. And below that I have a daily menu of things I am cooking. It works great for me.
This is our 4th year with our CSA. The first year was definitely harder than I thought it would be to eat all of the produce. I use to be someone who needed a recipe to cook. Now I will look at recipes for inspiration (thank goodness it is so easy to search for recipes online) and then deviate as necessary. We also split our share with our neighbor which helps with the items that we don't like. We are currently awash in lettuce and greens. We make a yummy cold lettuce soup (with a mix of lettuce, buttermilk, veggie stock and garlic in a blender) but I still need to use some more up! hmmm...I might need to wilt some down in a recipe.
I like Elsa's idea of blanching the greens and freezing them. I think I might need to do that today. I enjoy eating collards and mustard greens more in the winter.
wonderful list of tips and ideas - am going to share with my CSA members and good for getting "skeptics" on board
If you are worried a share of a CSA is too much food for you, get a friend or two to join you in your share. I and two work friends split a family share. It works out really well. But we are still looking for ways to use all the greens! :-)
This is my second year with a CSA small share, and I've really been loving the variety of vegetables that it gets me to eat! (who would have thought I actually like dark greens? And eggplant Parmesan made with fresh eggplant and homemade tomato sauce is terrific.)
One other idea for inspiring ingredient-based recipe-making-- last week, my boyfriend and I started our own little cooking challenge of "Iron Chef: Farm Share." We took one or two ingredients from the week's share and had to each come up with a dish incorporating those ingredients (and other things we happened to have in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer). This week we each took a bunch of chard: I made linguini with garlic-sauteed chard, ricotta, pepperoni, spicy sausage, and lemon, while he made a stirfry with chicken, chard, ginger, garlic sauce, and pineapple. Two fun dishes with plenty of leftovers for a couple of days! We'll definitely be trying that technique again...