This week’s box included: sweet potatoes, apples, tomatoes, bell peppers, butternut winter squashes, curly kale (the darkest greens), Russian (?) kale (flatter, lighter green leaves), turnip greens (tender), apples, Italian sweet pepper(s), hakurai turnips (with greens, of course), green onions. You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne over the years.
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Did you see Charlotte on Instagram? “Time for eating greens,” she said. And so it is.
Two kinds of kale, a bunch of turnip greens and then hakurei turnips with THEIR greens. Not to mention a green bell pepper and my favorite, the return of green onions!
About a month ago I found the recipe below for Golden Potato and Greens Soup, and if you’re like me and have a big bowl of potatoes which you’ve accumulated over the season, now is the time (before all those little potato eyes get any bigger) to make a big pot of this soup and use one or a variety of the greens we received. It’s such an easy soup and delicious and even tempted the non-greens eaters I served it to.
If you want to store some of those greens for the coming months (insert crying emoji) when there’s no CSA box coming every Tuesday, here are the suggestions Suzanne made October 1 for dealing with the greens (and for apples and peppers, too):
Fresh to Frozen: Green beans, diced peppers, chopped greens, apple slices, broccoli & cauliflower florets, grated summer squash, cucumber rounds for beverages: array on parchment-lined baking sheet, tuck into the freezer for an hour, then transfer to a bag, label & store. Rinse any ice crystals off before using. Parboiling is recommended before freezing to lock in nutrients; I often skip this step when pressed for time. Don’t skip the baking sheet step though; it eliminates clumping which makes it easy to grab that single cup of chopped peppers you need for this grits casserole recipe.
Next to that big bowl of potatoes I had also accumulated a big bowl of apples so Sunday night I made applesauce. It was a good reminder that we get such an assortment of apples each week and they don’t all cook in the same way. I simmered a Dutch oven full of quartered apples, peel on, for 30 minutes and some apples turned to mush long before the 30 minutes were up, while other quarters were still firm. I used an immersion blender to puree them into submission, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re going to make an apple pie and want everything to cook evenly.
There are dozens and dozens of greens recipes at grassfedcow.com (we love the Savory Grits with Slow Cooked Greens recipe, made, of course, with Artisan Milling grits, and consider Greens and Ham Spoon Bread made with Artisan Milling cornmeal) and if you need inspiration for the hakurei turnips, look at the turnip recipes and try this recipe for sweet potatoes, sweet turnips and greens.
Golden Potato and Green Soup
From Andy Baraghani in The New York Times.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 green onions (recipe calls for leeks, but we got green onions!), finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 pounds potatoes, with peel, sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper
1 bunch greens, stems removed, coarsely chopped
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Add potatoes, turmeric and red pepper flakes and add a little salt and pepper. Add 5 cups water and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are nearly falling apart. Taste for salt. Add greens and simmer until wilted. Taste once more for salt and serve.