CSA Weeks 4 & 5

Our summer schedule revolves around our CSA. We get a lot of produce from our CSA and the day must be open to rinse, package, steam, freeze, make, bake, preserve, and process each week. All meals are planned around the freshness schedule. While I grow a lot in our small urban garden it is to supplement with all of the things we don't find locally (unusual varieties, tea/culinary/medicinal herbs), is expensive locally (currants, raspberries, blackberries, rhubarb), or that we love so much we need MORE of it (celeriac, peas, beets) . Summer is marked by CSA week number. By what is in season. Strawberry time. Tomato season. I love being able to share organic gardening and visiting farms with my boys. They easily identify herbs and vegetables and fruits and wildflowers. They know when things are ripe, need pinching, and which is just the best one out of the bunch. I hope when they grow up these are the memories that stick. Warm sun, fingers that smell of basil, how to pick a borage flower without tearing it, where to cut herbs so the plant keeps growing, how to twist just right to pop that squash right off, the heady aroma of sun warmed raspberries, the sound of buzzing bees, the first gush of water out of the garden rainbarrel after a storm, and driving along country roads to the farm with windows down and music blaring.  (We'll leave swarming mosquitoes out of the nostalgic memory list)

I'm doing a catch up on my CSA's this week after my cinema display monitor decided to spend last week throwing a hissy fit. It is back to behaving after much cajoling and begging.

CSA Week 5 (above)
In our share:  summer crisp lettuce, sugar snap peas, napa cabbage, broccoli, cilantro, summer squash, pearl onions, frisee, beets, garlic scapes, cucumbers strawberries. 
U-Pick: dill, mint, oregano, parsley, thyme, sage, basil
Bought some extra: strawberries

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CSA Week 4

In Our Share: dill, peas, lettuce, mesclun mix, kale, swiss chard, cabbage, romaine, pearl onions, baby bok choi, garlic scapes, cauliflower, cucumbers, squash
U-Pick: parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, dill, sage, mint, flowers

What is in your CSA box or farm share this week? Or, what is in season where you live?