CSA Week 1 - Callaloo and Momofuku

So here's what I started the week with:


Four ears of corn, a bundle of callaloo, a bag of green beans,a head of lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, a Florida avocado, a bunch of dill, a few stalks of lemongrass, a bok choy, and a bundle of roselle (a/k/a Jamaican sorrel a/k/a Jamaican hibiscus).

First things first: the red petals of the roselle were steeped along with a stalk of the lemongrass and some fresh ginger to make a tea:


The dill became a tzatziki, after being chopped and mixed with some Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic and lemon juice:



I know, so far we're not winning any James Beard awards.

From there, I drew much of my inspiration this week from the Momofuku cookbook, after being immensely pleased with my first experiment with the bo ssäm recipe.



Some more lemongrass found its way into these pork sausage ssäms, as did the lettuce for the wraps:


I liked this Vietnamese-flavored spin on the Korean ssäm (basically, a wrap) idea, and it was "easy peasy" as Jamie Oliver might say. But first a general comment: I am horrible with recipes. I cook by look, feel, smell, sound and taste, am not big on measuring, and often regard printed recipes the way Captain Barbossa regards the Pirates' Code - more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.

CSA Week 1 - the beginning

Yesterday began the season for the Community Supported Agriculture program run by Bee Heaven Farm. The "subscription agriculture" program offers the opportunity to buy directly from local farmers by paying in advance for a season's worth of their produce, delivered each week to several drop-off points around Miami-Dade County.

One of the challenges of CSA programs is figuring out what to do with your share. This isn't shopping at the supermarket, where you make your shopping list and pick it up. Rather, you get whatever happens to be growing and ready for harvest at local farms at that time. From what I've heard from people that have participated in prior seasons, this often involves a lot of callaloo. Fortunately there are some good resources out there. Bee Heaven has its own blog, there's Redland Rambles, which will be giving a preview of the box contents every Friday, and more: Tinkering With Dinner, Eating Local in the Tropics, and, hopefully, Miami Dish.

For my first season, I started modestly with a half-share instead of a full share, to see how it goes. The Week 1 box (contents pictured above) came with four ears of corn, a head of lettuce, a bunch of callaloo (it starts!), a pound of green beans, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a Florida avocado, a few stalks of lemongrass, a bunch of dill, and a bundle of roselle (also known as Jamaican sorrel or hibiscus flower). I also grabbed a bok choy from the "extras" box.

My game plan - for now - will be to do a post each week showing what's in the box, and then - hopefully - a follow up at the end of the week with what I've managed to do with it. This could be interesting, or it could be a train wreck. We'll see.

I'm off to a good start though. I took the roselle - which could easily do double-duty as a flower arrangement - and pulled off the red petals, then steeped them with a stalk of the lemongrass and some ginger to make a nice iced "tea." My first recipe met with Little Miss F's approval. Let's hope it's not all downhill from here.

Eat Your Veggies

This will be my first season subscribing to the Community Supported Agriculture ("CSA") program through Bee Heaven Farm and I hope to be reporting on it here in the coming weeks (season starts November 21). If you're not familiar, the idea of CSA programs is to make it easier to get fresh, locally grown produce, while simultaneously supporting your local farmers, by buying in advance a subscription for the season of a share of the farm's harvest. Last year, the shares were filled by contributions from several farms, including Bee Heaven, Paradise Farms, Worden Farm, Three Sisters Farm and Homestead Organic Farms.

I believe Bee Heaven's CSA program is fully booked for this season, but if you're interested there is another option available. Teena's Pride Farm, another Homestead grower, will be doing a CSA program this season, and using Sunset Corners wine and liquor store in South Miami as their pickup location. Teena's Pride is offering subscriptions to a 24-week season, with a full share for $960 (amounts to $40/week)or a 1/2 share for $600 ($25/week). You can also do a 12-week half-season for $504 for the full share or $324 for a 1/2 share. The first pickup day will be Tuesday November 24, and then will resume on Thursday December 3.

For more information or to sign up, contact Teena at:
alllocallygrownproduce@live.com
786.243.1714
PO Box 924920, Princeton, Fl 33092