go green

229/365: curly kale

How gorgeous is this stuff?? I am happy to report that after years of trying, I now not only EAT kale – I actually enjoy it. Don’t give up 🙂

local harvest!

For those who are paying attention – I took a few days off the blog – busy celebrating our anniversary and shuttling kids to camp. Still took photos every day, though. I’ll get caught up over the next few days.

Thursday was a big day. I think I started counting the weeks till our first CSA box sometime in January. Fresh, local food is back, baby. Now it’s summer!

160/365: pea shoots

08.30.13 magic beans

Some kind of magic or, at the very least, charm, is in these beans. Their speckled faces – each different from the last – were enough to enchant two modern-day children (and their mother) pod after pod as we sat together shelling in the summer sun.

242/365: shell beans

08.23.13 sense of scale

A special treat in the last fruit share box: champagne grapes. So delicious, sweet, and juicy (not to mention GORGEOUS) and so tiny that they are best eaten in mouthfuls right off the stem. Three times smaller than an average table grape, the whole thing messes with my perception; we humans seem like giants – very happy giants – scarfing these abundant, but diminutive bunches of fruit.

235/365: champagne grapes (three sisters organic)

07.12.13 cherry cherry

The face of abundance looks something like this: 8 pounds of organic cherries, perfectly ripe, juicy, and sweet. Whatever the truth of our prosperity, when the box of fruit arrives from the CSA, we feel rich.

193/365: cherries

06.21.13 they’re back!

Nothing is more welcome after a long winter than the return of fresh, local produce. While the growing season started off a little slow due to all the cold and rain, things are finally getting back into full swing.  We had to wait till our 3rd CSA delivery this year but it’s finally pea shoot pesto time again! Farm-fresh, hyper-green, and worth the wait.

172/365: pea shoots

veggie love no. 9: broccoli

It’s no secret that broccoli bears some resemblance to trees what with those trunk-shaped stems, and spreading branches topped in an abundant canopy of florets. But I think the comparison is even more compelling at close range. Like an aerial view of the forest, the crown appears first as one large mass of green. But a closer look reveals tiny, distinct flower heads, each doing its very best to reach the sun.

broccoli

veggie love no. 6: shell beans

Late summer brings the dragons with their tongues of fire. These cranberry-streaked pods are always ready for their close-up. They are almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

tongue of fire beans

veggie love no. 5: beet greens

I confess. I do not like beets. Not even the fresh-picked, organic gems that come in our CSA box. I’m working on it…

Beet greens are another story, however. First, they are easy on the eyes. Unlike the gnarled roots of their labor, the tops are delicate leafy ruffles of rich green trimmed in crimson. Also, their mild flavor bears no resemblance to their subterranean counterparts.

beet greens

garlic scapes

This week’s box from Hog’s Back Farm contained an undulating mass of garlic scapes. These curvaceous critters seem almost more animal than vegetable and, while easy to cook and delicious to eat, they can be tough to tame, stubbornly insisting on their serpentine poses.

Day 21: Garlic Scapes

Garlic Scapes

I haven’t had a chance to cook them yet but I’m thinking frittata…