CSA: Week One

Here is the contents of our first CSA (community supported agriculture) box:

fava beans

pea pods

leaf lettuce

rhubarb

strawberries

calendula plant (edible flowers)

One box of the strawberries is GONE! They were incredible! The second box will be lucky to make it until breakfast ;)

Natalie and I have already shelled and blanched the fava beans. She had a real knack for taking off the skins of the beans once they were blanched. The real test will be to see if she will eat them. We will be making fava bean risotto for our dinner tomorrow night.

And for dessert: strawberry rhubarb crisp!! Yum!

Nat already had a stalk of the rhubarb for dessert. As kids, we always used to dip a stalk into sugar and eat it. Better than any sour candy out there. She thought that was just the coolest thing and now loves to eat rhubarb like that.

We will probably make some kind of Asian dish with the pea pods. Maybe Cashew Chicken with Pea Pods? 

Looking forward to a nice fresh salad with the leaf lettuce. Not so sure about the edible flowers though. Hmmm. Not to worry... I will probably kill the poor plant before it ever flowers anyway ;) I'll put Nat in charge of it!

I was kind of expecting more in the bag, but this was the first box and it is so early in the growing season. I'm predicting each bag will be fuller as the season goes on. Didn't help that it has been June-uary around here!

I'm really excited to be eating locally grown, fresh produce. It can't help but be a healthier way of eating, and it will be so fun exposing Natalie to new recipes and foods.