Thursday, June 11, 2009

'COOKING AWAY MY CSA' CHALLENGE


When I signed up nearly a year ago to receive a box of fresh produce each week this summer from a local farm, I didn't really think through the ramifications.

Sure, I'd be supporting a local grower through my CSA share (Community-Supported Agriculture) and we'd be getting a wonderful jolt of organic veggies in our diets.

Plus, it's a great fit since I'm spending so much time talking to local growers for the "Chicago Homegrown Cookbook."

But I didn't really consider how I would actually incorporate all of these wonderful vegetables into our diets.

Now that I'll be getting my first box from Angelic Organics in about a week and a half, reality has set in.

And I've decided to enlist some professional help.

So, I'm calling on my fellow CSA-buying food bloggers to join me in the "Cooking Away My CSA" Challenge.

Once a week, starting the week of June 22, we'll post our favorite CSA-based creations on our blogs. Sharing recipes and photos should (hopefully!) inspire all of us to break out of our veggie ruts. I've created a "Cooking Away My CSA" Google Group to serve as a clearinghouse for our links each week.

I floated this idea on Twitter yesterday and so far about a dozen local-food lovers from around the country have signed on to join me.

And I suspect our numbers will soon grow.

I just got off the phone with Lisa Gosselin, editorial director of EatingWell Magazine. She saw the CSA Challenge idea on Twitter and wants to get involved. We're still working on the details, but she'd like to post CSA recipes on the magazine's site regularly. And there might be some EatingWell prizes for the best ones.

So, who's with me?

(And if anybody out there is Web-crafty and wants to design a badge for our little challenge, I'd repay you in kale. Or chard. Or something.)
Posted by Heather Lalley at 10:41 AM
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35 comments:

  1. awesome idea!! i go want to join in on this!!
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  2. Yeah! We're happy to have you. Thanks for signing up!
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  3. I'm in year two of my CSA & already post what I did with each box so this is a non-brainer for me. I only get a box every other week so week two could be challenging....
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  4. No worries on that, Kat. We'd love to have you! Just send me your e-mail and I'll add you to the Google group. Glad to have you join us! (I see you're in Mpls. -- that's where I'm from, too!)
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  5. THis is my first year! I'm excited to read your blog posts.
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  6. Ok, got my first box. What in the world can I make with a Kohlrabi??
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  7. This gratin looks pretty tasty, Bryan. As do the other recipes. You should join the group and tell us how it goes!

    http://www.prairienet.org/pcsa/recipes/kohlrabi.htm
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  8. I'm with you! Though sometimes it is dull stuff we get.
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  9. Count me in - I pull out my cookbooks as soon as I get my weekly bag of fruit, veg and herbs.
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  10. Katerina & Greenergirl -- Please send me your e-mail addresses and I'll get you signed up for the Google Group. (Or, you might be able to do it yourselves by clicking on the logo on the right rail.)

    And, that's the fun of this challenge! Finding creative things to do with the "dull stuff!"
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  11. I'm in! rockingranola@aol.com
    Love it!
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  12. That's a great idea! This is my first time joining a CSA, and I can't wait to get creative every week.
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  13. Awesome Idea! I'm not a "creative" chef, but will see what I can come up with!
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  14. That's wonderful, Todd. Just send me your e-mail and I'll get you signed up for the Google Group. Thanks for joining!
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  15. Count me in as well! I'd love seeing how others get creative with their veggies.

    Oh, kohlrabi was last year's discovery for me. I made it the shredded and sauteed way as well, but without the flour and stock. Just cook until soft with butter, olive oil, season to taste, garlic if you like, and add Parmesan cheese at the very end before serving. Wish I had some right now. ;-)
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  16. Yeah! We're glad to have you. Just send me you're e-mail and I'll set you up on our Google Group. Thanks for the kohlrabi idea!
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  17. I think I'd like to give this a try. I receive my delivery every other week, so I will either just post on those weeks or if I have something I can stretch to the "off" week, I will certainly share.
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  18. That's great, Erika. Just send me your e-mail and I'll hook you up with the Google Group. We have several folks getting every-other-week deliveries, so that's no problem at all!
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  20. Sounds great! I'm always going on about my CSA on my blog.
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  21. I just joined a grain CSA and it will be a few weeks until I start getting some flour, but will have strange veggies from the garden and farmers market each week. I'd love to join the challenge.
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  22. That's great, Anthony! I'd love to see what you come up with with the CSA grains, in addition to the veggies. Just sent me an e-mail and I'll sign you up for our Google Group.
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  23. This sounds awesome, and my CSA just started this week. I'm in! Thanks for setting this up. leena@leeaneats.com
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  24. I write the recipe newsletter for my CSA in NYC, and I've been including the recipes I come up with on my site, www.culinarymedianetwork.com, for thelast 3 years. I also include quick tips on CSA use in my "Chef Mark's Daily Cooking Tips" podcast. Count me in, and let me know when it launches!
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  25. I'm in! Have already been doing this for a few weeks, so it shouldn't be a problem :) :) :) I'd love a badge for my site!
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  26. I'm in. We pick up our first box on June 24. Looking forward to learning and sharing.
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  27. Looking forward to the challenge. I just started teaching How to your CSA veggies classes at our local bird sanctuary and senior center. This should be fun and I look forward to sharing and learning some new tips for what to do with all the veg!
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  28. I'm in! And I think I signed up already but if you want, you can have my email address as well. What's the best way to send you my email without getting spam?

    Thanks!
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  29. Um, question. How local do you mean by local? Nearly everything we get here is local, ie grown or raised within a hundred miles of where we live. Only fruit like apples, pears, or oranges and meat or dairy products are imported. Does this qualify?

    Yeah, I think I should mention I used to be THAT anal retentive accountant in my previous life, and there's no real excusing that... :D
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  30. Thanks for asking, Laurie. I dreamed this up with folks who get CSA boxes in mind. Since, under that program, you don't really have any say about what winds up in your box. Maybe it's an ingredient you dislike or one you've never seen before. So, more than just being local or organic (which is great) there's another layer of challenge to this one.

    But, I'm encouraging folks who don't have access to CSA programs to go out of their way to try some new produce this summer. Maybe buy one new thing at the farmers' market each week that you wouldn't normally try ...
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  31. Ah, gotcha. We definitely don't have CSA boxes here since pretty much everyone except foreigners eat locally grown. Organic is also more of a foreign concept here as well - I've only seen organic labels once or twice, so not a real option.

    We don't have what North Americans would call farmers markets, either, but that's a whole other topic. We do, however, have fruits and vegetables that I'd never seen in Canada or tried before arriving here.

    So the big question that remains is, can I participate? What are the parameters? Requirements? *laughs* Remember, I'm anal. :) I'm thinking it should be fair if I post about food that either isn't commonly eaten in Canada/US or it's cooked/served/used in a way that isn't common. Experimentation, in other words. Does that work?
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  32. We'd love to have you, Laurie. I'd be curious to see what you cook up with some of those crazy fruits and veggies. The parameters of the group are pretty loose. We just try to post at least once a week on our blogs what's in our CSA boxes (or a variation on that idea) and then what creative things we're doing with it. People have been using the group as a resource to get ideas for what to do with all sorts of things -- kale, turnips, etc.

    You can join here: http://groups.google.com/group/cooking-away-my-csa
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  33. Excellent! Thanks for letting me play. :) I love experimenting anyway, so this ought to double the fun. :D

    I'm trying to join the Google group, but Google seems to be fussy this morning. I'll get in eventually, I'm sure. :)
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