CSA Wrap Up

There's no need to call food hoarders.  Really.
I can stop any time I want!

What I really need in the day is about four more hours. Just four more hours per day.  That's all I ask.  I might spend part of it sleeping.  I'm not trying to be greedy.

It seems like I have a few too many things on my plate these days.  Between work being busy (not that work would affect my blogging in any way, because I would never blog at work, because that would be wrong), teaching and attending dance class, and trying to put a real (and interesting) meal on the table, I seem to have no time for blogging.  Oh, right, and attending culinary school.  And also taking a free class online through coursera.com (Principles of Obesity Econimics).  I guess my problem is I just try to do too much.  I would have though that now that canning season is over I would have more time - but that's just been replaced with trying to clean up the garden before the first frost... which I'm pretty sure was last night.  Come on, clock. Just four more hours!

Last Friday (yes, over a full week ago.  Stop your judging) was my last CSA box delivery.  Full of fall goodies like parsnips, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and buttnernut squash, it was a good way to say goodbye to a good year.

So, I did this as an experiment to see how a CSA works. I've never done it before.  Would I do it again?

Maybe...

I expected that the whole thing was a bargain. It seems like I was getting far more than the $19.25 that it averaged out for each week ($385 total for 20 weeks of delivery)And I do love a bargain. On the other hand, there was the opportunity for a lot of waste. I tried my hardest, but I know I lost several bunches of leafy greens, and a few bags of green beans.  If you're not willing to spend the day after you get your CSA pickling, freezing, or drying, you'd better be prepared to eat a lot of vegetables. I think that I'm pretty much stocked for the winter, though. Hopefully I'll  just end up buying some Growing Power lettuce.

The one thing that I like more than getting a bargain is PROVING that I got bargain.  So, to that end, here's what I think I received all year long, along with a breakdown of what those items cost on Peapod. Now, I realize that Peapod costs more than going to the grocery store, so these prices are slightly inflated - but on the other hand, I did get these groceries delivered so there are some similarities.

Item	Times Received	Price on Peapod	Total price (peapod)
Arugula	5	3.99	19.95
Baby Beets*	2	3.99	7.98
Basil	10	2.49	24.9
Beet Greens*	7	4.99	34.93
Beets (regular)	8	3.99	31.92
Blueberries	1	3.99	3.99
Bok Choy	3	2.79	8.37
Broccoli	3	3.99	11.97
Cabbage	6	3.99	23.94
Cantaloupe	3	3.29	9.87
Carrots	9	2.99	26.91
Chard	7	2.99	20.93
Cilantro	4	0.69	2.76
Cucumbers	3	1.99	5.97
Dill	8	1.09	8.72
Edible Flowers*	2	1.99	3.98
Eggplant	5	1.99	9.95
Garlic	2	0.89	1.78
Garlic Scapes	4	0.25	1
Hot Peppers*	1	4.99	4.99
Kale	8	2.99	23.92
Kohlrabi	4	2.49	9.96
Leeks	8	2.99	23.92
Lettuce Mix	16	3.99	63.84
Mushrooms	6	2.99	17.94
Onions	7	1.09	7.63
Parsley	7	1.69	11.83
Parsnips	2	1.69	3.38
Pea Shoots	2	3.99	7.98
Potatoes	3	4.99	14.97
Radish Sprouts*	1	1.99	1.99
Radishes	5	1.99	9.95
Scallions	3	1.29	3.87
Spinach	6	2.79	16.74
Sugar Snap Peas	3	3.99	11.97
Summer Squash	9	4.49	40.41
Sunjewel Melons*	1	3.29	3.29
Sweet Peppers	9	4.99	44.91
Tomatoes	31	4.99	154.69
Turnips	2	1.49	2.98
Watermelons	5	4.49	22.45
Winter Squash	6	1.99	11.94
			775.37

(*these items were not available on PeaPod.  So I basically just made up a price based on the price of similar things there, or how much they were at the farmer's market.)

Not bad... But there were still more things I needed. Canning requires onions, and four garlic scrapes are just not enough for this girl. The other thing I found was that things didn't necessarily come in the combinations I might have wanted. So if I got a bunch of tomatoes, for example, I might not get the onions, peppers, and garlic I needed to make spaghetti sauce.

The biggest problem I had, though, was that I always felt like I had to eat the things I couldn't preserve first, as opposed to the things that I wanted to eat. We got so much lettuce, I was making regular salads during the time that I would have preferred to be eating tomato mozzarella salad. But you can preserve a tomato, and you really can't preserve lettuce (except for my delicious lettuce pesto... But how much of that can I really expect to eat over the winter?). I really feel like we ate very few tomato mozzarella salads, which is sad because those are my favorites and I can eat regular salad all winter long.

So will I do it again?  Probably. I might try somewhere else, not because I had any issues with the RCVC, they are lovely people and amazing farmers, but I would assume different farmers would provide a different mix of vegetables, and variety is always a good thing. I also think I would like to work with a farmer that includes chicken as a part of their CSA. I miss getting a chicken delivered each week, and I find that we have been eating less chicken because of it. So much so that I needed to BUY chicken necks in order to make stock. Totally unacceptable in my mind.
 
I guess I've got the full winter to think about it. I will be back at the local farmers open house next spring, looking through the brochures and trying to decide what's what. For now, the pantry is stocked with canned goods, the freezer is full, and I've got three boxes of winter squashed stored under the back porch. I'm not sure why I never thought of using that as a root cellar before.

The Winter Farmers Market starts next week. There should still be a good selection of fall crops, so if you're not as stocked as I am, you might want to swing buy. I'll be there seeing if there are any chicken feet to buy, because so help me if I need to buy chicken necks again from Whole Foods!

Quince

One of the joys of eating locally and seasonally is that moment in time when one perfect food appears, then quickly disappears again.  Morels, strawberries, and dandelion leaves in the spring; that first, sun soaked, still warm on the vine tomato in the summer; in the winter, for me, it's the first homemade pickled thing, popped out of a jar, with just the perfect amount of brine clinging on it; and in the fall - pumpkins and squash, pears, and quince.

Our tasting at the Aeppel Treow Winery, next
door to the Orchard

Two weekends ago, Jeff and I went to Brightonwoods Orchard, in Burlington WI.  In addition to many pounds of apples for eating and drying, and a case of apple related booze from the Apple Winery next door, I picked up about five pounds of quince.

This is our second trip to Brightonwoods Orchard, and I'm a big fan.  They don't have that much, it's not a pick your own deal, so if you've got kids and you're into all that stuff they might not be right for you.  But for us, it's perfect.  We walk around the orchard for about 15 minutes, look in their cute little market, then head next door to the Apple Winery (I want to call it a Cidery, but spell check keeps telling me that's not a word...) and get drunk.

Quince is not, I've learned, a particularly popular product.  So much so that I usually need to repeat it 5 or 6 times before people understand what I'm saying:

ME: Quince
Person: Quint?
ME: Quince.
Person: Quints?
ME: QUINCE.
Person: Quimp?

Quimp?  Really?  That's not even almost a word.

After some quick research on Wikipedia: Quince was once a popular fruit in the United States, being brought over by English Settlers.  In England, it is appropriate to have one quince tree ta the lower corner of a proper garden, and two in a well stocked orchard.

So even then, when it was "popular," people were getting at most one or two trees.

I have no clue why.  If anyone wants to do more research than I did (I looked it up on Wikipedia on my phone, so it wouldn't take much to be "more" research than I did) I would be happy to hear it.  If you would like to write a report on quince, I will totally post it and link to your blog or thing you want to promote.  Shoot me a message on Facebook (see how that makes you like me on Facebook?  I'm such a scammer!)  The trees appear to be nice - little pretty trees with gnarled bonsai like branches and large pink flowers.  It is also (per my extensive Wikipedia research) a useful plant.  Quince is high in pectin and therefor is good to add to jams and jellies.  The plant itself is strong and can be grafted on to other plants in the rose family (apples, pears, peaches... all roses.  If you know me personally, that might explain why I really want to have an orchard) to dwarf the plant and increase the yield.

So why aren't we growing it?

No demand.

I blame you personally.  When's the last time you went and asked for quince at your neighborhood grocery store?  And why not.  It's a perfectly fine fruit - somewhere between an apple and a pear, with a bit of a pineapple aroma.  Okay, sure' you've got to peel it and cook it before you can eat it (raw quince are inedible), but there are lots of things you cook before eating and it's not stopping anybody.  Rhubarb, for example, not so hot raw.  But people are still making Rhubarb pies.  Why no quince pies?

So, go out and demand some quince!  Get the farmer's growing it.  And when you plan your orchard, or well stocked garden, remember to plant at least one or two quince trees.  No "quimp" trees, because that's not a thing.

This is neither a quince tree nor a quinp tree.  It's an apple
tree.

If you would like to see more of the orchard trip pictures, Like "Home Grown, Homemade" on Facebook!

Beef Short Ribs with Quince
(this recipe is modified from several I found for lamb shank.  You can do this with lamb shank as well - but you may want to reduce the cooking time depending on the size of your shank.)

(Anyone else giggle at "size of your shank"?  No?  Just me.  That's fine.  I'm a child.)

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 lbs Beef short ribs, trimmed of fat
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 or more garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tsp freshly ground ginger
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 quinces, peeled, core removed, and quartered
• 3 cups chicken or beef stock
• 4 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp lemon rind
• Cilantro and Couscous for serving

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. 

Season the short ribs generously with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in a large ovenproof casserole or french oven over medium high heat and cook the shanks in batches until well browned.  Transfer to a plate.  Reduce the heat to low.  Add the onion and sweat until softened - about 10 to 15 minutes.  Turn the heat back up to medium high, stir in the garlic and spices and cook, stirring, for one minute or until fragrant.  Do not let the spices burn!

Return the meat to the pan, add the stock and honey, bring to a boil then cover with the lid and place in the oven.  After 30 minutes, stir in the quince, and continue to cook for another hour.  Add the lemon rind, taste and adjust seasonings, and continue to cook for 30 more minutes (2 hours total).

Serve over couscous with freshly chopped cilantro.

I also made curried cauliflower.  The orange
stuff in this picture is the quince.

Quince in Syrup

• 2 lbs quince
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups honey
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
• 2 whole cloves (optional)
• 2 cinnamon sticks (optional)

Peel, core, and slice the quince.  In a large pot, combine water, honey, and any desired spices, and bring to a gentle boil.  Add the quince (the plural of quince is quince, by the way), and allow to simmer until just tender 20 minutes, or less depending on the thickness of your slices.

Remove the quince from the pot and raise the temperature to high.  Allow to boil until reduced in half.

From here you've got a few options.  You could serve the quince and syrup over ice cream or a pound cake.  Or, you could take just the fruit and substitute it for half of the apples in your favorite apple pie or crisp or crumble or whatever.  I went the crisp method.