CSA

Today is the last day of my trail membership for one of the local CSA's. For those who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Which is just a fancy way of saying, local farmers selling fruits and vegetables to local people. We pledged a very large organic farm that sells to San Diego and Los Angeles areas. They always have the most amazing stuff that I've never even heard of, along with all of our favorites! Every other week I drive over to the local farmer's market and pick up my tupperware bin full of this weeks picks! Sometimes I trade things that we've had before and I didn't particularly like, or if I need more of something then I'll trade something that I'm not really sure about. This week I traded swiss chard (which I have yet to figure out how to use) for more carrots, because I'm making a recipe for Herb Chicken and Vegetables next week and I need more carrots.

Here are some shots of the things I got this week. I realized after I uploaded all the pictures that I forgot to take a picture of the basil. We get a large bunch of basil in every box and I have become really good at using it, even though I don't usually use all of it. One of my favorite things to make with it, is pita pizzas. It's just tomato sauce with some fresh chopped basil on top of whole wheat pita pockets, then I put fresh mozzeralla slices on that, and then whatever topping I happen to have. Stick it in the oven at 400 degrees until the cheese is melted, and it's delicious!!

I'm not entirely sure what all of these are, so feel free to leave your guesses in the comments, along with any recipes that you enjoy using them in!

This is one of those things that I could guess, but I'd be wrong.
I'm almost positive these little guys are some type of squash, but I could be wrong.
Now I know the green one is zuccini, and I think the yellowish one is as well, but the spots are throwing me off a little.
Although I had never even heard of these little guys before today, I did do a little reading on them and found out that they taste simliar to broccoli stems. I'm still a little unsure of how to use them though.

These of course are onions, and I am just realizing how little I use onions as I still have one left over from the box before last!!!
Here is one of the bunches of carrots. Aren't they so cute!?! The other bunch is in the salad I made for dinner. Last box we got red carrots! It was crazy! They were a dark red on the outside, but when you cut into them they were orange just like regular carrots!
These are the cucumbers before I cut them up for salad. We didn't eat them all, but I thought maybe I'd do a pampering, spa type thing this weekend and I could use the extra for those puffy eyes, or to eat, who knows!

We got two baskets of strawberries this week! I think because it's the end of strawberry season and they are trying to get rid of them. Some of the strawberries were a little past their season. Since they were a little more on the mushy side, I cut them up and put them into strawberry shortcake for dessert! It was so yummy!
This is the last little addition. FOUR HEADS OF LETTUCE!! Isn't that awesome?!?!?! We love salad, and we usually eat salad as much as we want now that we're getting these boxes. I usually don't run out until right before the next box, it's great!
Well it's time to renew my pledge because I love getting all this great stuff!! I still buy some stuff from the store, but usually only if I'm looking for something specific, otherwise I just make something of what we get! I always getting "nannies" though. I think it has become of general assumption that if we are going to the grocery store that means we are buying bananas! Joli actually went and got into the car on Tuesday because I told her we had to go to the store and buy banans and chicken. The whole way out there she was saying "nannies, chichen, nannies, chichen". Sorry, we ate those already, no pictures. :(