Tag Archives: CSA

CSA Week 20 — The Final Delivery

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: October 18, 2010

Photo by Donna (click the photo to go to her posts)

So this is it, a gloomy fall day, and smallish haul (summer's bounty fading, sigh), with a lot of green plum tomatoes, not even very good green plum tomatoes. Anyone have a good pickling recipe for them!? Think I may try a curry flavored pickle. Would fry them but have been having too much fun frying the sweet potatoes—so much better than russets! Parsley, kale, lettuces, beets, some nice crisp apples, onions, scallions, delicious watermelon. So what's the final verdict on this summer's CSA experience? Ours? The product over all was good. I think the value was acceptable, and worth it for the quality and for our desire to encourage and support the farmers who help us get good food for our families. There is only one negative, ...

Click to Continue Reading

VEGETABLE LOVE! (CSA Week 17)
Fall: Butternut Squash Soup, Poached Lettuce

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: September 25, 2010

Ohio CSA Week 17, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman (click photo to see her alternate shot)

Yesterday was 92 degrees. This morning was low sixties, with that wonderful slate sky that descends in fall and the chill wakes me up and makes me want to cook. There’s still corn the farmers market, fat kerneled and juicy, still very sweet, still aching to be baked. The green beans are getting big and tough and can be roasted (hot oven, chilli flakes, cumin, smashed garlic, 20 minutes). The chillis are vivid and the jalapeno plant that Donna planted in the spring is loaded down with fat hot ones. I got a jar of chilli’s pickling, more or less this recipe here out of this awesome book, only I’m going ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Community Supported Agriculture, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Also tagged Vegetables | Comments closed

Sweet Potato Fries: CSA Week 16

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: September 18, 2010

photo by iPhone

CSA week 16 is easily the heaviest bundle yet, with the apples, big tomatos, the (surprise!) bok choy, more nice green beans under all the lettuce. Apples, fall is here. Sweet potatoes, more fall. I'm getting pretty goddam tired of those green peppers though. Wish the dog would eat them. I ordered eggs this week $2.50 extra, well worth it. They're a buck more at the farmers market. And I just ate two of them, another Saturday morning favorite: egg sandwich, yolks intentionally broken, fried gently in butter, salt and pepper, topped with chopped bacon and slipped between two pieces of soft white bread fresh out of the plastic, one piece generously smeared with Hellmann's. Yes, Hellmann's mayo. I know I make a stink about making your own mayo and how easy ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Community Supported Agriculture | Tagged CSA | Comments closed

Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita
(CSA Week 15)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: September 11, 2010

photo by donna

Week 15 from Geauga Family Farms. I think they're getting better—the lettuce is fresher, there's less signs of travel in the soft vegetables. As I've pointed out before, just because you grow heirloom fruits and veg, doesn't mean they're good. You've got to be a good farmer or grower. And just because you grow excellent fruits and veg, doesn't mean they're still excellent when they arrive on the table of the family that purchased the CSA. Every part of the process matters. Fun CSA this week: I'm not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes—too much skin relative to the amount of flesh, and frankly, I don't love them enough to blanch, shock, and peel them. But last night, photographing a bacon and eggs pizza for the new book, I had some leftover dough ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Bread, Community Supported Agriculture, Uncategorized | Also tagged homemade pizza | Comments closed

How To Cook Okra (CSA Week 14)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: September 4, 2010

The mysterious okra (photos by Donna)

Cool surprise in today's CSA. Okra! Something I almost never cook, and something that when I've had it, is cooked into slime. The key to cooking okra is to not cook it too much. Saute it in a tablespoon of canola oil in a hot pan, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes if you want some heat, till tender but still crunchy. When I was working on Return To Cooking with Eric, he sauted them this way and served them on mahi mahi with a citrus vinaigrette. They're delectable. Truly, and so rarely do I eat them, they taste and feel like a delicacy when prepared this way. Or, cook okra the southern way, dipped in butter milk or egg, rolled in a corn-meal-mixture and fried. That's delicious, too. Goes great with ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Community Supported Agriculture, Vegetables | Also tagged fried okra, okra | Comments closed

CSA’s from Around the Country

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: September 2, 2010

This is week 13 of my CSA from Geauga Family Farms (my iPhone, Donna was on the road). Very happy (green peppers went into a steak and bell pepper stir fry). Tomato garlic basil pasta for dinner tonight, along with a green bean, onion and corn salad with a creamy lemon peper vinaigrette. The cubanos will be stuffed with sausage and cheese and grilled. The photos below show a nice cross-section of CSA's from around the country, from Cape Cod to San Diago, thanks everyone. It would be interesting to see fall CSA shares from southern states. Hold your cursor over the photo for the name and location of the sender. I was unable to add the name of the farm or the CSA or link to each one, but if you see yours here, please ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Community Supported Agriculture | Also tagged Community Supported Agriculture | Comments closed

CSA week 12: Send Me Pix of Yours!

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: August 26, 2010

Last weekend's haul from our Geauga County farmers, a "family" share, photo by donna

Week 12 of our CSA. No surprise with the tomatoes and corn, and no disappointment either. Though five ears corn doesn't even cover breakfast for me. Beans were great, peaches wouldn't want to wait longer (and one of those peaches harbors a scary stinging bug that scared the hell out of me when I bit down to the pit. But damn, Ohio peaches? They don't last long but they are amazing—deeply flavored, sweet, succulent. Georgia may grow more but they don't grow them better. And those raspberries were more raspberrier than any I've had. That acorn squash, so bittersweet. Are we moving into squash season? Are those leaves outside my window turning to brown already. Where did summer go? Oh, sigh. James started ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Vegetables | Also tagged Community Supported Agriculture | Comments closed

Butter-Braised Radishes with Snow Peas

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: July 5, 2010

: Butter-Braised Radishes with Snow Peas, photo by Donna

This was a last minute dish on Saturday to follow the fritters. We had radishes, we had snow peas. I had some mint in the garden. Why not? Crunchy, refreshing, satisfying, a fine vegetable dish. You see, I don't ALWAYS have to throw cured pork products in (though, come to thing of it, this would be delicious with some bacon or pancetta thrown in!). When you get your CSA goods, remember that it would be hard to combine them in ways that do not go together. I wouldn't serve blueberries and chard but for the most part all this stuff goes well side by side. Butter Braised Radishes with Snow Peas a few tablespoons of butter Radishes, as needed, trimmed and quartered Snow peas, as needed, picked salt and pepper to taste a tablespoon ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Recipes, Vegetables | Also tagged radishes, snow peas | Comments closed

CSA Week 4
(recipe: Spring Potatoes with Tarragon and Chives)

By Michael Ruhlman | Published: June 28, 2010

CSA week #4, photo by Donna

OK, things are starting to roll a little faster here. Delighted this week to see peas in our CSA haul! Still a helluva lot of lettuce (which, truth be told, my belly needs a little a more of). We were a little disappointed in week three, when some of the lettuces had rotty ends, suggesting they'd been picked many days before. Be critical and tell your CSA farmers if you're not happy with the product. Remember that just because they're local farmers, doesn't mean they're perfect. As with any craft, there is a range of quality of finished product, depending on how it's grown and, critically, how it's handled after it's picked. (A friend asked me recently what CSA stands for, so it bears repeating: community supported ...

Click to Continue Reading

Posted in Potatoes, Recipes | Also tagged Community Supported Agriculture, Potatoes | Comments closed

Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I blog about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll join the conversation.
ruhlmanphotography.com

Info on Donna's Ratio Chart and Photography
Kitchen Tools

Click here to see my favorite kitchen tools.
Go to my Open Sky store.
Recipes
Category Archive