I briefly mentioned it in my post on locovores on Facebook, but I’m making my way through the box of veggies (and STRAWBERRIES!) that I got from my CSA last week. Here’s a picture of last week’s bounty:
Depicted in the photo above are: Baby Leeks, Cilantro, Baby Carrots, Teenage Yellow Carrots, Strawberries, Bok Choy, Red Chard, Little Gem Lettuces, Rapini Greens and Radishes.
I made pretty quick work of the strawberries which were perhaps the sweetest, most succulent strawberries I have ever tasted. Seriously, nothing I found in the supermarket could even compare to these. I’ve also gone through the chard, the yellow carrots, the rapini greens (or broccoli rabe), one head of bok choy and one of the lettuces and some of the radishes and baby leeks. All very, good, very fresh, very organic and most importantly, very local.
Ever since I became more interested in food and everything that goes along with it, I’ve been becoming more conscious about where my food comes from. Previously, I never thought about where my food came from; all I knew was that there was plenty of fruit and veggies at the supermarket and eating fruits and veggies was important. But now I’m beginning to care more about the origin of my food. I was surprised to read that on average, produce travels 1,500 miles before reaching the markets. That’s 1,500 miles of transportation costs and everything that goes along with that. I’ve also been learning about how produce is picked and at times, artificially ripened so that it looks good on the shelves–thank you Alton Brown. Yikes!
So I’ve trying to make an effort to get my produce from local farms, supporting a business that’s slowly dying to large producers. Sure, it takes some effort to clean the dirt from the greens and leeks, but there’s something satisfying in knowing that the food I’m eating was grown by families who care not only for the land but the people who work for them. Plus, I’m learning about growing seasons and when things are available.
From what I can gather, this week’s bounty will include: Green Cabbage, Salad Mix, more Baby Carrots & Teenage Yellow Carrots, Erbette Chard, more Little Gem Lettuces or Cauliflower, Spigariello and a Mystery Item (whatever that means!). Can’t wait!
1 1/2 pound of butter, 2 pounds of chocolate, countless cups of flour and sugar later, the brownie project is now officially over. phew! for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of sampling some of the brownies i made, let me provide some background on the project.
the seeds for the brownie project was planted in my head by a picture of some delectable mascarpone-chocolate brownies (with accompanying recipe) in one of my food + wine magazine. then came a ny times feature all about brownies and shortly before that was a sj mercury news article about a lost brownie recipe. was someone trying to tell me something?
i’ve also been reading julie and julia, the story of one woman’s quest to cook through the entire mastering the art of french cooking in a tiny nyc apartment in one year. now, i have no desire to do anything of that scale but the book planted the idea of a cooking project in my head and brownies seemed simple enough of an focus to start. so i took five very distinct brownie recipes and proceeded to make them all in a span of two weeks. now as most of you know, i’m not really a chocolate person so this experience was truly one in the name of…umm…science?
for reference, the brownie recipes were: supernatural brownies, french chocolate brownies, fudgy brownies, mascarpone-chocolate brownies, fudge brownies. they spanned the gamut from semi-sweet to unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder, brown and white sugars, and one even used brewed espresso. but most of all, they were all very, very yummy.
i deem the project a success! here’s a picture of one of the projects:
I wonder who’s job it is to choose items for amazon’s friday sale. I only wonder because I was browsing through it this morning when I saw this listed–click at your own risk.
Update: I’ve removed the link because I forgot about Amazon’s auto-preview, but if you’re still interested/curious, just enter this ASIN: B000CC5INA in the search field.
Ahh, this made me laugh out loud this morning because of how true it is…
i want to apologize to you if you had what appeared to be a one-sided IM conversation with me this afternoon between say 4pm and 7pm. i didn’t realized my sidekick had itself a HAL-9000 moment and connected to AIM by itself.
sorry!
