CSA Weekly Report: Lancaster Farm Fresh

Thursday, September 27, 2007

What does the last week of September hold for the Lancaster Farm Fresh share?

6 red slicing tomatoes grown by Scarecrow Hill Farm
½ lb. bunch edamame beans grown by Elm Tree Organics
4 red onions grown by Green Acres
1 bunch rutabaga tops grown by Scarecrow Hill Farm
1 head escarole or 1 head radicchio grown by Scarecrow Hill Farm
5 lbs. potatoes grown by Farmdale Organics
2 spaghetti squash grown by Elm Tree Organics

Apparently, we were also supposed to get either a bag of beets or a bag of green beans, but something went awry.  The LFF rep tells us that she’ll be giving us an extra vegetable in two weeks to make up for it.

I was surprised to see more tomatoes in the share.  Sure, we’re still pulling them off the vines in the garden, but I just got it in my head that there would be no more tomatoes.

It’s exciting to see edamame coming my way - I didn’t grow any in my garden this year.  And I’m thrilled to see a couple of spaghetti squash.  It’s a vegetable I haven’t really used very often in my cooking, and I’m delighted to sort of be forced into some experimenting!

It took fervent googling last night to figure out the uses of rutabaga tops.  Have you ever seen those for sale in the market?  I haven’t.  But I discovered that rutabaga tops can be eaten raw, an addition to salad greens.  Or they can be cooked like greens or treated like spinach - and I found a specific recommendation to cook them like collard greens.  I just happen to have some smoked pork neck bones in my freezer, so I could definitely cook up a mess of greens with those rutabaga tops...providing the ‘bunch’ is big enough.