Landisdale Farm CSA, week 17

Sunday, October 05, 2008

While I was competing at yesterday’s Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival (my team took the women’s club championship - we’re the fastest chicks on the river!), my husband picked up our Landisdale Farm CSA share yesterday at Clark Park.  Here is what we received this week:

• 2 bunches of kale
• 2 small broccoli heads
• 5 white sweet potatoes
• 5 apples
• 8 baby turnips
• 5 tomatoes
• 2 Kuri winter squash

I am not the biggest fan there ever was when it comes to kale.  There was kale in our share two weeks ago, too, and I haven’t used that yet (and no, it hasn’t gone bad - kale seems to last forever).  There are very few ways that I really like kale, but I’ll be trying to use it.

One way I do like kale is in soup.  My plan is to pick a few soup recipes, make up giant batches of it, and either freeze or can it.

White bean, kale, and sausage soup
Lentil Kale soup
Carrot and kale soup
North African Chickpea and Kale soup
Roasted Pumpkin and Kale soup
Cream of Kale soup
Chestnut Kale soup
Potato Kale soup with Seitan
Island Kale and Sweet Potato soup
Sweet Potato, Corn, and Kale Chowder
Yellow Split Pea Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Kale
Sweet Potato Kale soup

Now, dairy doesn’t freeze or can well...which does leave out a few of the recipes above.  But you can definitely can meat, and any of these soup recipes that are mostly vegetarian would can or freeze perfectly.  There’s something to be said for coming home from a busy day at work on a super cold, blustery Winter day and being able to have a warm bowl of hearty soup without toiling in the kitchen!

On a related note, I thought it would be interesting to compare what was in my Landisdale Farm share this week to what was in my Lancaster Farm Fresh share last year at this time.  Fascinating!