Monday, March 5, 2007

Prepaing for the First Pick-up

There are a few practical things to do to get ready for the first box of the season.
  1. Clean out the refrigerator! There is nothing worse than bringing home a full box of fruits and vegetables and having nowhere to put it.

  2. Buy vegetable storage bags. They really do work. I bought a case of Ziploc Vegetable Bags and it lasted me a season. This year I'm trying the Evert-Fresh bags.

  3. Have your knives sharpened. You will be doing a lot of slicing and dicing.

  4. Get your recipes handy. To be honest, I rely most heavily on Google, searching for "[insert vegetable name] recipes" works amazingly well. For example, see what Google found for beet recipes by clicking here. Our CSA publishes a newsletter that includes recommendations for storing and using up the food for the week. There are also a few excellent books I reference weekly: Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider, Vegetables by James Peterson, and Chez Panisse Vegetables or Chez Panisse Fruit, both by Alice Waters.

3 comments:

  1. ChardGirlMarch 12, 2007 at 11:22 AM

    Thanks, Michelle for doing this! Another of my favorite cookbooks is Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and also Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans and Other Good things, although this last one is a bit old fashioned, but I like some of the recipes in it.

    julia

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  2. SarBearInPGMarch 14, 2007 at 7:06 AM

    How exciting, first pick up tomorrow! I've been the host for Pacific Grove for 3 years, and wait all winter with anticipation. Just treated myself to a new cookbook called The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman. I like the way it's laid out. They go by harvest season, talk about each veggie and how it's grown, sowed, cultivated, harvested (even though this is all done for us, it's fun to know) they talk about the time it takes to cook (steam, boil, saute, roast, grill...) and the math ie; 1 lb beets= 4-5 med w/o greens; = 3 C cubed beets; = 4 C grated beets. Then proceed with several handy recipes! Fun stuff. Tomorrow will be like Christmas morning, opening my first share of hte season :) Sarah

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  3. MichelleMarch 15, 2007 at 9:40 PM

    Thank you! The veggie bags are from Amazon -- see: http://www.amazon.com/Evert-Fresh-Bag-Set-each-size/dp/B0009L8GHY/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4585492-7672927?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1174020013&sr=8-1.

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