The fruits of box seven (and our labors)

While I don't have a picture of box seven, here are some photos of our creations.

For dinner on Friday I made a grilled dill potato salad. I grilled some Driftless potatoes (plus some extra ones we had lying around, which might have also been Driftless), and then mixed them with the CSA dill and a mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. I let it cool for a while before serving.

We also made roasted brassica with last week's red cabbage, and a salad with the Driftless carrots, sunflower oil, and some lettuce from our own garden.



Saturday's CSA inspired dinner was mainly Sichuan in style. Out of the great Land of Plenty cookbook, we made Sichuan fried green beans and a Sichuan cucumber salad. They both heavily featured dried chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. Along with those two dishes, we made some yellow lentils and grilled shishito peppers with salt and sunflower oil. I had purchased the peppers at Mitsuwa Marketplace while in Chicago last weekend for the Pitchfork music festival. If you are ever in Chicago, I highly recommend paying them a visit.

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Boxes four and five

Late to post, but beautiful to behold, what follows was boxes four and five.





The picture of our sixth is MIA. Perhaps some other kind soul will post a photo of their's.

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Beyond Produce

One sweltering night last week, Patrick and I took a monstrous kohlrabi bulb from our garden, and some asparagus and golden beets from our co-op, and made some delicious grilled vegetables. (Grilling is the best thing that ever happened to kohlrabi, if you ask me. It softened and charred.) So, what does that have to do with our Driftless CSA?

Ta-da! Our farm makes sunflower oil! Although grilling might not be the best way to highlight this delicate oil—Farmer Josh, I promise to use it in a salad next time—I was too pumped about adding something Driftless to our meal to save it for later. So often, when we talk about eating local, staples like dry beans, grains and oils just don't seem to count. I feel we've gone a little further toward regional self-sufficiency when we have local products outside the crisper drawer.

What about you? Do you get something besides produce from local farmers? Has anyone had any luck with meat or egg shares?

Back to this week's veggies: I find the more time I have, the more I fuss with perfectly good food. What better way to turn nutritious broccoli and green garlic into something sinful than a bleu cheese quiche with a butter-black pepper crust? This was Sunday's breakfast. I love how that little garlic slice landed right in the middle.

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