2012 CSA: Week 1

After a long period of silence, outside of my shout out for the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I am back, and once again, I am blogging about my CSA.

At the last minute, I signed up for the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA, the same organization that ran my CSA last year.  I signed up for a half share of a vegetables and one fruit share, which will keep me going from now until the end of October.

I signed up for two reasons: (1) I noticed my diet was steadily worsening through the winter and early spring, and I am certain that having all this fresh produce will improve that; and (2) I enjoyed the CSA last year and I am hoping to do even better with this year's program.

In my first CSA shipment, I received:

• Dandelion greens
• Bok choy
• Green leaf lettuce
• Scallions
• Fennel leaves
• French breakfast radishes
• Sweet Hakurei turnips

I have already enjoyed a beef and scallion stir fry based loosely upon the classic zi ran yang rou, a dish from the Uyghur people of Central and East Asia.  I also made a surprisingly tasty salad from dandelion greens, lettuce, fennel leaves, and about half of the radishes (I say surprising because I generally find salads boring).

To liven up my CSA blog posts a little bit, I am going to try and post nice photos (obtained from the web) of at least one item I receive each week.  This week's obvious choice: French breakfast radishes!