The “Tell” – Springdell Summer CSA Pickup #3 4


Hi everyone, Jess here. Hope everyone had a good Fourth! I had a pretty busy week, but still managed to get some cooking done along the way. I hope you’re enjoying the CSA as much as we are here at the Anderson household.

Look at the beautiful colors and shapes of this pickup!  

Let’s take a quick rewind of my kitchen this week:

Zucchini Noodles, or “Zoodles“, are great at the beginning of the season when the veggies are young and tender. Try these healthy noodles as you would pasta. This Meatless Monday dish was made with ginger-soy marinated tofu.  

Most days, the boys like their veggies plain.  When the first round of broccoli and english peas came through, they forewent the fried rice and Zoodles and instead went for steamed broccoli, peas tofu and white rice.

This is their dinner, and they couldn’t be happier. 

Glen and I preferred the veggie fried rice, complete with summer squash, peas, broccoli and eggs.

I had one head of broccoli crowns left that I saved for a snack during the week.  We dipped with garlic pesto sour cream dip, and more homemade peanut sauce dip (sorry for the peanut sauce rerun- after making a batch of peanut sauce, it ends up on just about everything for the next week or two.)

Here’s a Fourth of July Strawberry Rhubarb Mojito!  It was pretty darn tasty!

Pasta primavera made it onto the table for lunch during the week, the “primavera” consisting of broccoli, pea tendrils, garlic scapes and peas.  Light and delicious!

Bourbon maple glazed Springdell pork cutlets.  With chopped cucumbers and lettuce, they made great wraps with the homemade peanut sauce (I know I know, more peanut sauce…  But it is so good!)

Mid week, after a visit to the Jordan Brothers Seafood truck, I was really feeling creative.  I mixed the pea tendrils with some lump crabmeat and sautéed it in olive oil and Amish Roll Butter.  It was divine.

I found further inspiration after spending last weekend camping in Provincetown. We stopped at a little vegan place called Grab ‘N Go Health Bar. I had a dish called a “Green Mermaid” which was avocado and fresh greens wrapped in nori.  I tried to recreate it, except I toasted the nori sheets over the stove, and well, added the crabmeat and pea tendril mixture. Oh, and the greens were in a lime vinaigrette.   

This was totally heavenly. I would make this again in a heartbeat.  I’ll try to get the details posted this week. The family preferred no nori, so the salad version was also enjoyed.

I just had to share this quick photo of the core of the Oriental cabbage.  It was covered in tiny cabbages, and they made very fun little garnishes! 

I finally posted the ham hocks and collard greens recipe.  For those of you out there with collard greens, go see Farmer Jamie and grab a ham hock or two and try this one! It is delicious, especially with a dash of cider vinegar. The best part is that it creates this hammy stock which is great in a bean-based recipe.  

Remember last week I tried that white bean and chard soup? It was scrumptious in vegan form, and so for my Saturday Barbecue, I made another vegan batch, and a batch using half of the ham hock stock from the collard greens recipe above. Here are the last of my storage onions sautéing in preparation.And here are both the soups in the crock pots at the barbecue.  The vegan version and the not-so-vegan version were both great!When swinging back to the farm to get that extra bunch of swiss chard for the soup this week, I had an idea, and so I picked some spearmint, mint, and thyme…  I made a whole mess of lemonade, and set the herbs on a high top table with some citrus, simple syrups, and various liquors. I had concocted a little list of cocktail options and left it out, and we all had fun trying lemonade margaritas, whisky thyme sours, lemon drops, lemonade mint julieps, shandies, and some unnamed tasty numbers. After feeling a little woozy, I switched to lemonade “nojitos” which were equally delicious. Such a fun time, I was ready to dance in the summer thunderstorm.

We also had an encore performance of Simply Recipe’s Picnic Salad at the BBQ. The cabbage holds up nicely, making it a great salad for a barbecue.  This time, the snap peas were from our Community Garden plot. 

I forgot to take pics of the garlic pesto dips that made their appearance at the barbecue. We had it mixed in a sour cream dip with tortilla chips, and I served it with some cheese and crackers.  All that was left by the time I took the photo was a half-devoured brie and some pesto on the knife. The party is over!  

Thanks so much for reading, I know this was a long one! Remember to get your applications in for the Winter and Spring Shares for next year if you’re interested! Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to picking up a new crate of goodies tomorrow, and hope you’ll tune in to read the 4th “Tell” of the Springdell Show and Tell


About Jess

Jess Anderson is the creator of CSA|365 and is passionate about the local food movement. A long time member of Springdell and a busy mother of two, Jess loves keeping her family fed by honest local food.

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4 thoughts on “The “Tell” – Springdell Summer CSA Pickup #3

    • Jess Post author

      Hi Julie, thanks for checking in, and great question! Yes, the whole box and seed pad is compostable! Some the packages come with little plastic windows, and I remove the plastic, but the packages without the windows can go right into the compost! If you’re operating with a small home compost, I recommend tearing things up as it will compost a little easier, but if it’s going in a big pile, it can go in as-is. Hope this helps!

      • Julie

        Thank you! I can’t say it enough. Your blog is the difference between us having a small share (past years) and a MegaShare (this year). We couldn’t have considered this giant upgrade without all the ideas and support. THANK YOU. And you have us addicted to the Napa Cabbage salad. We went from ‘what the heck is this thing?’ to ‘darn, we wish there was more.’ I’m going to try it with the regular cabbage this week and let the dressing sit longer.

        • Jess Post author

          Hooray Julie! Thank you so much for the kind words, your comment really charges me up and reminds me why I love to do this blog. Good for you for going for the Mega Share, too! 🙂
          I’m so glad you’re liking the Napa salad! Great idea about letting the dressing sit on the cabbage for a bit, that’s the wonderful thing about cabbages and kales, you can dress them and leave them in the fridge for a day or two without them getting icky (and they can get even better!) I’d love to hear how it comes out! Happy cooking!