Managing Vegetal Riches

[pantryslut]

As many of you know, I get a weekly box of organic veggies from Terra Firma Farm. I've been doing this since we moved to the Bay Area, making us one of their customers in longest standing -- seven years and counting; they've only been in existence for eight. Its weekly bounty has shaped my approach to cooking in a subtle but pervasive way.

Cooking from the box has its challenges, even after all these years, as astute readers have noticed.

These days, those challenges tend to fall into two categories:

1. pervasive vegetables.
2. problem vegetables.

Pervasive vegetables are vegetables that show up in huge quantities, week after week, when they are in season. Terra Firma works really hard to provide variety in their boxes, so formerly-pervasive veggies like summer squash and broccoli are no longer quite the problem they used to be.

Nonetheless, during the summer, I get overwhelmed with corn on the cob and melon, and believe it or not, it can be hard to keep up with the tomatoes too. Sometimes cucumbers seem to accumulate as well.

And in the winter, it's butternut squash a go go. Often I find sweet potatoes and potatoes backing up as well. And I always have too many carrots.

Right now, I also have a lot more apples and Fuyu persimmons than I know what to do with. Oranges will soon come in quantity, but it's always easy to just juice them. Plus, last year I learned that pistachios and oranges are my *favorite snack ever*.

And I like salad, but not quite in the quantities that the farm likes to grace us with. Their salad mix is both scrumptious, and apparently successful. Certainly it's abundant.

The other category are problem vegetables. Vegetables that my household (of two, plus cats, who aren't big veggie fans) just doesn't like. Because Terra Firma's vegetables come from just one farm, it isn't practical to request that these not be included in our weekly haul. As I'm a flexible eater (and as the boy has apparently learned to trust my culinary skills), this isn't a problem on the macro scale.

Beets are an example of a problem vegetable. Cauliflower is another. Believe it or not, asparagus is a third. (Spring is no fun for me, I tell you.) We're also not fond of cilantro.

I used to give away all of my problem veggies, but as I've moved away from (or become estranged with, in one case) my usual recipients, this has become more of a challenge.

Too bad. I like being the Veggie Fairy.

I miss cooking so much for other people, too -- another good way to handle the excess. Must work on this. (Paradoxically, I feel like I have more regular friends that I see than I used to. Something is odd here...)

Comments

[suhu.livejournal.com]

it doesn't sound like you're looking to switch, but... may I recommend these people?
http://www.organicbox.com/
they let you go online and customize your box. I don't use them all the time, as they're expensive, and some weeks I know I won't be able to cook enough, but after six months or so I can say that their stuff is reliably delicious, and the fact that you can tell them, say, not to bring beets ever again and instead of the squash this week, more chard instead please! is very nice...

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I know people who get The Box, and I think it's probably good for people who are pickier eaters than I am, or cook differently.

But they are a broker, meaning they buy from a lot of different farms. This isn't a problem per se, except that it does make me wonder why I wouldn't just go to the (organic) grocery store or the farmer's market instead.

I like knowing that my veggies are coming from one place. I like having *seen* where that place is. And I like directly supporting a small organic farm.

In other words, I like the philosophy behind Community Supported Agriculture as much as I like the veggies. (And the veggies are *good.*) I'm not one to preach, but I will see if I can dig up some links about it for folks who are unfamiliar with CSA stuff.

Oh, and I am also actively turned off by the faux hominess of The Box's weekly newsletter. But that's another issue for another discussion.

[suhu.livejournal.com]

yes, I know exactly what you're saying... and at the same time, I suppose that makes me one of those picky people you're talking about. I do like to choose what I'm going to eat, it's true. as for the newsletter... I don't seem to get those. thank goodness.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Our household hereby volunteers to help with asparagus, cilantro, and most pervasive vegetables (and the occasional cauliflower). But not beets!

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

You can leave butternut squash, sweet potatoes, asparagus, corn, and melons on my doorstep. I'll take real good care of them.

[brooksmoses]

I should introduce you to my brother; he cooks a lot and he lives over in your area, and I suspect would be glad to be recipient of Veggie Fairyness. Actually, more seriously, I should introduce him to your farm; I suspect he and his friends could easily make use of a boxful.

And ... I've been thinking, for a while, that I'd really like to make a persimmon pudding. It's been years since I had any, and it was deeply deeply good. So there you implicitly have two suggestions for what to do with your persimmons! *grin*

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

Boil two sweet potatoes and one regular potato with some garlic cloves. Mash them up like mashed potatoes--put in lots of butter and milk or cream, plus salt. At the last minute, squeeze in some lemon juice and the kicker, lemon zest. Nice with little peas in it too, if you like. Easy, yummy, makes good leftovers.