I’m a bit late with this week’s CSA post and sadly I hopped to putting the veggies away so quickly this week that I neglected to snap a photo.

The most interesting item in the box this week is cardoons.  Cardoons are actually the same species as the globe artichoke but a naturally occurring variant that look like long & sometimes much larger celery stalks.  I’m anxious to cook these and see how they taste!

Our box this week contained:

• celery
• parsnips
• purple carrots – these are gorgeous!
• mustard greens
• spinach
• mixed salad
• erbette chard
• cardoons
• Meyer lemons – YUM!

Maybe I’ll even splurge on a dessert with those yummy Meyer lemons. 

Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the week because it brings the arrival of my weekly CSA box! This week’s box contains:

• Erbette Chard
• Leeks
• Carrots
• 2 plump bulbs of fennel
• Spigariello greens – which are a relative of broccoli
• Agretti greens (not pictured above) – which apparently can be simply added to salad greens or cooked like broccoli
• Cute French radishes
• And delicious winter squash

I’m particularly anxious to try the agretti greens which are new to me.  Hopefully I’ll have some fun recipes to report soon!

Spring has officially sprung! According to the calendar at least. I know that here in the San Francisco bay area it is still pretty chilly – by our standards! But at least we can start to look forward to the warmer weather that is sure to follow!

With the coming of spring, the beginning of a new CSA season also dawns! This year I decided to join a traditionally modeled Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. The one I decided to try is Two Small Farms which is a joint venture between Mariquita Farms & High Ground Organics.

A CSA is a share in the produce of a local farm’s production for the year. You typically get a box full of seasonal produce each week: herbs, vegetables, fruit – anything they grow! Sometimes farms will partner together so the boxes will have more variety – as the CSA I’ve joined does. Other times the produce comes exclusively from one farm. Many CSA farms are more than happy to have you visit, check out the farm, and maybe even pitch it! It is a great opportunity to find out where your food comes from, thank the farmers that grow it, and understand the way it grown. The CSAs I’m aware of are all organic or use organic methods, but it is worth asking if you aren’t sure.

Luckily CSAs have sprouted up all over the country (& world actually!). Local Harvest is a great resource for finding CSAs in your region. Additionally – it is hard to beat a Google search to find other farms nearby.

• Local Harvest CSA page

So after all that talk – what did I get this week in my box!? Firs of all I got flowers! (see above) That is one thing I love about this CSA – the flower option! Each week I will get a fresh bouquet – just what my home needs!

The first CSA box of the year contained:

• Spring garlic (the longer, green onion-y looking items)
• Celery
• Green cabbage
• 2 Butternut squash, small in size, each about the size of a (really big) softball
• Parsnips – remember February’s vegetable of the month?
  
• Carrots
• Escarole – two enormous heads of lettuce – one at least the size of a gallon of milk!
• Purple radishes

I will do my best to post my CSA box contents each week, and of course I’ll be sharing recipes I discover with my in-season produce too!