CSA Update

This year E and I opted to not do a CSA. I enjoyed it in the beginning but our CSA quickly started going downhill. They never put together our orders and every time I'd have to take a solid 30 mins to pick out what I wanted. Where's the fun in that? And I didn't feel like our CSA had the widest or best selection. I wanted to like them, I really did. And well I tried.

But don't worry, I'll still be hitting the farmer's market hard this summer :)

I Suck

It's been way too long since I last posted. I even had a fairly good food trip to NYC that I never got around to posting about. The store has been sucking my mine. Oh sure, I always blame it on the shop but seriously, small business owners definitely know what I'm talking about when I talk about my lack of time and energy.

So what has gotten me out of my non-posting slump? A change of seasons perhaps. Fall is certainly upon us in New England. Luckily our CSA share doesn't end until the end of October so we've gotten to see what the change in seasons brings.

Tonight we're having a couple of friends over. One is an old friend I've known forever and another is a fairly new friend I'm introducing to E. Infact the old friend asked what time for dinner, I said 8 and she said she'd be here around 6:30. That's how we roll.

So when I went to the CSA on Monday, I knew I wanted some stuff that we could cook or share with friends. I was happy to see heads of lettuce and some last of the summer cherry tomatoes. I grabbed a couple of green peppers so I could make a salad and Beth's favorite salad dressing to go with it. I also was thinking of making an apple tarte tatin. In my family, the only apples we cooked with were Granny Smiths. We're a family that really enjoys tart with our sweet. So alas no GS were to be found but they did have plums. I found this kinda cool because I always only thought of plums as an early summer or late spring fruit. I didn't know they were still even really in season. So I grabbed a container of plums and decided that I wanted to try and make Evan Kleiman's plum sour cream pie. The recipe is here.

I also really wanted to try and make an apple tarte tatin. My friend Caroline makes one every fall and she uses puff pastry dough. So I went ahead and looked for a recipe on epicurious and found this one.

So I was going to attempt two new recipes. I wasn't 100% that either would work out well. Infact, I was a bit concerned that the desserts would be a big fail but I hadn't been baking in so long that I wanted to try something new.

I started by cutting up the plums. Look how pretty!




It seemed like a lot of plums and Evan didn't really say now many. So I decided to make two pies. I ended up doubling the sour cream mixture. Unfortunately, as I was pouring the plums and sour cream into the pie crusts I started to realize that maybe there was too much sour cream stuff and should have just stayed with one pie. My hunch was confirmed because the pies took close to 2 hrs to cook. Eeek. They looked cute coming out of the oven though:



Look! Pie crust cozies, teehee. Anyway, I let the pies cool and snuck a piece. The filling wasn't right at all. It was lumpy and not sweet enough. I was kinda bummed but hoped that the ice cream a guest was bringing would help disguise the issue.

I moved into the apple tartin.


I followed the recipe down to the letter and when it came time to flip, the middle of my apple tartin was completely burned. I was so sad. I even used less time than what the recipe asked for just because I knew our oven ran hot (damn electric!)

Sigh. Well luckily, Jenny did bring ice cream that that helped. It also helped that E made an amazing pasta dinner. But E making an amazing dinner is to be expected.

Since it's fairly early in the fall season, I think I will be attempting the apple tartin again. Watch out apple tartin, I'm gonna make you my bitch for sure! ;)

A Meal for One

CSA greens: lettuce, purple kale, the leaves of kohlrabi. Cowgirl Creamery Point Rey Blue (thanks Caroline). Parm. Olive Oil. Rice Wine Vinegar. Red Pepper Flakes. Salt. Pepper.

Dolin: a tiny glass on ice.

Love.

Why the hell did I wait this long to join a CSA again?

Mean Girls

This rainy afternoon, I trekked down to Boston's City Hall to pick up my first ever CSA share. I was excited to see what we had scored and to meet my CSA farmers/providers as well. The City Hall farmers market is a bit small but for someone, like me, who lives in the city and doesn't have access to a car, even tiny markets like this one in a T convenient place make a huge difference.

I joined the Silverbrook Farms CSA. I didn't know much about them other than they had several pick up days and times and the locations were also in T accessible locales. I wanted to join Stillman Farms CSA but they lack convenient pick up places unless you happen to live close by and very limited days/times. I was bummed because my friend Caroline, who moved to CA, raved, raved, raved about Stillman's CSA. Infact, her great experience was the catalyst for me wanting to join one too.

So off I went! I walked passed the four other stalls and made a mental note to stop by each of them on my way back home. When I finally arrived to the Silverbrook Stall, I noticed it didn't seem as lush or showy as the other veggies stalls. Infact, they lacked fruits. I noticed that the other two vendors had cherries and strawberries out. No matter, my CSA peeps won me over with their earnest and friendly nature. I introduced myself to them. They were quick to apologize that there would be no strawberries this week, as had been previously announced, due to the weather but that they were giving us freshly made strawberry jam instead. In my bag went fresh eggs (!), cheese, a huge head of lettuce, kale, chard and an alien looking veggie that looked like a cross between a green turnip and lettuce. I was pleased with my portion. So many veggies! I was a little sad that there weren't any fruit-y type veggies but again, no matter. My CSA peeps were extraordinarily nice and friendly. I'm delighted at the prospect of going every week to see them!

I walked back to the various stalls and stopped by a bakery stall for a company called the Danish Company. The man working there was wonderfully friendly too. I asked if he had any gluten or wheat free offerings and he showed me the almond macaroon and the coconut one too. I bought 1 of each to try. The size of the almond macaroon was a little small compared to Modern Pastry but it was very good as was the coconut one. As he wrapped up my cookies, he asked if I'd be interested in buying gluten/wheat free bread. I said absolutely and that I'd be back each week for the my Silverbrook CSA. He brightened over the prospect of me coming back each week and mentioned that he had talked to the Silverbrook CSA kids about doing a collaboration with them. I said that I thought that'd be a great idea. I bid him farewell and told him I'd be back next week.

I was so happy over my positive interactions that I decided that I wanted to at least check out Stillman Farms booth. They had the first stall and it was apparent that they took what they did seriously. Besides a large offering of strawberries they had maybe four different varieties of beets, plus a freezer full of meat. I saw chorizo and was so tempted to grab some to go with the eggs that I had gotten from Silverbrook. But I held off. The two people working the booth didn't seem really interested in helping me at all. I stood there for a bit and waited. I finally asked the man about some beets. He answered my question but wasn't very friendly. It was clear that Stillmans was like the "cool" kids of the farmer's market. They didn't have to be charming or friendly. They knew they were the poo. Finally I decided, I'd buy some beets and strawberries and I mentioned to them both that I wanted to join their CSA, to which the answer came back, "well we're just so popular..." Really, seriously that's your answer?!?!

"Um no," I said, "I just couldn't make the times and locations of your pick up. I wish you'd do the CSA pick up here". The woman (who was a bit nicer than the man) said something about there being a 1000 something or other and it's just too hard to coordinate. No worries. I'm not complaining. I then went on to explain that my friend Caroline who moved to California was a big fan and she was the one who told me about them. I figured flattery would get me in good with the cool kids.

Not so much. Instead they faced each other and said, "wow that's cool that someone who moved to California is still talking about us". Um, yeah. Hello, remember me? I'm right here. Hello?!

Ok, I get it. You guys are all farmers and that's what you do. But the best way to describe the Stillman farms people would be to call them the Mean Girls of the Farm Stand. They seemed a little stuck up and kinda over it. Maybe it was the crappy weather. I'll certainly go back and buy things from them and give them another shot but I'm kinda glad I didn't join their CSA. If Stillman Farms are the Mean Girls of the Farmers Market, then my little Silverbrook Farms would be the Band Geeks or in Mean Girls, they'd be the Math Team. And well, as a former band geek, I think I've found my peeps.