CSA Iron Chef

We got our first "delivery" of CSA vegetables (my husband picked it up from the drop zone Thursday night). There wasn't much in this weekly share: about a pound of broccoli, a bunch of spinach, a whole mess of English peas (about 2 lbs), 20 garlic scapes, a head of red lettuce, and some oregano. I guess it's a good way to ease into what might become an unmanageable amount of produce. When he picked up the veggies, "Bob" was told not to worry, because there would be more vegetables in future weekly shares.

Given the small haul, this week will amount to a practice week for incorporating the seasonal vegetables into our menu planning. As I had anticipated, all of our meals will have to be planned around the CSA shipment if we don't want to be wasteful. My friend Gail got a lot more from her first CSA shipment in the Bronx. I am jealous, but since I'm helping her out with recipes (what to do with all that squash? how do you prepare turnips?), I'll probably be more prepared when these vegetables suddenly come our way (even though I'm not entirely sure if our farmer is growing squash and turnips).

Today we were out in the garden planting some new flowers and moving some old plants to new locations (the clematis better cover the pergola, unlike the two honeysuckles we bought last year). I also bought two new hanging baskets: absolutely beautiful black-eyed susan vines. On the patio, I've potted some French lavender, basil, and we'll be moving our azaleas tomorrow and replacing them (temporarily) with tomatoes: Romas and Rutgers (my alma mater).

Since oregano was part of this week's CSA share, now's a good time to point out this incredibly instructive Chocolate & Zucchini post about what to do with fresh greens when you get them home. Especially important is the comments that readers of that blog have posted. I think the comments/message boards are the most interesting and lively area of any blog—especially when there are a lot of them (hint hint).

On tonight's menu is the chicken pot pie. There's no eggs in the house, so no egg wash (oh no!). We'll see what happens. We'll also have salad (the red leaf lettuce from the CSA) with the rest of my mustard vinaigrette.