multipurposegoddess

I was so glad to get eggs this morning - I ran out a few days ago and Farm Fresh doesn't guarantee eggs as part of my order, they'll bring them if they're available. But they were, so, yay! If they would partner up with a dairy to bring me cream and butter I would be so happy.

Pretty good haul in general:

• Satsumas (so every morning is like Christmas  until they run out)
• Oranges
• Gala apples
• Bosc pears
• Baby bok choy
• Bell peppers (perhaps for those Hungarian chicken and dumplings?)
• Fennel
• Lettuce
• Turnips
• Broccoli

It all looks so tasty (well, not the peppers which just never appeal to me, but I have plans for them which is almost as good)

[still can't crosspost]

My box came on Wednesday and I forgot to post about it. I'm sure you're all breathlessly waiting to find out what produce i'm eating this week. 

• Gala Apples (I've eaten half of them already)
• Pears
• Grapes (all gone)
• Bell Peppers
• Beets (in the oven now, greens already eaten up)
• Delicata Squash
• Swiss Chard (also all eaten up)
• Lettuce (half eaten up)
• Fingerling Potatoes
• Yellow Onion

I don't know what I'm going to do with those peppers, but everything else I will devour pretty quickly.

ION, I successfully made mayonnaise with a whisk and bowl rather than the blender today. And t was easy! Well, my forearm's sore from all that whisking (I should do it everyday, I don't think that particular muscle gets a workout doing anything else), but emulsification went so smoothly, I was amazed. I have no idea what I did differently this time from last time, but I hope this is the beginning of a new era of problem-free mayo making for me. I might even be able to make smaller amounts than a pint, because eating a pint of mayo, even over the course of a week, is challenging for me. Maybe if I start making, like, a quarter cup at a time it won't hurt my arm so much, either.

I may not have mentioned, because my brain is being eaten by Mac products, but I upgraded my laptop to Lion, the iPad to iOS5, and my cell phone to the new iPhone all in the past week. I literally forgot to eat and drink most of yesterday because i was messing around with technology. Communicating with the outside world is way down on my priorities.

I got eggs delivered today. Which, yay for egg delivery, but also I'm picking up eggs tonight in Vacaville and I still have 5 from my last dozen. That's a lot of eggs. I'll have to make pound cake or something to use them all up.

Actual produce delivered:

• 1 Yellow Onion
• 3 Peaches
• 1 lb  Red Plums (already being eaten, yum!) 
• 3 Mangoes (in place of the melon that I don't take)
• 1 Avocado
• 1 bunch Broccoli
• 1 lb Green Beans
• Several Yellow Squash
• 1 bunch carrots
• 1 bunch Leaf Lettuce

As usual, getting the fruit all eaten before it spoils is the real challenge. I'd best get started.

My Farm Fresh box was on my porch when I got up this morning, which was a nice surprise - it had been arriving in the afternoon. An it had a dozen eggs on top, yay! Fresh eggs, delivered right to my porch! So exciting. They aren't quite as diverse in size and color as Soul Food's, but just appearing on my porch as if by magic is pretty sweet.

Good haul on the produce this box:

• Pink Lady Apples
• Gala Apples (I'm not sure I can distinguish between these two types)
• Ruby Red Grapefruit
• Hass Avocados
• Collard greens
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Beets with greens (they are large and beautiful)
• Butterball Potatoes (little boilers)
• Green Leaf Lettuce

I am having trouble deciding what to eat first. The collard greens I'll stew up with cornbread dumplings tomorrow, because I missed having corn bread to crumble on top last time. And the avocados are not quite as soft as I like, so they will sit on the counter for a little while. The broccoli, asparagus and beets are destined to be roasted, and I have the urge to fix the beet greens with cheese somehow, perhaps in pizza form. That may be dinner, beet green and pepperoni pizza. 

Box o' Produce arrived yesterday afternoon. For once, my fridge was basically empty and ready for it, so that's awesome. I will spare you the details, but I have been feeling like going back on the clear liquids for a while might be a good idea, so I almost postponed delivery. When I went to see about that possibility, though, I also saw that this week's box includes beets, and I couldn't take a chance that I wouldn't get beets later if I did postpone. Eating lots of vegetables might be just as therapeutic as eating not much of anything, right?

Anyway, in this week's box:

• Green leaf lettuce
• Braeburn apples
• Tangelos
• Tangerines
• Beets (red) (with attached greens)
• Carrots (Nantes, I think?)
• Green onions
• Red onion
• Dino kale
• Collard greens
• Cauliflower

That's a lot of nom. I'll be cooking up a mess of greens at some point today, and I've got a pound of chicken liver thawing for tomorrow; either I'll carmelize some onions in the crock pot to add to sauted liver, or I'll try the chicken liver pate in the crockpot recipe I just stumbled across in one of the cookbooks I forgot I had. The beets and cauliflower are destined to be roasted, I think, but they'll keep better than the greens so they have to wait their turn.

Also arriving yesterday was worm bin #1, and also worms, so that is all set up in the garage. This happened to be the green one (I mean it is the color green, not that is more eco-friendly than the other), the red one (terra cotta according to the web site) will go out in the old dovecote which I suppose I can then refer to as the worm shed to distinguish it from the shed shed. I put all the mail-order worms into this one, because I didn't think they'd stay alive any other way, so I'll have to get some more once the other comes. I'd be surprised if I can successfully separate a half pound of worms from a just started bin. Anyway, they have some well-aged chard and cilantro to munch on, and they all were moving around after a couple of hours under the damp newspapers yesterday, so I think they will be happy enough. Green = kitchen scraps and Red = dog waste, btw, so I can easily remember which worm castings to not put on food crops when I get to that point.

Oh, almost forgot, Farm Fresh To You, my source for delivered vegetables, is going to start offering eggs for delivery with the box! I put in a request for a dozen with my next box, which'll be before Soul Food has pick-up available again (and delivery is nicer than pick up, anyway, though I will keep picking up chickens and eggs from Soul Food, just possibly not quite as frequently)

That's right, the monthly CSA delivery carries on through the winter. The farm included a nice little essay detailing what (and how) they can continue to harvest and where they get supplemental veggies. In my box this week:

• Satsumas! Yay! I was just talking about how much I like these
• Navel oranges
• Bosc pears (I'm gonna have to do some research on these - all the varieties of pear confuse me)
• Dino Kale
• More leeks, I still have leeks from last month
• More butternut squash so now I have two
• Carrots, nom
• Red cabbage
• Rainbow chard
• Baby lettuce
• Radicchio - I decided I didn't like it in salad form last month, so I'll try cooking it this time

For once, I was pretty successful in getting the fridge relatively empty in anticipation of the influx of produce. I hope I can manage not to accidentally freeze any of it this time.

Man, I am talky lately! Lotta posts recently.

Anyway, Far Fresh box came today, containing

• radishes (I think I will try roasting)
• tomatoes
• rapini broccoli rabe
• spinach
• baby lettuce
• fuji apples
• pluots
• leeks
• fingerling potatoes
• valencia oranges
• kale
• cilantro
• sweet peppers
• green beans

Can I tell kale from spinach from broccoli rabe? I'm not sure.