Ahhh . . . it’s that time again! The email announcing that it’s been warm enough at the farm to officially get the planting season underway has already arrived. Aside from the fact this type of news just makes me so darn happy, it’s also a notice for me to start getting things underway in my kitchen for the upcoming CSA season.
This year I plan on being more organized than last year. Last year was my first year canning (both water and pressure) along with getting poultry and a fruit share on top of the produce one. I’ll be rearranging my kitchen a bit, both for storage and because I would like a more permanent photo shoot area set up. I found a kitchen “greenhouse” that will fit perfectly in front of my sunny windows for an herb and pea garden, and perhaps some fall and winter salad plants. Hopefully this will help me “win” against the cats and let them know who’s indoor garden it really is. It’s nice that they like greens and all, but let’s get real here .
I think one of the main things that will help me be even more organized this year will be better meal planning. Yeah, I know, sounds pretty boring, eh? Especially this far in advance, lol!~ But it’s really not that “type” of planning. My previous “meal planning” consisted of planning/cooking one meal and seeing how many offshoot meals I could make from it for lunches, quick dinners etc. An example would be: Roast a chicken with root veggies for dinner (always cook extra veggies!). Perhaps have leftovers for lunch the next day. Remove the rest of the meat from the bones and toss the bones in the pressure cooker for broth. With the meat, make a soup (roasted chicken, root veggie, mushroom and wild rice soup rocks!) or a main dish like enchiladas, depending on my mood. Or, using the broth and just half of the meat for a soup, I could do both. This year I will go back to what I did my first year with the CSA. Never (this time it will be rarely) cook the same recipe/meal more than once during the season, with perhaps the exception of various roast chickens, lol!~ It’s a great and fun way to explore unfamiliar produce and/or expand on the many different uses. There are so many options for cooking inspiration, looking at recipes can become quite a pastime! So the additional meal planning will be collecting recipes for certain produce now and putting them together in files. I know I will be getting greens every week, both cooking and salad, so I will have a nice thick folder of various cooked greens recipes and one for fabulous salads and dressings. I’ll be doing the same for beets, summer squash, turnips, etc. Recipes will be arranged in a seasonal progression and I’ll be sure to include some that will can or freeze well for storage along the way. This advance planning should help me in 2 ways. One, I won’t be spending hours looking over recipes (no matter how enjoyable I find it!) when I’m short on time and two, because of the time saving, I’ll won’t procrastinate eating all of my share waiting for time to recipe hunt. Kind of solving the catch 22 in eating the CSA share for me! And it should keep me from getting backlogged with fresh produce and then rushing to cook or put it by, which totally takes the fun and enjoyment out of the kitchen and the produce.
Getting your produce from a CSA is fantastic, but when life gets busy, it’s best to have plans (and recipes) for it.
