CSA

What is a CSA? Simply put it is a great way for our family (and yours!) to buy fresh local produce directly from the farmer. Farmers who participate in CSA typically offer shares in their harvest and consumers (that's us!) purchase these shares and are able to partake in fresh local produce all summer long. If you are interested in learning more about CSA's and the benefits to both consumer and farmer visit Local Harvest.

The reason we decided to participate in a CSA again this year is that our family firmly believes in the benefits of organic local sustainable agriculture. It's as simple as that! Why I think this is important is a long and potentially boring explanation that I may discuss in later posts.

CSA's provide a cooking challenge because I am not in control of the produce that I will be given and I need to incorporate our share into our meals for the week. So I plan to blog how I do this!

Today's Loot
aka what we will be working with this week!

One quart strawberries
One bunch dill
One bunch cilantro
One bunch spring onions
Bok Choy
Radishes
Baby Turnips
Green Leaf Lettuce
Red Leaf Lettuce
Spring Mix
Spinach

Tonight's Dinner
Spinach/Ricotta Pizza

First: Make or buy your favorite pizza crust.
Then wilt one bunch of spinach in a teaspoon of olive oil.
Cut up one bunch of spring onions whites only sweat in a pan when onions are translucent. Add a sprinkle of brown sugar. Allow sugar to melt and onions to caramelize grate in two medium cloves of garlic (make sure your heat is on low and that you stir continuously so the garlic doesn't burn) when you can smell the garlic take the onions off the heat and mix with the spinach.
Combine the spinach mixture with 4-6 oz of ricotta and spread on the pizza. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake. I like to blind bake my pizza crust and then top and put the topped pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes until the toppings are warmed through.