CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Essentially, one purchases a ‘share’ in a local farm – much like the stock market, one then has a vested interest in seeing the farm succeed. Dividends/pay outs come in the form of produce – vegetables and sometimes fruit. Different farms do things differently; my farm happens to be also organic, and I pick up my box each week – Tuesdays for me – from a local location. Join me on this journey – my inaugural season with a CSA – as I explore the various vegetables I receive and what I can do with them to turn them into delicious happiness…
For more information on CSAs, click here. To find a CSA local to you, you can click here or for one in NYC, visit JustFood.org. I found mine by typing “Forest Hills CSA” into Google – my neighborhood name + the word CSA, and I’m sure that would work for you as well. Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labots… har, har.
Away we go… it was really, really rainy – well, nearly all of June has been super rainy here in NYC – when I went to pick up Week #3 of my CSA. And to boot, my throat was giving out, I was getting sick and just… not good. My throat killing me, and a bunch of leafy green veggies, I decided to throw together a veggie soup to soothe my scratchy throat.
Low in fat and super healthy, too. You could make this actually vegetarian, but I have homemade chicken stock in my freezer, so I used that. And because it’s something everyone can tweak to their tongue’s delight, I’m just going to give a rundown of what I did…
Saute garlic in some olive oil.
Add shredded carrots.
Add stems from Swiss Chard. (Yes, these are actually quite yummy and maintain a little crunch for a while.)
Add chopped up kohlrabi. (I never ate this before, but believed everything I Googled that said it’s like cabbage. And it is quite yummy.)
Add whatever veggies you have on hand and want in your soup.
Add red pepper flakes.
Add salt/pepper.
Add can of diced tomatoes.
Add homemade chicken broth.
Add leafy greens.
(In between each step is a minute or so while things soften up and whatever.)
Because I was sick, I let it all simmer for a little bit until the veggies were super soft, making it easier to drink/eat. A lightly spicy kick, after one bowl, I swear my throat was already feeling so much better.
I didn’t really do anything interesting with the other veggies. This was good enough to get me through the week. It made it into bento (sort of), too.
Mmmmm… I could use some more, too 😉
Happy eating!!!
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