CSA Adventure: Week 26 (Final Thoughts)

After my run-in with a pumpkin yesterday (more on that later), I realized I was overdue for a CSA wrap-up post. We received our last share on November 6--no more veggies, but the last of the grass-fed beef and some eggs. One lasting benefit from this whole experience is that we are going to continue buying quality eggs from this farmer. At this point they are being delivered to our front door every Friday morning, which is really nice.

Final share:

• one dozen farm-fresh eggs
• four pounds grass-fed ground beef
• one large grass-fed beef sirloin tip roast

So...with the CSA adventure now concluded, my wrap-up thoughts. I'm sure you've gathered that I'm disappointed with the whole experience. But first, the positives. I was glad to be able to support local farmers who are using sustainable, healthy growing practices. It could not have been much more convenient. And it was fun to experiment with herbs I don't normally use, vegetables I wouldn't ordinarily buy, etc. I loved that we were eating a variety of fresh, locally-grown, organic produce that was in season and optimally nourishing to our bodies. I loved knowing exactly where my beef came from and that it was way healthier than what I get at the store.

I also have a relationship with local, like-minded farmers now, and the potential to get other things I need from them. I already mentioned the eggs, and we will very likely be purchasing chickens from them next spring (which I wouldn't have known about if not for this experience).

My main frustration (as you well know if you've been reading all along) was that we received a whole lot less food than we expected--whether because of a misunderstanding, or because the farmer had a bad year, or both--and so that meant it was very, very expensive organic produce. We got a ton of fresh herbs and peppers, which, while nice, should have been a bonus to the food, not a replacement for the food. I can't exactly serve a side dish of sage, you know?

Much of what we received was also unusually tiny, except in one case. And that leads me to the pumpkin. It just kills me that things we expected to be normal-sized (carrots, bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes) were strangely small...and then, the one thing that we would have *wanted* to be small (the pumpkin) was huge. Oh, the irony. (I'll explain in my next post why we wanted a small pumpkin.) And some of the things we would eat, weren't very good quality. The watermelon we got wasn't all that tasty (we were getting better ones at Kroger), and the sugar snap peas we got several times were really bitter.

So all in all...I would not do it again with this farm. I'm pretty sure I could have done better by driving 40 minutes to the Nashville Farmers' Market, even factoring in gas money. Of course, this was lots more convenient, and I also don't know about the growing practices of the farmers downtown. But we did end up with a lot of stuff we didn't particularly like or care to use, whereas at the farmers' market, I can buy what we like best and will eat.

Mostly I wish we could have a garden--not because I enjoy gardening, but because it is a much more cost effective way to get fresh organic produce--and you can choose exactly what to plant. But as long as we live in this location, that's not an option. I'm not sure what we'll do next summer. I still really, really like the idea of voting with my dollars and supporting local, sustainable farming. I don't even mind paying a premium for that kind of food (just not an *excessive* premium). So we may give the CSA concept one more shot (there's a bigger, more established CSA in the area--the one we almost signed up for before we found out about this one), or we may just be deliberate about frequenting farmers' markets and produce stands next summer.

At any rate, thanks for hanging in there with me through this experience...much to the relief of some of you, I am sure, I am all done talking about it now. Except for the pumpkin post (which is only marginally related).

CSA Adventure: Week 25

Obviously, it's not much of an adventure anymore, but I'll finish what I started. We have delivery on Friday mornings now, instead of having to pick up our share on Thursday afternoons. The pick-up place was right on Steve's way home from work, so it wasn't really inconvenient, but this is nice nonetheless.

I was expecting only eggs and beef today, but our farmer surprised me by dropping off a whole chicken. They asked us earlier in the summer if there would be interest if they started selling chickens, and I expressed interest. I asked about it again recently, so she brought one for us to try.

Also, Steve and I thoroughly enjoyed one of our NewYork strip steaks (it was big enough that we could split it and save the other for later) last week. We had a simple but fabulous meal: grilled steak, real-butter-and-heavy-cream fettuccine alfredo, and steamed broccoli that was to DIE for with that yummy alfredo sauce on top of it. Can't wait to try the filets that are still in the freezer! It had been a LONG time since we'd had steak at home, so this was a fun treat.

This week:

• a dozen farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass fed ground beef
• one whole pastured chicken

CSA Adventure: Week 24

The vegetables, it seems, are done. We'll still be getting eggs and beef for a couple more weeks, but our produce farmer has nothing more to give us. That's understandable--if it frosts and kills your plants, there's not much you can do--but frustrating, because it means that our per-week cost was even higher than we realized. We were averaging the total over 26 weeks, not 23. Twenty-three means those dumb banana peppers were even more obnoxiously expensive.

On the bright side...we are getting double shares of beef. I don't know why, but I'm definitely not complaining--especially when you see just what beef we got today! We're also getting a dozen eggs instead of the half-dozen we've been getting all summer.

This week:

• a dozen farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef
• two large grass-fed New York strip steaks!

CSA Adventure: Week 23

So...at this point I am ready to just cut my losses and be done with this. Three more weeks.

The good news: Steve, who usually picks up our share each week (it's right on his way home from work) had to work late last Thursday, so I had to pick up the share. But Elijah was napping from 3-5, which is the pickup window. I called our farmer and she graciously offered to drop it off at our house on Friday morning! That was a blessing.

The bad news: This week's share was so piddly that it didn't even come in the big bag. We usually get our produce in a reusable grocery bag--the standard size you've probably seen at Kroger and other stores--and our beef in a smaller bag. Not that the big bag is ever actually full, but still. All we got this week was the smaller bag.

Our farmer was a bit apologetic and commented that we just haven't had any sunshine this week--which was true--and this late in the season, a meager share would have been totally understandable. That is, if we hadn't been receiving somewhat meager shares all season long. I had expected that we'd be getting huge harvests in the peak of the summer, so that the pathetic shares in the beginning and end would average out. But we all know that didn't exactly happen.

So here's what we got this week:

• about two servings of salad greens
• three small banana peppers
• one cherry tomato. ONE. seriously.
• one serving of snap peas
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

Um. Yeah. That was it.

CSA Adventure: Week 22

The CSA is winding down...only about 3-4 weeks left, I think...and it seems to be ending the way it began, with other miscellaneous gift items to fill in the sparse produce. It was at least fun to get a gigantic pumpkin--and we got a double share of beef, though I have no idea why.

This week's bounty:

• two servings of lettuce
• two dozen-ish cherry tomatoes
• basil
• more of that weird greens/cabbage I have no idea what to do with...completely bug-eaten
• several cayenne peppers with a little glass bottle and instructions for preserving
• sage hair rinse
• a pint jar of apple cake
• a large pumpkin
• six farm-fresh eggs
• a grass-fed beef chuck roast
• grass-fed beef cutlets

CSA Adventure: Week 21

Nothing witty or interesting to say about this week's share...it is what it is. I don't think I ever mentioned that Steve ended up pickling lots of the banana peppers we've been getting the last couple of months. I'll be curious to see how that turns out. STILL haven't managed to try mojitos with our mint...ACK!

This week's bounty:

• mint
• parsley
• lettuce
• unidentified greens with thick white stems...maybe bok choy?
• peppers--six banana, one tiny green bell, several cayenne and jalapeno
• three dozen-ish cherry tomatoes
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure: Week 20

I kept the box from last week's harvest from my in-laws so I could put our CSA shares in it for a visual reference.

Kind of hard to tell from the angle, but it's definitely not as full (and banana peppers, which are taking up quite a bit of space, seem more "flavoring" than food--something you use almost as a condiment, not as a side dish or main ingredient). Keep in mind this is supposed to be--at least I assume so--a double share, since we didn't get any produce last week.

This week's bounty (by now you know I am using that term pretty loosely):

• eight banana peppers
• five small eggplant
• about one pound of snap peas
• three dozen(ish) cherry tomatoes
• three small and one large tomato
• one dozen farm-fresh eggs
• four pounds grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure: Week 19

Our farmers are on vacation this week, so no share to pick up. I assume that means a double share next week.

But...we DID get fresh produce this week! While we were home (I should really blog about that soon), we raided my in-laws' garden. Their tomato plant is seriously out of control--I can't fathom having that many tomatoes. So before we left, they loaded us up with a box of vegetables.

THIS is more in line with the amount of produce I was expecting from our CSA. I totally shoudl have been taking pictures like this all summer, but I've been too lazy. Our produce comes in a big reusable grocery bag, not a box, and I haven't wanted to make the effort to arrange it nicely for a photo. Anyway, while the peppers are still tiny, the tomatoes are a lot nicer looking. Too bad they're mostly hidden by the squash in this photo.

This week's bounty (it really DOES feel bounteous):

• three dozen cherry tomatoes
• a dozen regular tomatoes of varying sizes
• one butternut squash
• one head of purple cabbage
• three small bell peppers (two red, one green)
• about seven large stalks of rhubarb (cut in half here):

Glorious, beautiful rhubarb. I made muffins on Tuesday night...YUM.

We've been putting the produce to good use. Last week's CSA produce went into eggplant caponata on Wednesday...which I do not recommend. Last night was fabulous bruschetta chicken, and tomato pie is on deck for tomorrow. Loving the cabbage in apple coleslaw: finely chopped cabbage and finely chopped apple in a Miracle-Whip-and-honey dressing.

Praise God for taste buds and the wide variety of tasty food we get to enjoy!

CSA Adventure: Week 18

Our CSA farmer long ago stopped sending out a weekly newsletter, which means sometimes I am even less sure what it is that I have received. This week we received a glass bottle of what I assume is probably olive oil, with an herb that I'm pretty sure is sage floating in it. I have no idea what exactly I am supposed to do with this. I suppose I can just use it like regular olive oil in savory dishes, and I do use olive oil all the time.

I still have all the ingredients for mojitos, and we finally got some mint again, yet once again I don't think we're going to manage to make them before the mint gets slimy or dries up. Argh. I do think I'm going to make another tomato pie next week. The second recipe I tried, with corn and lemon mayo and a biscuit-y crust, was a disaster. We actually ended up dumping the last two pieces down the drain because neither of us wanted to force down the leftovers again! The flavors were all wrong and completely overpowered the tomatoes, and it merely left me craving the original tomato pie even more.

This week's "bounty":

• two tiny eggplant
• two tiny summer squash
• six banana peppers
• mint
• tomatoes: one normal-sized, seven small, a dozen cherry
• a bottle of oil with what looks like sage floating in it
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds of grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure: Week 17

How do you handle confrontation?

I keep thinking about how disappointed I am with the way our CSA has turned out this summer, and the way several of you have indicated that my disappointment is understandable and that I should talk to the farmers.

I'm chicken. I don't like confrontation. I have no idea what to say in an email.

Pretty pathetic round of produce this week. Of course we get a watermelon the week when they're on sale at Kroger for $2.99. More cherry tomatoes, so we're going to enjoy another round of chicken, corn and tomato salad and perhaps give this soup a try (squash from last week is still in the fridge unused). We also got the second of two boxes of burgers--lots and lots of burgers. Thankfully my freezer had a little more wiggle room this time and the rearranging to make room for thirty hamburgers was not accompanied by the gnashing of teeth, unlike last time.

But, you know, I am disappointed, but I am thankful. I'm thankful that Steve was willing to give this CSA thing a try, and that we are growing in our awareness of where our food comes from and how to eat more naturally. I'm thankful that our financial position is stable so that the low yields from our investment are not breaking us. I'm thankful that our freezer is full of high-quality beef. I'm thankful that food is so readily available to us, that my child never goes hungry. In light of all these blessings, how can I complain?

This week's bounty:

• one watermelon
• four small tomatoes
• two dozen-ish cherry tomatoes
• parsley
• banana, jalapeno and cayenne peppers
• six farm-fresh eggs
• 30 grass-fed ground beef patties

CSA Adventure: Week 16

Everything is so tiny. Is that typical of organic gardening? When I think of eggplant or summer squash or bell peppers, I think of what I see at the grocery store--and what we are getting in our CSA is about half that size. (Or smaller.) No exaggeration: We got three green bell peppers this week, and I could hold all three in one hand, easily.

The tomatoes (also small, even compared to what we are getting from other people's [non-organic] gardens) are finally starting to roll in, so that's nice. SmittenKitchen posted a different tomato pie recipe last week--with corn instead of onions, and a different crust--so I think I am going to try that again this week and see which one is better. I also need to figure out how to make pesto. We keep getting more basil than I can use, and we actually have our own basil plant (the only one of five we planted in pots that is actually doing well), so I need to do something with all that basil.

This week's bounty:

• one tiny eggplant
• two small summer squash
• 1-2 servings of green beans
• three tiny green bell peppers
• seven banana peppers
• two servings of mixed greens
• five tomatoes
• two dozen or so cherry tomatoes
• lavender
• basil
• oregano
• six farm-fresh eggs
• a grass-fed beef chuck roast

CSA Adventure, Week 15

I forgot to inventory our share this week as I unpacked it, so I'll have to try and reconstruct from memory. It was once again disappointing...I haven't gotten up the nerve to say something yet :/ I did ask if we could get zucchini instead of more cucumbers--and was generously told that although zucchini are over for now, she would be happy to substitute some other things.

So, no new cukes this week and I successfully got rid of the remaining the 5-6 we still had sitting around here, via a cucumber salad in yesterday's church potluck--yesssss :P (I did also take some homemade bread to compensate.) I also learned that cooking is no fun when you are cooking something you don't even enjoy eating!

A couple of the tomatoes we've gotten this week and last are really strange-looking--okay, they're ugly, if I'm honest. Back when this CSA started, I remember them talking about Black Prince tomatoes (an heirloom variety), so I think that's what these are. They taste pretty much like normal tomatoes, but they're dark purplish. It almost looks like they're rotten or something. My question is, why on earth would you want to grow these instead of regular red tomatoes--when the red ones look so much more appealing when cut up and spread all over, say, bruschetta pizza (tonight's dinner)?

One of the things she said she could substitute was collard greens. So I assume that's what this huge bunch of greens is...but what do I do with collard greens????

This week's bounty (as best I can remember):

• about 1/4-1/2 lb. green beans
• a handful of salad greens
• a big bunch of what I *think* are collard greens
• jalapeno, banana and cayenne peppers
• several tomatoes--regular, heirloom, grape/cherry
• 2-3 very small eggplant
• parsley and thyme
• five farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef
• two cuts of grass-fed filet mignon!!

CSA Adventure, Week 14

So the Chinese cabbage was a total bust. Yesterday I made Asian style beef short ribs, in the crockpot (a Real Simple recipe). We'd gotten the ribs from our CSA a few weeks ago, and I thought I could sub the cabbage for the regular green cabbage the recipe called for. Wrong. I took one bite and spit it right back out on my plate. Bitter! I don't know what else to do with them, so I will probably just end up throwing the other two bunches out. I'm glad I didn't chop them up and ruin a whole pot of fried rice with them, as I'd originally intended to do.

The ribs, for what it's worth, were not great either. The sauce was fine, but that was the saddest cut of beef I've ever seen. I don't know what beef short ribs typically cost per pound, but the cost per pound of edible meat must be astounding, because after fighting through all the fat and cutting off the huge bone, I ended up with about five bites of meat. Good grief.

I couldn't help but remark how small everything is this week. The eggplant is tiny and the green peppers are miniatures. Steve said, "Well, there's a reason people use all those nasty fertilizers and such...they work." Hmm.

This week's bounty:

• tomatoes--one regular, six cherry, and two mysterious purplish ones that are sort of like a cross between a Roma and a cherry
• three small eggplants (and I do mean small)
• cucumbers (oh joy)--one regular, three lemon
• about 3/4 pound green and purple beans
• five banana peppers
• three tiny green bell peppers
• basil
• thyme
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure, Week 13

Nothing too exciting to report this week. I've got a couple of new recipes on deck to use the Chinese cabbage we've been getting. Sliced up the tomato this morning and it was so red and fragrant and tasted great in my omelet. Still not loving the cukes :) I wish we could trade them for zucchini--I actually had to *buy* zucchini, which I've never done before, because I wanted to make zucchini bread this week.

I'm actually more excited this week about what I've been getting from the Nashville Farmers Market. I sure wish we lived closer to that--I'd forego the CSA altogether and be shopping there very frequently! Although I don't know what, if anything, there is organic--I doubt much--and it *is* nice to just lightly rinse a tomato from our CSA and not have to wonder what pesticides are on there or whether they're really coming off as I wash it.

Anyway, we were at the farmers market on Monday and got some peaches that were to DIE for...good enough that I stopped again yesterday (since I had to drive through Nashville anyway) and got about two dozen more :) I also got some fresh tomatoes for last night's bruschetta chicken (FYI, we put about three times as much topping on the chicken as that picture shows!). YUM. That meal is one of my favorites anytime, but it's fabulous with fresh, flavorful tomatoes.

This week's bounty:

• two bunches Chinese cabbage
• tomatoes: one small, four small Roma, two cherry, four grape
• two regular cucumbers
• two lemon cucumbers
• about 1/2 pound purple beans
• about 3/4 pound green beans
• banana, jalapeno and cayenne peppers
• sage
• chives
• oregano
• five farm-fresh eggs
• grass-fed sirloin tip roast

CSA Adventure: Week 12

This week's share felt abundant, for the first time...and yet the contents were a bit disappointing. We are still up to our ears in cucumbers, and still no good tomatoes. As far as last week, the corn was hardly worth eating--definitely not sweet--and guess who didn't get the mint used AGAIN?? I did take a cucumber salad to our church potluck last weekend, and although I wasn't a big fan, Steve did like it, so that's something. I threw some more in salads for dinner tonight, and in a pasta salad for a get-together I'm attending tomorrow. Wish I could wave a wand and turn them into zucchini...I'd LOVE to have more zucchini! So much more usable.

I am realizing that I desperately need some new ground beef recipes. I tend to cook with chicken more than beef. I use ground beef for tacos, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, and a few soups...but summer doesn't feel like soup time, and the ground beef is piling up in my freezer. So, please post your best ground beef recipes in the comments!

This week's bounty:

• tomatoes--12 cherry/grape, one Roma, none remotely close to ripe :(
• Chinese cabbage
• four regular cucumbers
• two lemon cucumbers
• four small yellow squash
• about a pound of green beans
• about 1/4 pound purple beans
• banana, jalapeno and cayenne peppers
• basil
• parsley
• "herb sugar"--for coffee/tea, apparently...but Steve drinks his coffee black and I don't drink either
• an unidentified sachet of something fragrant, purpose unknown
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure: Week 11

To be honest, I am still not overly thrilled with our CSA. We are almost to the halfway point (it runs for 26 weeks) and the weekly portions will need to increase *substantially* if it is all going to average out to the half-bushel a week we were told to expect.

We are up to our ears in cucumbers (the "funny-looking squash" from last week are actually an heirloom variety of cucumbers, my bad), and neither of us particularly likes cucumbers. I may attempt pickles, but it sounds complicated, and I don't like pickles, either. I thought we'd be getting lots of tomatoes, but I was dismayed to open our bag and find only four puny Roma tomatoes and two cherry tomatoes. None of which look particularly amazing. So much for the BLTs I planned for this weekend...

We are getting lots of fresh herbs in our share each week, and while sometimes that's kind of nice, it seems like herbs should just be an added bonus. Instead, it feels like they are using the herbs to fill out our shares--but herbs aren't food, they just add flavor to food.

I don't want to be Negative Nellie about it...but it just doesn't feel like we're getting much usable, meaningful *food* for the amount of money we paid. I am not sure if our expectations were unrealistic, if it's a bad year, if this is just a poorly planned/poorly run CSA (it's the first year for it), or what. Still hanging in there...

This week's bounty:

• tomatoes (four Roma, two cherry)
• four ears of sweet corn
• two regular cucumbers
• one lemon cucumber
• banana peppers and hot peppers
• green beans
• basil
• mint (determined to actually make mojitos this week instead of wasting it!)
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

CSA Adventure: Week 10

Since we were out of town all last week, we asked our CSA farmers if we could just get double this week. We are only paying for a half-share of vegetables, so we just got the regular full share this week. Unfortunately we had hard rain here yesterday, which apparently caused lots of the tomatoes to split, so we only got a couple. Some strange and interesting things in the bag--not much I'm really looking forward to using, to be honest.

This week's bounty:

• Eight Ball zucchini
• five strange-looking round yellow squash (at least we're pretty sure they're squash)
• two small normal-looking yellow squash
• three cucumbers
• Purple Queen beans (like green beans, but purple! weird!)
• banana peppers
• hot peppers
• a gigantic, ugly Siamese-twin tomato
• two Roma tomatoes and six grape tomatoes
• garlic chives
• pineapple sage
• a bouquet of sunflowers
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef (plus a roast from last week)
• five farm-fresh eggs

CSA Adventure: Week 8

So, um...the soapwort is still sitting on my kitchen table. Oops.

We did, however, put a lot of the zucchini to good use with zucchini sticks (dipped in egg and battered with Italian breadcrumbs + Parmesan, drizzled with olive oil and baked, served with marinara sauce) and yummy, healthy muffins--both recipes I'll revisit.

This week is one of two weeks we get a huge box of hamburgers instead of the usual two pounds of ground beef. I had to empty my entire freezer and reorganize everything to fit 10 lbs of hamburgers in there. Oy. It needed to be done, anyway...Maybe one of these days we'll get a separate freezer for the basement. Problem is, in order to get a freezer, we need a generator, and if we're going to get a generator, we need to buy a bunch of gas to have on hand...and then it starts to sound like "If you give a mouse a cookie..."

Anyway...I digress. This week's bounty:

• two Eight Ball zucchini (these still fascinate me--I need to take a picture)
• one regular zucchini
• two small yellow squash
• green beans
• candy cane mint
• hot peppers
• six farm fresh eggs
• 30 grass-fed beef hamburger patties

CSA Adventure: Weeks 6 and 7

Last week was a little crazy and I got behind on CSA posting...just as well, now I can start posting *in* the actual week (I was a few days off before--we get shares on Thursdays, so yesterday we received week 7's share).


I really need to work on actually taking care of things Thursday night. I've been terrible about just leaving our stuff--especially the herbs--on the kitchen table for a day or two, and that is bad news. I had to throw out all the garlic chives we got last week, except for a few that we put on our baked potatoes that night, because I left them sit out and there was moisture in the bag, so they got slimy and gross.


On the other hand, I feel so gourmet when I cook with fresh herbs! At the beginning, I didn't know what to do with them, really, but I'm getting into it more now--to the point that this week, I actually requested more fresh thyme because I have a use for it. I also love using fresh basil, and we got a mess of it this week. Yay for bruschetta pizza on the menu tomorrow night.


This week's share included soapwort, an herb/flower not to be taken internally, but which contains saponins--natural cleaners. Our newsletter included a recipe for homemade cleaner or shampoo, so I'll have to do some experimenting.


Last week's bounty:

• three small yellow squash
• an "Eight Ball Zucchini"--an heirloom variety of zucchini shaped like a small pumpkin--very strange looking!
• peppermint (which I meant to use for mojitos, and never got around to before it got all brown and dry :(
• garlic chives
• four small hot peppers
• six farm-fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef

This week's bounty:

• one small yellow squash
• a regular zucchini and another Eight Ball zucchini
• four white radishes (oh joy...supposed to be milder than the red variety, though)
• sweet basil, purple basil and Genovese basil
• a bunch of fresh thyme (by request--waaaay more than I needed)
• soapwort
• six farm-fresh eggs
• beef short ribs

CSA Adventure: Week 5

I like the *idea* of no pesticides on my food. However, I do not like pests on my food.

Lesson of the week from our CSA: organic broccoli fresh from your farmer's garden has to be washed differently (much more carefully) than broccoli from the grocery store. Otherwise you may inadvertently eat a worm.

EW.

Did I mention, EW?!?!?

Last night we decided to have "rabbit food" (cut up vegetables--I should refer to it as "crudités"--that sounds so much more refined) with our chicken, corn and tomato salad pitas (new recipe--definitely a hit). Steve cut up the vegetables: red bell pepper, carrots, and some broccoli we got in this week's CSA share. The first "ew!" was the strange looking bug mysteriously crawling on our counter after Steve was finished. When I yelled and pointed it out, he said it was probably from the broccoli since that had come fresh from the garden.

We sat down to eat and as I went to pick up a piece of broccoli, I was horrified to notice a green worm nicely camouflaged against the green stalk. EW. Steve kindly picked it off for me, and I inspected it warily before putting it in my mouth--only to find another tiny green bug. EW.

A few moments later I picked up another piece of broccoli and was greeted by ANOTHER worm. WORMS. ON MY DINING ROOM TABLE. In food I am just milliseconds from putting IN MY MOUTH.

EW.

I dropped the broccoli on the table, horrified, and Steve took the bowl of vegetables back into the kitchen for a more careful de-worming. I think it's probably very, very good that I didn't see how many more worms he picked off the broccoli. *shudder* He actually had to pick them off--they don't just rinse off. And because he had eaten a couple of pieces of broccoli before my worm drama, it's entirely possible he ate a worm or two. I mean, do you realize how many nooks and crannies broccoli has in which worms can hide? EW.

Broccoli used to be one of my favorite vegetables. But either broccoli washing is going to be Steve's job the rest of the summer, or we are going to have to find a way to wash it or soak it in something that does not require physical removal of worms. I don't do worms.

I don't want pesticides on my food. That's one of the many reasons we joined an organic CSA. But at least the pesticides are invisible, and not squirming. EW.

This week's bounty:

• lettuce
• one head of garlic
• three small zucchini
• one head of worms broccoli
• oregano
• six farm fresh eggs
• two pounds grass-fed ground beef