CSA Box

Yesterday’s breathless account of the CAG meeting pushed off our usual Thursday feature, and I even forgot an anecdote. Dr. Robert Gross, the distinguished former SCVWD Director from District 3, attended the meeting as an interested member of the public, and told me, rather cryptically, “I still think you’re too young.” I replied that time would take care of that, one way or another.

Late summer continues to bring us treats. This week we have corn!

And, continuing clockwise, baby bok choy, apples, eggplant, zucchini, lettuce and carrots.

Then, clockwise from the front, raspberries, apples, spinach, peppers, potatoes, eggs, and tomatoes and chilis in the center.

Well, since we’re already a day out from receiving this, and since there was a 15th St. cookout last night, some of these are long gone. The raspberries were devoured from their box. The carrots, along with the rest of the carrot bag, got roasted and taken to the party, as well as baba ganouj made from three weeks’ worth of eggplants. I actually have no carrots in the house as I type this, which is an unusual event, although any joy is tempered by the growing threat of the apple bag. The zucchini have been dehydrated, the peppers roasted, skinned and frozen. Since I was going out last night, I cut and froze the corn kernels as well.

I have been doing some cooking, although not really keeping up. I made quite a nice carrot loaf earlier in the week, along with a big batch of Romesco sauce with my accumulated peppers. I started using smoked paprika in my Romesco sauce after reading this article in the LA Times, but, really, anyway you make it, it’s one of those sauces that elevates anything it touches. (Or “smothers,” more realistically, if you like it as much as I do.)

I have more than a few things waiting around, actually: kohlrabi, beets, collards. It may be time to invite people over again.