Deciding to do a CSA this year was one of the biggest decisions I've made regarding food since I went organic/local/homemade/whatevertheheckitscalledmovement. You get a surprise basket of joy from a local farm, only you really don't have a say in what you get. Some farms will let you pick and choose for a premium, while others (like mine) will try to accomodate requests if possible. I kind of like the surprise basket. Its like a Food Network show each Wednesday when I go to pick up my crate. What crazy things will I find that I have to make edible, if not absolutely delicious? Will I be able to eat 5 pounds of lettuce and greens without getting sick of them? What the heck is this strange looking thing? Holy cow I have a bag of spinach and a head of lettuce left and my new crate will be here in two days!
Its a huge commitment, because if you are like me, beyond the challenge of figuring out how to use everything, there is also guilt in wasting anything. Oh no, what do I do with a bunch of mint and crap, I got more mint! Doh! There is also the guilt at the Farmer's Market if I buy anything that I could very well get in my CSA (I am not allowed to buy greens, I am not allowed to buy greens, ooooh, look, pretty frisee and garlic chives!).
So far, I have received 2 crates and so far, there is little to no waste. Mostly because I have a boy to feed and can send stuff home with him where in my mind, it is not wasted because it was a gift! My saviour is pickling. I love pickles. Who doesn't love pickles? Boy popped open a jar of spicy garlic asparagus pickles because I had traded it to him for a small jar of pickled garlic and dill pickled carrots. I was nervous, the idea of asparagus pickles had sounded good to me, but would it actually taste any good? It had been the requisite two weeks and I watched his face expectantly as he munched through his first spear. I heard crunching. That was good. I had a lot of fear that cooking the aspargus first would be a mistake. He declared them to be good with the right balance of sweet and pungent and bullied me for the recipe. Okay, that's a lie, he just asked me for the recipe and I told him to come to this blog.
And so I nabbed one, too. The verdict. Extremely addictive, although next time I would use a little more garlic, a little more hot pepper, and only pour the hot pickling liquid over the raw asparagus spears. We ate the entire jar in about 10 minutes. But not to fear, CSA to the rescue with another bunch of asparagus! And so, I have a quart jar of asparagus pickles getting all ready for me to eat. I also have a lil jar o' Asian Inspired Radish Pickles in the fridge. You can only eat raw veggies and salads so many times, but pickles, you can all the time! At least I can. And pickles can be super easy and don't require you to jar the pickles for storage on the shelf if you have a relatively small amount like I received in my CSA.... cuz then you can just throw them in the fridge and they stay good for a couple weeks (if they last that long).
Radishes have a naturally crunchy and amazing texture with a nice peppery finish, and so they need very little to help them along on their way to pickle-dom. I packed about 8 small radishes sliced thin and a thinly sliced bulb of a CSA green onion into a small canning jar, and poured in the pickling brine. The pickling brine was nothing but 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes heated together. I popped on a lid but kept the ring a little loose and then let it cool before I transferred to the fridge. It should be ready to eat the next day, but they stay good and get better with age for the next couple of weeks. I am seriously considering finding me a farm stand and buying 20 pounds of asparagus so I can have asparagus pickles until next year.
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