Market Analysis: Week 9

This week's share:

6 ears Sweet Corn (50c/ear) : $3
6 lb Canteloupe ($1/lb): $6
bunch Head Lettuce: $2.50
bunch Bok Choy: $2.50
2lb Eggplant ($3.50/lb): $7
1lb 5oz Yellow Squash ($2/lb): $2.50
1/2 lb Carrots ($2/lb): $1
1 lb 6 oz Tomatoes ($2.50/lb): $3.40
bunch Green Kale: $2.50
bunch Basil: $2

total: $32.40

Of course, I'm not sure I would have gone for buying a 2 lb eggplant at $3.50/lb (I love eggplant, but I'd probably get a smaller amount of tiny Japanese ones or something, and some boxes probably contained those, but not mine.) And cost might have stopped me from choosig a 6 lb canteloupe at $1/lb, but we certainly won't have any problem eating it all!







We've already eaten half of the sweet corn and one of the ripest tomatoes as part of last night's dinner, and this morning I steamed the kale so it could get put away in a smaller plastic container instead of taking up half a produce drawer. We're also Getting quite a backlog of lettuce but this stuff is quite hardy and stays crisp in the vegetable drawer.

a fine pickle

I've been pickling cucumbers this month - this time, in 3 ways.

I usually do a batch using the recipe I like from my mother-in-law. Based entirely on past successes and the fact that she's done it that way for a generation, I treat the jars as something that are shelf-stable in a cool pantry or basement as long as I get a seal when the jars have cooled off. (I don't process them in a boiling water canner or anything, but I do start with sterile jars, add well-scrubbed cucumbers, and pour the brine over it all when it's still boiling. Then I let it cool gradually and it creates a seal.) They are vinegar pickles with enough salt and sugar in them that I'm happy enough with non-refrigerated storage, but I'm no expert.

This year I wanted to try two new kinds too:

Kosher dills, fermented on their own with no vinegar - you put them in a brine of the right strength, keep them somewhere cool for a few days, and, er... hope they don't get moldy. The first batch, I didn't weigh down properly, the cukes stuck up from the brine, and the whole top was too modly to believe I could salvage - but at least I could smell that the lactic acid fermentation was working too - so tempting, but not what I was willing to eat. The second one I way overfilled the jars with brine and used short cucumbers. I tried them this morning and they seem to taste like deli half-sours - hooray! These need to go in the fridge once their fermentation is over, so I only made two jars. I made them using cucumbers already cut up into spears, which is supposed to help them pickle faster and also helped me get rid of portions of some questionable cukes without throwing away the parts that looked good.

And last but not least, sliced sweet yellow pickle chips. This is not normally my favorite kind of pickle, thus it did not occur to me to make it myself. It did not occur to me how much more I would like it if I made it myself, either! I used a recipe from the chapter on condiments in my new favorite cookbook Charcuterie, and my conclusion is that Ruhlman knows his meats... and his pickles too. These are going on many more of my sandwiches this summer! They also have to stay in the fridge, but it's worth the real estate - I have 3 more pint jars in there right now. Also - an awesome thing to bring to a potluck BBQ, since they go so well on many of the things that will be coming off the grill!

Sauteed baby cabbage

Last night we pulled some sausages out of the freezer, and meanwhile in another pan I sliced up the baby cabbages, leaving the core on each slice to hold them together, and sauteed each slice in butter. It took a few batches, but that was how long it took the sausages to cook too.

I think there's a more artistic way to do this - the slices still came apart somewhat - but simple, really good cabbage, sauteed with butter and salt - who needs a complicated recipe on a summer night?

Market Analysis: Week 8

The farmers said that this box is a box between several seasons - some of the early crops are wrapping up, and some of the later crops are just getting started. So we're not quite inundated with tomatoes yet, the sweet corn was a pretty small amount, the squash is tapering off, etc. We had moved up to a larger size box last week, but this week was back to small.

3 ears sweet corn: (50c/ear) $1.50
2 tiny red cabbages (adorable!) 1 lb 10oz, $3.25
large bunch carrots: $3
6 oz yellow squash: $1.10
1 large green pepper: ($3/lb) $1
1 cucumber: ($2/lb) $1
1 tiny Asian eggplant : ($3/lb): $0.25
1 jalapeno pepper : $0.25
4 tomatoes (1 lb 9 oz) : $5.45
1 head "Nevada" lettuce: $2.50
1 bunch arugula: $2.50
1 bunch basil: $2.00

This week's total : $23.80



So far we've enjoyed the corn, the basil (I tend to have almost-weekly pesto in this season), and some of the tomatoes and carrots, but I haven't been cooking that much.

I think tonight's dinner will try doing something with whole slices of the baby red cabbages. They are so cute! And we should probably have some more green salad. Plenty of that in the drawer.

Another way to save money with a CSA

If I wasn't doing this research project to get farmer's market prices to compare to our CSA each week, I wouldn't go to the farmer's market every single week.

And thus, I might not have spent:

• $5 on a very nice loaf of bread.


• $5 on a lovely quart of purplish-red round plums.


• and $3 on some yellow and purple string beans (you see, they don't come with the farmshare unless we drive out to pick them ourselves.)

So I guess the CSA *could* have saved me another $13 this week. The things I do for my readers.

Market Analysis: Week 7

This week's box is starting to look very summery - 3 tomatoes, lots of sweet corn, an eggplant... and still plenty of squash, carrots, and cucumbers. I'm glad the weekend looks cool enough to cook some!

Last week's 12 lbs of extra cucumbers may have been a bit too many for how my week turned out - I've still got some left, but I do have 7 quart jars of sour-and-salty vinegar pickles, 4 pint jars of sweet pickle chips, and plans to try a few more jars of kosher dills. (Those are trickier, because you put them straight into the right amount of salty water with seasonings, and hope they actually ferment and do not mold. This apparently does not always happen. How the heck do commercial pickle makers pull this off?)

7 ears Sweet Corn (0.50c/ear) : 3.50
1 lb 1 oz Red Cabbage: $2.10
1 lb 1 oz carrots Carrots ($2/lb) : $2.10
Yellow Squash and zucchini (1 lb 2 oz): $2.25
2 lbs 12 oz cucumbers (pickling and slicing) : $4.10
Bunch of Scallions: $2
1 lb Eggplant: $3
1 lb Tomatoes: $3.50
1 Head Lettuce: $2.50
1 bunch Kale: $2.50
1 bunch Cilantro: $2
total: $29.55

To date, the farmshare has filled our fridge (and our bellies) with $21 more in produce than we would have gotten if we'd set out to the farmers' market to buy this exact mix of items!

Market Analysis, week 6

This week's box contained:

Yellow Squash and zucchini: 1lb 4 oz, $2.50

Cucumbers (mix of slicing and pickling) 2 lb 3 oz, $4.40

bunch of scallions: $2.50

Carrots, bunched with greens: $2.00

Fennel: $3.00

Green Pepper: $0.75

1lb Tomatoes: $3

1 Head Romaine Lettuce: $2.50

1 bunch Kale: $2.50

1 bunch Basil: $2

Total : $25.15



I also used another money-saving feature of our CSA this week. I ordered 3 lbs of swiss chard for a total of $6. Looking at the amount of chard, I'd say that was about 5 bunches worth, which go for $2.50/bunch at the farmers' market, so that's about $6 spent and $6 saved. I've just finished steaming the chard, squeezing it out, and putting it in the freezer for winter or for any other time that we want to make swiss chard and potatoes, one of our favorite dishes and a must for grilled fish if you have Croatians in your family. I also ordered 12 lbs of pickling cukes for $1/lb, which is half the rate they go for at the farmers' market. Now I just have to make a lot of pickles!