This week is a bit of a mixed bag.  Plenty to choose from for me to pick the half I’ll use, but plenty of things I wouldn’t use if I was given the whole box too.  The last few weeks have restarted my thoughts that I like the CSA more as the summer moves along.  If only, one could just do the last 10 weeks I might reconsider and join.

That being said, we’ve been doing pretty well this year eating enough produce, and specifically enough seasonal produce that we like (vs what we’re given) that I don’t feel too bad about it.  And, I’m not sure a CSA is super cost effective unless you eat everything.  Between the items that don’t get eaten and the fact that things are not as cleaned and prepped as they might be at the farm stand (I don’t mean pre-cut.), there’s both waste cost and extra work involved.

The good:  tomatoes, corn, green pepper, green leaf lettuce, pickle cukes (we’ll just eat them), wax beans, swiss chard

The ok: zucchini & summer squash, muskmelon, scallions

The waste/donate: beets & chioggia beets, tuscan kale, sicilian eggplant

I’ll take the “good” catagory plus the muskmelon.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had a muskmelon.  I am sure that the boys won’t eat it, but maybe I’ll like it.

This week is a bit of a mixed bag.  Plenty to choose from for me to pick the half I’ll use, but plenty of things I wouldn’t use if I was given the whole box too.

The good:  peaches, green beans, red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, baby spinach

The ok: zucchini & summer squash (not anyone’s favorites, but we’ll eat them), scallions & basil (more than I can use), shell beans, garlic

The waste/donate: kale, eggplant, kholrabi, beets

I’ll take the “good” catagory plus the summer squash and shell beans.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with the shell beans as I’ve never had them before, but we can try something new.

Now, this is a good week.  For the first time I feel like we would actually use everything we might get, though not everything actually provided.  But, the good definitely dominates.

The good:  peaches (finally!), cucumber, wax beans, red leaf lettuce, green pepper, arugula

The ok: zucchini (not anyone’s favorites, but we’ll eat them), garlic

The waste/donate: beets, kale, eggplant

A truly good week – I’ll take the “good” catagory and leave the rest for someone else.

This box is pretty green again, and no fruit (except the tomatoes) – not up our alley.

The good:  pickle cucumber (we’ll just eat them – though the quantity is a lot), wax beans, green beans, red leaf lettuce, green pepper

The ok: zucchini (not anyone’s favorites, but we’ll eat them), romano beans (never cooked them, but we can give it a try), basil & scallions (I can use these, but not in the quantity given), plum tomatoes (not what I’d usually buy for eating, but we can probably make use of them), radish, garlic, muskmelon (not sure I’ve ever had one, so we’ll try it)

The waste/donate: beets, tuscan kale, eggplant, kohlrabi

I need to pick 9 items this week, which is big for this list.  I’ll go with the “good” plus romano beans & muskmelon (to try them both) as well as plum tomatoes and garlic.

Unfortunately there’s so much in season right now that we do love that’s not on the list that I’m feeling particularly uninspired.  Corn, tomatoes, blueberries, peaches, plums, and early apples would all make my shopping list ahead of many of these things.  Today or tomorrow I’ll have to try to hit up the farmer’s market for some of these items.

The CSA box is finally starting to take on more color.

The good:  swiss chard (I have a great fish recipe for this), boston lettuce, pickling cucumber (we’ll just eat them), red onions, corn, tomatoes

The ok: zucchini (not anyone’s favorites, but we’ll eat them), basil & scallion (I can use these, but not in the quantity given

The waste/donate: beets, chioggia beets, kholrabi, kale

I’ll go with the “good” plus the basil.  This is the best week yet, though it begins to highlight my issue with the CSA.  I have no interest in the “waste/donate” category, but I could use way more corn than comes in the box, just to have one meal let alone two which we could easily do in a week.  So, its not just the mix of produce, its the quantities that don’t work so well for us.

Well, we went away for another short trip, but now will be back for the duration of the summer.

It’s been hectic lately and with the heat I haven’t wanted to take the time after getting home to lay out all the groceries.  Better to get them in the fridge.  I need to get back to the photos.  But, I did take a few photos of some of the more interesting items this week.

Mustard was $0.50 each after sales & coupons.  I bought one ketchup – we’ll use it, one had to buy 4 total items to get the best sale price, and I needed one more coupon to have three for the mustards.

I also took a photo of my produce purchases for the week.  There was one more plum & one more banana, but they got eaten before the photo.  Obviously the bananas aren’t local.  Neither are the tomatoes.  But, the blueberries, peaches, and plums are.  The peaches and plums were tiny, but very tasty.

It’s CSA week 7 and its the first week where I could use everything in the box!

The good:  athena melon, Boston lettuce, corn (though not enough for us), tomatoes, cucumber, swiss chard, wax beans

The ok: romano beans, zucchini, basil & scallions (more than we could ever use of each), carrots (I really can’t tell the difference between local & CA from the grocery store)

I’ll go with the “good” this week.  That’s not to say that there’s anything bad in the ok selection.  But, I’ll need more corn and I’d prefer to add some in season fruits like blueberries or peaches (just coming into season so this will only work if I can find them).