Cooking Tricky Veggies

I came across a fantastic column in the Huffington Post today, and it was all about what to do with unfamiliar produce in your CSA box.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar, CSA is Community Supported Agriculture and in its simplest terms, it’s a  way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Here are the basics, according to LocalHarvest.org:

“a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season”.

Cool concept, isn’t it?

Picture this:  a box arrives at your doorstep with some apples (Oh,great; your kids’ favorite fruit to take as part of their meal for school!), some lettuces (ideal for salads), a few bunches of kale (throw some in your smoothie or use my signature raw kale fusion recipe!) and some…wait… what exactly is that plant that looks sort of like broccoli, sort of like cauliflower but it’s not the right color, exactly, nor the right shape…what the?

Enter the column in the HP I mentioned earlier.  Now is the time to share the title ” “WTF, CSA?”

Genius!

The HP states, “Each week this CSA season, we’ll help you make use of your overflowing CSA baskets. You ask, we answer. That’s how this works. Or rather, you shouted, “WTF?” into your CSA box and now we’re going to tell what on earth to do with all that romanesco.”

I only wish I’d thought of it sooner!

Nonetheless, readers should always feel free to send me an email, too, if ever they’re in the proverbial produce pickle and have no idea how to prep the green, leafy but unidentifiable plant in their CSA delivery!