Seriously. Last week, it was good. Mostly greens, which is mostly what we expected. But this week, as Kristi and I waited in line for the veggie free-for-all to start (we were a miserable sight, having just had the CAR TOWED from the South End because of $treet $weeping. But I digress), we noticed quite a different spread. Arrowhead cabbage (kind of a pointy, leafy cabbage), kohlrabi, thick heads of romaine, turnips, dill plus tons more greens, like collards, kale, spinach and mesclun.
We weren’t really even in the South End, just parked there while we dined in the Prudential Center mall. I’m doing research on a certain chain restaurant therein and it requires much firsthand sampling of their wares. I know, it sounds hypocritical of me to be preaching about fresh Massachusetts kohlrabi here and eating ata chain, but my story idea makes some sense (writing about local, handmade, artisanal food MUST be coupled with writing and thinking about long distance, industrial, chain food for the sake of context, at least). We had — wait for it — cheesecake! Kristi had some unholy coupling of carrot cake and cheesecake and mine was laced with caramel. They’re made, we learned, in a factory in New Jersey and shipped in weekly.
The contrast between that reality and the reality in line for CSA pickup is disheartening. Not the CSA, just the chasm as represented by people eager to spend $7 a slice on too-sweet cheesecake spit out of a windowless turnpike factory and glistening, early season heirloom cabbages. Obviously, we want to know how to build a bridge, but we don’t. Thoughts are always welcome.
For the record, Wednesday is also the day we pick up the raw milk and eggs from Just Dairy, a buying club, which we did after we liberated Greenie, our trusty Civic. So for dinner, we made quiche with the local eggs and milk and filled it with sauteed spinach and garlic scapes. We pan fried a few baby zucchini and made a salad with the romaine, too.
In our share this week:
1 head lettuce (our choice romaine, redleaf or greenleaf boston)
1 arrowhead cabbage
1 handful garlic scapes (we may have taken an extra big handful)
1/2 pound spinach, mesclun or a mix of both
1 bunch turnips (these are amazing sauteed in garlic & oil with their greens)
2 kohlrabi (green or purple)
1 bunch kale or collards
2 zucchini or summer squash
Rosemary, dill or cilantro
Tags: shares
Thanks for posting what you got in your RFF share. We pick up at Harvest on Fridays, so its nice to get a preview. I’m wicked excited about scapes and more strawberries.
Towing in Cambridge is a real pain and a racket. Nonetheless, if you get your car out you should head out to Granby and bring buckets to collect strawberries. Last year, we stopped to pick 10 qt. (of course we did some field testing ;-p) and brought them to my parents house to make strawberry freezer jam (way easier than hot canning). We had so much we gave it away to friends. It was the sweetest treat we made.
hey darry,
i recently discovered your blog and am very excited about it. i too live in cambridge and am interested in sustainable/local food- i can’t wait to get my first CSA share ever next week!
i also study food policy and am curious about your research on the industrial food chain “restaurant” if you are able to share anything about that.
oh and also, can new people get it on the dairy buying club - i’d love to learn more about it. i don’t really drink milk, but the eggs for sure.
rock on,
a new devoted reader of your blog
I, too, will be interested to see the fruits of your research. I have a few related thoughts at http://foodinboston.com/index.php/2007/12/05/a-generous-offer/
hi everyone —
thanks for the comments! aliza, the raw milk & egg club is accepting new members. check out the milk/dairy section of our website (www.bostonlocalvores.org). it’s called just dairy. i’m not sure if it’s worth it just for eggs, because the membership dues are steep ($15/week). it could be made worth it to share with others.
darry