Our last farm day

Tonight was my last CSA pickup from Clagett Farm. All in all, I'm pretty bummed about it. It was my first year in a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture, a program where the community pays up front and shares the risk and gains of that year's harvest. It was 26 weeks of a TON of fresh, local, organic veggies - HEAVEN! Not only that, it was really, really reasonably price - coming in around $20 a week. With a small portion going to support their low-income food program.

As with everything on my journey, there were definitely some misses. It was a very rare week when I was able to use every bit of the share. Some weeks, the extra made it into work to some very appreciative and sometimes confused (heirloom veggies don't often appear in the grocery store these days). Some weeks, I'm sorry to say the extras ended up in the trash. (Not even composted. For shame!)

I still don't know what to do with okra. Still never even tasted it. Watermelon radishes? Um... sure. Sadly, no eggplant fans in this house. I want to like it, I really do. But, sadly, no.

My last share ended up being:

• 1 lb sweet potatoes
• 1 1/2 lb peppers (purple, orange and green)
• 1 lb kale
• 1 lb turnips (um... no ideas here)
• 1/2 lb garlic (so. much. garlic saved for the winter)
• 1 bunch carrots

They also offered some salad greens, but they've been wasted so often around here - I left them for someone else. Next year I'm stocking up with salad bar extras and we'll do better!

Sweet potatoes and garlic are headed into storage for the future. Not quite sure how long they will store, but I'm thinking I can get a couple months. Kale's going into my smoothies, except I can't get through a full pound fast enough. I'll need to do something with the rest. Turnips... no idea. 

Almost none of this year's harvest ended up in the freezer. I have a good amount of tomato sauce stored, and some garlic scape pesto, but mostly I missed the boat on that. I'll need to study up for next year... and get a better battle plan!