Saving Your CSA for Later: Tips and Tricks

We’re winding down to the last month of our CSA program. It sure has been an amazing experience with surprises in each week’s basket. My biggest challenge has been making room in my side by side fridge at home to accommodate a family share.

The situation was a little dicey last night as I tried to wedge the corn on top of the broccoli and kohlrabi, while also finding space for the containers of leftovers. Worrying that a mutiny would ensue, I actually took food out and ate it, just to make more room and keep the peace!

 

But truly, I am not complaining and when I opened my fridge today, I felt extremely rich and blessed to have so much gorgeous, locally grown food. I felt like an artist with a blank canvas, ready to prepare my next culinary masterpiece. Even if it’s broccoli and dip….it's still a thing of beauty to me!

To get a grip and lighten the mood in the fridge, I mixed things up a bit. You may want to do the same if you can’t eat all of it in one week but want to savor it later.

1. Wash and steam the green beans for about 10 minutes until crisp tender. Once cooled and dried on a kitchen towel, pop them in freezer bags for later use. You can just steam them again when you are ready to eat them.

2. Shred a bunch of golden zucchini and then squeeze the water out. Freeze them in bags for later use in zucchini bread, fritters, or even mix in with ricotta cheese for lasagna. This a great way to sneak in veggies and it blends right in.

3. I pickled 6 jars of cukes and peppers using recipes from this blog.

4. Chop up all of the yellow tomatoes, cook them in some olive oil and garlic, add some oregano, sugar, basil, salt and pepper. Freeze it for later use in zipper bags or containers. When ready to use, thaw it out and puree it. Heat on top of stove and add some canned tomato paste to deepen the flavor and you have yourself a lovely sauce for pasta.

5. Give some of it away if you don’t think you can handle it all. Your friends and neighbors will love you!

Will share some recipes for the lovely purple kohlrabi in my next edition so stay tuned!