What we put in the CSA boxes last year
| Veggies in Your 2014 Boxes
(Not including Fruit or Alliums) |
Number of weeks out of 48 |
| Bunched Greens | 41 |
| Carrots | 24 |
| Potatoes | 22 |
| Lettuce and Salad Mix | 19 |
| Beets | 16 |
| Eggplant | 15 |
| Tomatoes – mostly heirlooms | 14 |
| Peppers (Flamingo, Jimmy Nardello) | 14 |
| Winter Squash (mixed varieties) | 13 |
| Broccoli | 13 |
| Cabbage (Green, Napa or Red) | 11 |
| Herbs (chives, dill, parsley, rosemary) | 9 |
| Basil | 8 |
| Spinach | 7 |
| Cucumbers | 7 |
| Turnips | 6 |
| Summer Squash | 5 |
| Asparagus | 5 |
| Red Daikon | 4 |
| Green beans | 4 |
| Fennel | 4 |
| Cherry Tomatoes | 4 |
| Kohlrabi | 3 |
| Celery Root | 3 |
| Rutabagas | 2 |
| Radishes | 1 |
| Black Eye Peas | 1 |
| Artichokes | 1 |
Every year we like to look back at what went in the CSA boxes during the previous year. This year I compiled the table that we are including here so that you can think back about how you used the vegetables that we put in the boxes over the 48 weeks that we made deliveries in 2014. I have a separate list for fruit and I also took all of the Alliums that we grow and grouped them separately. Allium is the botanical name for the Genus that includes Onions (fresh and dried), Garlic (green and dried) and Leeks. I grouped these because to me, they seem like the foundation of so many vegetable dishes that I was curious how many weeks of the year they were included. The answer turned out to be 44. That means that 44 out of 48 of your 2014 boxes included onions, garlic, or leeks.
I also grouped fruit separately. We put Grapes (10 times), Oranges (10 times), Melons (9 times), Peaches (7 times), Pomegranates (6 times), Strawberries (3 times) and Apricots (once) into your boxes last year, adding up to 46 weeks out of 48, with fruit in the box. I do remember that someone commented that we were including too many pomegranates, but with so many of these seasonal vegetables you have to enjoy them while they last because it will be an entire year before you get them again.
We should probably tell anyone who joins our CSA that we really hope they enjoy bunched greens, because Full Belly CSA families will be eating bunched greens at least once a week for almost 10 months of the year. The bunched greens that we put into your boxes last year included arugula, bok choi, chard, collards, lacinato kale, joi choi, karinata kale, red kale, mizuna, red mustard, and tat soi.
Overall, it’s clear that the CSA box brings a great diversity of fruits and vegetables into the kitchen. Sometimes it may require a spirit of experimentation to figure out how to cook everything and other times you may have to repeat a recipe here and there with vegetables that are repeated. Let us know what you think of this list of veggies. We always enjoy hearing your ideas and comments.
–Judith Redmond
