CSA: Week 9

I did not get these flowers in my CSA share this week. I cut them from the zinnias in my own garden on Tuesday night and brought them in the house to make a little bouquet. If you cut the zinnias when they bloom you will be rewarded with even more flowers later!

A couple more new things in the CSA this week! I received:

Yellow squash
Sweet basil
Red and yellow salad tomatoes (like cherry tomatoes)
Rutabegas

Sorry no picture this time. Just couldn't quite get around to it. I'm excited to try the rutabega. It looks similar to a turnip but bigger. If anyone has any rutabega recipes please send them my way.

I was supposed to get eggs this week but did not. The eggs did not get sorted and packed in time. I'm okay with that since I still had a dozen from two weeks ago! It's harder to use up a dozen eggs in two weeks than I thought when I signed up for this program. Oh well. I'm still glad I have the eggs. A dozen every four weeks was the other option and that just doesn't seem like enough. I luuuuuuvvvvv these eggs. They are so tasty.

I also went to the farmers' market this morning. Everything looked so yummy and I had not eaten breakfast yet so I went a little crazy. I bought a cucumber, a tomato, potatoes, the cutest little red onions, cilantro, blueberries and peaches. I plan to make salsa with the tomato, red onions, cilantro and my banana pepper from last week's CSA that I still haven't used.

I spent a few minutes talking to one of the farmers at the booth where I bought the potatoes and red onions. He was really nice and honest with me about which items he home grows and which ones are shipped in from other states. That is kind of a beef I have with my farmers' market. There are vendors there who simply buy and resell the produce. There was a booth there this morning with Georgia peaches. Helloooo I live in the midwest. And if I wanted peaches from Georgia I can go to the grocery store and buy them for cheaper. What's the point of buying them at the farmers' market if they are not locally grown?

I've made it a point to ask the vendors if they grow their stuff locally or not. Some of them are perfectly nice about it and just say yes or no. One guy told me this morning that no he did not grow his red onions but the lady in the next booth did which I thought was nice of him. Some other vendors get very defensive when you ask them or are just plain rude about it. Then there was the guy this morning that was like "Duh of course I grow all this stuff" when I asked him like I was a moron for even thinking he didn't grow his stuff himself.

I appreciate the vendors that post signs saying "locally grown!" or "grown in such and such local town." But how do you really KNOW it's grown there? They could have their kids in the back of the van peeling the little stickers off the Georgia peaches, repackaging them in cute little farmers market bins and claiming them as locally grown!

I guess you just have to trust people.

Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1