This day could not come soon enough! I am SO glad that D and I had prepaid for a CSA share BEFORE we lost our jobs. At the very worst, we have a share of fresh fruit, veggies, eggs and flowers every Saturday through November, and THAT is something to be thankful for. This is also about the time last year that I decided to take the leap and start this blog, and I have had so much fun and learned so much since then.

We got in the CSA early and were able to score a coveted Saturday pickup at the McCarren Park greenmarket, so we decided to go the extra mile, literally, this year, and get up early before pickup and walk a mile or so around the track at the park. This morning was grey and threatened to rain, but we forced ourselves out of bed and in to good walking shoes and headed out. We did almost 2 miles today, and then we were STARVING so we headed to the market. I will miss having the chalkboard pics that we had last year, BUT this year since I am not splitting the share with Lynn and Diego, I am very excited to not have to split the share, haha. Danielle and I are both such good cooks, and in such different ways, that this year should be very exciting recipe wise, and I have coerced her in to finally starting her own food blog, The Skinny Spoon!

As for what we got and what we already did…

-i head lettuce
-1 bunch kale
-1 bunch arugula
-1 bunch broccoli rabe
-1 bunch radishes
-2 stalks rhubarb
-2 pints strawberries
-1 pint snow peas
-garlic scapes
-1/2 dozen eggs

HOORAY STRAWBERRIES!!!! Garlic scapes! RHUBARB! sugar snap peas!!! Heaven! I am so glad that its finally CSA time! D and i could not get home and start cooking fast enough. She is health smoothie queen, and since the strawberries weren’t quite that sweet yet, she blended them with bananas, almond butter, usweetened almond milk and ice while I sauteed half a jalapeno, diced turkey ham, and a massive garlic scape in the last tablespoon of cilantro lime butter. The half dozen eggs were very small, so I shook them all in my salad dressing shaker (makes fluffy eggs without adding milk) and make us a nice scramble on some toasted English muffins with some Cockonut Sauce . (DUH) YAY BRUNCH TEAMWORK!

After we inhaled that, I decided to take a cue from Meg at work and make some radish top pesto while the leaves were all still nice and fresh. I cannot believe I EVER threw radish tops away. I feel so much shame that I have a hard time even admitting it to the internet! Pesto is great because it is fast, and it is easy. So instead of waiting for greens to wilt, go ahead and make some pesto, it will last and you will love it. This time around, I used walnut oil instead of olive, 2 garlic scapes instead of garlic cloves, and pistachios instead of hazelnuts. I LOVE subbing things out in pesto. You really can’t screw it up. Unless you add a ton of oil. That’s gross. We used a 1/4 cup for this batch. Often recipes call for a cup. You might as well deep fry your arm and call it a day.

Not sure what we will do with this yet, but it is sure to be delicious, and I can’t wait to see what we get next week! If you are looking for ideas with what to do with your CSA share, please join me on What’s in the Box? (Gwyneth Paltrow’s head!!!) where you can see what other people got in their CSA as well as what they did.