Feeding the crowd

Our farm share FINALLY started yesterday. Little G and I had a fun morning. We took the bus to the train (really just the Orange Line T). Rode it for two stops, got off and headed to a playground that has sprinklers. Went back to watch the trains, headed to lunch, picked up our farm share and then headed back to the train and the bus to come home for a well deserved nap.

While Little G napped, I started at my share and wondered what the heck to make of all of it.

This is our third or fourth year doing the share and I have really enjoyed it. But, as will most people in this area of the country, the first few weeks are very heavy on the dark leafy veggies. Kale. Chard. Etc.

Usually I do a pretty good job of eating everything in our share, but with some exceptions. For instance, I might eat all the beets, but toss the beet greens.

Well, this summer, my goal is to cook or process everything we get. We'll see how successful I am.

We signed up for a 1/2 share...but friends of ours were unable to pick up yesterday, so I got their share too.

In EACH share was:

Chard - Perhaps my favorite thing to do with chard is saute the chopped up stems with an onion and garlic until soft and then add the leaves until cooked down. I can either serve it up that way, or add a roux (just flower, butter and cream) and then toss it into a baking dish and sprinkle bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese on it and roast it for 20 minutes. BUT after a summer, this option does get old, so I would love to find some other things to do with it.

Kale - everyone always suggests kale chips and I have never made them without them being the most disgusting thing I've ever attempted to eat in the name of fooling my taste buds into thinking they're unhealthy. I'll probably process all of this and freeze it so I can add it to soups in the winter.

Beets - I LOVE beets, but I've never been a fan of the greens

Lettuce - the hardest thing for me to finish in a week since Little G doesn't eat salad so I tend to make what he will eat for dinner and lunch so we can share.

STRAWBERRIES!!!!! - let me assure you, they have all been eaten

So in the name of not tossing out my perfectly usable beet greens, I decided to go for it. After removing the beets and tossing them in the oven to roast, I chopped up the stems and washed them. Then I chopped up the leaves and washed them.

Then I tossed a coarsely chopped onion around in a pan with the stems and some olive oil until they got soft (very similar to the chard preparation I already mentioned above)

Here there are all cooked down:

At the same time, I roasted a couple of chicken breasts which I then chopped up and added to the mix on the stove. (You can see my beets in the background all sliced into wedges and bathing in a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar).

Finally, I added the roasted beets to the mixture.

The result was pretty good. I ended up putting some Feta on top of mine, but Little G went to town on the beets and the chicken. He didn't care one way or the other about the greens. I didn't mind the greens as long as I had them with a bite of either Feta, chicken or beet.

We polished off the rest for lunch today, so I guess that was a success.

Now what to do with all that lettuce!

Are you farm-sharing this summer?