If you’ve been around for a while, you know that we are huge proponents of eating fresh, nutritious food. We like to know where our food comes from and how it was grown. We also love supporting local farmers and eating with the seasons (because tomatoes in January are nothing like the juicy sweet beauties picked in mid-August!). Put all of this together and, of course, we are the perfect candidates for a farm share subscription. If you don’t know much about the farm share model, you can read all about it in this post.

Last summer I posted monthly updates with photos of the food we received in the share and a series of photos showing how we used the food. This link takes you to the complete archive of farm share posts from 2016.  Since I’ve found those posts so useful when looking for meal ideas, I’m going to continue the series with our 2017 share.

Again we purchased our share from Grant Family Farms. This year we decided to mix things up and rather than getting the “all-in” kitchen share, we opted for just a medium box of veggies and a dozen eggs. While we loved our shares last year, we wanted to see how our eating and spending differed with just the veg delivery… and being experimenters at heart, rather than just do a thought experiment, we wanted to really test the difference. The jury’s still out about which option we prefer.

When I receive the share each week, I draft a list of menu ideas for the week ahead, trying to use up as much of that week’s share as I can, and planning for how I’ll preserve what we can’t eat. Preserving varies from putting veggies in the freezer to experimenting with a new fermentation recipe.

The first month’s shares were a well-rounded mix of vegetables.

• greens {lettuce, kale, chard}
• root vegetables {potatoes, beets, carrots}
• cruciferous vegetables {broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips}
• squash {zucchini & summer squash}
• spicier stuff {onions, garlic, peppers}
• tomatoes & corn
• kits! {salsa kits, soup kits, etc.} This is a new addition to the shares this year, and I love it! The farm packages up a combination of vegetables and includes a recipe for how to use them. So far we’ve had a few salsas (one included local tortillas!) and a soup. They’re a lot of fun to receive and use!

I’ve photographed some of the dinners we’ve prepared and shared. Above each photograph, I list the farm share ingredients used for the dish, link to the recipes (where possible) or cookbooks, and include any additional notes.

BLTs! tomatoes & lettuce

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cauliflower risotto : cauliflower, onion, parsley

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poblano & chicken casserole : poblano peppers, onion, cilantro, garlic, tortillas!

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chicken & veg soup : carrots, potato, corn, onion

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grilled chicken & veg wraps : hummus using dried beans from last year’s share!, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes

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salad : lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh peas

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grilled chicken & salad : lettuce, tomatoes, corn

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veg hand pies : cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onion

These were completely inspired by The Great British Bakeoff. I made a simple pie crust and filled it with the vegetable mix seasoned with cumin, paprika, and garlic. We added some spicy mango chutney. These were so simple and the perfect side to our roasted veg soup (below).

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kale salad : kale

I followed the formula from this recipe (introduced to us by our sister), but not the ingredients. Subbing regular raisins for the golden, sunflower seeds for the pine nuts, and then my own balsamic vinaigrette for the lemon dressing. Same same, but different.

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lettuce wraps with haluski : onion, lettuce, cabbage

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meatloaf, braised cabbage, summer squash casserole : carrots, onion, garlic, cabbage, summer squash, parsley

The meatloaf recipe is from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, and it’s become our go-to meatloaf recipe (because every mom worth her salt should have one). I’ve probably talked about this recipe before, but the things I love about it are also the steps that may make others close the book. You have to finely chop the carrots, onion, and celery (a food processor is recommended), and then sauté them in a pan before combining with the remaining ingredients. You also make your own “ketchup” for the top of the meatloaf; it’s so flavorful and definitely worth the effort. This time I was missing the Worcestershire sauce, so I just subbed soy sauce in the sauce recipe, and then skipped it altogether for the meatloaf portion. I also never make the homemade breadcrumbs, preferring to use store-bought.

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ramen! : bok choy, zucchini, carrots, onions, eggs

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roasted veg soup : beets, beet greens, carrots, potatoes, onion

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chicken with roasted veg : zucchini, carrots, potatoes, corn, onion

Roasting the vegetables under the chicken in a cast iron pan is the way to go. The way.

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shrimp & zucchini scampi (such a quick meal!) : zucchini & parsley

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moroccan spiced shepherd’s pie : carrots, onion, squash, potatoes 

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shrimp taco-ritos (some of us folded them, some of us rolled them) : cilantro, salsa, zucchini, bell pepper, onion

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beef tacos with black beans and rice : onion, carrots, lettuce, pico de gallo salsa kit (tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, garlic)

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zucchini & tomato casserole : zucchini, tomatoes

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Not pictures were a couple of other worthy meals. There was the picnic with roasted beets, kale salad (walnuts this time!), and egg salad sandwiches. And the tabouli using parsley, cucumber, tomatoes, garlic… made at the beginning of the week with the best of intentions for a Greek meal that never happened.

Being tasked to cook with the vegetables in the share each week is always such a great challenge. This summer I’ve turned to a few cookbooks on my shelf that weren’t getting the attention they deserve. One is Modern Israeli Cooking. It’s a newish cookbook for me, and I’m smitten. The other is Jamie’s Italy. This is a beautiful cookbook that I’m sad to admit has sat on my shelf for well over 5 years. I’m just glad that I’ve finally used it! And now I have to keep it forever so that the cauliflower risotto is always in our lives.

What a great start to the year farm season! I can’t wait to see what next month brings.