All Hail Kale!
So in an effort to meet the holy trinity of nutrition (organic-local-seasonal) I joined my first CSA this Spring. CSA is short for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, you enter a shareholder relationship with a local farmer. You pay for a subscription to the farm — typically months in advance — as a guaranteed buyer. In return, you receive weekly produce delivered fresh from the farm for a set number of weeks. I started doing research at the end of last summer on Local Harvest, a comprehensive site that helps you locate farms in your area. In January I joined Graceland Farm in Midland, Virginia for the Spring season.
After months of anticipation, I finally received my first delivery this past week. In the bag were a half-dozen eggs, 2 bags of salad mix, broccoli raab, green garlic, radishes, rosemary, sage and kale. I scrambled the eggs and served them with asparagus and toast for a Saturday supper. DD#1 proclaimed them the best eggs she had ever had in her whole life. She must have been persuasive, because my husband — who is not fond of eggs — tried them and decided he wanted “green eggs”, too. So eggs = success.
I do feel like a kid at Christmas — anticipating what kind of produce surprises I will unwrap each week in my share bag. This week’s unknown was kale.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten kale, much less cooked it. But in short order I found a decent recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray.
DH and I gobbled it all up. DD#1 ate some dainty bites and did not complain (a very positive response for her). DD#2 looked at the green leaf and handed it back to me. She’s not so sure about veggies outside of the kid-friendly standard of the carrots, peas and beans variety. I would say kale = decent success. There was hardly any left, and I would definitely make it again. Although, I guess anything is edible when the recipe includes (turkey) bacon, cream, parmesan and butter. Sigh. It does feel a bit like a pyrrhic victory.
