Fair Shares: Week Ten

from 1/21

Claverach Pea Shoots

Ozark Forest Mushroom Mix:  after allowing these mushrooms to spoil in two separate instances, I got smart and traded them for more Dogtown pizza.  Can you tell I love that stuff?

Kimker Hill Pizza Dough Mix: eager to try this, but haven't had the chance yet

River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs

Prairie Grass Farms ground lamb:  something about eating lamb turns my stomach--luckily, Jason doesn't feel the same way.

Hilty Pickled Beets:  I hear toddlers love beets, guess we'll be testing that theory!

Black Bear Bakery Pestalozzi Baguette

Gorse Maple Syrup

Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes:  check out this yummy SWEET POTATO SOUFFLE recipe below that allowed me to finally use some of my huge stockpile of sweet potatoes.

Fair Shares: Week Nine

I have fallen behind a bit with the Fair Shares updates, but I am determined to catch back up!  Even if many of you find the updates boring, it helps me to keep track of things!

From 1/14

Blue Heron Orchard Apple Cider

Claverach Sunflower Sprouts

Mangia Beef Radiattori

Ropp Swiss Cheese

Sunny Ridge Blackberries (frozen): we will be using some of these for smoothies tomorrow morning

Troutdale Farms Trout Fillets: traded for pizza--yum!

Companion Multi Grain Rolls

Bellews Creek Black Beans:  I like having these in the cabinet, but the work required to prepare them is a bit overwhelming for me as I am used to just buying them in a can.

Lee/Hilty Roma Tomatoes:  these paired with the pasta we have been receiving and some other veggies have made for some pretty delicious dinners

Fair Shares: Week Eight

From 1/7

Herbs en Route Parsley

Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (always welcome in our house)

Tessa's Peanut Butter (hmmm....our second container of it--we need to eat my PB)

Ropp Smoked Gouda

River Hills Alliance Eggs

Hinkebein Hills Pork Onion Patties

Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes (...and they continue to multiply!)

Companion Early American Bread (a welcome addition to several meals this week)

Martin Rice

Hilty Sweet Dill Pickles (haven't tried them yet, but they remind me of the pickles my grandma used to make from cucumbers)

Patric Chocolate Bar (believe it or not, we haven't tried this yet)

This was a good week for using some of the meat.  Jason made some delicious, super hamburgers with bacon and bleu cheese this week.  He also added the ground pork to our chili--both were great! 

Fair Shares: Week Seven

From 12/30/08

Herbs en Route Oregano

Claverach Radish Sprouts (these would be great in salads, but we haven't used them yet)

Ozark Forest Oyster Mushrooms (gulp...wasted ALL of these again.  I need help figuring out what to do with these little creatures)

San Luis Flour Tortillas (smaller in size than what we usually buy, but they've been great to have around, especially to make stuff for Amelia)

Mangia Tomato Vermicelli (really good, made THIS recipe)

Heartland Legacy Cheese (My FAVORITE cheese from Fair Shares)

American Grassfed Beef--Stew Meat

Brown Farm Potatoes

Kuva Coffee (traded for breakfast links, brats, and more tortillas)

I feel like we are getting a bit lax in making sure we use all of our FS goodies.  Its not so much that we are wasting a lot of food, but we are just getting lots of potatoes and meats piled up--luckily both have long shelf lives!

Fair Shares: Week Six

Week Six of Fair Shares

I will keep it short and sweet (this one is for you Michelle--I hear you feel the same way as Jason about these posts).

Here's the goods:

Blue Heron Orchard Gala Apples

Local Harvest White Bean Dip (okay, not my favorite)

River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs

Sunny Ridge Farm Blackberries (Amelia's a fan!)

American Grassfed ground beef

Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes (made them mashed, was excellent)

Fromage LLC toffee peanut butter (OMG, where has this been all of my life??)

Companion Miller's 5 grain

San Luis Tortilla Chips

Lee/Hilty Roma Tomatoes

Salsa Choice

There you have it, no pictures, no long-winded update about what we've used and what we need to use.  

Fair Shares: Week Five

Amelia was eying that apple from the time we placed it in the bag during pick up!

The fun continues....

This week, we got:

Herbs en Route Spearmint (haven't a clue how to use this)

Centennial Farms Apple Mix (3 kinds this week!)

Rutherford Farm Pea Shoots (have been great on my turkey sandwiches).

Biver Farms Acorn Squash

Private Label Herb & Spice Cheese Spread (so yummy!)

River Hills Poultry Eggs (we now have 18 eggs, so I think I will need to hard boil some)

Hinkebein Hills Ground Pork

Dogtown Frozen Pizza (YUM!)

Black Bear Bagels (not bad, pretty good with the cheese spread)

Kimker Hill Pancake Mix

Dry Dock Farms Applesauce

Ozark Forest Mushroom Box Meal

Jason informed me that my Fair Shares blogs are boring, so I'll keep this short.  I am really keeping this for my own reference to help decide what to do with items in the future and also I will look at all of these posts to figure out if we will continue with the program next year.

I am sorry to say that my indecisiveness on what to do with the mushrooms lasted longer than the mushrooms did themselves, so we had to throw them out.  I think we lost the Chervil battle too.  Still, these minor losses are SO MUCH BETTER than our normal grocery store track record.

But, we've been working through our collection of potatoes, peanut butter, cider, lettuce mix, eggs, breads, etc.  We used the first batch of pasta this week too.  We seem to be collecting quite a few squash, we now have one butternut and two acorn that we will need to use soon.  Interestingly, we STILL haven't used any meat yet.  Luckily, its all safe and sound in the freezer.

Jason was at a work dinner on Wednesday when Amelia and I picked up our goods, so when I got home I just threw in the frozen pizza for dinner.  I thought it was excellent for a frozen pizza!  The crust was just super!  

Gee, guess that wasn't too short after all.....

Fair Shares: Week Four

Before I get into week 4, I just want to mention that we finally used our pumpkin!  I was getting a little stressed about this (for some unknown reason), as we had planned on making it into pumpkin pie which didn't happen.

For whatever reason, I was feeling a bit ambitious today and decided to get up and put the pumpkin in the oven before Amelia got up.  While she ate her breakfast, I scooped out the soft insides and answered the question, "What you doing mommy?" about 75 times.  Then, she helped me puree the pumpkin and even requested a bite (which turned into three!).  

Later, while she napped, I prepared the rest of the ingredients to make pumpkin soup.  When Jason got home and saw the menu, he became inspired to use the rest of the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving to make some turkey salad and it was delicious!  After dinner I roasted the seeds.

The soup turned out okay, but after we ate our helpings, I went back and put what was left in the blender.  The carrots, celery, and onions were too chunky for me.  I blended it all down to more of a soup consistency (Jason called it pumpkin stew--I know, appetizing right?), added the rest of the half and half that the recipe called for (I have a horrible habit of ignoring recipes. Some people can get away with it, while I cannot), and gave it another try.  We both thought it tasted much better and I am already looking forward to some leftovers tomorrow!

In between the baking of the pumpkin and the making of the soup, Amelia and I ventured out in the nasty weather to pick up our Fair Shares goods for the week.  Here's what we got:

• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Cider
  
• Yellow Wood Farm Lettuce Mix
  
• Lee Farms Butternut Squash
  
• Mangia Whole Wheat Rigatoni
  
• Pilgrims' Acres Chicken
  
• Yellow Wood Russet Potatoes
  
• Companion Baguette
  
• Lee/Hilty Roma Tomatoes
  
• Bellews Creek Black Beans

The only thing we've tried so far is the bread and it is my favorite of the breads we've received, although all of our bread products have been delicious!  It will be perfect tomorrow with some of my pumpkin soup and maybe some of the cheese from last week. If I'm feeling crazy, I'll add a salad.

I was a little surprised by the chicken.  Silly me expected a chicken breast of some sort, but what I wound up with was an entire chicken.  I am easily intimidated, so I will be passing the job of coming up with something to do with it to Jason.  He, of course, is not the least bit concerned.

This was not the best week for using our Fair Shares items, but so far, no harm done.  I don't think we've officially wasted any food yet.  That is, with the exception of a few pea shoots we threw out.  Luckily, I made a burrito recipe last night that called for a jalapeno and the pumpkin soup recipe called for thyme.  Some of the sweet potatoes were made into a Thanksgiving dish.  Most of the things we haven't used yet have a long shelf life, like honey, PB, cheese.  But, then there are those mushrooms that aren't getting any younger..... And, we are getting quite a collection of potatoes--sweet, russet, and otherwise.

Seriously, I am staying focused for the rest of the week.  Expect to see progress next Wednesday.  Well, except maybe for that darn Chervil....

Fair Shares: Week Three

week 3 stash

We're still enjoying our membership to Fair Shares and we are always eager to find out what we get each week!  Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we had a Tuesday pick-up.  There was a special surprise this week--a Kakao Marshmallow Pie.  Jason and I split this with my parents yesterday and it was really yummy!  The Hummus is delicious too!  Much to my surprise I like Japanese turnips RAW!  They are actually pretty tasty and make a good snack.  Jason used last week's turnips in the beef stew he cooked tonight and they were excellent, too.  And to think all of this time, I thought I hated turnips, who knew?

Japanese turnips--a little different than last week's version, but still pretty nonetheless.

Week 3:

• Herbs en Route--Thyme 
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (half gone)
  
• Japanese Turnips (half gone)
  
• Blue Heron Jalapenos 
  
• Local Harvest Hummus (half gone)
  
• Heartland Chevre (this is really soft goat cheese, not too sure about it)
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs  
  
• Seven Thunder Bison-ground 
  
• Tessa's Peanut Butter (good and not as sweet as regular PB, definitely better than the natural stuff I bought at Costco, Amelia had PB&Honey sandwich today and didn't bat an eye)
  
• Lee Acorn Squash 
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes 
  
• Companion Potato Thyme Bread (interesting bread with chunks of potatoes cooked in, half gone, good with hummus)
  
• Esther's Honey 
  
• Kakao Marshmallow Pies (GONE!)
  

Here are the items from the last two weeks we still need to use:

• Chervil (still waiting, patiently)
  
• Ground Beef (frozen, so I am not too worried about this)
  
• Pie Pumpkin (turning into a pumpkin pie this weekend!)
  
• Sweet potatoes (one from last week and those from this week are going to be for our Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Sunday).
  
• Mushrooms (I need to figure something out soon, I found a risotto recipe that looks good)
  
• Mangia Tomato Vermicelli (good until 12/15--should make for an easy dinner one night)
  
• Potatoes (used 1/2 this week, will probably use the rest for mashed potatoes on Sunday)

Fair Shares: Week Two

We are into week two of our Fair Shares membership and have been very, very happy with everything so far.  There is definitely an addition in week 2's bag that makes me a little nervous, but before I get into that, I want to talk about the week one food and the progress we made getting through it. (I'm sorry if this bores you to tears, this is the best way to track what we've finished and what we still need to consume).

To recap, week one included the following:

• Herbs en Route Chervil (haven't touched it, not sure what to do with it.  Its waiting patiently in the fridge for us to figure it out).
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (I was a little skeptical as organic apples aren't very attractive and they are rather small, BUT these tasted excellent, were the perfect size, and we've consumed them all)
  
• Biver Farm Lettuce Mix (finished this tonight, love this BEAUTIFUL lettuce! Yay!)
  
• Rutherford Farm Pea shoots (I like these too, they've worked well in the salads we've been eating.  We are about halfway through the bag--there was a lot! These would be great for sandwiches, but we haven't had any sandwiches this week) 
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs (I was naive and thought these brown eggs might taste different than the white variety we are used to.  Nope, couldn't tell a difference.  We are exactly half way through the dozen).
  
• Heartland Legacy Cheese (Yummy!  This was the first thing gone--it took about 3 days.  Amelia was a big help with this).
  
• Local Harvest Black Bean Dip (Um, in all my excitement last week, I seem to have missed picking this up--oops!) 
  
• American Grassfed Ground Beef (Haven't tried it yet, not thrilled that it is 80/20, but I'm sure we'll use it at some point).
  
• Lee Acorn Squash (made this tonight!  I liked it!  Amelia didn't want to try it and Jason wasn't sure of the texture.  Good thing it was only a small serving.  I ended up following the advice of a commenter and cut it in half, put it cut side down in a little water, covered with foil and baked at 350 F until soft.  Added a little butter and brown sugar--turned out great, or at least I thought so!).
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes (made one early in the week, mashed with carrots and raisins--was delicious!  Amelia ate a huge bowl of it and then ate the leftovers two days later.  I still have another sweet potato left to use).
  
• Biver Farm Pie Pumpkins (hoping to tackle this over the weekend.  Will most likely become a pie or pumpkin soup. I am cautiously optimistic about cooking it.  We will be roasting the seeds too).
  
• Companion Miller's 5 grain (Yummy!  Great with the cheese and the second thing to go).
  
• San Luis Tortilla Chips (ate these all week and finished them last night when we made nachos/tacos.  Really good and a lot!).
  
• Chef Mel's Salsa (Unusual taste and is actually a little sweet.  Its pretty spicy, but the more I have it, the more I like it.  Was especially good on the taco I had last night.  We are about halfway through the jar--we've been eating it a lot with the chips).

I feel pretty good about week one, we are definitely eating better already.  Amelia has tried most of the things we've tried and liked almost everything.  Let's hope we can keep this up!

Here's week two's stash:

• Yellow Wood Farm Lettuce Mix 
  
• Ozark Forest Mushrooms 
  
• Biver Farm Japanese Turnips 
  
• Mangia Tomato Vermicelli 
  
• American Grassfed Beef--Stew Meat 
  
• NW Coffee 
  
• Schwarz Farm Kennebec Potatoes 
  
• Black Bear Bakery Rosemary Olive Bread 
  

I am pretty happy with our selection here as well.  We started eating the lettuce mix tonight and also enjoyed some of the Rosemary Olive Bread--both were good.  Since we don't drink coffee (at home anyway), we swapped it for two good sized chunks of cheese.  I was a little nervous at how the swapping process would go down, but it couldn't be easier.  I have no clue what I will be doing with the turnips, but they sure are pretty!  The mushrooms are an interesting assortment, not sure what to do with those either since Jason can be a little squeamish with them, but I am sure we will find something!  Also, other than a quick trip to get an item or two, I haven't had to go grocery shopping!  That's the best news of all!

Fair Shares

If you are a regular reader, I am sure you get sick of hearing me talk about how ideal our life was in Chicago.  Many of the benefits were health related.  Even though Chicago is considered the Fattest City in America, I was skinnier and healthier there than I am now.  

Aside from living in a walking neighborhood (the one we shared with Barack Obama which by the way was featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch "Explore" section this weekend.  They featured one of our favorite restaurants--Medici AND 57th Street Bookstore where Amelia and I used to head for story time), we were a block away from an incredible produce market and our neighborhood had a weekly Farmer's Market 3 blocks from our apartment.

As if that wasn't enough, a HUGE farmer's market was set up in Lincoln Park each weekend--a short ride for us on a train.  Many of our friends and neighbors opted to become involved in a food co-op where they would receive bags of fresh produce each week, most of which was organic.  

I have always been interested in these Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Cooperatives. I figured once we left a progressive city like Chicago, we also left our opportunity to be involved in a program like this. We had ventured out to the St. Charles Farmer's market last summer and were extremely disappointed with what we found.  Perhaps it had to do with the widespread flooding in our area or maybe we witnessed a typical Saturday at the market. Either way, we decided it wasn't really even worth the drive down to the river to check it out again.

Then, a month or so later, I came across FAIR SHARES, which is a combined CSA that has a goal of getting "fresh, local, seasonal food into the hands of more St. Louisians".  They support sustainable farming techniques and much of the food is organic.  This program not only provides fresh produce, but also includes meat, bread, eggs, cheese, and various other goodies each week.

So, I joined the waiting list months ago and last week I got an email informing me of an opening for the remaining 18 weeks of this year's schedule.  The organizers offered a one-week trial and we jumped at the chance.  We had our first pick-up on Wednesday and this is what was included:

• Herbs en Route Chervil 
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix 
  
• Biver Farm Lettuce Mix 
  
• StC only-Rutherford Farm Pea shoots 
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs 
  
• Heartland Legacy Cheese 
  
• Local Harvest Black Bean Dip 
  
• American Grassfed Ground Beef 
  
• Lee Acorn Squash 
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes 
  
• Biver Farm Pie Pumpkins 
  
• Companion Miller's 5 grain 
  
• San Luis Tortilla Chips 
• Chef Mel's Salsa

We weren't really sure what to expect as we are quite new at this whole experience, but we were pleasantly surprised.  It feels like we got good, quality food and a good amount of it.  My favorite so far has been the cheese and the lettuce mix (which I know doesn't sound too exciting, but it is really great!).  Jason's favorite is the bread.  We decided to commit for the remaining 17 weeks. (I realize this post would be WAY MORE exciting if I had a picture of our goods, but I just accidentally deleted it from my camera...ugh).

One of the best parts of joining a program like this is also one of the scariest parts.  We have no control over the items we get each week and some of the items that could come our way make me a little nervous because I do not know what to do with them (radishes, lamb, trout, match meat), but luckily Jason is not a bit concerned and he really is the chef in the family.  We have already been thinking creatively about how to use items like the pumpkin and the acorn squash--items we wouldn't normally pick up to eat ourselves.  We've also enjoyed getting to know the pea shoots and this week we are hoping to have Mashed Sweet Potatoes! The Fair Shares newsletters include recipes to demonstrate how to use some of the more obscure items and the website has a forum where members can also offer recipes, tips, and ask questions. I (think) I am looking forward to the challenge.

Unfortunately, our oven has some serious poor timing.  Last Sunday, when Jason was attempting to make a pot roast, he noticed that despite the oven being set to a very high temperature, the roast was not cooking.  After further investigation, we decided that our oven, in fact, was on its last leg.  We ordered a new one over the weekend, which will be here on Wednesday--just in time for our next Fair Shares pick-up and the adventures it will bring in the kitchen!