Last Day At the Tempe CSA

With July coming to a close, my internship with the Tempe CSA will be finished and I will no longer be posting blogs. I have learned so much about how to prepare all of the new foods that I have encountered, and also learned a lot about the importance of eating local food. There are a number of benefits that come with organizations like the Tempe CSA for the community, plus the food is much healthier to eat than food from a regular grocery store. This week, we had much of the same food that we had in previous weeks. While some of our members seem to be getting tired of some of the options, everyone is still very excited about all of the tomatoes that we have been receiving! The cherry tomatoes were extremely delicious, and I've found myself eating them by the basketful multiple times over the past few weeks.

I will miss getting to try all of the new food that I have been introduced to through this internship, and I will also miss getting to know the members that come in each week and learning about them and their interest in sustainable food!

Multi-Colored Cherry Tomatoes and Sweet Potatoes!

cherry tomatoes

This week I want to talk about the cherry tomatoes that we received at the Tempe CSA last week because they came in all sorts of different colors, and this was not something that I had ever seen before! I was not sure if they were multi-colored because they were either not quite yet ripe or over-ripe, so I wanted to do some research to find out. Apparently, cherry tomatoes grow to maturity in a variety of different colors, though most people are only used to seeing the red ones at the super market. While I was sitting at the CSA last week I started snacking on my share of these tomatoes because I wanted to see how they tasted, and I could not tell the difference between the red ones that we are all used to seeing and the other colored ones. Some that I tried were yellow, dark purple, green, orange, and a combination of all of these colors. The picture to the left shows all of the different colors that we had last week at the CSA, but there are many other colors that can be found in other gardens. Many of our members are very excited when they see that we have tomatoes available at the CSA, so this week was especially good because there were shares of not only these cherry tomatoes, but also regular tomatoes and tomatillos!

Also, this week I was very excited to see that we had green beans available for the first time that I have been working with the Tempe CSA. These were really tasty, as most of the vegetables that we receive are, and I am hoping that we get another share of them next week! We also received some sweet potatoes this week, and I am not sure what the best way to cook them is yet. I look forward to hearing the different ways that our members used them over the past week when they come in tomorrow because they are always giving me great ideas! They are here pictured to the right. I am assuming that they can be cooked in the same way that regular potatoes are cooked, but I hope there are some creative ideas that our members have come up with that I can use to cook mine. I look forward to using some of mine to make sweet potato fries! Please feel free to comment about any good recipes that you came up with this week for your food, or to ask any questions to other members!

Purslane and Tomatillos This Week!

We've had a few new and interesting options in the two weeks since the new season started, and I'd like to take the time to talk about them because there were a lot of members that had not heard of them before! We have a much smaller turn out this season than we did last season due to many of our members traveling for the summer or moving, but all of the new selections that we have had this summer have made our returning members very excited! First, we have purslane pictured on the right. It is considered to be a weed, and this was the question of many of the members that came through the CSA on Thursday. The whole plant is edible in its entirety, and it can be used for many different culinary options. As many members who already knew about purslane mentioned, it is a great leafy vegetable to cut up and add to a raw salad. Other uses include adding it to a stir fry or a soup for some extra flavor. Last, it is similar to spinach so it can also be cooked this way for those who enjoy the taste! It can be found in many countries all over the world, and it has more of a sour or salty taste so it can be coupled with many different foods! I enjoyed it so much that I started eating it raw while I was finishing up the day at the Tempe CSA last Thursday, and I am hopeful that we are able to get some more this week!

The next new option that we received last week were tomatillos, pictured on the left. There were some members that were very excited about this selection and some that had never heard of it before. I was in the latter category, so I decided to do some research to find out about them! They were first grown in Mexico and are often found in different Mexican dishes, especially in green sauce, but now they are grown throughout the Western Hemisphere. The fruit has a husk that it grows inside, and at full maturity they reach a bright green color. They have a tart or sour taste, so many people do not enjoy eating them raw and would rather roast them or mix them in with vegetables and spices. I have yet to try mine, but I will probably use it to make a salsa with some chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, and jalepeno! I look forward to hearing what some of our members have chosen to do with their share in the past week so that I can pass that information along to those who have not yet figured out a good way to use them!

Information about the Tempe CSA!

Benefits of the Tempe CSA:

• Eliminates many greenhouse gases
• Food is 100% organic
• Food is naturally grown
• Food is pesticide free
• Organic farming eliminates pesticide use, agricultural runoff, and produces healthier food
• Local farmers receive a living wage and the community is involved
• Members are exposed to new types and varieties of produce
• Shopping is reduced

Tempe CSA Mission

• “To bring the freshest local, 100% naturally grown produce and products directly to you… with a smile”
• The Tempe CSA is involved with the community through its work with volunteers and interns as well as its goal to bring local, natural, and organic produce to the residents of Tempe.

Tempe CSA History

• Established in June of 2007
• Founder: Andrew Greaves and The Society for Sensible Sustainable Safe Energy at Arizona State University
• Influenced by the sustainability efforts at UC San Diego
• Current coordinator: Mateo Montano

The Summer Season

This week marks the start of the sumer season at the Tempe CSA, so I thought I'd discuss some of the vegetables and fruits that grow to maturity during this period of time. The produce that I discuss will not necessarily show up at the Tempe CSA because that is completely dependent on what the Crooked Sky Farm is able to provide us with, but these are great options to grow in a personal garden if gardening is one of your hobbies! There are a lot of fruits that grow during the summer, so I think that some of our members at the CSA will be happy with the variety that they will receive this season. For instance, last week we received watermelon for the first time since I started my internship and many people were excited to see them.

Some other fruits that show up during the summertime are apples, plums, apricots, berries, melon, cherries, grapes, limes, mangos, and peaches. It would be great to see some of these selections at the CSA because I know that there are a lot of fruit lovers out there. However, if we do not get them in at the CSA, Arizona is know for having a great climate to grow fruit trees in. Anyone can easily plant one of these trees if the have a place to put them so that they can enjoy these delicious selections during the summer. While they make take a few years to mature, if residents have a permanent place that they are living or if they can become a part of a community garden these are both viable options.

Sadly, the summer season has lost us many members at the CSA due to people going on vacation or moving away. Hopefully the new members that have joined and the existing members that have renewed will be able to continue on with us in future seasons so that the Tempe CSA can continue to grow and provide great local and organic food to people in the city.

An Abundance of Corn and Tomatoes

Before I begin to talk about the produce that we received this past week, I want to remind everyone that this is the last week of this particular 12 week block. This means that next week will be the first week of the new season, so anyone that has not already renewed their membership or anyone that is interested in starting a new membership should do so soon! This can be done through our website, tempecsa.org. Additionally, there is fresh bread that can be purchased through the website and members can pick it up with the rest of their produce at their particular pick up location each week. There are both loaves of bread and fresh bagels, so there is definitely something for everyone!

For the first time this season, we had corn at the Tempe CSA! They come in their husks with some caterpillars crawling in them, but they are absolutely delicious once you get them home and cook them! They are smaller than the corn that can be found at the store because they are organic and are grown completely naturally. This means that their taste is full of flavor and a much better option because it is completely local and natural. There may be a few bad ones in the bunch, but I would choose these over corn from a grocery store any day!

We also had some awesome tomatoes this week at the CSA, and the great thing was that the farm had an abundance of them so our members were able to purchase 15 pound boxes of them if they wanted them. The tomatoes were so delicious that I was able to take them home and eat them plain without even putting them in a salad or cooking them! I have always been a huge fan of tomatoes, so I was especially excited about this.

Last, I wanted to share this picture of lemon cucumbers because I wrote about Armenian cucumbers last week and I wanted to show another form of them! Again, these cucumbers are extremely similar to the regular cucumbers that most people think of, they just have a shape and size that is much different. They taste like cucumbers and can be great mixed into a nice salad with some other fresh vegetables!

All About Armenian Cucumbers

Before I begin, I want to remind anyone that reads that the last day of this session at the CSA is June 20th, so there are only two more weeks left. If anyone would like to renew their membership or if there are new people that would like to join the CSA for the first time, it is recommended that you sign up before this date so that you will be ready to start on June 27th.

We have been receiving Armenian Cucumbers each week at the CSA, and I wanted to do some research to find out why these particular cucumbers are different than other types of cucumbers, and what our members can do with them once they have them at home! These cucumbers look different than the regular cucumbers that can be bought at a grocery store. They are lighter in color, have larger ridges on the outside, and look slightly different inside as well. The taste is very similar to the taste of traditional cucumbers, so they are light, mild, and slightly sweet. There is no bitterness in the skin of this type of cucumber, so people that are using them for their meals can feel free to eat them without peeling the skin off first because the taste will not change.

I took the second picture to show a scale of how much larger than my hands these cucumbers are. They can reach up to a length of three feet, so they are also sometimes referred to as the "yard-length" cucumber. They are not very flavorful at this length, though, so they are better to eat when they are about one foot long.