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.

How Does the Tempe CSA Work?

I realized this week that there might be some people that read these blogs that are not members of the CSA, so I wanted to take this week to explain how it works! This is especially important because our next session is starting in just a few weeks, so those of you that are looking to renew your membership or start a membership will need to sign up before June 20th.

The first picture shows the room that we use for the Thursday afternoon pick up location. The members start at the right end of the far tables and move along to each of the stations and choose their food selections. There are eight different types of produce that we receive each week, and the small cards that are on the buckets tell the members how many of each different fruit or vegetable they are able to pick out. This number is dependent on how much yield the farm has per type of produce and how many members the food needs to be split between.


The second picture shows our Trade In table. There is one share of each of the eight foods placed on this table at the beginning of the day, and if a member would like to trade in one of their shares for a second share of something else that they like better they can replace it. During the past few weeks many people have been replacing their grapefruit with the other options on the table because there are so many people that have trees of their own. Since they were still eating their own fruit, they decided that it would be a better option for them to take something else. When the trade in table is full of something they do not want, the members can choose to place the items on the discard table instead.

All that the members have to do to get into this program is to pay their dues every twelve weeks, and then they are able to receive all of this fresh produce on a weekly basis!

Squash Progress and Arugula

First of all, I posted about the squash that we had two weeks ago and we are still getting it each week at the CSA. I wanted to post a picture to show how huge they have grown so quickly! The yield is really high and there is so much to eat, so I'm really hoping that we get some more that are even bigger this week.

Anyway, what I really want to focus on is arugula because we have had this coming through the past few weeks and I want to know some information about it. I noticed that it has a peppery flavor, and it can be used in either a salad or cooked. This particular batch was a little too bitter for me to eat directly into a salad, but I steamed them with some garlic and lemon, as you would with spinach, and they tasted great. Apparently the larger the leaves are, the more potent the peppery taste is and the smaller leaves have a milder taste, and that makes sense since this arugula was a little bit aged.

 I made sure to cut the ends of the stems off because according to some research I did they can be tough to eat if they get too hard. They should be able to last about a week when refrigerated, but I wanted to eat them quickly just in case. This was a great dinner side, so I'm hoping that we have another bunch for next week!

Pumpkin Blossoms at the Tempe CSA!

pumpkin blossoms

This week we received pumpkin blossoms as one of our shares at the Tempe CSA, and we were all quite intrigued with them! Many of our members have never eaten them or cooked with them before, and neither have I, so I decided to look up some recipes to make sure that we are all using them to their full potential. First, I was amazed to find out that these are totally edible raw and they actually taste great! They are sweet and have a mild pumpkin taste, especially in the bottom near the root. I would recommend putting them in a salad either whole or after chopping them if you agree with me and enjoy their raw flavor.

Another great way to eat them that some of our members mentioned to me while they were passing by is to stuff them with cheese and bake them at 350 for about 20 minutes. The ones that we received at the CSA were on the small side, so I am not sure if they will need to be left in as long as those that have grown to be larger. Another suggestion that some of the members gave was to dip them in batter and fry them in oil, although that kind of defeats the purpose of having fresh and healthy vegetables! Further, they can be used to make a pumpkin blossom omelet or put on top of a pizza. They are extremely versatile and totally edible, so consumers can feel free to get creative when they start using these awesome vegetables.

A Fabulous Selection of Squash!

Welcome to the Tempe CSA blog! My name is Hannah and I am completing a summer internship with this awesome, community based organization, so I decided to start a blog so that I can update everyone on the daily/weekly happenings of the group as well as my experience with them! PLEASE feel free to comment with questions, suggestions, comments, recipes, or anything else, and tell your friends about us so that they can experience the great benefits that Tempe CSA has to offer as well!

different summer squash selections and grapefruit

The best part about the Tempe CSA is that there are so many new foods to try every single week that are not easily found in a grocery store. For example, this past week we had quite a few different types of squash, and most were varieties that I had never had the option to try before. You can see some of them in this picture to the left: we had 8 ball (at the very bottom), yellow crookneck, patty pan (both mixed in the middle), and zucchini in a range of sizes (the top two boxes). The great thing about these summer squashes is that they require little to no cooking, so when you get them fresh from the Crooked Sky Farms like we do they can easily become a quick, last-minute meal! Zucchini is probably my favorite vegetable of all time, so I was extremely excited to eat them and even more excited that they were so fresh and DELICIOUS! Who wouldn't want to have the option to avoid a trip to the grocery store AND get the freshest, best tasting vegetables around?!

fresh bagels

Plus, there is fresh bread that is available for purchase through the website tempecsa.org! It costs an additional fee, but if you're planning on buying bagels or loaves of bread anyway the more convenient choice is to get it while you get your vegetables at the Tempe CSA, right? My favorite part about this bread is that it is LOCAL! It hasn't been sitting on a shelf for who-knows-how-long or shipped across the country. The people at Tempe CSA know the bakers and have it delivered directly to the pick-up location from the bakery. It can't get much better than that!

To all of our members and to everyone who is thinking about joining the Tempe CSA: don't forget to renew/purchase your membership soon because the early bird rates will not last long! All of the information can be found at tempecsa.org!