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!

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.

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.