CSA week five wrap-up, week six start-up

Last week's extra large share made for an extra busy week, but this share looks to be back to normal. Fine by me; my freezer's full up, I'm out of storage containers and I could really use a rest.

It's not that this week's share isn't substantial--that cabbage alone is enough for a few meals--it's more that this selection of vegetables is amenable to improvisation. Cabbage, parsley, chives, zucchini and tomatoes are all utility players. Even mizuna, as a mild light green, is a flexible ingredient. Of that list only cabbage came in a large enough amount to require real planning. Maybe I'll make sauerkraut or kim chee; I haven't used my clay cooker recently and it should make a suitable container.

The heirloom beans are a bit more of a challenge, but only because I haven't been in a beany mood recently. I still haven't used half the green beans from two shares ago and I threw out some old beans when those showed up. Eh, I'll do a stir fry; they'll make a fine stir fry.

As for the canistels, they're called eggfruit because, when they're ripe, their flesh has the color and texture of an egg custard. That makes ice cream the obvious thing both in general and for my history of ice cream experimentation. But I used it in smoothies last year so I want to try a savory application this time around. I don't really recall the flavor so I'll figure something out once they're ripe enough to sample.

Oh, nearly forgot the lettuce. Mine arrived damp and wilted so I'm going to skip right past the not-getting-around-to-making-salads stage this time and go straight to lettuce soup. I've got last week's pei tsai at around the right stage for that too. I was pretty happy with how the caesar salad soup I made last year turned out so I might try something clever this time around too. Maybe a cobb salad soup? It's complicated but I think I've got all the ingredients in the house right now.