This is the second video in our series with Cooking With Our CSA – helpful resources supporting CSA members’ success! Share this with your CSA members to give them tips, tricks, and tools to make the most of their farm-fresh abundance.
Whether we are going on weeks of kale bunches or a big batch of cucumbers, sometimes cooking with a CSA can mean we’re eating a lot of the same ingredients over and over again. How do we sustain our momentum as CSA members? How can we keep on cooking and feel the joyful energy of preparing seasonally based meals without burning out?
In this session, CSA member and recipe creator, Frances Kellar, shares tips for increasing sustainability in a CSA membership, how she strategically plans meals for the week, and offers strategies for making “plug-and-play” recipes to keep you cooking with your CSA all season long.
Frances Kellar (she/her) is the food publisher and recipe creator behind Cooking with Our CSA. With a focus on seasonal recipes using all the produce she receives with each weekly CSA box, Frances shares meal ideas, recipes, and tips to help home cooks prepare deliciously nourishing meals with all the seasonal produce one can find at their local farmers market or CSA. Find her recipes and latest blog posts on her website, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
A member of the Sage Mountain Farm CSA, based in Anza, CA, Frances is an ardent supporter of her local farms, farmers markets, and the food systems in which they operate. She lives in Pomona, CA with her husband, their two very active children, and an equally active labrador, Dory.
Don’t miss Part 3 of the series – a virtual cooking class on July 28! https://www.csainnovationnetwork.org/ideas-lab
Presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15oUPNA95cFLZL3CZoUy18v0fJA6AVVZv/view
Cooking with Our CSA Website: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/
Cooking with Our CSA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/franceskellar/
Blog Post: 3 Lessons Learned After 1 Year of CSA Membership: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/3-lessons-learned-1-year-csa-membership/
Sign up for Frances’ Dinner Plans Newsletter: https://franceskellar.myflodesk.com/email-sign-up
Recipes:
– Crispy Tofu: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/all-recipes/crispy-marinated-tofu
– Simple Blueberry Compote: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/simple-blueberry-compote-lemon-thyme/
– Fresh or Frozen Easy Cherry Compote: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/easy-cherry-compote-with-fresh-frozen-fruit/
– Refrigerator Pickles: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/refrigerator-pickles/
– Quick-Pickled Red Onions: https://cookingwithourcsa.com/easy-pickled-red-onions/
okay we’re going to go ahead and get started and we are recording this session so all of our lovely CSA farmers in the CSA Innovation networks’s audience can share this wonderful education with your CSA members today we are welcoming Francis from cooking with our CSA to the CSA ideas lab this month which is all about helping CSA members be successful and sustain their membership within a CSA I’m Sadie the network coordinator for the CSA Innovation Network and happy to have you here for the CSA ideas lab this month just a couple of reminders as we get into the presentation please do make sure you are staying on mute you’re welcome to have your camera on um particularly near the end of the presentation we’ll have time for Q&A which is great for you to be able to engage with us and in the mean time you can use the chat to introduce yourself and ask questions to Francis um during the presentation like I mentioned we are recording this which is awesome so that we can share it with even more farmers and CSA members after the presentation today and we will just have a very brief introduction to the CSA Innovation Network to those of you who might be newer to our audience and then like I said we’ll be hearing from Francis who is joining us from pona California she runs the cooking blog cooking with our CSA and as a recipe developer um based on utilizing seasonal produce from a CSA share so Francis will introduce herself a little bit more in depth but then we’ll have a chance for a question and answer period after her presentation and then we’ll wrap up in just about an hour or so so the CSA Innovation Network um is a network of technical assistance providers around farming and specifically community supported agriculture along with some farmer friends and Partners you can see our group had a chance to gather out on the east coast in the Hudson Valley region of New York just about a month ago and we do this annually to just reaffirm the mission and vision of the network plan shared work efforts like the CSC ideas lab and other activities that we deliver to all of you so feel free to check out more about us on our website um and you can always get in touch with me through the CSA Innovation Network email as well and now I’ll hand things over to Francis to talk about just building CSA member success successful patterns and habits to help you have the best season overall as a CSA member thanks Francis thanks stie hi everyone so happy you’re here and so glad to see you all today and I am very excited to talk a little bit more in depth about ways to keep the momentum of cooking with the CSA through the season going today we’re going to dive more deeply into Pantry Essentials so thinking about this from the context of if you have a CSA member who is new this is their first CSA season or someone who’s just even new to to cooking in general thinking about some of the essentials that have helped especially my family and me along the way and are cooking through a CSA for the better part now of four years we’ll also talk about three very simple beginner friendly ways to preserve CSA produce that’s always a common question I hear from CSA members around how do I make sure that produce doesn’t spoil quickly and I have a couple of ways that we’ve been able to do that successfully as well on the next slide just sharing a little bit about the goal and premise of cooking with our CSA it’s a food website dedicated to sharing recipes and tips for home cooks that highlight the seasonality of produce it’s grown from our local farm csas when it comes to the context of where I’m coming from on the next slide just a little bit of info about me uh I’m sharing meal ideas and recipes I’ve been doing that now for the better part of uh four years we joined the sage Mountain Farm CSA they’re based in Anza California it’s about an hour and a half south of where I live in Pomona California and they have a drop off point at the Claremont Farmers Market every Sunday and so we joined that CSA in April 2020 and have continued on for a good long while now um my passion for that is noted on the next slide as we talk about cooking with our CSA and three practices that have helped us the next slide highlights just quick couple of quick facts if you weren’t here for the first webinar series or you haven’t yet been able to catch the recording um I talk a little bit more about how we got started with the CSA but three quick facts here 90% of the produce that we use for our family of four of two small kiddos uh comes from this CSA box and so we’re also really fortunate where we are in Southern California that this CSA is year round so we’ve not had a season where we’ve gone without a CSA box I think that experience has really helped us find a rhythm in Groove for cooking sustainably with the bulk of our produce coming from the Farm CSA we’re supplementing here and there as well and I’ll talk a little bit more about what that looks like in a moment but for the better part of that the majority of our produce that we’re using for our meals is coming from the Farm CSA that being said meal planning happens right when we get home and unpack the CSA box and from there I’m deciding on additional ingredients we might need as well as Pantry Staples to add in as well on the next slide we’ll talk a little bit about the three practices there are three when I think about the time that we have spent cooking with our CSA three things that kind of ground Us in doing this work week to week for the better part of four years when I pick up the CSA box I tend to scan the box right away so Julie is usually there on Sundays when I pick up the box and I’ll take a quick peek taking note of produce that we’re getting and then deciding from there uh to P purchase any additional produce items so if there’s like additional garlic or right now as Peppers might be coming in and whatever it might be where if I didn’t get it in the box that week then I’m either purchasing additional items either at that Farm Stand or Farm stands nearby just because where our pickup is is at the local farmers market each week during the unpacking at home that’s where I’m shopping our pantry our freezer fridge trying to look at what additional items we have and what hasn’t been used so that it helps me to kind of think about what needs to get used right away so nothing’s going to waste and then build out the the deeper game plan for what we’re doing with that week’s produce box and so those were things that weren’t uh inherent practices when we just when we were first starting out as CSA members and so I share these in the interest that if we’re new to CSA or if you’re a farmer who has members who are new helpful practices like this go along way in helping to encourage and promote the sustainability of cooking with the CSA through the season we’ll now go into on the next slide diving into those Pantry Essentials and I’ll preface this as we’ll see on the next slide uh things to consider when stocking a pantry and so I want to highlight that where we are today where my family and I are today in terms of um how we’ve stocked a pantry what that’s looked like for us has really evolved over time and so things to consider it’s it’s okay to start small and intentionally there isn’t a need to have a huge cabinet space or a lot of ingredients it’s really about uh thinking about what are the ingredients that we tend to gravitate to and enjoy so there if you’re a CSA member here watching either watching the recording or here live don’t feel like you need to buy all of those specialty ingredients or buying a jar of something that you find in a given recipe that you’re only going to use maybe once and that it kind of sits in the cabinet and may not have a game plan for either so that that’s always been kind of a grounding principle for me of whatever I’m bringing into the pantry space and the covers that I know I’m going to want to use it time and again and the way that we get to that kind of space of I’m comfortable with the ingredients that I have is through the repetition of trying different recipes and seeing what feels good what tastes good what we enjoy what feels also feasible so that observation of flavor Prof profiles and taking note of uh ingredients depending on how many people you’re feeding in your household taking note of what everyone’s enjoying and ways to adapt on the next slide thinking about you know different flavors and dietary preferences so that can also be when thinking about Stocking The Pantry different types of flowers um for our family there aren’t too many dietary restrictions in terms of the need to be glutenfree or dairy free it might be more of a preference at times so we tend to lean more plant forward in our meals but thinking about what what members might want or need as far as dietary preferences and how that informs the kinds of ingredients they might want to include in a given pantry and so I’ll share that with as we go into the the next slide introducing the different Pantry Essentials sharing that with the caveat of uh there are the list isn’t meant to be exclusive so what you might see like in the images here on the slides or the things that I might share as far as ingredients that we’ve grabbed gravitated towards isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list but rather an encouraging point of thinking about what are the ones that we gravitate to most and what we enjoy the best when it comes to crafting the recipes we use to cook with the CSA so to start with that dried and or canned beans and legumes are super helpful Pantry staple uh we may already have these in our cupboards and so I think about like lately I’ve been working on a recipe Series where we’re cleaning out the pantry and trying to make sure that we’re using all of those items up and so earlier this week uh we made I think pasta Fally with the cranberry beans that you see on the slide here canned beans add a heft of protein and fiber that’s always well and good uh and they’re just really helpful to either make a bean dish with seasonal vegetables like zucchin coming into view now so I could definitely see something like the Marcella beans or calini beans whether can or dried kind of slow simmered with some zucchini and some seasonal greens some fresh herbs some Mint or basil and then maybe a dollop of pesto and then you’ve got this dish right so it’s just kind of thinking about Pantry Staples from the dried beans or canned beans group that I can have on hand on the regular doesn’t have to be a variety of beans pick the ones that you like for me I personally love garbanzo calini black beans lentils Hino beans are a big one because I’ll either have those like with a fried egg uh for breakfast or um a top rice or re fried beans for like taco night it’s always good too on the next slide we’ll talk now about a variety of flowers this again is also really dependent on your individual tastes and preferences we have a variety of flowers in our pantry some over the years where if it’s like pastry flour I like to use for pie crusts if I have some extra time it I’ll make a batch of pie crusts to freeze and have that on hand there are a variety of flowers that also meet dietary preferences so if it’s gluten-free paleo Etc um bread flour I’ll have on hand for just some quick breads whole wheat for pancakes pastries um muffins and the like and then my favorite of late has been uh masah to make tortillas corn tortillas quick and easy and uh double O flour for pizza dough so it kind of stretches the range of if I have pizza dough on hand and we’re entering summer there might be some like tomatoes are coming into season so pizza margarita is always a great one in our household and just thinking about how we have these staples in hand to have some adaptability with the recipes we might choose to craft the next slide gets into a sorted dried pastas and Grains so again picking from what feels like you’ll get the most use out of in my household right now I have two kiddos that also like to choose pasta shapes so we might have a variety of different cuts of pasta if it’s pen or right now they’re into shells so if I can keep that in the house and then doing that it’s just another way of thinking about okay pastas grains rice um quinoa is another one fodal I love for like a a risoto style dish if I don’t have arboro rice on hand couscous is another great one we have pear couscous um that’s also really great for summer salads like with cucumber tomatoes and a really zesty dressing all my favorites there moving on to oils and vinegars so here is one that I definitely would encourage CSA members to really think about the range of types of oils and vinegars and this is definitely one where you can buy pricier bottles of oil and vinegar and you can definitely think about where you would like to stretch your dollars and so I share that just because thinking about the purpose of what I’m going to use said oil and vinegar for uh one marinades super great uh when it comes to salad dressing I may opt for a higher quality olive oil something that is lighter to the palette something that uh has a fruer flavor and very delicious texture that will work well for the dressings and lets the flavor especially if the vinegar com through depending on what types of vinegars I’m wanting to use it really can depend on um what you like for instance and I think I shared this in the first webinar I had bought a bottle of Plum vinegar and I had only used it once and I think it’s still sitting in my cupboard and I haven’t figured out like another plan for it other than but I tend to lean heavily towards the balsamic um whenever there’s a couple of seasonal fruit vinegars that our local olive oil shop has that’s one I tend to love to use and reserve for those types of dressings vinegars I love a good syrupy balsamic they’re super versatile for dressings even just kind of Standalone so thinking about inre ingredients that you like and I also tend to really love where I don’t need to do a lot to make a said dressing for a salad if I have a really good quality syrupy balsamic some olive oil little salt and pepper the dressing is done and dinner is ready in minutes and I think we can all appreciate when that happens when thinking about Jarred sauces and canned tomatoes on the next side another super helpful Pantry staple to have on hand there are times where I think I’m a passionate home cook so when it comes to making sauces from scratch I definitely love doing that but there’s also times where convenience really needs to win the day for us and having Jarred sauces or really prepared sauces or even like simmered sauces there are some food brands that already have sauces at the ready and all I need to do is just add in my veggies protein of choice and dinner is ready in 10 to 15 minutes having a variety of those sauces and Jarred items that are really helpful to you as a home cook if you’re a CSA member for Farmers encouraging your CSA members really having those kinds of back pocket Jarred ingredients at the ready can be very helpful and then to that end we have a couple of more Pantry Essentials or categories here we have three more this next one gets into dried fruits and nuts super versatile having them on here and for either yes homemade trail mix but I personally will put them as a garnish and sads homemade nutmilk is another one I also love to add them to homemade granola or to even grind the nuts down for a grain-free crust um for meat or your protein of choice just depending having dried nuts seeds on hand also offers a really nice texture so when I think about like during this the summer months where we start to get a lot of seasonal greens we’re getting the zucchini we’re getting the tomatoes and making a lot of Summer salads the texture of the variety of vegetables can have an impact on just how much I’m enjoying either flavor profiles and whatnot and so the the texture afforded by nuts and seeds just adds a little bit of crunch and I personally love having a lot of those on hand in the pantry the last two that we’re getting to here really spin or really Center on flavor like seasoning our food and when I think about the sustainability of cooking with a CSA the pastas the grains rice the jar sauces those are all things that are really helpful well when I think about what makes the meal taste delicious this really comes down to seasoning so the first one here thinking about those Umami accents and this again gets into Pro flavor profiles that we enjoy I tend to have a lot of tomato paste on hand for a quick pizza sauce or a quick tomato sauce for pasta or chili which gets now to like summertime when I think about barbecues we have a different variety of chili crisps so I love SAA matcha or chili crisp that I can put a top eggs if I’m doing a breakfast salad with some seasonal greens from our CSA box or a breakfast bowl with a lot of sauteed veggies and some grains top it with a fried egg and some ch really crisp and I am a very happy eater so we have our colam olives you have anchovy paste if you’re making a dressing Capers soy sauce you name it so thinking about what are those ingredients that just add that umani taste that really amplify the flavors of the protest wean joy and making sure those are the ones I want to have on hand and then finally we get into the dried herbs and spices and if I were to to do like a screenshot of the spice cabinet it’s definitely grown over time if I think about when first starting out I think I started with some garlic powder onion powder kosher salt ground black pepper or black peppercorns if you want to grind them yourself and then I personally loved having crushed red pepper flakes and an assortment of either dried thyme and basil and oregano and if I just started with those like that gives us a really good base to begin and build from so again if if I’m just starting out if you’re a CSA member just starting out building a pantry and you’re like there’s so many spices where do I start you know starting out with a few of those and then adding on more as you desire so now I think we have all kinds of different spices and um herbs and seasonings that go a long way to either make our own marinades add it to dressings or season roast chicken or turkey all kinds of good stuff there that covers Pantry so thinking about uh all of those elements that can go into the pantry what now we’re going to turn our attention to as a CSA member how do I go about preserving said Foods I think in the past session in our first session and then continuing on here I’ve talked a little bit about how we’ve like frozen foods or tried to preserve so now we going to talk about three very simple beginner friendly ways to preserve CSA produce and they really Center on uh one fruit compost we’ll talk about quick pickling and then the making the freezer our friend so first stop fruit composts if I’m a CSA member who hasn’t yet made jams or preserves fruit compost from my initial experiences four years ago was such a wonderful entry point to cooking down the fruit and then I could freeze it it was super freezer friendly and be able to preserve the beauty of said fruit for a later season to enjoy so in this picture here we have some cherry compost I’ve also linked a couple of recipes here so for the farmers and our audience if you’d like to share those links to recipes with CSA members feel free to do so it just gives people a good jumping off point to figuring out how to how do I go about doing this if it’s not something I’ve done before so compet are super beginner friendly essentially they’re cooking up the whole fruit or chunks of fruit down with a bit of sugar and you can also vary if you don’t want to use granulated sugar I’ve made composts with uh maple sugar maple syrup and even a little bit of honey and so the juices from the fruit that are mixed with that Sugar create a syrup that you can also flavor I’ve personally loved experimenting with fresh herbs Thyme and rosemary or two of my favorites when it comes to the fruit composts and you can freeze them pour them up into tempered glass or freezer safe containers and you can keep them in your freezer for up to a year and proof positive I’m going through the last of our blueberry compost that I made last July and so it’s been a wonderful treat for our morning oats and yogurt so fruit composts one easy simple way to preserve seasonal fruit you might be getting in your CSA box and really kind of saving the season that way quick pickling is another second uh method for saving the season or saving preserving produce it gives us about a month lead time I would say compared to say more traditional forms of pickling so again super beginner friendly way if you’re a CSA member who has not done that but you’re kind of like I’d be really interested in how to do this I have two very simple recipes for refrigerator pickles and pickled Red Onion I love these for either sandwiches a top salads Burgers if you’re summertime grilling and then pickled red onions I personally love in breakfast tacos and or breakfast taco bowls those are always really really great but we make a quick pickling Brine and then pour that over our prepared vegetables cucumbers especially when they come into prominent season starting summer and then red onions are a few you could also do this with carrots with with shallot um it’s always great and uh so as a kind of beginner point to Quick pickling to save I remember doing this a couple years ago we had quite a few cucumbers so I was using them in a variety of salads pickles um even making a like an awa fcal with cucumber and watermelon which was really delicious and then our final like quick simple way to preserve produce is really making the freezer our friend and this has been one where I haven’t listed all of that here on the slide but I’ll share with you here when I think about leveraging the freezer in this way one when it comes to something like the blueberry compot is that we want to make sure so for the home Cooks viewing or watching making sure that our prepared sauce or compost is cooled to room temperature before St storing in the refrigerator letting that just continue to cool and then we can freeze it as long as we have that airtight seal um it will it will then keep well we don’t have we won’t run the risk of freezer burn one and two we also won’t run the risk of glass breaking I also share that from experience because there was one time like three years ago that that happened and I had a crack in the glass and then the chicken stock was all over my freezer floor but we’re good so with that in mind keep keeping in mind making sure it’s all cooled down to room temp before we begin the freezing process the other helpful tip is making sure that we label labeling with what’s in the jar and the date super helpful when we’re trying to keep track of what’s in the jar and when did I make this so that I can fold that into our continuous oh I need to make sure that this gets used by X date other parts or points where the freezer is very very friendly for us is in the immediate freezing of greens I have found that if I get massive amch of bunch of kale for instance I think there was a couple of weeks in a row where it was just lots of different greens and kale and spinach were a few of those that I would immediately wash those greens if I wanted to give them a rough chop I could or at least remove the stems I’m thinking of kale a lot because that was one I remember we were getting a lot of and then removing the leaves from the stems compost the stems or add them to your green waste bin or um where wherever else right so just discarding the stems and then the greens I would put in a freezer safe bag and then stick them in the freezer so then I had kind of like what we would get at the grocery store right you have bags of frozen veggies at the ready so what better way to do that then to incorporate that practice into the CSA produce that we’re receiving so if I have a bunch of of one ingredient Anaheim Peppers is another one that came to mind in summer had a big old box of them and I didn’t have an immediate game plan for the week for those peppers I washed them took off the stems removed the seeds and then gave them a different variety of chops so I either did a fine dice on one strips for the other for like fajitas for one night and then the others also left whole put them in their separate freezer bags labeled and dated them put them in the freezer and then I had assorted prepped peppers for whatever dishes whether it was a breakfast scramble or enchiladas or fajitas whatever the case may be then I’ve already prepped and preserved what I was receiving from the Abundant CSA box that we received so there are so many different ways that we can make freezing a very helpful beginner friendly way for us to preserve our CSA produce so it doesn’t go to waste um so I’m hoping that’s helpful and I think yeah now we have we have some time for questions here so that covers a lot of those pieces of beginning and sustaining that momentum in cooking with a CSA so let me take a look what question what questions can I help answer I’m going to go ahead and stop sharing so we can see each other if you want to turn your videos on feel free um we just had one question so far submitted in the chat which is whether the links to recipes will be available which yes we will make sure to send out those links along with the presentations and the recording of today’s presentation um we also have the presentation and recording from session number one with Francis so that will all go out over email and be available on our social media does anybody else have other questions that you want to ask Francis about um these techniques for CSA member success that she has shared or anything about um her process as a CSA member Francis I have a question on your freezing specifically when you you mention putting the dates on it so you know when it goes bad when does it go bad do you have any tips on knowing when you open something in the freezer and you’re like nope maybe I missed that window or how you navigate that yeah oh I love this question Tess so thank you so much there are when it comes to the freezer greens for instance I try to give myself anywhere from six months to no more than a year to to use them I think most most produce as well as prepared foods can have a freezer lifespan or freezer shelf time of anywhere from 3 to 12 months depending on what we’ve prepared so any example of that could be if it’s a prepared meal like a say I’ve pre-made lasagna and have Frozen it prior to baking so that means I get to the all the steps of preparing noodles and the like and assembled my lasagna but I have not yet baked it then I would want to give myself about 3 months before I would see signs of freezer burn my personal practices at home tend to Veer more towards the like compost sauces jams jellies and the like and um those tend to have shelf lives that really push upwards to about a year signs of spoilage really look at like crystallization so if I’m starting to see some freezer burn around the outer edges which I haven’t to this point but it’s just helpful to kind of keep in mind that can affect taste and texture so once things have defrosted or once those items have defrosted and you just kind of give it either a smell or a taste and you will know quickly of like this is a little bit stale or that isn’t the texture that it once was then it’s you when in doubt toss it out it’s kind of my motto for that um for the most part I would say having that guideline I’m usually trying to aim to use any and all of those ingredients within like the preceding season so three to six months out um as a fun fact I did find a batch of gooseberries in the freezer that had to make a jam for because I was like oh those have been there like nine months now that’s like the next project but yeah hoping that’s helpful I am also going to link in the chat a wonderful Cookbook by someone I know here in Wisconsin um about freezing primarily produce and different methods to do that so we’ll include that as another resource yeah Timothy I see Timothy’s question about about preserving Tomatoes yes you can freeze them whole you do not need to can them um I’ve done just a quick wash of just the outer skins and no other dicing or Pro processing Beyond wash them dry them with a clean linen kitchen towel and then place them in a freezer safe bag label in date and as an example there was a beautiful variety of heirloom tomatoes that my friend Desa she has a her own Farm as well a micro Farm in Upland and that was Let’s see we got those tomatoes in January and then in December we made a roast tomato sauce with those fresh tomatoes I froze them with the stems on so you can wash them dry them so you don’t have that excess moisture place them in the freezer bag label in date and you’re good to go for about six months awesome yeah that’s a great question because we get a lot of tomatoes in the summer as CSA members it’s definitely one of the top items that farmers grow for their members and it is really hard to get through a lot of fresh tomatoes unless you’re putting them away canning is not super beginner friendly with um Tomatoes being sometimes on the lower acid side too right thanks for sharing one I think it’s making me think about one kind of uh thing to keep in mind when doing that is that freezing can affect texture in the defrost so if I’m freezing a fruit like tomato whole I want to the chances are that my plans for the future are going to be sauce adjacent to that because I’m not going to have like fresh tomato salad that’s those are the kinds of things I when I think about even seasonal cooking I deeply appreciate savoring the season of a fresh tomato sliced on toasted bread rubbed with a little bit of garlic some pesto and enjoying the freshness of that tomato now but then freezing a batch of them to come back to in late fall early winter to make a beautiful roast tomato sauce or even a tomato confi and relish like remember and recall right the beauty of summer so those things to keep in mind when we freeze we are freezing also with the recognition point that texture may be a factor in the defrost but that that’s okay as long as we have the game plan for that there any other questions from folks on the call otherwise I have a few that I can run through okay um so Francis I was wondering if you have any good resources to share for Farmers to suggest their members um as use it up Meals like you mentioned whenever you get back home with your CSA pickup you’re saying okay what is still left in my fridge before I load it up with all of this new produce for the week is there a go-to dinner for like that you know Sunday night I think is the day that you pick up your CSA um to sort of clear out anything that’s lingering from the past week that needs to be used oh I love this question I’m trying to think of one I have a number of recipes on the blog so we’ll we’ll definitely link to that in the the notes but if I were to think about some go-to dinners that I tend to gravitate towards when it comes to using up ingredients a dinner I call it a dinner toast with like garlicky greens is one that comes to mind so I’ll do this a few times you know over the course of a given month where it’s if I’ve got like in January I can think back to we had a bunch of broccoli greens some kale some Char just like all kinds of different things and sautéing that down cooking them down until wilted with loads of garlic I personally love garlic so if you’re not the biggest fan of garlic you totally leave it out or use very very tiny amounts but I’m talking like 10 cloves garlicky Greens on uh really nice piece of toast with a fried egg and that’s been like kind of a go-to simple meal that uses up a lot of those greens right away the other types of dinners are I like grain bowls so I’ll cook up a batch of grains for the week um I love personally I love the chewy texture of F and that it will keep well for the week ahead so I’ll cook some farro up in a little bit of broth vegetable broth or chicken broth whichever you prefer and then adding that in with whatever veggies we might have on hand so if I have say some tomatoes and cucumber to use up I I won’t necessarily cook down the Cucumber so I might have like okay let me add some tomato cucumber maybe a little bit of feta some camada olives and then if I’ve got some leftover roast proteins and I’m adding that together chop up some fresh herbs and that’s super simple there aren’t recipes like that that I have quite yet on the blog but it’s also making me think of writing up kind of a swap outs which is probably a precursor to what we’re going to talk about in session three with our virtual cooking class of when cooking with our CSA we can really kind of Swap and substitute those ingredients and if I know if I’ve got a grain if I’ve got some of those leftover veggies that need to get used and then I have my Umami accents right like over talking about earlier I can mix and match and just toss that together so grain bowls are one I gravitate towards dinner toast with some sauteed greens uh soups are super simple summer feels a little maybe less inviting to make soup but I will still do it on occasion because it’s a great way to make sure that those ingredients are used and enjoyed wonderful thanks yeah that does sound like a good set of template recipes or just ideas about like how to plug in those odds and ends of veggies that you didn’t use from last time and then I see Tim is asking about turnips or any other like unusual items experience that you might have with those or recipes I mean I’ve come across so one this is I I’m really appreciative of even the suggestion in your question Tim about uh thinking about like what are some tips for products that were not use if I’m not used to seeing like what can we do and there I I can think of prod produce items that were new to me at the time so if they were like one I personally really really loved and enjoyed so I don’t have anything for turn-ups only because we’ve not had turn-ups in our box so much of the recipes that I’m crafting are coming from what we’re getting in the box but I remember the first summer with shashido peppers and I had not cooked with them before and so blistering shashido Peppers is like a really solid option because they’re small Peppers thin Peppers so we can quickly saut those up and we have that nice kind of smoky heat but two summers ago I made shashito Ranos and so I ended up kind of treating it like a Chili Reno where I had the cheese like a little bit of cheese that I put in there and then a nice temper of batter and it was such a fun summertime appetizer that I make those now at least three times a summer when we get those in our box and so it’s the the invitation to the creativity as as far as we want to stretch it for ourselves as home Cooks of what are some other ways that I can enjoy the ingredients year around especially so I don’t burn out uh but to that end it’s giving me inspiration for your question to you of put together a resource guide for readers on the website so thank you for that too Francis for those ingredients that are new to you I know you mentioned last time that you sometimes have just asked your farmer like Amy hey what is this and what do you do with it is there something else you tend to go to if you you know forget or didn’t have the chance to ask up front like just Googling you know how cry turn ups recipe on Google or what’s your first step there I mean there’s an app I’ve used on the phone sometimes it’s consistent but it’s called seek and it’s the one I have on here right now I don’t know if um how consistent it is and I’m pulling it up but I’ll take a picture of the produ item and then it’ll give me a recommendation so if there are apps that viewers have or CSA members have or you know they’re able to download so if it’s like a identify right typically used for things like ident identifying plants I’ll do that on my hikes and go like what plant is this and take a picture and it’ll give me the close identification of it so that’s been one way I’ve been able to get around trying to figure out what the ingredient that’s new to me is Google yes of course where it’s just kind of like I think this is what it is Amy and I always have fun email exchanges where I’m going I’m trying to get the hang of identifying greens and I will also just taste so if I’m trying to just is this a mustard green or something else or arugula or spinach CU sometimes that the leaves can look pretty similar just depending on U what I’m seeing I’ll just take a quick sample if it’s peppery then I’m thinking okay this is either a r or mustard green and the like um but with that in mind then I’ll look to I have a pretty robust collection of cookbooks uh pear Myers is one of my favorites who really focused on and focuses on seasonal cooking and so those are ones that I gravitate toward s around different types of recipes there are a variety of cookbooks I personally have and that have been helpful to me over time uh so for home Cooks you know looking to the cookbooks that Inspire us is a great way to continue getting ideas for what to do and what to make your favorite types of website resources um I’m hoping cooking with our CSA is one of them that you know kind of shares ideas for those ingredients it’s what I can say even about cooking with our CSA is it’s ever growing and evolving it’s it’s a young blog it’s just a couple years in really so there’s lots of recipes that are continuing to come to help continue home to inspire home Cooks to cook seasonally and with csas and supporting our local forms in the process so lots of different ways to to do that and to do it well great um I’ve got something in mind um from a question I got about resources that farmers can provide to their members to help with the meal planning process or supplementing their CSA share like you talked about shopping the farmers market or shopping your grocery um is there anything that you use at home like a list on your fridge of what’s in there right now or like what Staples you need to Res stock on um or maybe like storage priority of like these things from the CSA need to be used first these things can hang on for a week or two what sorts of like education have you built around simal planning and using your CSA box and how Farmers might be able to incorporate that in what they provide to members yeah a fantastic question one I do have a mini kind of like both digital and something that I can print where I’m taking inventory it’s not totally fancy but I’m also happy to share it with Farmers if they would you know send me an email and I can send over the file that’s not a problem at all it’s it’s really easy to download print so if somebody wants to you know write it on their tablet or print it out and then just take note I have it’s a very quick kind of graphic organizer if you will that kind of helps me to categorize what’s in stock and helping me kind of think about what the game plan is so that’s one to I also have a CSA kind of starter guide and so it kind of talks a little bit about some of the tips that we’ve talked about here and also a sampling of recipes organized by the seasons so it’s another one as well people who are CSA members those who are CSA members you’re welcome to subscribe sign up with your email and then you’ll get that as just a thank you and then Farmers if you would also like to you can reach out via email and I’m happy to send it your way to just include those items have some tips and strategies for just ongoing meal planning as well as kind of an overview of by the season what typically tends to be in season and what can I as a home cook that’s a CSA member and of think through what’s coming and what I have and how I can start to to meal plan around that um I think those are the big ones right now but it’s also the wheels are turning of other types of things that we can craft and share as resources to help with meal planning meal planning is a big one um each Sunday I have a post that goes on the blog so if you’re on the website the tab is meal plans and you’ll get kind of an overview of the week of what we’re planning to make and I try to link either recipes that I have on the blog or recipes that I’ve either cooked from so I’ll link to other recipes as well I I wanted that part of the page to be a really helpful resource to readers that isn’t necessarily my blog specific but also just like here’s an idea of what we’re going to do for dinner this week on Wednesday and I may not have a recipe for that here on the blog but I’ve also made it from this one and this is a good one so if you’re looking for a recipe or if you’re needing something check this one out and it can just help to continue to inspire because the goal is coming up with how do I use the ingredients I have and not being so heavily Bound by the recipe that I can’t get to that point of success of cooking with the ingredients so often times we can allow recipes to some degree there’s there’s some room and range for adapt adapting if I don’t have set ingredient as an example this last week I made pasta foli I don’t have a recipe for that on the website I used the recipe that Steve Sando has from Rano Goro the recipe calls for celery I didn’t have celery so instead I doubled up on the carrot and I also doubled up on the tomato paste and it was fantastic and I was using the cranberry beans so that isn’t just I think case in point of recipes can be as um structured as they need to be for us and they can also be as just inciting and inspiring creativity that get us cooking in the kitchen to just enjoy the ingredients that we have from the farms and Farmers that have taken great care to grow the produce that’s feeding our families and households I love that you mentioned Rancho Gordo that’s a beam subscription that you get right on a regular basis or do you just buy them ad hoc I buy them ad hoc I do maybe like a quarterly haul so it just kind of goes depending on how often I’m going through beans I’m going through a lot of them right now because we’re clearing out our pantry so it was like I go we have all of these beans and you to start using them there’s the pikino beans the Santa Maria style beans that are like quintessential summertime barbecue if you have a chance to look up the history of Santa Maria barbecue like it’s very specific with their tri tip but those beans are just phenomenal I have a ham bone left over in the freezer for Easter and that’s going to go into the pot with a little bit of I have some like final bits of leftover diced roast ham is going to go into the pot with the beans and then that with some crusty bread it’s going to be delicious so yes that’s one of my favorites I know um within the CSA Innovation Network we have not just vegetable Farmers but lots of other types of CSA producers as well um so I was just curious um if you have Incorporated any other like subscriptions like a meat or eggs CSA maybe any local grains that you subscribe to get their flower whole grains um if you haven’t personally then that could just be something that um like I would recommend for CSA Farmers to look into and see if there are other farmers of different items around you that you could suggest your members also subscribe to support that other portion of the local food economy um and be able to have like a whole swath of ingredients besides the veggies and fruits to make whole yummy delicious meals with for sure Sage Mountain Farm so for those who are in Southern California Sage Mountain Farm definitely has a variety of different drop off points or pickup locations heading to their website taking a look at the map you’ll get to see where those drop off points are if you’re local to me pona oent Ontario with the greater area Sandell Valley you Claremont Farmers Market is the Sunday pickup point they also have a meat CSA they have farm fresh eggs so there’s just this is where I feel like we’ve been so spoiled because we have a CSA that really has just about everything so the supplementation post pickup is one where it’s it’s not a whole lot and the pantry becomes important in terms of what gets stocked and I can then add on um meat poultry pork we’ll do that mostly ad hoc so I’ll then kind of portion out and budget okay we’re getting to that space where we need to go ahead and make a meat purchase and then we’ll do that and a lot of that just has come from our own my our family’s just Paradigm and passion for supporting our local food system system and so however we’re able to do that in the best ways that we can it’s not always 100% perfect but you it’s really about the progress over Perfection here so as best we can as much as we can leaning into supporting our local farms and Farmers it’s really where it’s at I know for me and I know for many who are are joining csas and um really validating the work in this way there are lots of different I think I know CSA Innovation Network has links to resources where for those wherever you are in the country um to be able to identify csas or local farms in our area I also know in California we also do have the California Farm directory and um to be able to also find farms in California specific to us to also find some csas and um in all the different ways that we want to so lots of good stuff lots of good stuff yeah thanks for that reminder of um being able to find lots of csas around you that are for almost anything you can imagine that comes off of a farm um we have the national CSA map which is you know any Farm that’s opted in has added themselves to the map as part of our CSA week effort which happens every February which is a great resource um of course it’s not exhaustive we know that there are many more csas out there that have not added themselves but it’s a good start and we’ve already spent almost an hour together so I’m going to go ahead and move us into wrapping up um but thank you so much Francis and thanks for those of you who joined us um Francis does have her Instagram email and website here available so you can feel free to reach out any way that suits your preferred um contact method um Francis has been a great resource in Fr of the CSA Innovation Network and providing so many wonderful member resources and inspiration for Farmers on what is helpful for your members we do have a few more resources to share also from Francis um so like we’ve mentioned a few times we’ll be sending out this presentation and all of the links for reference afterwards there are some blog posts that are just about CSA success Lessons Learned um for those newer or beginning members that is particularly useful lots of recipes weekly seasonal meal plans and then um I did want to specifically mention which this got dropped in the chat earlier the virtual cooking class that’s coming up so this is our last CSA ideas lab session with Francis in the works it’s one month from today it’ll be a Sunday afternoon so Francis will have a nice fresh box of CSA produce that she’ll be able to unbox and share fresh ingredients with us um and some recipes and ideas for you know making it your own based on where you are in the country and what you have in your CSA that week um so I’m really excited for that looking forward to having a freshly cooked dinner with some fresh greens and whatever else comes my way um in Late July and we do have another CSI ideas lab between now and then this is an author meet and greet um it is is a book chat in a sense because the stories that will be shared and Lessons Learned From author Jerry apps are also things that he has written up into a book on Rural communities and farming and agriculture um but it’s not at all necessary to have read the book to participate in this conversation with Jerry um he’s a farmer turned author and has a lot to say about um small farms and supporting local food so I’m excited for that event as well we’ve got a couple C IDE CSA ideas labs in the work for the fall so just stay tuned to The Innovation Network for all of those wonderful virtual events we love connecting with you all across the country and thanks so much Francis for your time with us today really appreciate it thanks for joining