What to do with all those CSA greens???

Yesterday my friend Kate and I decided that we needed to organize and store our CSA greens because our fridge was getting a little too out of control and overgrown!  We have a surplus of spinach, kale, collards, radishes, and salad greens that we want to last through the winter. 

We cleaned and cut the kale and spinach, blanched them in boiling water for five or so minutes and moved it to an ice water bath to stop the cooking.  We dried the cooked greens  overnight on a cookie sheet with a towel on it and placed in a labeled zip lock bags to freeze.  That way we can pull it out when we need it and none of it goes to waste!

The salad greens were cleaned and organized, as were the strawberries.  The beets and radishes and an onion was pickled in jars and stuck in the fridge to cure.

I am planning to make pesto with the fresh garlic and garlic scapes (very strange little things- I’ll let you know how that goes).  The chard is going in soup and I’m still at a loss on what to do with the broccoli raab…any ideas?

I think what I am learning is that it takes a lot of work to put food away for the winter but it is worth it.  By taking one night a week to clean, organize and prepare your CSA share or weekly seasonal veggie and fruit purchase you will waste less and be more opt to cook delicious seasonal meals with what you have from the farm.

Cherries in our fruit share this week!  Homemade cherry jam and maybe some bourbon soaked cherries to comeJ