In an effort to make sure I'm posting a little more regularly, since I have more free time now, I decided I would try and make at least one theme post day a week. Wednesday seemed like a logical choice because it's when we pick up our weekly F.O.O.D. box. I even started this post on Monday to make sure I would be good this week and get it out on Wednesday, but then I had some extra evening training and volunteer shifts this week so once again it got pushed back a bit. Better late than never!
Since we've now been using Fresh Option for a few months I think now is a good time for a bit of a review of how it's gone. Overall, we're really happy with it. We know we're paying a little bit more for our food but we also know we can afford the slightly extra expense to know exactly where our food is coming from and sometimes even who it's coming from. It also gives us an opportunity to really get to explore cooking new and different kinds of foods we wouldn't have picked up before. I don't think I ever would have bought eggplant or leeks. Even though I've discovered and I don't think I like eggplant on it's own, it's great in spaghetti sauce. And I managed to throw together a pretty tasty leek soup a couple of weeks back.
This week I'm excited to see Kale again. I think we've only had it once so far but I felt like I didn't play around with it enough. My mom makes this delicious dish she's altered many times using a bit of a cream sauce, sometimes mushroom soup, quinoa, and spinach leaves that she bakes like a casserole. I had some leftovers I wanted to try and get rid of today so I came up with a similar type of dish. I had about two cups of risotto, some quinoa, carrots, radishes, garlic, and kale and mixed that all together. I put a bunch of torn up kale on top and then added a bit of a creamy roux I'd created (with Ryan's help) and baked it for 15-20 minutes. It was pretty tasty. I broiled it at the end to give the kale on tip a bit of crispyness. It was a rich dish so we just had pork buttons and fried apples and pears. Mmmm...we love pork buttons in this house.
I feel very privileged to have the time, money, and enthusiasm to get back to knowing where exactly my food is coming from. We already know that once the farmer's market is in full swing we won't be using Fresh Option but even though next fall Shawna and Dylan will be off living their lives in Leeds, UK we'll probably still get the smaller sized Fresh Option box (unless we find someone who wants to split the medium, which reduces the cost by about $10 for 4 people).
It's been a good eye opener to start paying more attention to where all our foods are coming from. I don't know if Ryan really has any idea what he's in for. I have a lot of exciting idea's that I'll finally get to try out in the coming months and I'm hoping that we can continue our journey on the more sustainable, local, organic and homemade food products. My dehydrator should be here any day now!
I know you give us the easier to manage items from the FOOD box, but it's still cool to have to figure out what to do with all that produce. I should see if Marikit wants half the box next Wednesday when she's staying here. Maybe you could woo her into taking half a box next year if she ends up taking our apartment.
ReplyDeleteWhen does the farmer's market open? June?
http://www.stnorbertfarmersmarket.ca/
ReplyDeleteJune 5th is the opening of the season but they probably won't have much until further into July. I figured we'd see what they've got and go from there. An organization is trying to set up a year round farmers market in a warehouse in point douglas. I hope it happens. I also checked out the grocery store at Mondragon last week and they've added a lot more stuff at a really reasonable price. I don't know who makes their GF bread but it's goooooood.
I'll ask marikit, we can just get a small box for next week though if she doesn't want in.