Seasonal Recipes for Late Fall

Here's what we've been doing with our CSA produce...

What's in season in December?

To find out what's in season in your area, you can google "produce availability" and the name of your state, or choose your state on PickYourOwn.org. The latter has to be the worst designed and yet most valuable website I've seen. Anything you want to know about pick-your-own farms and preserving foods can be found there.

If you live in North Carolina, you will likely see the following fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market this month: apples, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, leafy greens, letttuce, peanuts, pecans, sweet potatoes, turnips.

In My CSA Box


Week 6:

• We used the tsunga in a stir fry. Tsunga seems to be an extremely bitter green, but in a stir fry, it didn't taste too bad.

• The red russian kale went into a soup. I'm really liking this kale - it's a mild enough green that I can sneak it into practically anything and the kids will eat it without complaint.

• Radishes are also surprisingly good in soup.
  

• I made the sweet potatoes into a casserole using a modified version of this stuffed sweet potatoes recipe.

• We saved the mesclun salad mix for the next week.

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Apparently forgot to take a picture of this week's box.

Week 7: Thanksgiving Week!

• We mixed the mesclun salad mix from this week with last week's salad mix to make a great big salad for Thanksgiving.

• I used the swiss rainbow chard in a stir fry. (We really do eat a lot of stir-fries.)

• I cooked up the collards Southern (but vegetarian) style and served them with golden chickpea patties.

• The watermelon radishes and scarlett turnips were roasted together with a little olive oil and sea salt following a recipe from the CSA. None of us liked it much, but the watermelon radishes are sure pretty!

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Week 8: (This week)

• I'm using the red romaine head lettuce in a salad served alongside pizza.
  

• I used the red russian kale in yet another stir fry.

• I'm going to try the red radishes and scarlett turnips in a soup. My husband really doesn't like turnips, but hopefully a soup with lots of other vegetables will cover it up enough for him.

• I'll be making garlic herb pasta this week and serving it with the beets in this recipe for beet salad with goat cheese.
  

• I'll be making the collards Southern-style again alongside vegetarian sloppy joes. (Basically this recipe for walnut oatmeal burgers but with tomato sauce and italian herbs rather than veggie broth, and then break up the burgers into pieces like ground beef.)
  

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Other great recipes for late fall:

:: I love this recipe for Savory Bread Pudding with Butternut Squash, Chard, and Cheddar from A Veggie Venture.

:: fresh365 has a great Harvest Hummus, and I've also got my eye on this Asiago Sweet Potatoes recipe.

:: I think this Gingerbread Apple Upside-Down Cake from the Smitten Kitchen looks divine and would be a great baking pick-me-up after my own apple pie disaster.


Related Posts:

• Seasonal Recipes for Fall
  
• Spotlight on Raleigh: Finding Local Foods in the Triangle
• Eat Conscious and Local