CSA season has officially begun! Last night, S and I picked up the first of our boxes – we’ll get one every other week from now through mid October. We get our shares from Crossroads Community Farm; my ex-roommate and I bought the same option from them two summers ago, and it was fantastic. And the price is right. It’s $350 for an “everyother” share, but S and I both got a $100 refund from our health insurance company to put towards that purchase. So that brings it down to $150. Split between the two of us, that’s only $75 each for an entire summer’s worth of fresh, local, certified organic produce. Hellz to the yeah!

We were thrilled with the contents of our first box – check it out:

So much green!

Yum yum yum. Let’s look a little closer at those gorgeous peas, shall we?

That garlic scape tendril is getting cheeky…!

We didn’t get solely vegetables, though…

FRUIT!

…we also received a whole lotta STRAWBERRIES! They’re small, sweet, and absolutely gorgeous. Two years ago when I did the CSA, it was a bad season for strawberries, so we only received one tiny bag of some sad berries throughout the whole summer. But this magnificent harvest bodes well for my fruit-loving self!

That’s a lot of produce! Here’s a list of everything the share contained:

• Bok choy (This wasn’t included in the list on the farm’s website, but we definitely got some!)
• Cilantro
• Garlic scapes
• Head lettuce
• Kohlrabi
• Radish
• Russian kale
• Salad mix
• Salad turnips
• Scallions
• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Sugar snap peas (The farm’s website listed them as “snow peas,” but I don’t think they are!)

So, what did we do with our score? S and I lightly pan-friend some marinated tofu along with the sugar snap peas, bok choy, and garlic scapes. We cooked up a bundle of thick rice noodles, tossed them with the veggies, smothered the whole mess in a modified version of the Cheater Pad Thai sauce from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, and topped it with some scallions. Delicious! I snapped a quick pic, but it’s not really blog-worthy so y’all can use your imaginations.

I also prepared some giant chopped salads for our lunches today. They feature salad mix, head lettuce, salad turnips, radishes, and a couple other things from the fridges. And of course we brought strawberries for dessert today. ;)

Have you participated in a CSA? What would you make with this week’s share?

Curious about what other folks are getting in their CSA boxes this time of year? Check out the What’s in the Box? link party for this week!