Part 1 of What do I DO with all these vegetables? The New Mom Intro

This is the first in a series that will be posted throughout the year on ways to store and use vegetables in an efficient and delicious manner! New Mom and CSA chef Johanna will be helming the project, although we are always looking for new voices and perspectives (e.g. seniors, young couples, singles, raw foodies, vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians, families with older kids and picky palates, and so on)! If you are a member who would like to write a "What do I DO?" or two,  please contact us at ParkchesterCSA@gmail.com

I am excited and looking forward to some tips and systems I have been using to organize my CSA "stash", as well as using it in the most efficient (and yummy!) way possible. This project (and its title) sprung from one of the most common questions we get about the CSA share system and, emphasis a fellow core volunteer's, "What do I DO with ALL these vegetables?"

It can be a daunting task, receiving such a large share at the beginning of the week in forms many of us might not be familiar--carrots with full tops, radishes with leafy, peppery greens crowning them. It's all so beautiful on the table when you pick your veggies up, but once they are in your reusable shopping bag, and then your house--what then?

When I was not a mom and had more time than I can even conceive of at the moment, I had a very rigid system-- come home immediately, start to separate greens from vegetables, wrap the greens in fresh paper towels, which then went into zip loc bags bought just for this purpose, lovingly labeled in black sharpie. It was tidy, if not slightly anal-retentive....and wasteful. I would find many of those paper-towel ziploc bundles at the bottom of my crisper, stained with oxidation from rotting vegetables, simply because I could not find use for them in my dinner repertoire or the volume was too overwhelming, my system of breaking things down not efficient enough to work throughout the week. I suspect I am not the only person with this problem.

As a new mom, I have neither the time nor the funds to waste that much produce. Clearly another system would have to be found. In the next entry, I wil share how I broke down, organized, and used this week's CSA share.

Full disclosure: I am the resident CSA chef for Parkchester and this is my third year as a core volunteer and member of the CSA. I'm a new mom on a diet with a flexitarian family; we tend to see meat as a side and not the main event, although breaking the habit of meat after a pregnancy of anemia and big portions has been tough! Work in progress! I work at home mostly which definitely gives me an advantage in terms of time, although I rely on the typical mom tools of the trade such as leftovers, the slow cooker, and a patient husband/sous-chef who follows my cooking instructions diligently when our seven month old daughter falls asleep on top of me right before dinner.