‘ morning, friends. How many of you here remember when we were part of a CSA?

CSA stands for community shared association.. Or something like that. Basically, you pay your farmer at the beginning of the season, and you and all of the other shareholders ‘ share ‘ the crops each week. It helps the farmer by getting the revenue up front, it’s a great community activity and it’s super- exciting ( like Christmas, really) to see what you receive each week!

Given that both of our grandparents were in the farming business one way or another, we really appreciate supporting them .

Whelpt, Scott and I really enjoyed it and we were walking in our neighborhood a few months ago when we saw a sign for CSA shares available.

Given that the pick – up location is 1/4 mile from our house, it was an easy sell for us.

So we mailed off our check and contract, and this past Wednesday was our first pick up

We received popcorn, beets, scallions, baby greens, baby beets, a few radishes and baby spinach . ( oops… Baby chard as well)

I sautéed the baby spinach in some olive oil, shallots, s&p and finished with a grating of Parmesan cheese. Simply amazing. ( I’m super- lucky that my kids eat things like this )

This is a bit different than our last CSA, because we used to go to the farm, but life is about making changes, so this works for us now.

Not to mention that we live a mile from an amazing twice a week farmers’ market.. annnnnd

My little veggie garden seems to be quite happy 🙂

(Buuuuut…. My planters, not so much….)

le sigh……

I stumbled upon the very first vine- ripened local beefsteak tomatoes at the farmers ‘ market yesterday .

There is NOTHING in the world like that first bite of a real. Tomato after a long winter of mealy, flavorless maters…

Of course this called for a pesto. But I didn’t want to drag out my food processor.. So I used my generic magic bullet!

I put

A handful of basil leaves ( picked from my garden ) 😁😁😁😁

About a tablespoon of roasted pine nuts

Freshly grated parm cheese( 1/4 cup, maybe?)

Juice and zest of a lemon

Olive oil ( use enough to make the consistency you want)

Good ol sea salt and fresh ground pepper

( you can add a garlic clove as well, but I liked the clean flavor of the basil, lemon and olive oil)

Blend away

Just layer mozzarella and tomatoes on a few basil leaves, top with pesto and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese

This was absolutely amazing.

I always say summer isn’t my favorite time of the year.

But this is a strong argument against that.

Keep cooking, friends!
Oxox