CSA Week 22

This is my final post on the CSA for the 2010 season. So sad.

In this final week of the CSA we got leeks, broccoli, swiss chard, 2 frying peppers, one celeriac bulb, one head of lettuce,, a bag of onions and a bag of carrots and 2 delicata squashes.

I was happy to see that our carrots were cleaned and bagged. Same with the onions. But I was worried about the plastic bag. On one hand, it is easier to distribute small items like short carrots and baby onions. I love getting my veggies quickly and orderly, and not having little dirty broken carrots in the bottom of my bag. On the other hand though I hate to think that as our CSA grows and becomes better funded that we will start to rely on plastics more and more. I think that is my American dichotomy, I want to conserve, use less and I would love to eliminate plastics altogether. But I take advantage of them because they make my life convenient. You might call me hypocritical, but I prefer the term multifaceted. Basically, I don't have it all figured out.

So far the fall and winter vegetable consumption is not going so well in our house. I did make a lovely sweet potato and apple side dish last week. I sauteed peeled and cubed sweet potatoes in a little pastured butter. I then added some apples cored and cubed (peels still on). Then I added some apple cider and put the lid on the pan and let them steam. They got very soft and ooey gooey and they were quite sweet and sour. The kids loved them. The squashes have not been so lucky.

Thing 1 loves his Pumpkin Pie Smoothies, but actually eating squash--no thank you. Last night at dinner, Thing 2 frowned and handed me the fork that contained the offending squash. His furrowed brow said it all. But what he could not vocalize, Thing 1 said loud and clear. He told me "I don't like this dinner!" and "I don't like squash!"(with tears) and finally, and my personal favorite, "I want to hit you!" Well that one took my breath away-and my sanity. A few tears, a thrown sippy cup and a short time-out later, and I threw out that squash. I didn't even get one bite down either throat tonight. I am stubborn. I truly believe that they will like squash if they will try it. And if they try it enough they will grow to know it as familiar. Isn't that what all the books say? You have to introduce something 10, 12 or 30 different times before a child will like it? I am almost ready to say that they just don't like it. There were things I hated as a child. I hated mushrooms and peppers and scrambled eggs and quiche (though that was related to the egg thing). And do you know what? I still hate all those things, except I have found that if you add alot of milk to your scrambled eggs they become sweeter tasting and far more palatable. That is the only way I grew to love quiche. But regular ole' scrambled eggs still gross me out. I just didn't like that stuff, and there will be things that they won't like too. I just wish they could TELL me. That would make this struggle so much less of a struggle....