mulberryshoots

Yesterday, I received an invitation to join a CSA share of vegetables etc. from Western Massachusetts. I was tempted to subscribe last year but wasn’t sure if I might be too choosy to deal with deliveries of random food for 20 weeks.

I talked about it with G. and we both agreed that being able to CHOOSE our own vegetables suited our natures better. So today, I started our customized CSA experiment by going to a local farm in Northborough. The CSA subscription costs $30 a week for 20 weeks = $600. So I figured that I might try going with a $30 or less budget at the farmstand. (I also planned to stop at Trader Joe’s on the way home to augment the vegetables from the farm.)

My first visit to Berberian Farms was a little early for vegetables – they said they’d have more of their harvest “after Memorial Weekend,” we were told. Some of the lettuces were from New Jersey as were some of the other produce. HOWEVER, I was able to supply ourselves with these vegetables for a total bill of $12.91. That’s right: for about thirteen dollars.

dozen fresh eggs, extra large

2 Braeburn apples that I’ll use to make a puff pastry apple tart from a recipe I found in “Nordic Kitchen”

a nice eggplant that will be eggplant parmigiana and perhaps some eggplant tempura too

2 Roma tomatoes

nice piece of ginger root – hard to find these

3 zucchini squash for fritters, as a side vegetable and possibly in a frittata

3 large golden beets, to roast in the oven, peeled and slathered with butter, salt and pepper

2 sweet potatoes to bake as a side dish with fresh filet of sole or to accompany oven fried chicken thighs tonight

That’s all for this week’s farmstand trip. Am looking forward to next week’s visit!

Even though I’m supposed to cut down on eating bread for glycemic reasons, not gluten ones, I’ve discovered that it’s almost impossible to do without bread. Or English muffins for that matter. Anyhow, I’m writing about tea sandwiches as a way to cut down on bread consumption but still enjoy bountiful and delicious ways to have something flavorful to accompany homemade soups for lunch and/or dinner.

Last night, I had some almost stale thin white slices of bread that I put together with some leftover cream cheese, prosciutto ham and half a cucumber. I cut off the crusts and slathered on the cream cheese, added the ham and thinly sliced cucumber and then piled them on top of each other. I used a trick I learned years ago about keeping tea sandwiches fresh, wrapping them in slightly moistened clean paper towel and storing them in the fridge for an hour before eating. When they’re unwrapped, the bread is less dry and the sandwiches are refreshed.

Taking this idea a little further – like the macro-bowl concept of only preparing what you’re actually going to eat, I’m going to experiment with some ideas while making a split pea ham/onion/carrot soup during this zero degree weather. With tea sandwiches, one consumes about half the quantity of a regular sandwich but still enjoy the taste.

1. Shrimp salad tea sandwiches – buy a few cooked shrimp at the fish counter, chop them up and add to finely chopped celery heart leaves, finely chopped red onion, Hellmann’s mayonnaise with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Spread on the bread with crusts off (I also like lite-oatmeal bread that has a moist crumb and is more tender than the thin-sliced white bread. 
2. Smoked salmon tea sandwiches – spread cream cheese, lay out thin sliced smoked salmon, very thinly sliced tomato, red onion, capers?
3. Branston pickle spread (from the UK); slices of good cheddar cheese
4. Tuna salad with mayo, pickle relish mixed together well
5. Egg salad with mayo, truffle salt, cracked pepper
6. Thinly sliced smoked gouda cheese with avocado and tomato, red onion

So basically, this is a way to enjoy flavor in small bites that are quick to prepare. Hallelujah!