I came down the stairs to Fred announcing “There’s a box of food on our front steps.” Oh boy, our first CSA delivery! It’s like Christmas morning.
Our box includes lots of greens: arugula, mesclun mix, red leaf lettuce; plus cilantro, scallions, cucumbers. Oh, and the most luscious strawberries I’ve eaten in a long time. Fred was slicing our store-bought strawberries for his cereal as I unpacked our bounty.
Can you tell which is the local strawberry?
“Have some of these strawberries on your cereal,” I said.
Fred looked at them a little suspiciously. “They’re a different color.”
“They’re ripe,” I said.
After eating about half of the carton of strawberries while standing at the counter, we moved on to the arugula, a personal favorite. These delicate leaves pack a surprising peppery punch. “Mmmm,” said Fred. “Mmmmm,” I agreed.
Pulling out the salad greens, we joked that it will be nothing but salad for the next couple of days. Which sounds pretty good to me. I’m a purist when it comes to salad, dressing torn leaves only with really good olive oil (just a little) plus some sea salt. It’s how I learned to eat salad in Europe, and it’s the best way to eat really fresh, local greens because you can actually taste the greens.
Here’s what I’ll do with the goods:
The cilantro will be chopped and tossed with cut grape tomatoes, jalapeno and onion for a fresh salsa.
The arugula will go fast, eaten as a salad. Same thing for the red leaf lettuce.
Think I’ll slice the scallions and add them to a coconut curry or a stir-fry.
Fred likes an Indian cucumber salad, so I’ll give that a shot.
And the berries will be gone before nightfall. Seriously, they’re that good.
There needs to be a different word for really good strawberries, to differentiate them from ordinary strawberries. Post your suggestions below.
Tags: csa
