They're Here, They're Here!!!

I picked up my first box of veggies today from Miss Karla, the farmer (as my DS is now calling her)! Beth, my neighbor/partner in veggie-dom met us at the tailgate market with her tiny baby boy in tow. After perusing all of the other goodies at the Flat Rock Tailgate market and buying a yummy cookie from Dave at Flat Rock Bakery, we got our box!

Included in our box today was:
collards (a scary surprise because remember-- no pork in our family! How do you cook collards with out bacon fat?)
two bunches of broccoli
a bag of mixed salad greens
a bag of pole beans
a bunch of beets with greens attached
4 large green onions
one cucumber
one zucchini

This being the start of the growing season, the box was not as full as it will get when all of Blackbird Farms' crops start coming in. I saw the boxes at the peak last summer and there will be plenty 'o veggies for our two small families to share! Actually, this was a nice, unintimidating quanitity for me to begin with.

Even so, I got home and almost had a panic attack! COLLARDS! A huge bunch o' collards! What do I do with them without bacon? It was 5:30 p.m. when I got home and started dinner and the DS begins bedtime routine about 7:30 and we have to get homework and bath done in there, too. So, with limited time, I scrambled for a recipe for collards! I had that beet recipe that I posted last time ready to go (but not enough time, so I'll make that this weekend); I had the swiss chard ideas from others ready to go; I had the turnip recipe ready to go...but collards!! Soooooo unprepared for the collards.

Then, it hit me, I don't have to cook the collards tonight! Yes, I know, sometimes my anxiety gets hold of me and I don't realize the obvious things right away! For dinner tonight, I decided to focus on what I knew: steaming broccoli and making a salad! I decided to make omelets for dinner (which is weird because I never make omelets) so I diced the onions and decided to try sauteing the beet greens with the onions in a little olive oil with a garlic clove. After a quick call to the MIL to get her approval of my choice, she suggested cooking the greens longer than just a saute, so I threw in some chicken broth and simmered them slowly while I cooked the omelets. Good call on her part, as usual!

I put this sauteed greens mixture into the omelet with some sharp cheddar and was done.

My DH was very good about being open minded about the mixed spring greens for the salad. He's a straight Romaine lettuce kind-of-guy and doesn't normally go for the spring greens. But tonight, he tried it and liked it, Sam-I-Am!! He also enjoyed the beet greens in the omelet but with one caveat: they were gritty!

I guess I'm so used to using store bought lettuce that has been washed pretty well that I only have to rinse that I forgot that I was getting fresh veggies straight from the farm, ie: straight out of the dirt!! So...I just lightly rinsed those beet greens and cooked them! I was really disappointed because the flavor of the greens, onion, garlic olive oil and broth together was wonderful! I really liked it and so did the DH and neither of us are big fans of greens. But the grit (aka: dirt) kinda ruined it.

Ahhhh...the lessons of a newbie! WASH YOUR GREENS REALLY WELL!!!

So here was tonight's menu:

salad of mixed spring greens
steamed broccoli
omelets with sauted beet greens and spring onions

(I took pictures of the meal but they look so dumb compared to the really yummy pics other people post of the food they cook that I couldn't bring myself to post them! I also took pics of the box o' veggies but will post that later. )

All-in-all, I'd say a fairly successful healthy, mostly local dinner!

I think Our Veggie Adventure has begun in fine fashion! Day one and No Wasted Veggies yet!

(Can you hear the battle cry? NWV!! NWV!! NWV!!)