CSA Report: Blooming Glen Farm

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

What a gorgeous day at Blooming Glen Farm!  New this week were leeks, sunshine squash and fennel, and I was happy to see that the garlic, onions and peppers are still coming.

Once a week at my job, a staff member takes a turn preparing lunch for the rest of the crew.  It’s a bit of a tradition, to the point that it has a specific name: Fun Lunch®.  And although the Registered Trademark isn’t actually registered, we’re all quite serious about it.  This week was my turn, and I couldn’t help but smile when, as preparing the feast, I realized that much of the meal was of Blooming Glen stock.  I served a tomato pie extravaganza featuring seven pies.  I doctored up Muir Glen tomato sauce with chopped onions, kale, and fresh basil, spices and garlic, and let it sit overnight. Today I reheated then slathered it on Rustic Crust pizza crusts (Tuscan 6-grain, if you care):

Tomato Pie EXTRAVAGANZA!
1. corn, orange tangy cherry tomato, shallot
2. tomato, smoked tempeh, chopped kale… Read More
3. mushroom
4. pepper, onion, tempeh sausage
5. zucchini,eggplant
6. eggplant, zucchini, onion
7. pepper, onion, tempeh sausage, smoked tempeh, tomato, cherry tomato

They were set on the table with a fresh green salad of Romaine lettuce, purple, green and red peppers, corn, Summer squash and citrus-y, mini edible marigolds.  Dessert was vanilla soy ice cream, topped with fresh, diced peaches, almond slices and Peace Valley Lavender Farm honey.

All told, what veggies, fruit and herbs were not from Blooming Glen, were procured from a local market (Bolton’s in Silverdale) and my own garden. 

And it strikes me now how effortless eating local has become.  Those small baby steps I began taking just a few years ago, by planting a garden and joining a CSA, have become an every day way of life. 

This week, when considering what I would serve my coworkers, rather than scoping out cookbooks, I simply turned to my kitchen and let its contents lead the way.  I say this now because, when I first became interested in “eating local,” it seemed such a monumental task.  Really, it’s been about very small changes; crowding out the un-local with the local, easing up on the 100%-or-nothing attitude (hence, then canned tomato sauce and packaged pizza crusts), until eventually… there seemed to be no other Fun Lunch® possibility than one completely infused with the tasty vegetables and fruits of my neighbors. 

I still rely on on those baby steps and hope others find the notion of “a little is better than none” a bit encouraging, too.   Bon appétit!