Eat Outside the Box

Tuesday was our first CSA (community-supported agriculture) day, courtesy of Eat Outside the Box. My mom went to pick up the produce in Lafayette. It was a very decentralized, informal affair: she parked on the street, walked into a CSA members' backyard, and weighed our share of the produce. She bagged it and drove home. Refreshingly non-corporate. Whole Foods is great; it has lots of organic, free-range food, but it also has a giant brand and suppresses unions. In addition, Whole Foods doesn't offer you the opportunity spend a day working on the farm where your food is grown (like Eat Outside the Box). CSAs encapsulate Dorothy Day's description of anarchism:

"an order made up of associations, guilds, unions, communes, parishes, voluntary associations of men [sic], on regional vs. national lines, where there is a possibility of liberty and responsibility for all men."

Anyhow, our basket came with all of this produce: garlic, lettuce, chard, pea greens, peas, lambsquarters (a spinach-looking green!!!), arugula (and arugula blossoms), Valencia oranges, tangerines, baby carrots, mint, Rainier cherries, and apriums (I think it should be "apria" but Wikipedia doesn't think so).

But not only did we get all of this delicious, fresh, and unique produce, but we got (in an email) five different recipes that incorporate the produce we picked up. My mom has already prepared three of the recipes (a spread, a salad, and the sauteed vegetable recipe below). I grow snowpeas myself, but I never would have thought to consume the blossoms, stalks, and leaves along with the pods. Genius!

Sautéed Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pea Shoots

SELF | July 2008 by Anita Lo

This summer side cooks quickly, so the veggies retain their nutrients.

1 tablespoon canola oil

6 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup chicken stock (or water)

1/3 cup oyster sauce

3 cups snow peas, strings removed

4 cups sugar snap peas, strings removed

5 cups pea shoots

Heat oil in a large, shallow pan over high heat. Cook garlic 30 seconds, stirring to prevent burning. Combine stock and oyster sauce in a bowl; add to pan. Add peas; cook, turning peas constantly, until bright green and crisp, about 2 minutes. Divide among 8 bowls; top each with a handful of pea shoots.

Thanks to Michael Iafrate of the blog Catholic Anarchy for alerting us to the Dorothy Day quote (this post).