Dearest M —

I seem to open every missive with “I’m so sorry for how long it’s taken me to reply…” So here I am on the Ides of March replying to your letter from the Ides of December. I wonder how your pork and beans turned out?! I wonder if you had to freeze and are maybe still enjoying portions? I love discovering yummy things I made months ago and forgot about at the bottom of our chest freezer…I am pork free as well, though I don’t think that would survive a trip to Spain, if we ever go again. Anyway, I’m sure it was delicious!

In December 2024 I started getting a weekly CSA box. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try, and the pickup is minutes from my job. It’s from this nearby farm, and is $25 per box. (It is, I think, a great value for what you get. I only buy occasional fruit and herbs in addition to the box.) I’m getting it weekly, but I’m not lying when I say that staying on top of our vegetables has turned into my primary non-work activity. I have sacrificed cleaning, sewing, other hobbies…it’s kind of ridiculous. And I might reduce it to 2 boxes a month. BUT, the veggies are so good!

Sam started an accelerated nursing program around the New Year, and he is completely absentee. It’s very far away and has a ridiculous pace. So, I’ve had to “hold down the fort,” which has meant…mostly finding ways to cook these damned vegetables every week. (Mostly Sam eats chicken nuggets and mac n’ cheese, but he will eat some of my vegetable creations, sometimes…)

A very partial list of what I have made to stay on top of the farm box:

– An Italian pie with a very simple water crust stuffed with several pounds of cooked greens (collard, Red Russian kale, Swiss chard, beet tops)
– Spring rolls with collard leaves instead of rice paper
– Fennel front pesto (fronts, anchovy, lemon, parm, olive oil)
– Pickled watermelon radish, daikon, and Nantes carrots (used to make banh mi with turkey bacon using the farm box cilantro and also to put in the spring rolls, above)
– Kabocha squash stuffed with sausage and cornbread
– Pumpkin bread
– Blended cauliflower clam “chowder”
– Thai curry with winter squash and stewed beef and beef bones
– The Chez Panisse leek tart (really good w/fried eggs)
– Brown butter and acorn squash puree w/parm and pasta
– Beet and saurkraut soup w/dill (from the farm)
– Tiny tender broccoli steamed on rice. I then make a spicy General Tso sauce and toss my vegetarian nuggets. It satisfies my greasy Chinese cravings (which aren’t infrequent!)

– We got navel oranges every week for a while, so I candied the rinds and made a stollen (we had gotten some candied lemon peel for Christmas too)
– Lots and lots of roasted cauliflower…So. Much. Cauliflower

I found a recipe that I’m going to try tomorrow where you roast the cauliflower, chop it up, cook up some sort of olive oil, garlic, anchovy, parsley base, then eat it with pasta. (When in doubt: Just put it on pasta.) We have an enormous head of green cabbage, so I’m going to use up a bit of it tonight making katsu (chicken for Sam, tofu for me), with white rice and lots of shredded cabbage. We will probably be eating that cabbage for a month.

I’m fearful of spring and summer, because the produce is so delicate and perishable! All winter we’ve gotten hardy greens and squashes and did I mention cauliflower? And these things can wait patiently until I get to them. But spring/summer is going to be downright athletic to stay on top of. I welcome the challenge, but I am not confident that I will rise to it. As April nears…we will find out!