The Time To Hesitate Is Through... and eating the bits that used to go to the livestock.

Even though there's 4' deep snow in my back yard and 6' high snow plough piles in my front yard, now is the time to start thinking about CSA sign up.

Some people have already found the CSA they're happy with and signed up as soon as last season ended.
Hubby and I need to decide if we want to try a new one for comparison or if we want to stick with the same farm. I've pretty much covered all the info and cautionary tales in my previous posts so I won't bother rehashing it. You either got the message or you didn't.

Basically, if you haven't started thinking about which CSA to sign up for, now's the time to do it. March is when a lot of sign up deadlines start to hit, so don't end up missing out. DO IT NOW!

One other thing I wanted to cover is what to do with the bits and pieces: the non-obvious edible parts of the veggies you may get in your CSA bundle.

Here are the ones I have experience with:
Tough greens (dandelion, collard, etc)
Radish tops
Kohlrabi tops
Carrot tops
Fennel tops
Beet tops

I also use 'tough bits' (or 'tough discards) like the thick outer leaves of cabbages and lettuces as well as the trimmed bits from parsley, fennel, kohlrabi, broccoli & cauliflower. You'll notice that a lot of these guys are related to each other. This is a good thing in that it helps offer a uniformity of flavour if you're mixing veggie bits to make a lasagna filling.

For me, lasagna makes the most sense for using up veggie scraps. My husband swears that almost anything would taste good with my homemade pasta sauce on top. Whether his statement is true or not, I find I like the taste of the greens and scraps sautéed with onions and garlic then added to ricotta cheese. Maybe it's just that everything tastes better with onions, garlic and cheese? :)

If you buy veggies with lots of "baggage", don't throw out the stuff you'd normally chop off until you've checked that there's not a recipe for it. In the end, you get to try something new and you get a bit more bang for your veggie buying buck.

Broad Branch Farm sends a newsletter e-mail the afternoon of Friday pick up and in it they say what's in the bushels that week. I would use this to preemptively look up recipes for what I was going to be bringing in. If the veggie description mentioned 'having leafy tops', I'd do a Google search for "recipe tops". If there was a veggie mentioned in the newsletter that I'd never had before, I'd do a Google Images search to see what the veggie looked like, then search for recipes that way. Some CSA's will have resource material on their websites. Here's the link to one of the resources available on Broad Branch Farm's site:
http://www.broadbranchfarm.com/veg_ref_guide.html

Here's a recipe I use for roasted radishes (tops and bulbs):
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/roasted-radishes-with-radish-greens

For veggies with very feathery or furry tops (like carrots and fennel) I recommend snipping a bit off and eating it raw first. Just because someone somewhere on the internet described the flavour of carrot tops as a 'fresh, astringent taste' doesn't mean you're not going to think it tastes like shoe polish! I like to finely chop my carrot or fennel tops and use them instead of croutons to top my salads or garnish my soups.

Turnip and radish greens I'll roast with some balsamic vinegar and eat like a snack; great with cheese & crackers!

Oh, I almost forgot:

ALWAYS taste before cooking.
Do you hear me?
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS!

With CSA produce, some days are going to be better than others so even though last week you got fennel whose tops were crunchy, fun to eat and flavourful doesn't mean they will taste the same this week. They may have had a rough week in the sun so today they may be tough, woody and full of starchy blandness.

I often take all my tough greens and my 'tough discards' and lay them out on a paper towel. I'll roll the towel up and then put the whole bundle in a gallon sized sip-top bag, then store them in my fridge until I'm ready to make my favourite lasagna recipe (below).

All those bits and pieces I save are all very flavourful and colourful and, once cooked, will make an excellent filling. Just before chopping them up, I separate the really thick/tough pieces from the slightly more delicate pieces. The tough stuff I finely chop for quicker cooking; the more delicate parts I will rough chop or chiffonade and I'll add them only once the rough pieces are already starting to cook.

Basically, I use this lasagna recipe as a sort of garbage disposal for all the bits I know are edible, too tough to put in a salad or are too pungent (for me anyway) to eat by themselves.

Anyway, I've been talking vaguely since I haven't shown you my 'go to' recipe yet for dealing with all these mystery veggie bits and pieces and that's because there's no link to the recipe and wading through the recipe list is a little boring, so I'll stop being vague now and finally GIVE YOU THE RECIPE!!!

Here it is, I hope you enjoy!


Rolled Stuffed Lasagna with Greens and Tomato Cream Sauce
1 pound greens (kale, spinach, collards, chard, or a combo)
3 tablespoons butter or oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium-size onion, chopped
1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
1 cup finely diced mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 lasagna noodles, cooked al dente
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse greens well; cut off any tough stems or ribs and discard.
Chop greens. Heat butter or oil in large skillet. Add garlic and onion; saute 5 minutes. Add
greens and cook 5 minutes longer, until wilted. Mix greens-and-onion mixture with ricotta,
mozzarella, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese in large bowl. Stir in salt and pepper.


For the sauce:

Tomato Cream Sauce

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

3 cups milk

1 cup tomato puree
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

salt and pepper

For tomato purée:  Put Roma tomatoes in a food processor one at a time. Check for volume after each tomato addition. You may need as little as 2 tomatoes, as many as 4, depending on the juiciness


Melt butter in saucepan; whisk in flour. Cook 2 minutes, whisk in rest of
ingredients, and cook 5 minutes or until boiling. Remove from heat.

To assemble lasagna:
Coat bottom of a large baking dish with sauce. Lay a noodle on a work surface; spread oneeighth of greens mixture evenly over it. Roll the noodle up loosely, like a jellyroll, and place
seam side down in baking dish. Repeat with rest of noodles. Pour remaining sauce over
noodles and sprinkle remainder of Parmesan cheese on top. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes or
until hot and bubbly.
Substitution: Marinara sauce would work just fine instead of the Tomato Cream Sauce.
Meat of your choice could be added to the sauce, also.

EDIT:
Oh look! I found photos! As you can see, I get 8 evenly divided portions where one roll is a serving. Add a side salad and you've got a great dinner AND you have meals during the week too. This lasagna freezes and reheats VERY VERY well so I like to make this on a Sunday and have lunches or "OMG hubby got home 15 mins before raid and he hasn't eaten all day" dinners. Nothing like being able to have him log on to World of Warcraft on time and still be able to get a well-balanced hot meal into him! The plight of the tech-age housewife! :D

Mise en place

 Onions sweated, waiting to add greens

 Tomato bechamel sauce is done

 the cheeses mixed in with the warm greens *easier to spread when it's warm!*

 One lasagna noodle spread with filling

 One rolled lasagna serving waiting for his buddies to join him

 The rolls waiting for sauce

 Fully sauced, waiting for cheese!

 CHEESE! and out of the oven

 One serving, it's FAR more filling than it looks!

PS: One last thing...
That béchamel/tomato sauce recipe is also how you make homemade tomato soup. Just double the recipe and thicken to desired texture. Add grilled cheese sandwich!