I’ve always understood that there are certain veggies that grow in fall, but being limited down to crops that are so seasonal is a fun learning experience. I’m combining 2 hauls (drops? bags?) of my CSA into one learning experience of making easy recipes + some interesting ones.

Drop 1 included:

• 1 Very Big Leak
• Half a Dozen large golden potatoes
• Garlic Bulb
• 2 Sweet Peppers
• 1 Fall Squash
• A Bunch of kale

Drop 2 included:

• Another bunch of kale
• More potatoes (smaller this time)
• Carrots!
• Radishes

Drop 3 included:

• Butternut Squash
• Purple Broccoli
• White Daikon
• Red Radishes
• Small White Radishes
• Sweet Potato
• MORE KALE
• Purple Carrots

So looking back at my vegetables I realize that I have been gifted many more potatoes and kale than I would like, but at least they are easy to work with! Most of my recipes have been split off into:

• Cool dishes I want to make
• Easy reusable recipes that I can eat
• Pickle this and deal with it later

Cool Dishes I Want to Make

To satisfy a very real craving, I made some Bo Luc Lac, which is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes that I never have. I have really fond memories of eating this every day when I worked as a waiter and I love Vietnamese dishes that incorporate ingredients so not native to our cooking like Potatoes or Dill! Although frying in an apartment is really rough and everything smells like Potatoes after, it was worth every scent!

I saw so much purple and blue in my last bag that I wanted to make stir fry out of it. Really happy with how this one turned out!! Purple Broccoli keeps it’s flower properties and definitely loses the vivid color when it cooks, but still tastes just as yummy. There is something about a super crunch stir fry with radishes that feels very fall like

Easy Reusable Recipes

Air fried Kale: Easy to make and seasoned with garlic powder for a bit of extra crunch to annoy my coworkers as I snack

Sweet Peppers with a Cheesy Japanese Mayo: Okay these look nasty but they were the SWEETEST peppers I’ve ever had and they were delicious. Such a crazy sad looking to tasty ratio

Smashed Pototoes: I just don’t know what else to do with so many pounds of potatoes in a week other than crushing them a bit and air frying them. I paired them along with a quick pesto aioli made of kewpie, pesto and lemon as a side dish to some dry aged steak!

Not pictured is the sweet potato, I took the single potato and just fried it in the air fryer to make a sort of baked potato, I had some leftover honey and unsalted butter and just topped it off with that! A very sweet and slightly savory fall snack.

Freezing/Pickling/Etc.

I would love to say that I found quick uses for all of my ingredients, but life doesn’t always leave enough time and hunger to use all the vegetables.

I took the daikon and pickled it to have, but I’m not planning on having Banh Mi or any type of Korean dish anytime soon so they are just snacks for when I want to taste something with a hint of vinegar! I don’t want to use all the special colors of kale for something boring, but I can only eat so much Kale in a week, so I chopped and then froze a lot of it to add to my smoothies for extra nutrients.

Regretably summer squash actually goes bad faster than you would think and I was sad to find that my smaller squash had some mold on it after coming back from a trip. You can’t always make the most out of all groceries, but I’m hoping that I can continue to waste as little as possible 🙂 I am debating continuing the CSA next season, as it’s a great opportunity to challenge yourself to intake more veggies, but it can truly be difficult to find enough uses for everything!