The Dog Days of Summer

So, my goal at the start of the summer was to eat all my share. I'm on week eight, and I have to admit to feeling overwhelmed. I had a great time last week, being out in the countryside with access to a grill. I coated my ears of corn with olive oil and put them on the top shelf of my gas grill (on the bottom shelf were my St. Louis ribs from The Piggery). The food was fresh and beautifully prepared.

However, now I'm back in the big Bad Apple, and I don't have a grill. I don't have any new recipes. It's too hot for soup (even cold soups start with a hot kitchen). I find myself in a kind of frittata purgatory: Yes, eggs and veggies will use up my share, but it lacks any joy of cooking.

I think this is what causes many people not to renew their CSA shares, or to reduce their commitment to a half-share. It's just really tough to get through all these veggies every week. I think the reality is that we have gotten so far away from our nature, that we have evolved to processed foodies. With all these vegetables filling my fridge and erupting out onto my (limited) counters, I am actually craving processed carbohydrates! I see my half-eaten head of cauliflower and my bright orange (now much thicker than the spring garden variety) carrots, and I just cannot fathom eating them all. How sad that modern American eating is leading me to disparage my abundance.

The irony is that I was one of the late arrivals at the CSA last week and I missed out on the Calabaza squash. I've been reading recipes passed along through our CSA message board, and I'm angry that I don't have a Calabaza squash in my inventory. I keep mourning my absent Calabaza (I had to google it for goodness' sake, just to know what it was I was missing!), while my new five ears of corn languish beside baby eggplant (I sauteed about half of them), red onions, mint, cilantro (I manged to make it through all my papalo thanks to the frittatas) and the aforementioned "c" veggies. If only I had my Calabaza, no doubt I would have finished all my carrots and cauliflower!

I admit to pangs of guilt over all the waste. However, if I am to be fair, I am doing a much better job this summer in eating my share than I did last year (with one more mouth to feed; this year my family is down to three). If my goal was to eat more of my food, well, I am still striving toward that goal and am largely succeeding.

I think for next year, I will take some classes this winter (when I will, no doubt, be missing far more than my phantom Calabaza) to learn properly to freeze, pickle and store extra veggies for the non-growing months. It's a process, and I have to take it one lesson (and one share) at a time.