an all-CSA meal

Week 10 of our share from Mike and Clare's farm included the full bounty of summer: swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, zucchini, kohlrabi, green beans, cucumber, and (more) garlic! And as much as I enjoyed the many varieties of greens we received in our first weeks' boxes, I am a sucker for squash and have discovered a love for the strange goodness that is kohlrabi (I think this may be due to Clare's very persuasive arguments for the wonderful vegetable!).

Spurred on by participation in the CSA and the completion of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" back in June, I recently decided to limit the amount of meat and poultry I consume. My new rule is to eat these meats only if I know where they came from and a little about how they were raised. Those of you who have seen me working the grill at post-softball BBQs feel free to hold me accountable here... no, I have not stuck by this new rule consistently! However, it is something to work toward, slowly. Thank God for the meat share from Cedar Valley!

So far I have only sampled the pork sausage and chicken. It would help if I got our gas grill working (no propane) for the steaks and ground beef - something I hope to do in the next few weeks. In this month's meat share we received a whole fryer chicken and two pre-cut halves. I split this share with the Phillip's, and ended up taking home the two half fryers. This week I decided to roast one of them, with this result:

It was a complete, all-CSA meal! I started with a bed of potatoes, small carrots, green onions, and garlic drizzled in olive oil. I added a handful of fresh herbs from our back patio garden - rosemary and thyme, I think - and then placed the half-fryer on top. I basted the poultry in a simple olive oil and black pepper mixture, and roasted it all in a 350 degree oven. I had never roasted a chicken like this before and was a little nervous about getting it cooked completely, so I purchased a simple meat thermometer and stuck it through the breast meat right before I threw it in the oven. After only 45 minutes the thermometer indicated the meat was ready, but I found that as I cut the chicken open there were quite a few parts that were not cooked all the way through (many of the potatoes and carrots were still hard as well). I don't know if I got the thermometer up against a bone, or if the addition of the vegetables somehow threw the temp off - either way, it all went back in the oven to finish cooking. 30 minutes later I savored this wonderful meal with a little white wine, and ended up with two lunches worth of leftovers. Needless to say, there was much envy among my co-workers this week!

[This post submitted by Dena]