Monroe Organic Farms CSA - Week Three

Being a member of a Community Supported Agriculture program also known as a CSA is a big part of our lifestyle. It is so much fun to open our bag each week. Just knowing that we are eating local organic food from a source we can trust makes it even more alluring. In the past we have even purchased organic meat (beef, lamb & pork) from our farm and let me tell you nothing compares!

This is our third year as members of the Monroe Organic Farms CSA and this year we decided to become a distribution center for our northwest Denver neighbors. We have thirty CSA members picking up their local organic produce, fruit and eggs from our garage every Tuesday afternoon. Matthew and I are enjoying being a distribution center, we have had the opportunity to meet some new neighbors and in the process support our CSA.

We thought that it would be fun to share with you what arrives in our bag every week. So with our membership we will receive the following throughout the summer: a half share of organic produce, a full share of organic fruit and a dozen organic free-range farm fresh eggs. I plan on taking photos of all our bounty to share with you as well as write a brief blog about the week and potentially a recipe that will use some of our items.

This is our third week and we received more garlic, red onions, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce and Colorado red potatoes. The eggs are large this week; they are going to make a yummy fried egg sandwich for lunch today. Our fruit share started this week with a huge bag of cherries. My favorite! I think that I am going to make my cherry reduction for Matthew this week. Here is the recipe; it works great with blueberries and raspberries as well. I also like to substitute the lemon juice for orange juice when I make this with peaches and apricots.

Cherry Reduction

3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 lb fresh cherries, pitted
Vanilla ice cream

Mix the sugar and lemon juice in until mixture resembles wet sand in a heavy skillet (I used my cast iron skillet) over moderately high heat. Stir slowly until sugar is melted about 5 minutes. Stir in butter until well incorporated, add cherries stir to coat and bring to a boil. Cook cherries until the caramel dissolves. Remove cherries and reduce liquid for approximately 5 minutes depending on the amount of juice from the cherries. Re-add the cooked cherries and serve with vanilla ice cream.

ENJOY!