CSA Professionals: Be a Successful Veggie Box Member!

Find out what master CSAers are doing to make sure they have fresh veggies all week and nothing goes to waste.

Use the What's in my Fridge PDF to help you plan for the week's meals.

Print the 6 Steps for Success and Meal Suggestion Ideas and post them on your fridge or another convenient location in your kitchen.

By considering even a few tips that we present in this video, you will become more successful at using your box and being more confident in the kitchen.

CSA is all about community. We want you to have a connection to your local farmer. You can visit us during pick up day at the farm and tour the gardens. But, during the week feel free to connect with us online as well

Our Veggies will be available every week for pick up at the Veggie Shack-- at 146 Decou Rd.
Find out how to get there safely to pick up your veggies

Every Successful CSAer should have these tools in their kitchen to help prepare and store veggies well. These are all items that we use in our kitchen and would recommend to anyone who is a newbie veggie  box member.

Check out our resource material to get your list of must-have kitchen tools.

Every Master CSAer always has great strategies to carry them through the week. Having a well-stocked pantry is one of the most important things when you are meal-planning or cooking on the fly.

Our downloadable Pantry Item list will help assist you at making any meal. -- Give it a try!

Every vegetable is different, which means that storage can also be very different for each veggie.

Check out this list to help guide you to where you should store your different veggies.

Carrots, and other root veggies can go limp and soggy in the fridge. Cutting off the tops of the carrots and storing them separately will ensure that your roots stay crunchy for weeks.

Make sure to cut the tops off as soon as you get home.

Carrots tops are also edible - they are great in salads or as garnish.

Most green tops are also great in soup stocks! Store them in a plastic freezer bag for use later.

Greens are one of the most perishable items in your veggie box. Storing your greens properly will enable you to have fresh greens longer.

All of our spinach and lettuce mixes come pre-washed. However, beet tops, carrot tops, head lettuce and other leafy greens usually need another good rinse before you can eat them.

We use a salad spinner to help prepare our greens, but you can also use a towel to dry them as well.

Not all veggies are treated equally. Some veggies are stored right on the counter. Make sure to check out our storage cheat sheet to find out what veggies should be stored in your kitchen.

Sometimes you are going to be busy and will have left over veggies at the end of the week- this happens to the best of us.
We have outlined some strategies below to help you get through your box easily and quickly when you are stuck.

Use these resources to help you be more successful!

We are excited to see what other tips and tricks our members can share with others.

Feel free to share on Facebook, Instagram and snap pics and send emails to us with your creative dishes!

Blanching is a great way to preserve your veggies through the winter. It is also a great way to make sure the veggies in your fridge do not go bad when you have too many to eat in one week. Blanching is usually done for leafy greens, so we like to chop them up and freeze in our ice cube trays.

Check out this video on how to freeze your veggies quickly and easily.

Materials you will need for blanching:

- Boiling pot of water

- Slotted spoon

- Ice cube tray

- Ziplock bags

- Knife and cutting board to chop veggies

- Timer

Flash Freezing is a great way to preserve your veggies through the winter. It is also a great way to make sure the veggies in your fridge do not go bad when you have too many to eat in one week.

Check out this video on how to freeze your veggies quickly and easily.

The attached poster will also help you determine which veggies you can flash freeze, and which ones you need to blanch before freezing.

Materials needed for flash freezing:

- Knife and cutting board to chop up veggies

- Ziplock bags

- Permanent Marker to write on bags

Roasting Veggies is a great way to make a meal quickly and easily using lots of different kinds of veggies. It also allows you to have awesome left-overs for other meals during your busy week.

Making your own veggie broth is easy, affordable and delicious. Find out how we make our own veggie broth here on the farm.

Using a large freezer bag can help you collect food scraps from the weeks/months for you to later process into veggie broth as needed.

We make large batches of broth and freeze them in ice cube trays for easy use when cooking meals.

We plan to add videos each week about the recipes we have made with our box to give everyone ideas about what to make in their own kitchen. The goal is to use one or more ingredients from your box in the recipe each week to help you make awesome food!

If you have any questions,  stop by the veggie shed, send us a Facebook message or email us.

This is a great recipe for Rhubarb in a different way that is not too sweet.

The addition of rhubarb juice is awesome for letting the pork marinade in the juice overnight.

A delicious way to use early season vegetables

This turned out to be a hit at our house. A great way to use radish, and cook out some of the heat. By  poaching the radish, we found that they are not as hot (yay!).

As well, we substituted bok choy stalks for the celery to give it an extra crunch. And, we used green onion instead of sweet onion.

Although this recipe calls for three bunches of radish, we only used 1 bunch of radish plus other veggies to bulk it up.

The dill is a must-have in this dish.

This is a great recipe that you can try at home. If you're bored of eating snap peas raw-- try roasting them!

Snap peas do not need to be hulled, you can eat the peas and the shells.

This a great treat that anyone will enjoy. Try adding some extra spices or some dipping sauces too!

This dish uses green onions, beets, beet greens and kale!

This is a great salad for potlucks and family gatherings. Use the whole head for one meal. Not your average cabbage salad!

An awesome way to use up lots of cucumbers. Delicious as a dip or for gyros.

MAKE IT DAIRY FREE/VEGAN: Substitute an equal amount of cashew sour cream for the yogurt, and thin the tzatziki with a small splash of water if necessary.

A great way to spice up your potato dishes with a little bit of licorice flavour

A perfect way to store zucchini when you have waaaay too much.

You will need:

- Zucchini

- Glass Jars

- Heavy weight for jars

- Water

- Pickling Salt

This is a simple recipe that you can make at home to use up eggplant.

Ingredients: Eggplant, tomato, Parmesan cheese and mayo! 

An easy way for a family to eat a whole watermelon in one sitting - a cold salad that can be a main course or dessert!

A easy and fun way to use all of your leftover vegetables!

Use any veggies you want for this recipe - Root crops like carrots, beets, onions, potatoes, garlic, and sweet potatoes work great

Sprouts can be a great addition to your diet. They are easy to grow at home and a great energy source to add to any dish. Growing sprouts in the winter is a great way to get fresh green in your diet without breaking the bank. We sprout seeds in our kitchen by our North-facing window by the sink. Within 7-10 days, you will have awesome sprouts.

What you need for sprouting:

- Mason Jar

- Window Screen

- Elastic Band

- Certified Sprouting seeds

- Water

Using certified sprouting seeds is very important if you are planning on eating your sprouts raw. Bacteria contamination can occur, so it is important to start with certified seed before starting any sprouting.

This is an intro only. More videos to come.

Watch how we brew our kombucha at home. This video will provide some of the basics on kombucha brewing.

To learn more, sign up for our workshop to taste and get all the details

Vermicomposting: A great way to compost veggie scraps in your house with no smell!

P.s. don't drink the tea-- it's only good for plants :)

Lip Balm & Hand Salve Basic Recipes:

Tools:

- Beeswax

- Vitamin E

- Honey

- Infused Olive Oil

- Essential Oils (optional)

- Old pot

- Skewer sticks

- Ice cube tray (silicon)

- Containers for balm and salves

- Strainer

How to Infuse your own oils

Dry Packed Oils: (easier)

Wet Pack Oils: (Harder)

- Dry leaves/ flowers out of direct sunlight until crispy

- Pack in mason jars

- Fill with olive oil

- Infuse for 6 weeks or longer

- Cut fresh herbs

- Pack in jar and let it sit in the sun for 4 weeks. Then strain

- More potential for mold

- Or Bake in oven (dangerous)

Basic estimated amounts

Lip Balm

Hand Salve

1 c infused oil

2 oz Beeswax

1 tsp vitamin E oil

Essential oil (if you wish)

1 c infused oil

1 oz Beeswax

1 tsp vitamin E oil

Essential oil (if you wish)

Calendula

Self-seeding annual

Part of plant used: Flower head

Medicinal Uses: healing, disinfect minor wounds and treat skin infections. Reduces scarring and swelling. Use on scrapes, cuts, burns and bruises.

Mullein

Perennial

Part of plant used: leaf and flower

Medicinal Uses: Ear and lung herb. Nature’s vapour rub. Used topically on chest for coughs, colds, flus and asthma. Can be used for skin problems: eczema, nerve pain, bruises.

Chickweed

Perennial

Part of plant used: stem & leaves

Medicinal Uses: Used to ease arthritis and pains of the joints, cuts, skin irritants and inflammations.

Broadleaf Plantain

Perennial

Part of plant used: flower stalk, harvest in bloom.

Medicinal Uses: Strong Anti- Inflammatory. Excellent for bee-stings and bug bites. Draws out puss, dirt, slivers. Promotes cell growth to heal. Use on infections and poison oak or ivy irritations.

Stinging Nettle

Perennial

Part of plant used: leaves

Medicinal Uses: Used to treat skin ailments.

Comfrey

Perennial

Part of plant used: leaves and flowers.

Medicinal Uses: Wounds, bruises, and eczema. DO NOT uses internally.

St. John’s Wort

Perennial

Part of plant used: flower stalk, harvest in bloom

Medicinal Uses: Used to treat wounds that are associated with

inflammation like bruises, burns including sun burns, varicose veins and bug

bites and stings. Prevents scarring.

This is a great way to preserve your fruit for winter. --- but, after you take it out of the freezer, you need to eat it right away or put it in smoothies.  (It does go a little bit soggy)

Come out with the family and help us bottle feed our baby calves. Our calves get fed twice a day, and we can always use some helpful arms to hold the bottles.

This is a great experience to do with the whole family. Feeding takes about 15-30 minutes.
Please book with us in advance so we know to save the bottles for you.

This is a fun and free event!

How to harvest Rhubarb to keep it fresh

Find out how to pick strawberries the right way!

Eggplant is a veggie that people love or hate, find out how we use it at home!

Green beans are an awesome snack. We show you how to work with pole beans and bush beans here. --

p.s. They are great for a home  gardener to grow and the kids love eating off the vine!