Thursday, July 26, 2007

Sprout Organic & Good Eats

i can't say enough good things about Sprout. Our family joined this organic veggie co-op at this spring and we share it with another family. We are eating so much more healthy and not going out as much because I always have something to cook and use quickly before more veggies arrive!
Plus we are trying new foods. Tonight I cooked with fennel for the first time, and came up with a great improvised recipe.

There is a waiting list for next year, but I thought I'd tell you about Sprout in case you think you might want to get on the list. We paid $525 for the whole summer May-Sept and have had plenty of veggies splitting just one share. Anyway, it works out to about $13 a week per family if you split it or $25 per share per week.

This week we got:
1 pound award winning sun gold cherry tomatoes (the best in the world)
2 lbs. heirloom tomatoes (I like the zebras)
3 lbs Hanover tomatoes
3 lbs. cucumbers all different kinds...and exotics, my favorite are the Armenian striped
3 lbs eggplant
2 lbs summer squash
2 heads Swiss chard
1 bulb fennel
2 green peppers
1 cantaloupe
1 Israeli honeydew

and there are always tomato seconds in case you are making sauce or salsa.
I guess you can tell I want to spread the word about this awesome group. Everyone is so nice and friendly, and picking up my share has become a weekly ritual I always look forward to. Daisy is learning how to pick out veggies, and she loves to divide our share for the other family when we get home, making sure everything is just exactly fair.

I posted some recipe's on the blog today. But then for diner I made this one inspired by one of the Sprout workers who says they serve a version of this at the Edible Garden in Goochland. Fennel is my new favorite vegetable!

1 cucumber, sliced (if there are large seeds or a tough skin discard them)
1 small bulb fennel, slivered vertically. discard the stalks but keep and chop the fronds
3 T sugar
3 T white wine vinegar
dash of virgin olive oil
salt and fresh groud peper to taste

Serve immediately , but also it is good the second day. It has a sort of lemony, licorice flavor.

7 comments:

Mike said...

Sounds like a really good idea!

in vino veritas said...

i think that sprout! has some wonderful things going for it and i am happy that it is working out for you. however, we do not recieve nearly as much or as great of variety as you did with our portion this week (and several previous weeks)and we paid $550 for our share? i didnt even realize they had fennel this week. www.invinoveritas.blogspot.com -

Jonah Holland said...

We joined a week late, hence the lower fee. also, the fennel was very small and the only one there. i picked it up b/c i'd never had it before.
Too bad they don't make sure each person is able to get an equal share. I thought that it was. Maybe they gave you more of something else to compensate running out of some other things.

in vino veritas said...

thank you soo much for the ideas. you are soo very sweet. i will email them posthaste to see if we can work something out.

Unknown said...

you should try fennel orange salad if you are on a fennel kick. It's really good and simple (google it for a "real" receipe) but its basically fennel, orange slices, red onion and a vinegrette.

TriGirl 40 said...

Sounds fantastic! Now I wish I would have signed-up for this year. But I'll check out the waiting list for next year.

Unknown said...

Yeah! I am always so glad to hear people who enjoy their shares. We are lucky in CA that we have such abundance of local grown and farms.

You are an inspiration to so many :-) Your support of the farm and feedback make it that much better for everyone. Keep sharing your experiences.

It's simple, fresh and incredibly healthy. Awesome post. ~j