One way to use some of your local CSA goodies

Hey everyone!  This delicious recipe uses kale, lentils, thyme, rosemary and onions from the CSA.  The pork sausage and garlic powder are local, too.  All you need are some sweet potatoes and you’ve got a very delicious, very nutritious meal!

Early this afternoon I took a look in the pantry and was uninspired. “What am I going to do for dinner tonight?” I thought. While working through the rest of the afternoon, I let this little conundrum roll around in the back of my head. Inspiration usually hits me if I just let my subconscious […]

via Lentil Sausage Bake — My Urban Farmgal Life

Week 6: A Beautiful Share

Well, we hope you were excited about the Rainier cherries this week.  And we’ve got some great news–more cherries next week!  Flathead cherries!  They define July in Montana.

Some of you may have been surprised to get potted herbs this week.  Always trying to come up with fresh ideas for the shares, we thought we’d experiment a little and see how it went.  Please give us some feedback–did you like the herbs or not?

You will need to plant your herbs in larger pots soon, as they will quickly begin to stress from being rootbound.  Rosemary is not hardy in Zone 4, so if you want to keep it around, plant it in a large pot so that you can bring it indoors this winter.  The Munstead lavender is usually hardy in our area, so you can plant it outside in your yard and, given just a little bit of winter protection, should return again next year.  You can also plant it in a larger pot to bring indoors to overwinter.

Looking for a few fun recipes for rosemary or lavender?  Here are a few sweet suggestions:

lavender shortbread or lavender scones (you’ll have to wait until they flower later this summer)

lemon rosemary cookies (one of my favorites) or cupcakes

Looking for something on the savory side?  How about one of these:

rosemary garlic chicken and potatoes

lavender tenderloin

Wondering how to use tarragon?  One of my favorite ways is to create a simple syrup for iced tea or a cocktail.  The recipe in the link uses orange juice, but you can use all water if you don’t want the citrus flavor.

What about that thyme?  Don’t forget that rosemary and thyme are a classic herb pair.  You can use the herbs to make a rub for chicken, bread, or grilled fish packets that also use zucchini and summer squash–that recipe alone would use up over half of this week’s share!

There are loads of recipes on the internet for each of these herbs, so get searching and good luck!