Name That Produce

I am so stinkin' excited!

Friday was the first pick-up day of this year's CSA box.

WOO HOO!

For those of you who are new to the lingo, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You buy a share of crops from a local farm and all throughout the summer and into the fall you get a giant box of produce every week.  

Price-wise, it's incredibly reasonable. I'm taking part in the CSA from Red Manse Farm this year and I'd highly recommend you check out their web site for info on joining in next year (or join your local CSA, if you're not in the area).

The fun thing about joining a CSA is that you never know exactly what you're going to get. It's exciting to know that you're getting the freshest veggies that are local and in season. You get to experience produce that you definitely will not find in the supermarket (there are no seasons in the grocery store) and it stretches your ability to cook using new ingredients. It also makes you hurry the heck up and use it all (or freeze it) since you know you'll be getting a bunch more in just a week! 

This week's CSA box included something I have never encountered and it had me playing a little game of "Name That Produce:"

A couple of Google searches for things like "long curly green vegetable" later and...

...voila! I discovered that what I had were garlic scapes. 

After several more internet searches I discovered that a LOT of people like to make pesto out of it...apparently I am not the only one with an over abundance of garlic scapes from my local CSA.

So I did what many others did and made a giant batch of Garlic Scape Pesto.

For the pesto, you will need:

2 1/2 cups roughly chopped garlic scapes

1 cup pine nuts, toasted

Zest and juice of one lemon

 1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegan Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat and toast until lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and add the pine nuts and all other ingredients to a food processor.

Blend until mostly smooth. This will make a rather thick pesto, so if you want yours a little runnier, experiment by adding a little more liquid.

To see how I used the pesto, visit my friend Abby's blog, where I am the guest post today!