Partial locavore

Yesterday I picked up my third box of produce from Glacier Valley Farm CSA.  When I got home & unpacked them, I decided to array them on my stove (best lighting) for a little photoshoot.  Above, you can see displayed:

From Alaska’s Glacier Valley Farm, VanderWeele Farm:

• 10 carrots
• 10 red potatoes
• 5 yellow onions
• 1 celery root

From Outside (all certified organic):

• 2 Bosc pears
• kiwi
• celery
• lacinato kale
• green chard
• fennel

And also:

• a really big squash.  I don’t know whether it came from Alaska or from the Lower 48.

The squash, of course, goes to my friend Sylvia, because she still likes squash & still don’t.  Some of this other stuff — hmmmm…. what am I gonna do with celery root or a full fennel plant, having never cooked either before?  Lucky for me that this week’s issue of the newsletter that Glacier Valley Farm CSA sends out with its boxes, Glacier Grist #59, has some suggestions: I’ll use the celery root & some of the chard, kale, carrots, onions , & potato to make the seasonal soup (probably adding some bison or grassfed beef); & the quinoa salad with apples, pears, fennel, and walnuts suggests a great use for some of the fennel as well as the pear.  But tonight I’ll make my own adaptation of an oven potatoes with fennel recipe I found online.

I didn’t order a box for two weeks from now because first I need to play catch-up & use all the stuff I’ve got now.  In particular, I’m finding it hard to use the potatoes very quickly.  I love potatoes, but I have to be cautious about eating too much of them because they’re a starchy vegetable &, being insulin resistant, I need to moderate my carb intake.  But aren’t these potatoes beautiful?

Living in Alaska, it’s hard to be a complete locavore — that is, someone who eats only food that is grown or produced locally. Even this produce box is only partially local. But I’m glad to be able to be at least a partial locavore. I’m reducing my carbon footprint because trucking stuff in from the Valley costs a lot less fuel than shipping it up from the Lower 48; I’m supporting Alaska famers; & wow — such great food! Just $35 for the box.

Time to go cook.