A review of our first Flagstaff CSA share program (+ what we made with our produce)

After an entire spring season of straight-from-the-farm local produce pick-ups, our CSA share has come to an end.

I wanted to take a second to share a little bit about our first experience with the Flagstaff CSA program — and share some of the recipes I threw together with some of the produce I received.

*Our first pick-up on March 3: Purple cauliflower, lemons, potatoes, butter lettuce, kale, oranges, carrots, onions and collards.*

Earlier this year, Ryan and I signed up for a half-share from our local CSA. This meant we were entitled to an every-other-week pick-up of seven-to-nine produce items from “local” (Arizona) farms.

We made two payments of $97 and since the spring share ran from February 24 through May 26, we had seven pick-ups.

*Our March 17 pick-up: Purple cauliflower, green garlic, yellow onions, red potatoes, red beets, butter lettuce, purple cabbage and kale.*

Overall, I LOVED our CSA experience! I tried new produce I never would have tried were it not for this share — like Romanesco broccoli, Armenian cucumbers and green garlic.

Because all the produce is seasonable, we ended up with a lot of kale and collard greens, potatoes, onions, beets, carrots and cauliflower.

*Our March 31 pick-up: Juicing oranges, golden beets, Romanesco broccoli, sweet potatoes, romaine, snap peas, butter lettuce and kale.*

My favorites:

The red and golden beets. I love borshch, and I learned how to cook beet greens!
The variety of greens. We had butter lettuce, romaine lettuce, green oak lettuce, collards and so many different types of kale. Admittedly, I got kind of lazy and made a LOT of frittatas, but it was still nice to get greens and be forced to eat them because I usually only buy spinach and romaine at the grocery store.
Carrots and onions. We use them for everything — and they were crucial for a lot the new recipes we tried with our produce — so they were nice to get.

My least favorites:

The juicing oranges. They were SO good, but we only got like, four in our pick-up, which wasn’t enough to really do anything with other than enjoy a few sips of orange juice one day! Such a bummer.
The potatoes. We did get a variety — regular, red and sweet — and I know that winter seasonal produce ALWAYS includes potatoes… but still. Potatoes are potatoes. Nothing special.
The celery. I LOVE celery. But I HATE celery leaves. The celery we got was leafy and I had to cut off and compost the greens. It felt like such a waste.

*Our April 14 pick-up: Green onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, kale, butter lettuce, celery and collards.*

In addition to receiving my produce, I also received a weekly email! This was really useful, because not only did the CSA detail what we would be getting in our pick-up (so I knew what type of kale I would be getting and could easily google “what to do with green garlic), but it also included some recipe ideas for the produce.

Super cool, right?

*Our April 28 pick-up: Red potatoes, green garlic, strawberries, kale, carrots, green onions, butter lettuce and kale.*

I’m really bummed that the spring share has ended because, sadly, Ryan and I will not be purchasing a summer share.

QUICK DISCLAIMER! We want to! I actually want to bump up to a full share where we pick up our seven-to-nine produce items EVERY week instead of just every other week!

*Our May 17 pick-up: Golden beets, strawberries, yellow onions, romaine, collards, kale, purple cabbage and carrots.*

But, with fire season in full swing, Ryan will be gone for pretty much the next five months straight. I’ll be keeping busy intermittently with on-forest fires and fire assignments as well, so cooking with fresh local produce will, unfortunately, be replaced with fire camp food way too often for our liking.

*Our May 26 pick-up: onions, potatoes, garlic, cucumbers, lettuce, kale, carrots and strawberries.*

However, we’re already saving recipes and looking forward to the end of fire season when we can pick up a winter share!

I already shared a few things we made with our first pick-up — like fondue, lemon butter cookies, frittatas and salads — but I wanted to share a few more of the things we did with our produce.

The best things we made by far were:

Barbecue jackfruit sliders with Greek yogurt cole slaw:

*CSA produce used: Purple cabbage and carrots.*

SO. MANY. FRITTATAS. This became my go-to when I couldn’t figure out what to do with the kale or collards. We experimented a lot.

*CSA produce used: Kale, collards and yellow onions.*

*CSA produce used: Beet greens and kale.*

Borshch! I LOVE borshch. I have my Ukrainian host mama’s recipe and I could eat it EVERY day. It’s never as good as it is when Mama Natasha makes it, but it’s still delicious.

*CSA produce used: Beets, carrots and onions.*

Kale and white bean soup. Ryan loved this one so much, I actually made it twice. Then he left for fire season. I have like 10 servings of it in my freezer now.

*CSA produce used: Celery, carrots and kale.*

A golden beet and strawberry salad. This was so good, I actually made it twice! Once with greens and once without, because I didn’t have them on hand. We tossed cooked golden beets and strawberries with feta, crushed pistachios and a homemade vinaigrette.

*CSA produce used: Butter lettuce, golden beets and strawberries.*

Cauliflower crisp. We roasted cauliflower with chickpeas and served the combo with parsley, avocado and tahini dressing over greens and quinoa.

And, a lot of the produce we kept pretty simple. The romaine and butter lettuce always went into salads. The potatoes were easily baked: The sweet potatoes became french fries in the air fryer and the red potatoes were roasted with rosemary for breakfast. Oranges, carrots, strawberries and snap peas became quick snacks.

Green onions went on top of Korean corn cheese dip, yellow onions went into various soups, gravies, egg dishes and dinners. The Armenian cucumbers were thinly sliced and dressed with honey, red wine vinegar, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper.

I was super proud of this salad in particular, though, because I made the croutons from bread that I also made, and I made the Caesar dressing from scratch as well. Also pictured: Sweet potato fries from our CSA sweet potatoes.

*CSA Produce used: Butter lettuce and sweet potatoes.*

I didn’t think to take a picture, but one of the highlights was an open-faced breakfast sandwich made with homemade bread, cheddar cheese, jalapeño jelly, honey mustard, sautéed kale (CSA), tomato and green garlic (CSA) and fried eggs.

Finally, ALL of the compatible veggie scraps (carrot peels, onion skins, scallion scraps, celery trimmings, etc.) were saved and boiled down into vegetable stock (before tossing in the countertop composter)… which I used in both the borshch and white bean kale soups, along with other soups I’ve made over the past few months.

*CSA produce used: Carrots, celery, onions, scallions and green garlic.*

So, there you go! Our review of our first experience as part of a CSA share program.

Like I said: I’m really bummed I won’t be able to buy a summer share — but I’m already looking forward to the end of fire season when Ryan and I will be around with time to cook so we can take advantage of this awesome program again come time for the fall/winter share.