The First Week of Our Winter CSA

We joined Big Leaf Farm’s winter CSA program and I just picked up our first installment yesterday. We got beautiful red carrots, savoy cabbage, onions, garlic, acorn squash. fennel, pak choy, and broccoli. To celebrate last night I made some farro risotto with savoy cabbage, bacon, mushrooms and apple. It was yum yum yum. Farro is a great grain if you’ve never tried it. It is chewy and nutty, very similar to wheat berry. It makes a great risotto. One drawback is that it needs some forethought. It needs to soak for 8 hours to soften it up a bit. The plus side is that once it’s soaked, it takes less time to finish cooking than arborio rice. You can usually find farro at Whole Foods type stores or in Italian specialty stores.

Recipe:
1 cup Farro, soaked in water for about 8 hours
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 cups broth
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 head of Savoy cabbage, chopped roughly
5-8 mushrooms, sliced
2 slices cooked bacon, chopped
1 apple, cored, peeled and grated using a large sized grater
salt and pepper
garnish with grated cheese such as Romano or Parmesan.

Soak the farro in water for about 8 hours. Drain and rinse the farro. Add olive oil, farro, and garlic to a large, heated high-sided skillet. Saute for about minute or two until the garlic is aromatic. Add cabbage, mushroom, and enough stock to cover the farro. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir together and simmer on medium heat, adding stock until the farro is tender. Add bacon and grated apple to heat. The risotto should still have a little bit of juiciness but should not be soupy. Serve in a wide bowl topped with grated cheese.

Tonight I’m sauteing some pak choy with garlic to have alongside our steaks. I’m so glad we were finally able to join a CSA, we were too late to join in the spring when we first got to Portland. My lunches are going to be way more exciting now. They also have a few dozen eggs for sale every week and someone else picking up said they were amazing.

Rainbows are so amazing.