Friday around 4 p.m. I headed out with my bike in the back of the car, an insulated tote, a reusable tote, and my bike gear.

My first stop was to pick up our CSA, load the tender items in the insulated tote and everything else in the reusable before heading down to the trailhead for a bike ride. I was then going to leave my bike in the car and walk down maybe a half mile to the annual Pullman Lentil Festival.

All things went according to plan. I grabbed the CSA, went for a windy, but beautiful 7.75 mile ride (before the wildfire smoke descended), and changed out of my clipless bike shoes into running shoes before heading to the fest.

Funny note, I didn’t realize I hadn’t reattached my front brakes until I was 3+ miles in and at my turnaround point. I’m such a daredevil.

This week marks our first week for potatoes, artichokes, and cantaloupe. Our first ‘fruit’ of the season unless you count tomatoes.

The artichokes are so petite and beautiful. We headed out on Saturday for Western Montana, so I wrapped these guys in a plastic bag and stored them in the fridge. I’m sure a week won’t bring harm to freshly picked produce.

The cantaloupe is also small and I think it is ready to eat. We will find out today. It fits easily in the palm of my hand.

More carrots, zucchini, and peppers. Fresh organic carrots that have just been harvested taste so much richer than stuff at the store. I really wonder how many more nutrients we are getting just because of how soon we eat most of it after harvest. Fun to think about.

We’ve been eating and keeping up with the zucchini easily.

The peppers though are another story. Jeremy can only do a little hot, so I’ve been using the jalapeños sparingly and I forget what the larger hot green peppers are, but I’ve only used one of them. The red poblano pepper is a first for the csa and we brought it with this trip along with plenty of hummus. The small ridged peppers, I believe, are padron peppers—though I think they called them something else in the newsletter. They aren’t spicy, have a thin skin and add great flavor whether they are cooked or raw.

Those carrots though.

Another week of lemon cucumbers. They are quite pretty though I don’t know if I would ever buy them at the store. They have a lot of seeds and I’m more of an English cucumber fan. But, if you hull them out and fill them with guacamole then all is right with the world. Last night we sliced one and had it in our vegetable wrap when we arrived at the hotel. Coming soon.

They do need to be stored in the fridge where we live otherwise they dry out quickly.

Tomatoes anyone? Just kidding I’m not sharing yet. The tomato portion of the share really ramped up this week and last. Last week I made approximately a half-gallon jar of salsa.

Salsa goes great over pasta. I highly recommend if you’ve never tried that before. Fresh is best in that circumstance of course. We brought about half the tomatoes on our road trip.

Our third or fourth week with green beans. They are the most perfect green beans you will ever find. I’ve mostly been steaming or sautéing them. I would like to ferment this batch and see how that goes.

Cilantro. We brought this fragrant bouquet with as well. Ripped off a good chunk to use in our wraps. A great herb choice to throw in a wrap or a salad. Cilantro is also great at removing toxic minerals from your body. I think the term is chelating.

Swiss chard. We brought this as well. I think I might put some peanut butter in it along with banana for a breakfast wrap. I’ve done that with collards and it’s quite good! Kind of like a deconstructed smoothie.

Spring greens. I’m behind on posting the CSA hauls, but I think it’s been a few weeks since we had spring greens. Maybe just the cycle of the harvest. We also brought these and used them in our hotel wraps last night.

To end on a humorous note. I’m really enjoying the strange shapes veggies naturally grow that I then get to eat. Big box chains or distributors sort for uniformity. You don’t often see strange tomatoes, conjoined carrots, or gaping potato crevices.

Have you participated in a CSA before? What did you look forward to the most? xo