CSAturdays!

-by WhiskeyBeard

Last summer I joined up with a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to split a share of crops and received fresh produce every other week. When I got into it, I admit I was a little hesitant about the process. I don’t know these people, is the food any good, couldn’t I just grow them in my backyard (I didn’t actually have a backyard at that point, but you get the picture)? Looking back, best idea ever.

It was $250 to split the summer and that got me around 22 weeks of farm fresh produce. Luckily it was every other week because I couldn’t eat all those veggies! I’ve signed up to split a share this year and am ecstatic about not having to go the store for the summer and getting fresh produce all summer. WhiskeyBacon is preparing an interview with our local CSA, so keep your eyes out for it! in the process of setting it all up, a certain bearded member of the group MAY have said we’d love to come up with recipes for folks each week (no clue who that was!)

While getting fresh veggies is awesome, you don’t want them to go bad so you need to know how to prepare them to get the most out of your harvest. So, each Saturday we’ll be coming up with a bevy of recipes for folks to use. The cool part is that they will be in season recipes as we’ll be using recently harvested crops! So whether you’re in a CSA, love farmers markets or are wondering what to do with that strange produce that pops up every summer, check out the blog each week for some fresh ideas!  First up –

Crispy Kale Chips

This recipe is simple and yields a healthy alternative to potato chips and other snacks! Crispy, salty and packed with nutrition…you can’t go wrong! (thanks Chef T for suggesting!)

Ingredients –
1 Head of Kale
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Salt

Directions –
Preheat your oven to 275.

Wash and THOROUGHLY dry your Kale. You don’t want wet leaves as they will steam and this is bad…very bad. (unless you want wilty soggy chips!) Take your dry head of Kale and strip the leaves from the stems. You want to get as much of the leaves off as you can. Once stripped, rip your leaves into pieces that are slightly larger than bite sized. The leaves will shrink, so start bigger than you need. Lay them out on your pan to make sure there’s enough space to hold them all!

Then, cover them in olive oil and toss around to make sure each leaf gets covered. The oil will crisp without burning, so massage them well! Then add your salt, but be careful. 1 tbsp doesn’t seem like a lot, but remember the leaves will shrink. (Salt now and taste half way through cooking to see if you need more.)

Once oiled and salted, place in oven for 20 minutes. At 10 minutes, gently toss and turn them (and give a taste).

When done you’ll have a lovely, healthy snack that you’ll soon become addicted to. Trust me, I’m on my third batch since Wednesday, enjoy!