First off, an apology for my shaky camera skills this week. Second, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice I skipped a week of CSA reporting. Unfortunately, that’s because I missed a week of CSA-eating. The stomach flu hit my house last week — both my husband and I were down for a couple of days each – and my bag of produce didn’t even make it home, let alone get eatten.

So, week 5. This is the entire share: Clockwise, from top left, spinach, kohlrabi, collard greens, cucumber, summer savory (an herb), broccoli and garlic scapes. 

Things like garlic scapes are one of the reasons I wanted to join a CSA. Not garlic scapes specifically, but foods that I had never tried before, possibly couldn’t get anywhere else, or had never even heard of. Garlic scapes fit all three of those categories.

Here’s how Susan Jutz of ZJ Farms (my CSA) describes them: “Scapes are the flower stalks found on members of the Allium family (onions, leeks, chives, and garlic). Garlic scapes, which only appear on the finest hardneck garlic varieties, curl upward as they grow, ultimately straighten, and then grow little seed-like bulbs. When the garlic scapes are still in full curl, they are tender and delicious.  We remove them about three weeks before we harvest the garlic, sending more energy to making a bigger bulb of garlic.”

When I picked up my CSA share on Monday, Susan told me that most people throw away the scapes — and she did too, until she saw them selling for $16 a pound at a market on the east coast a few years ago.

You can find some garlic scape recipes here: http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/SimplyMJ/articles/column39.asp  

What kinds of new or unusual things are you getting in your CSA shares?