We have now received four boxes from Mike’s Garden Harvest as part of our CSA membership. It is fun to see what is in each new box and I love having food delivered to my door! One of our boxes included some little carrots which were so tasty and fresh I didn’t want to cook them. Instead we grated them into a Carrot & Cumin salad which went nicely with a Thai Pork Green Curry.

With a large bunch of chubby spring onions to enjoy I made several Farm Fresh Omelettes using the following ingredients and method. For one omelette:

1. Chop coursely four spring onions and six swiss chard leaves.
2. Saute spring onions and chard in skillet with vegetable oil until onions begin to turn gold and chard withers.
3. Beat two eggs with a fork, add a tablespoon of milk or water.
4. Pour eggs over onions and chard.
5. While eggs cook sprinkle chopped fresh chives, oregano and thyme plus a sprinkle of salt and pepper over the top.
6. When base of omelette is lightly browned top with grated cheese and sliced grape tomatoes.
7. Brown the top of the omelette under the broiler.

We have a few herbs growing in our own garden so when some basil turned up in the mystery box I combined it with some of our own and made Marcella Hazan’s

Simple Tomato Sauce  for 450g (1lb) pasta
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves peeled and sliced very thinly
300g tinned Italian peeled plum tomatoes
Salt & Black pepper
10 fresh basil leaves torn by hand into small pieces

1. Put oil and garlic in a saucepan and turn to medium
2. When garlic turns pale gold, add tomatoes and turn heat to very low. Cook uncovered until oil floats free of tomatoes, about 20 minutes.
3. Add salt and grindings of pepper and cook another 2-3 minnutes, stirring from time to time.
4. Off the heat, stir in the torn basil leaves.

This week’s box included more than enough green beans for our family of five so I chose Jamie Oliver’s Good Old French Bean Salad to have with sausages one night.

Our second box from Mike’s garden harvest was delivered on Canada day and included a treat in celebration of the day. We have been promised vegetables but in the box was a little punnet of strawberries and a bunch of rhubarb. Andrew turned them into two delicious desserts, a Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp with an almond meal topping based on this Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp Recipe and a Sticky Rhubarb and Ginger cake. Both were delicious. I also made a Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp with the second bunch of rhubarb using a very similar recipe.

The remainder of the box was made up of more salad greens, radishes, and onions so we kept making salads with fresh, tasty ingredients. Andrew used some of the lambs quarters from the first box in Lentil Burgers which we all enjoyed, even the serious meat lovers.