The photo doesn't really do today's box justice, it looks flat but there was a LOT of greens today! I have to admit I was wondering how it would go today, with the thunderstorms that came through this morning. The majority of Swiss Chard and spinach was not nicely bundled like the rest of the goodies, but I'm pretty sure that in the rush to beat the storm and to get the boxes finished after the storm for a timely delivery they selected to make sure we got a good quantity of vegetation over neatness. IMHO, good choice. I din't mind sorting out the chard from the spinach.
Today's box included:
One 4" potted blue Petchoa. (a variety of petunia with smaller flowers)
Sorrel (probably common/garden): 3.1 oz
Swiss Chard (looks like Rainbow, I got mainly red but some yellow stemed): 10.2 oz
Oregano: 5.6 oz
Spinach: It looks like they had two types of Spinach, a ruffeled leaf type and a regular leaf type. I got 5 oz ruffled, 5.7 oz regular.
Bunching onions: 2.7 oz
I've also found that calculating some costs may be a challenge- I had forgotten how abyssmal Walmart's produce selection was, and I haven't gotten a chance to check out Angelis. Though I'm not sure Angelis would have Sorrel or Chard anyways.... I checked out Festival Foods online shopping, and couldn't find either (and they have a decent produce section!)
Wal-mart's general price for boxed herbs is $2.48 for 0.75 ounces. Even though this week's oregano has a bit more stem to leaf ratio than what was at Wal-mart, just the quantity of oregano alone would be $17.36!
Here's this weeks pricing:
Petchoa: $1.98 at least. Wal-marts pot size was a bit smaller, 3" rounds I think.
Sorrel: $10.25, if the same rate applied to this as the other boxed herbs, and I don't think those were even organic.
Swiss Chard: could not find, but if spinach was assumed as a rough price equavalent, over $1.64 for regular and $2.50 for organic, with the assumption that the roots on my chard are about a quarter of the weight.
Oregano: I'm guessing at worst what I got had 25% more stem than the boxed, so about $13.89.
Spinach: over $1.75 for regular and $2.68 for organic, with the assumption that the roots on my spinach are about a quarter of the weight.
Bunching onion: about 59 cents compared to non-organic.
That's an estimated $30.10 worth of produce compared to non-roganic items! Last week comes out at about $33.75 (Festival actually has rhubarb at $1.99/lb), and I used the pricing for standard spinach for the wild spinach- I'm guessing that if you could even find that at a specialty grocery at microgreen size that you'd be paying a pretty penny due to the labor involved.
The newsletter said they had Wave Petunia, I'm guessing they might have had a variety of petunia plants. I like the smaller blooms on the Petchoa so I'm happy. When they mentioned that we would get some flowers in the description of the share, I thought it would be cut flowers, not potted ones! On my way home I stopped by Walmart and found a 10" pot with a spike plant, white petunias and white novela on clearance that I could add the Petchoa to. Some of the stems had broken off, but I found this website that showed me how to make the broken stems into cuttings.
In the Mops presentation and when we talked to Mike last Tuedsay he brought up that because they grow organically that the food may not be the prettiest, it is still good. Really, until what, the last 100 years (and probably less in most cases) outr ancestors had to deal with less than perfect produce- I think I can too. Since I've home-gardened in the past, I know this to be true for many things- especially when tomatoes and other things are bred for looks and ship-ability over taste.
Well, this week I got the first of the not-perfect produce. The upper leaves of the oregano had some spotting similar to the photo here, though the spotting is not as dense. Not really all that much was affected, and when I chopped the leaves to use in my potato side dish I couldn't really tell anyway, it was still very useable.
The sheer volume of oregano is a bit more than I would usually use in a week (barring Scott making a huge batch of home-made spaghetti sauce), but I had forgotten that I could actually freeze many herbs (just do a google search, there are a couple different methods depending on the herb) instead of or in addition to drying them. Also, to get the most out of the oregano, I think I'll end up freezing the stems to toss into soups and stews later. I need to get a new herb ball (think oversized tea ball) since my old one went MIA in our move. That way I can stuff the defrosted oregano stems (and/or other herbal material) in there and let it sit in a soup/stew pot and easily extract it when done.
Becky's Herbed Potatoes:
Note: Just about any common herb (minus mint) could be used alone or in combination with other herbs. Rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, and oregano all play nicely wih each other. If you're not much on lemon juice, sorrel can be used with the above herbs. I didn't use it in this batch since it would be overpowered by the lemon juice. I use this recipe as a catch-all to clear out any fresh herbs I had in excess. The temperature can be increased for quicker cooking time (plus I think my stove runs a bit cool), but the potatoes will have to be watched carefully so they don't burn and stick to the pan.
Potaotes: Approx 2 lbs, diced into approx 1/2" cubes
Onion: 3 oz, more or less to taste, chopped finely
Garlic: 4 cloves, chopped very finely
Oregano: 1/4 cup fresh leaves, loosely packed. Chop after measuring.
Thyme: 2 teasp. fresh
Butter: 1/2 stick (or 4 fl oz olive oil)
Lemon juice: 2 fl oz fresh
Salt: to taste
Optional: White cooking wine: 1/4 cup
Preheat oven to 375. Chop and add potatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, thyme to an 8" square glass oven-safe pan, sprinkle on salt, drizzle in lemon juice (and wine), mix well. Cut butter into pats and place evenly over top. Cover the pan (oven safe lid or foil) and cook for 1 hour, check and stir every 20 mins. After 1 hour remove lid. Continue to cook an additional 15 mins to 45 mins, turning every 15 mins, depending on the level of crispiness you want on the potatoes.
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