Week 1: Pick-Up Day & Kale Chips

We picked up our first gaggle of vegetables at the Korean Church parking lot on April 9th. Our 48-quart Coleman was literally packed to the gills with mustard greens, purple kale, arugala, romaine, radishes, basil and an intimidatingly large quantity of green onions. For some reason I was expecting the ice chest to beam rays of light when opened, so I was ever so slightly disappointed when instead I saw clumps of dirt stuck to what seemed like a highway of roots attached to the greens and a few stray bugs floating on melted ice. Still, this illusion shattering moment was a thousand times better than the rash I normally get when deciding between conventional and organic produce at the supermarket. So we waved goodbye to Farmer Gene and the mothers who are homeschooling their already bohemian children and went home to remove the sod from this week's rations.

I admit that the adrenalin surge and subsequent crash from my first vegetable pickup left me listless and unable to face the dirt and bugs waiting for me in the cooler until late Saturday afternoon. I finally emptied the cooler and, like a haze lifting, there on my countertop was a glorious mound of vegetables in all their natural, local, organic glory. And they were mine! And since the hubby wasn't about to spend the hour it took to get them cleaned, chopped, patted dry and stored, I tuned out the hyperactive children and became one with my produce.

Since I was slightly daunted by having two enormous batches of kale, I decided to try my hand at making kale chips. I'd been seeing recipes everywhere whole-heartedly praising the kale chip and since I now had enough that I felt like I could experiment (a fabulous CSA perk), I felt inspired. I also had high hopes that the word "chip" being attached to anything, even if it was a parched, green, paper-thin leaf, might make my children's eyes glaze over with excitement. Not the case. The kids literally handed them back to me after one bite. To his credit, the hubby actually liked them, though he was sure to note that I over salted. All in all, the kale chip experiment proved two things: 1) I like my kale cooked in water and eaten with stir-fry, end of story. And 2) The foodie world has officially gone mad and is trying to convince us that kale can be baked in the oven and come out miraculously tasting like a bag of chips. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the radishes.