It’s here: My first CSA delivery from Burning River Farm arrived today.

Christmas in June? That was my feeling this morning when I landed at my office, picked up my voicemail and heard farmer Mike Noreen saying that he had just dropped off my first box of CSA produce. I missed him by just a few minutes.

Yeah, yeah, I know all about my Sasquatch-like carbon footprint. The majority of CSA farmers deliver to a few centrally located drop-off spots, but a some farms, including Burning River Farm, will drop anywhere for a premium. I did the math and decided that shelling out for the surcharge (I think it added $75 to the cost of the share, a price that had been set before the advent of $4-per-gallon gasoline) made more sense than trying to squeeze another errand into my overbooked schedule. Besides, I’m splitting my share with my colleague Jim Buchta (more on Mr. B later), so it feels a little less princess-ey to have the box come to two end users at the same location; besides, we can store our veggies in the Taste test kitchen refrigerator. No, those excuses don’t sound like rationalizations, do they?

So anyway, back to the yuletide-inducing produce. I hustled down to the paper’s shipping and receiving department (home of the nicest guys in the building) and there it was, a big brown box with my name on it, literally. I pulled the top off and smiled. Inside was a glorious sight: Greens of every stripe, and the shocking pink of a bunch of radishes.

And a note. Along with greetings from Mike and the farm, there were a few ground rules.

“Before we go any further,” Mike wrote, “I should cover some of the basics of the CSA and the veggies that you find week to week. Everything that you find in your box was grown using organic methods [the farm is not certified organic, an expensive and time-consuming process], so in a sense it is clean. . . But, it was also grown outside in the soil and earthworms. We do our best to bring you un-muddy greens, but that doesn’t mean that you should not also give things a washing before eating or preparing.”

“After his first week, we hope that you will leave your box at your place of pick up so that we can reuse them. This not only keeps them from going to waste or storing old artifacts in one’s attic, but also helps keep our cost (and therefore yours) down. If you do not return your boxes in a timely manner, we will be forced to dispatch the B.R.U.B.R.U. (Burning River Undercover Box Reclamation Unit) to your home or work, and nobody wants that. Some of the boxes may also contain freezer packs, which also need to be returned.”

Then we got a description of the box’s contents, which came under the heading “Box-o-veg-o-matic.” (The descriptions are Mike’s.)

1. Lettuce. “A pair or two of the following: Romaine, or green sald bowl or red salad bowl or Amish Deer Tongue.”

2. Arugula. “This is a favorite for me. I dream of it as the seeds go in the ground. Awesome with a creamy dressing or some blue cheese and walnuts.”

3. Spinach

4. Cherry Belles radishes. “Cures the winter (or drawn-out spring) creaks and moans.”

5. Broccoli. “These have been a struggle, but I’m glad I didn’t mow them. The never-ending cold days have caused it to ‘button up’ and put on a smaller-than-usual head, but it’s still tasty.”

6. Broccoli raab. “I like this stuff, for me just raw because you get that great flowery taste. But you could also saute it and serve with some pasta if you have to.”

Hello, gorgeous: The contents of my first CSA delivery included (from left to right): Romaine lettuce, spinach (bagged), red salad bowl lettuce, arugula (bagged), radishes, broccoli raab and broccoli.

Along with a pair of recipes (I’m going to give them a shot this weekend, so look for them in an upcoming post), Mike also offered a forecast for next week’s delivery: A lettuce-radish-spinach repeat, perhaps joined by turnips, kale and chard. “The scallions have been slow,” he wrote, “but we’ll see. Thanks everyone. Here we go!”

Indeed. I divvied up the proceeds and left Jim’s share at his desk. While I contemplated what I would do with my bounty, Jim was way ahead of me. By early afternoon he shot me this note:

“You made my day! And I made lunch. Really, I couldn’t wait - the greens were calling me. And bad. There was a big Ziploc bag with the greens, so I ripped off a couple big hunks of that sweet romaine and stuffed it into that bag along with a handful of that spicy arugula and enough spinach to give the mix some texture. I poached the salad bar [in the Strib’s employee cafeteria] - got some crumbled blue cheese, a few slices of crunchy red bell pepper, some sunflower seeds for more crunch and a few salty, garlicky croutons. Dumped it all into the bag with the greens, shook it up and voila! Summer in a bag! Tonight the broccoli and radishes. Oh, summer radishes with sea salt. Hope the neighbors don’t hear the crunchy. And the moaning.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Weekly CSA delivery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.