I am sick and tired of our CSA .
There, I’ve said it. I feel much better now.
And so, just for good measure, I will say it again. I’m sick and tired of our CSA . Sick of having to wash acres of mud off every vegetable before I can cook it; tired of having to drive to the third town over to pick up my produce. I’m sick of five weeks of chard, chard and more chard followed by six weeks of green beans, green beans, green beans, in Soviet-Union-like monotony. And most of all, I’m tired of having someone else dictate – however benignly – what I am going to have for dinner.
Of course, as the I’m-not-gonna-say-it-but-I-told-you-so look on my husband’s face reflects, none of this should be a huge surprise to me. We did a CSA before, a few years ago, so I knew how the program goes. Also, the farmers running this year’s program were very clear and communicative up front about what crops would be ready when – and the vegetables themselves have been delicious -- so I have no complaints against the good people who are working so hard to grow my food.
Nope. This one’s all on me. Mea Culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. (For those of you whose eighth-grade math teachers didn’t stroll the aisles of the classroom chanting in ecclesiastical Latin even though you were in yeshiva, that translates roughly into “my bad.”)
So, there I was this afternoon, with about two months of the CSA stretching out before me, a renewed vow to pull up my socks and use everything…and a ginormous pile of onions and green beans.
Here’s what I did:
Wash and trim three large handfuls of green beans. While doing so, decide that Clarence Birdseye was a freaking genius.
Steam, par-boil or nuke the beans. Wonder idly if you can sell your green beans to the Birdseye company for a tidy profit.
Meanwhile, dice 8 small or 3 large onions (you’ll need about 3 cups of chopped onions, all told). If you are a good multi-tasker, you can use the time you are steaming and chopping to consider whether there was a traumatic event in your childhood that makes it so difficult for you to learn obvious, clear lessons the first time around in your adult life.
Sautee the onions in 3 Tablespoons olive oil over medium heat, and when they start to color, adjust the heat to low and caramelize the onion, stirring occasionally, till nice and brown. This may take as long as half an hour. Use the time to mentally rehearse admitting to your spouse that s/he was right about signing up for a CSA and you were wrong.
Add 1 Cup chicken or vegetable broth and ¼ cup white wine. (I used chenin blanc.) Resist the temptation to drown your annoyance at the whole enterprise in the rest of the bottle.
Cook until most of liquid is evaporated, the beans are comfort-food mushy, and sauce is thick, glossy and onion-y. This will give you at least another half hour to get down on your knees (even if you went to yeshiva) and swear, with God as your witness, that you will never again criticize parents who feed their kids McDonalds night after night after night. You are beginning to see the appeal of that.
Enjoy the green beans (they really are quite tasty) and enjoy them a LOT – because if you’re in a CSA you may be making them five or six more times.
