Wednesday, August 5, 2009

summer bento

My favorite part of summer is the availability of fresh local produce. This summer marks my second participating in a CSA (community supported agriculture). If you're not familiar, you pick a CSA farm, pay in advance for shares, and get a box of produce from the farm every week. It can be risky. Some natural disaster might make the crops fail and then you're just out of money. You don't get to pick what comes in your box so it's probably not the best choice for picky eaters. The other side of that coin is you'll probably be introduced to some new veggies (I ate kohlrabi for the first time last year and saw my first-ever lemon cucumber). The veggies couldn't be fresher and you support your local economy and local business owners. Many farms will let you visit too.

Just look at this produce! So pretty.

CSA brights

1. zucchini flowers, 2. purple cauliflower, 3. purple cauliflower, 4. zucchini flowers


Some photos from a June visit to my CSA, Dunlooken Farms in Glencoe, MN.

Dunlooken Farm

1. farm, 2. chicken, 3. asparagus, 4. goat, 5. chicken, 6. chicken, 7. horse, 8. guinea hen, 9. ducks, 10. asparagus, 11. chicken, 12. where people die, 13. chick14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available


And finally, here are some bento I've made with CSA produce.

bento mosaic 31

1. bento 7.17.09, 2. bento 7.20.09, 3. bento 7.22.09, 4. bento 7.23.09 -- vegan, 5. bento 7.27.09, 6. bento 7.28.09, 7. bento 7.30.09, 8. bento 7.31.09, 9. bento 8.3.09 -- vegan!


What's been in your bento this summer?

4 comments:

KP said...

Masami, the colors of those vegetables are amazing! And your bentos look as delicious as ever:)

Anonymous said...

Holy gorgeousness! I fear cauliflower for the eating, but I could gaze on that purple beaut all day.

Thanks for stopping by, lady! And my gosh, I don't think I realized you were in MN ... the Academichics sing your praises constantly, but I never put two and two together. I can be dense like that. ;)

mamichan said...

thanks Sal! I guest blog here but also blog over here more often -- mamichan.livejournal.com

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately I never got any zucchini flowers (yet) in my csa bag but you never know what might happen! I am curious to know if they taste as good as they look..? You *can* buy them in Holland but up until today I have never seen purple cauliflower in a shop or on the market.

I tried several new veggies through csa, my favourite ('til now) being fresh 'kapucijner' beans that look & taste totally different from their canned counterparts. I'm afraid I can't find what they're called in English...

[gnoegnoe = shashinjutsu on Flickr]