Damhead Organic Deliveries Week 1

We got our first Organic Fruit and Veg box delivered on Tuesday from Damhead farms. Here is a breakdown of what we got:

Small Fruit Bag (23 fruit items 9.80pounds/0.41p an item)
4 oranges
5 bananas
7 apples
4 plums
3 pears

Small Fruit & Veg Box (43 total items 10pounds/0.23p an item)
2 oranges
5 bananas
5 apples
1 courgette
3 leeks
2 little lettuce heads
3 tomatoes
4 parsnips
1 rutabaga
4 carrots
4 small onions
8 potatoes (various sizes)

By Satuday, November 1st, we have already gone through almost everything. Here is what we have left:

4 oranges, 2 bananas, 6 apples, 4 plums, 1 pear, and 1 courgette.

We only ate out once since the delivery. The fruit we didn’t do anything special with. A recipe came with the bag of Fruit and Veg, but we didn’t find it until we were cleaning out the bag to return it. It was for Winter Vegetable Minestrone Soup. I hope to cook it, as it looks very delicious and hearty. Here are some of the recipes I made with the items we received:

Parsnip, Carrot, and Potato Pancakes
(Makes 10 medium pancakes)
2 parsnip
2 carrots
3 potatoes
2 onions
1 cup all purpose flower
3 eggs
Salt and Pepper
Butter or Olive Oil for cooking

1. Peel and shred parsnips, carrots, and potatoes. Dice the onion.

2. In a bowl, at 1 cup all purpose flour and 3 eggs (pre-whisk the eggs before adding). Add salt and pepper as you prefer.

3. In a hot pan, add the butter/olive oil and start spooning in mixture to make little pancakes. Cook through on one side and then flip to cook the over side.

4. Lightly salt when you take them out of the pan. Serve with apple sauce, sour cream or ketchup, as you prefer!


Parsnip, Carrot, Rutabaga and Leek Cream Soup
(Serves 3-4)
2 parsnip (peeled and diced)
2 carrot (peeled and diced)
1 rutabaga (peeled and diced)
2 leek (cleaned, chopped, don’t use dark green area)
2 Knorr Vegetable Cubes
8 cups water
1 cup heavy cream

1. Heat the water and Vegetable Cubes to boiling.

2. Add the parsnips, carrots, rutabaga, and leeks. Cook until tender.

3. Drain, saving broth, and put into food processors. Blend until smooth, adding liquid. Put through a fine strainer if you want it really smooth, but otherwise it’ll have a few lumps.

4. Put back into pot and add 1 cup heavy cream. Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Oriental Lettuce Cup
(Serves 2-3)
2 heads lettuce (tiny cups)
2 pound ground beef
2 TBSP Chinese 5 Spice
3 eggs
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp diced garlic
1 jar Housin Sauce

1. Cook the ground beef in a pan with the Chinese 5 Spice. Drain off grease and set aside.

2. Mix three eggs in a bowl with soy sauce and diced garlic. Salt and pepper as preferred. Put 2 TBSP butter or margarine in a pan and scramble the eggs while they cook in the pan until light and fluffy and cooked as you prefer.

3. Lay out the lettuce slices, so that they appear like little cups. Make sure they’re dry.

4. Lay some of the egg on the lettuce. Then cover it with the ground beef. Add a tsp of housing sauce over the top. Wrap and eat.


Potato and Leek Cream Soup
(serves 2)
4 potatoes (skinned and diced)
2 leeks (chopped, don’t use the dark green part)
3/4 cup double cream (heavy cream)
2 Knorr Chicken Cubes
6 cups water

1. Heat up the water and chicken cubes. Put in the diced potatoes and leeks.

2. Cook until extremely tender. Drain and save the broth.

3. Put the potatoes and leeks in a food processor with 1 cup of the broth from the cooking. Puree until smooth. Add more liquid as needed.

4. Then pour back in pan and add 3/4 cup double cream and mix thoroughly on very low heat until fully combined. It should be a very smooth, thin cream soup.

Tuna and Potato Bake
(serves 2)
4 potatoes (skinned and diced)
3 tomatoes (+4 non-organic tomatoes)
2 small onions (diced)
1 cup light mayonnaise
1 tsp yellow, spicy mustard
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 can preferred tuna (drained)
Salt and pepper

1. Roast Tomatoes in halves and then chop into quarters. Dice small onions and cook them in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil until slightly soft. Skin and dice potatoes and cook them in water under soft.

2. Let the tomatoes and onions cool. When cool, add mayonnaise, mustard, and tuna.

3. Drain potatoes and spread on the bottom of a small baking dish. Let cool slightly. Salt and pepper. Pour tuna mixture over the potatoes. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

4. Put under broiler for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and slightly brown. Serve.


Next week we’re debating over what box we want to get. We like the amount of fruit, but we want more veg, I think. There was a salad bag they had listed which gives us peppers and things. We’re actually discussing testing the Large Fruit and Veg box which seems to have everything and will probably give us the amounts we want, since we do cook at home pretty much every night.

As of week one, I think it was really great. I’m worried about how soup seems to be the primary recipe to work with having so many vegetables. So I have a lot of research to do to try to find out how to expand what I can cook, because Ray does not like having soup every single day, despite it being winter. I can't wait to see what next Tuesday will bring.

Damhead Organic Farm and Shop

About a month ago I received an e-mail from my University Student Association. In it was a note about fulfilling the requests of students to get discount organic produce delivered straight to their doors in Edinburgh, since living in the city makes it hard and expensive to find good organic produce. This notice intrigued me, not simply because I have enjoyed cooking and have fallen in love with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables since expanding my mind to embrace more healthy cooking, but because 90% of my friends are vegetarians!

When I lived back in the United States, I knew one vegetarian. And even that one vegetarian was pretty loose in her interpretation of being a vegetarian (she was 12 when she started consciously accepting the lifestyle and is now 15). I know the lifestyle, as it was all the rage for a while in the media and due to protests. So I was familiar with the different levels of being a vegetarian that sprung up in the United States. Most of my friends, though, were so anti-vegetable that they listed themselves as strictly meat and potatoes people! That too was a bit too extreme for my taste. I liked a decent amount of vegetables, but they were not my favorite thing in the world.

In March 2007 I started making changes to my lifestyle and the types of things I was eating. Immediately I started focusing on adding more fruits and vegetables to my diet so that they consumed the bulk of what I was eating. I started eating bell peppers (raw and cooked), as well as raw tomatoes (which I HATED). Since moving to Edinburgh in August 2007 (where being a vegetarian seems to be a popular way of life, fully rejecting meat and meat products), I have become what I like to call a "part-time vegetarian." The bulk of what we cook is vegetable, but we still enjoy meat and other non-vegetarianism things in their various forms. But our emphasis on fruits and vegetables as accounting for at least 75% of what we eat in a day is strong.

So when I saw that notice, I thought "what a great idea!" Fresh, organic fruit and veg delivered straight to my door?!?! And what a cooking challenge to be assigned different fruits and veg each week! I've never cooked with swede (rutabaga) and parsnip before. The only vegetable we eat tons of that doesn't seem to appear in the more recent boxes is broccoli, but our local grocer provides it really cheaply (1pound a head). Its not strictly organic, but we love broccoli too much to be picky.

Let me share the website with you, so that you can see what I am talking about. They are called Damhead Organic Farm and Shop. They are based right outside of Edinburgh and deliver your food to you weekly, fortnightly or monthly. You can order from their organic store or you can sign up for box deliveries. We signed up for a box delivery. For our first week we ordered the small fruit and veg box and a fruit bag. Ray LOVES his fruit and I am trying to eat more fruit for breakfast (mostly apples and bananas), plus they had a good selection in their fruit bag this week.

I am excited to see how this will work out. The extra fruit bag was a little splurge on our part, but the vegetable box is reasonable (only 12 pounds) and I get a 10% student discount and free delivery! Then the rest of our money would only have to be spent occasionally on some meats, grains, and dairy. But considering 70% of our diet consists of fruits and vegetables, I think 12pounds (or this week for example 22pounds) is a really great deal!

So my goal is to start thinking about the different ways I can use the items supplied in the box and I hope to post recipes for them. I also think it is a great way to help support local farmers and the local economy. So might I recommend that if you are interested in fresh, organic produce, you check out your local area and see what is available. It might be worth it and you might cut down on your grocery bill, as well as gas and other bills depending on your lifestyle and what offers are available.

Garlic Bread Soup

I got this from marthastewart.com and it just looked so delicious! We had it as an accompaniment to the stuffed peppers. It turned out ok and was VERY garlicy. So be prepared.

Garlic Bread Soup
Makes 5 cups; serves 4

Use a high-quality olive oil for the best flavor in this rustic soup. If you don't have stale bread on hand, lightly toast fresh bread, and tear it into small pieces.

Prep: 10 minutes
Total: 40 minutes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish
2 TBSP garlic paste
2 cups bite-size pieces stale crusty bread (4 ounces)
5 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 large eggs, beaten

Directions
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic paste; cook, stirring occasionally, until very fragrant but not browned, about 10 minutes.

Add bread, and stir to coat. Stir in stock and bay leaf; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes.

Discard bay leaf. Stir in eggs. Cook, stirring occasionally to break up eggs, about 10 minutes. Serve soup garnished with parsley leaves.