The importance of CSA
CSA – Community Supported Agriculture is an initiative beneficial for the whole community. It brings the farmers and the consumers closer in a tighter partnership. It allows the farmer to pre-book a harvest allowing to focus on the crop during the peak and also generating early investment. The consumers are rewarded with fresh seasonal produce, many times in a variety which given a choice or even a desire they might not actually be able to buy. Secondly it forces you to cook seasonally using local ingredients. This is of-course a good thing! Many times it will challenge you with new ingredients, or challenge you to make new ways of using the familiar ingredients when they are bountiful in their season.
From Asparagus to Zucchini
FairShare Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Coalition was formerly known as the Madison Area CSA Coalition, MACSAC. They are a non-profit organization matching consumers and farmers in the madison area. To promote local and seasonal community driven cooking it has published a couple of books which help with learning to cook with a bounty of myriad ingredients a season would throw up. The books also are a great source for ideas since recipe is many times a guideline or an invitation to make it your own. They graciously gifted us their book “From Asparagus to Zucchini” which literally is an A-Z of vegetable focussed cooking covering every seasons treasures.
Wisconsin Winters are a call for soups
Flipping through the book we immediately decided to go for a comforting winter soup. The northern comfort roast parsnip soup seemed like a simple but delicious recipe. Combining the aromatics of thyme and roast garlic with heartiness of parsnips and brightness from white wine, this is an easy recipe to put together.
We started out by roasting the peeled parsnips, shallots and garlic with a drizzle of olive oil and splash of white wine and a few sprigs of thyme. We roasted these covered allowing the paranips to steam a little and then we roasted them uncovered till they were cooked through.
Then we cooked them with stock and seasoned them. We then pureed all the ingredients to a very fine puree which we strained. On a weekday this soup is delicious enough without straining. But straining and really emulsifying it gives it a rich and special silken texture. We then thinned it with some white wine and some stock and cooked it through a bit more.
Dressing the roasted parsnip soup
We were first thinking we could thinly shave a parsnip and make long crisps with it which we knew are delicious and can go very well with the soup. But then you always learn new ideas from a book like this. Just a page over we saw that parsnip can be grated raw and made into a salad! This we never knew as all of our life we have always cooked our parsnip. The salad combines thinly grated parsnip with apples and lemon zest with an olive oil based vinaigrette.
We thought grated raw parsnips and sweet and sour crunchy granny smit apples will add a playful texture and some lovely brightness to a rich creamy soup that is robust from the flavors of the roasted garlic. We garnished the apple and parsnips with some lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest and parsley. It made for a lovey dressing for the soup.
Hi BreakingNaan ,
Its great to hear about CSA – and even better to hear about collective participation of a community to experience seasonal produce in a way that not only furthers the cooking aspect but also enhances the nutritional value .
Obtaining produce during its natural flowering season – helps with its inherent structural composition that the concentration of the active principles is at its optimal best , which is ideal for taste , texture , presenrtation and all important nutrition – making it a balanced affair . An easy parallel is explained when people say eg. An Indian Alphonso tastes best in the March end – April begin period , when its active principles are at the best nature simulating proportions .
Good wishes , Uday