Recent CSA Questions Answered

Hi,
I've gotten three interesting questions from CSA members this week that I thought I would answer on here for the benefit of all:

Q. Why is my lettuce spotted? Is it supposed to be that way?

A. The lettuce that some of you received this week is a variety called "speckles" which originated in Holland in the 17th century. I guess the Dutch found the speckled look attractive, so they saved the seed. The variety found it's way first to Germany where it was very popular, and then on to North America in the 1790s. The original name "forellenschluss" comes from the German for "speckled like a trout."

Q. Why does my bag of berries smell like tobacco smoke?

A. This is actually the second time I've heard the same question. The first time I heard the question, I was obviously disturbed, and racked my brain as to how tobacco smoke could have interfaced with our produce. We always pack the berries in bags on Thursday mornings, and I have certainly never seen anyone smoke at the CSA packout- it is unthinkable. A week later, I was pulling bags off the roll, and smelled something odd- not exactly like tobacco smoke, but something less-than-pleasant. I suddenly realized that the bags themselves smell.
We started buying bags this year from a company called Trellis Earth. The bags are made from corn starch and are therefore bio-degradable, but indeed, they don't smell very good, especially when they have been in plastic CSA box for most of the day. The two people who asked about the smell said that their produce wasn't affected, and that only the outside of the bags smell. We would like to continue using bio-degradable bags, but certainly don't want to offend members. Please add your comments to this.

Q. Can you give me some food preservation suggestions?

A. Rather than answer that, I'll direct you to a few of good websites. Aside from canning, you can also blanche and freeze or dry excess produce. Check out these sites for more info:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ0555.html
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/JA07_IlloSpread-FreezingProduce.pdf
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking/Drying%20Food.htm


Thanks for the questions- please keep them coming...