Bringing Home the CSA Booty

I picked up week number two's share from the CSA last night after work. This is what I came home with:

• 1 quart of super-sweet strawberries (I couldn't resist trying them on the way home)
• .37 lbs. asparagus
• .01 lbs. oregano
• 1 small head lettuce
• sugar snap peas (I can't remember the weight, but it was about 2 cups)
• garlic scapes (again, I can't remember the weight, but it was a large handful of the curly shoots)

Overall, it didn't seem like a lot, but it's still early in the season, so I can't judge yet whether it will be worth it for me to get a full share next year. I'll have to see how the harvests are later in the year. On top of everything I got at the farmer's market on Sunday, though, I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to eat everything before it went bad. I have so much lettuce that I'll probably be eating salads for lunch and dinner everyday.

To head off any produce spoilage, I decided to take an hour once I got home and prep some veggies for the freezer. After some quick steaming, chilling, and vacuum sealing, I now have a package of snap peas and three small packages of spring sweet peas frozen for later use. Next to go in the freezer is the rhubarb. I think I'll make some rhubarb sauce again, maybe with strawberries if I can't eat them all by the weekend. I also have swiss chard that will probably end up being frozen. And since I have no idea what to do with the garlic scapes, I'll have to do some internet research and find some recipes and some way to store/preserve them.

Expect to see a lot of new recipes over the coming weeks as I figure out how to prepare some of these new-to-me foods. I suppose this is as good a place as any to record my cooking experiences, and at least this way I get to share what I learn.