I think it’s exciting to work with vegetables that aren’t commonly found in the produce department. Take shelling beans. Typically these little gems are only available dry or canned unless you grow your own. Canned and dried beans are what I grew up with and it’a also what I often use, but to have access to fresh beans is pretty luxurious in my opinion. In the last two CSA shares Farmer Michaele has included green flagelot shelling beans
Organic Green Flagelot Shelling Bean Pod
and tonight I’m putting them to use before they go bad in a delicious sounding Fresh Shell Bean Gratin recipe from Alice Waters’ Vegetables cookbook that I’ve held onto for years. I found an adaptation of the recipe that I used tonight on Michael Ableman’s Website, Fields of Plenty.
It’s been chilly and wet in Seattle lately and so I had lowered my expectations for this week’s CSA share #19. But I was pleasantly surprised because this is shelling bean season, and fresh cannellini beans– one of my very favorites– were included in my share along with huge orange carrots for roasting or to throw into homemade chile tomorrow night.
When I picked up my Growing Things Farm CSA share today from the Ballard Farmers Market, I was reminded that next week was the last week of our CSA season. Here’s what the nineteenth CSA share included:
Roxy and Cassius are happy with CSA Share #19
- half dozen eggs
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 2 lbs. yellow potatoes
- 1 bunch large orange carrots
- 1 lb. fresh cannellini beans (in pods)
- 1 bunch arugula
- 1 acorn squash
Using last week's turnip greens in the Fresh Shell Bean Gratin from Alice Waters' Vegetables.
Ready for breadcrumb topping: cooked flagelot beans, turnip greens, home-canned yellow tomatoes, onion, garlic and sage.
Fresh Shell Bean Gratin with a salad (by the way those are some of the pickled beets I made this summer)
