Edible Acres

This summer, for the second summer in a row, I subscribed to a weekly Community Supported Agriculture produce box.  The kicker/fun fact is that this produce is grown at our very own Evanston Township High School, through its Edible Acre project.

Edible Acre

The Edible Acre is a joint initiative by The Talking Farm and Evanston Township High School. On October 8, 2009, thirty-five to fifty ETHS students from the Horticulture, Senior Studies, Community Service and Green Team programs began installing the Edible Acre Pilot Project, a community garden designed, built and maintained by ETHS students in collaboration with community groups and the surrounding neighborhood.
The Edible Acre is a converted lot across from the high school's main entrance. It is a 5,000 sq. ft. organic community garden that consists of 29-4’ x 12’ raised beds. This food production project provides learning experiences, leadership opportunities and summer jobs for ETHS students, as well as fresh produce and health benefits for the larger community.
Matt Ryan works for The Talking Farm and has managed the ETHS Edible Acre since 2012. In 2014, Matt was hired on part-time to expand the garden and create a clear crop plan that extended the growth time all the way through the winter!
The Edible Acre has been able to procure 5,500 pounds of organic produce to our school between 2012 – 2014, and harvested a total of 2,800 pounds in 2015. The harvest is used in the student cafeterias throughout summer school and well into the regular school year.

 

This was the last of the (and only?)  perk(s) of Doug's time on the school board - since most of the food is used by the school's kitchen, only the faculty/staff/board are offered a chance to buy the summer surplus.   

So every Thursday I run over to the high school and pick up my box of produce.  I gotta tell you, these boxes offer some amazing and delicious produce.  And some true cooking challenges. 

There's always a note explaining the contents:

 

 Last week's box came with this produce - isn't it gorgeous?

and this note, by George:

 

 Fourth item down:  I said to Dylan, what does that say?  Pathy pans?  Patty Pans?  I looked it up and sure enough, these are patty pan squash.  You all probably know this already, but I was new to the patty pan world. 

So I washed and sorted what I thought were the pile of patty pans, until I realized that the two bottom left items were actually cucumbers. doh! Yellow cucumbers!  And delicious.

So we ate them. But I digress. 

The patty pans we cooked up.  

I washed and large-diced them with the ends cut off but skin on.

I looked around to see what I had on hand.  Spinach, which I washed up.

a couple chicken breasts, which I cut up and sauteed in olive oil, salt & pepper

and pasta, which I cooked up

 

I coated the patty pans with a bit of olive oil, s&p and roasted them in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until they were tender but not mushy.

Then I tossed the whole situation together:  patty pan, spinach, spinach, chicken, some extra s&p, tons of crushed red pepper and a bit of grated parmesan.

It was killer. 

Can't wait to see what this week's box will bring!  

Concurrently, a co-worker of mine gave me a coupon for the Imperfect Produce project.  Its motto is:   

Ugly Produce.  Delivered.  

Don't you love that? They source directly with farmers to use the roughly 20% of our country's produce that doesn't meet "cosmetic standards" - so doesn't make it to the grocery store - and often goes to waste.  

You can subscribe, you can customize your boxes, and it gets delivered to your home.

www.imperfectproduce.com

 Once my summer Edible Acres boxes are done, I'm signing up.  I'll keep you posted.