I started using this home delivery service for fresh organic produce last week. It looked interesting and I thought it might make my life a bit easier. Plus I don’t have to guess what is in season when I’m at the grocery store. Another delight, it’s like a gift package full of beautiful produce. This is some serious food porn!
Today’s bounty included:
Bananas x 3
Broccoli
Cantaloupe
Kale
Plums x 2
Valencia Oranges x 2
White Mushrooms
White Seedless Grapes
1 Lemon *
1 Lime *
4 Organic Apples (Fuji, Braeburn or Gala) *
The “x 2″ and “x 3″ are because, full disclosure, I still have many of the vegetables from last week, so I substituted some of the vegetables for more fruit. The items with an * I special ordered, they were not part of this week’s “Small Organic Box“.
How to Prepare Kale for Storage
While preparing the kale, I decide to take pictures… here’s my process…
Remove stems and then soak in cold water to remove sand and grit. Remove the stems by using your hands, take the stem in one hand and run your other hand down the stem toward the leafy top (like you would do with fresh thyme or rosemary). It does not take much pressure, don’t bruise the greens. Oxidation occurs when you use a metal knife on greens, turning them brown. If you must use a knife, use a plastic one.
Spin in a salad spinner to remove excess water.
Place spun kale on a sheet of paper towels ( I use ’select-a-size’, two perforations worth or three sheets).
Place another paper towel slightly smaller than the bottom sheet on top of the kale, and then roll up.
Lastly put the roll in the plastic produce bag and store in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. I like to label the bag so that I can tell the kale from the herbs, lettuces, and other dark leafy greens.
4 Comments
June 10, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Thanks for sharing this. We’ve only cooked with kale a couple of times and feel the need to use it quickly. This is good to know.
June 10, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I made this ‘Collard Green Coleslaw‘ using kale instead of collard greens for Christmas dinner last year. It was a hit.
June 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm
who do you use to deliver the produce??
June 13, 2009 at 9:15 am
Washington’s Green Grocer… http://washingtonsgreengrocer.com/
They are very friendly, respond to emails quickly, and have delivered the best produce I’ve tasted. Every Monday they send out an email, listing what that week’s box will contain. You can then login and substitute things within the box. For example, I don’t particularly like cherry tomatoes so I have them listed as ‘never deliver’. When the week’s box list gets updated, I login. If cherry tomatoes is in that week’s box then my personal list will have cherry tomatoes crossed out and the words ‘need to substitute’ in red next to it. I can then swap out those tomatoes for anything else in the box, so then I get twice as much of something else instead of the cherry tomatoes. You can do the same thing for anything in the box. This week, I had too many vegetables left in my fridge from last week, but I’d eaten all of my fruit, so I substituted many of the vegetable items for the fruit items. You can also do ‘always deliver’ ( I have 1 lime & 1 lemon always added to my box ) and special order. Those options cost only price of the items you select in addition to the cost of the weekly box. It’s really cool, I probably would not have picked up the cauliflower or eggplant had I gone grocery shopping. But I enjoyed finding new recipes to use them in. Hope that helps.