Cooking Winter Veggies with Johnson’s Backyard Garden

I recently signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture – basically a farm share) box from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. JBG is an organic garden that started at a little plot in east Austin in 2004, and has now grown to a much larger plot about 5 miles east of downtown. They have over an over 1,000-member community supported agriculture operation going on. You can find them every week at multiple farmers markets around Austin, like the SFC downtown farmers market every Saturday morning.

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I picked the individual share, which is big enough for me to share with Nate and have plenty of veggies for cooking and juicing without feeling stressed about using them all up during the week. Shares start at $25, with a discount available if you pay for 10 or more weeks at a time. Every week, I drive to the pick-up location to get my box and bring the veggies back home to unload in the fridge. There are locations all over the city in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, so it’s easy to find a pickup location for any day of the week!

So, let’s get to it, ok? Here are some of the things that Nate and I have been cooking with our CSA share.

Some of the winter veggies we’ve been getting in our box: sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, radishes, cabbage, kale, dandelion greens, spinach, fennel, romaine, and broccoli. 

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One of my favorite weekend brunch meals is a homemade hash. This was made with sweet potatoes, apple, onion, delicious bacon from Salt and Time Butcher Shop and a few sprigs of thyme from my herb garden.

Beef and broccoli made in the wok! Now that I’ve been using a wok for a few years (I have this one), I can’t imagine trying to make a stir fry in a skillet. Everything would fly over the edges! This is such a simple little stir fry with garlic, oyster and soy sauce, thai chiles, beef sirloin, and the organic broccoli from Johnson’s Backyard Garden.

This pretty calzone was stuffed with spinach, broccoli, a mix of all the extra cheese left in the fridge (ha! anyone else do that too?), tomato sauce (not homemade – I bought it at Trader Joe’s), garlic, and wrapped up in a Trader Joe’s pizza crust.

This is a “quick – use up all the produce before it goes bad!” veggie roast. Haha. Carrots, fennel, and turnips, tossed in EVOO, salt, peppah, and rosemary!

One of the things I don’t love about committing to a CSA box is that I don’t have control over the veggies I’m getting each week. So, while it’s fun to have a wider variation of produce than I would normally buy (because I have never ever bought turnips, radishes, or fennel “just because” at the grocery store!), it’s a little annoying to get cabbage 4 weeks in a row. I mean, I CAN ONLY EAT SO MUCH CABBAGE.

Okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake that contains a variety of ingredients, but this one was made from cabbage, flour, eggs, baking powder, salt, and sugar. The toppings are up to each individual, so the pancake can taste different every time! Nate and I tried okonomiyaki when we were at Brixton market in London, and so when we saw a recipe recently when we were flipping through cookbooks, we knew we wanted to make it.

The first batch was made with squid, and the second was made with pork. It took a little trial and error to get the thickness of the pancake right, but regardless of mistakes and tweaks, this thing is SO good! And it used up a lot of the cabbage, which was a good thing. Haha.

And finally, a quick and easy pork and veggie roast with carrots, beets, thyme, and rosemary. So cozy in the winter!

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Any good cabbage recipes for me? I’m not a fan of cabbage soup, and while I can eat kimchi and sauerkraut at times, I’m not going to eat gallons of it..haha. If you haven’t any good suggestions, let me know!

Have a great Wednesday!!

Kelsey