Short stray from baking

This morning on my way out the door to the gym, I found a surprising delivery at my feet, my very own CSA box (Community Supported Agriculture), from Farm Fresh To You, was sitting on my door step. I felt like I had just gotten a gift from a secret admire.

Two weekends ago, my friend and I had signed up for the CSA service a few hours in to a wine tasting event. I had been playing with the idea of getting a CSA for months, but wasn't sure if I could handle the commitment; cooking fresh, possibly unknown, produce nightly. But with Jen's and the overly enthusiastic guy at the sign up table's encouragement, I went for it. However, they never contacted Jen or I after that day to get our payment information and the box never came when they said it would. I felt like I had been stood up on a date.

So the roller coaster of emotions has ended in happiness! Though I did receive a large bunch of chard, which I would never buy, I found a delicious way to use it....PESTO! I'm going to test it on my boyfriend (who is adamantly against chard), I'm pretty sure this pesto recipe will pass the test.

Recipe

1 bunch of organic chard
1/2 cup (more or less) olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts (or a different nut)
3 garlic cloves garlic
1/3 cup (more) fresh grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp lemon juice (organic Meyer lemon from my box, check!)
2 big pinches salt (to taste)
fresh ground pepper (to taste)

Barely blanch the chard leaves: Boil water. Once boiling, put in the chard for 1-2 minutes, remove chard from boiling water into a strainer and place under running cold water until it has stopped cooking.

Puree the chard in a food processor with the garlic, almonds, Parmesan, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Drizzle in the olive oil and pulse until smooth.

I guess that is half the adventure of receiving fresh, local, organic produce. Now what to do with the radishes?