CSA, Pesto, and Fall!

Bech's brother Josh is running an organic farm right now, called the Flying M farm. It's located in Canton. There are several other organic farms in the area and Josh knows the other farmers. Recently Bech met Tony Woods, another farmer who is running a fall CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, its just a way individuals and families can support and enjoy an organic farm. We pay $25 a week for 13 weeks, and each week we receive a box full of good things that were freshly picked that week.

Last Wednesday was our first pick up day. First of all we had lots of different types of peppers, along with some squash (green, yellow, and gem squash) and cucumbers.

We also had some tomatoes. Bech made an amazing cucumber and tomato salad with these little tomatoes...so good!

Also included were micro-greens, arugula, and lots of fresh basil. I love homemade pesto, so I decided to put the basil to good use. Here is everything set up...I use Giada's pesto recipe:

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 garlic clove (I like to use two, but I also LOVE garlic)

1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

about 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

I used my food processor, but you can also use a blender. Pulse the basil, pine nts, garlic, salt, and pepper. Then stream in enough oil to get it to a consistency you like (I like mine a little thicker, so I probably only use about 1/2 cup of olive oil). Finally add the parmesan and enough salt to get it tasting good.

I made a whole jar like this to put in the freezer, then had this jar left over. Bech and I love to make homemade pizza, and pesto is so good on pizza!

Finally, fall has come to Mississippi. Usually it takes a while for cool weather down south. We have been having rainy, humid, kinda hot days. But yesterday and today the weather has been amazing! I just looked on the weather channel website, and its currently 59 degrees here. I am so happy! I absolutely love fall and fall weather. I decided to make a fun table arrangement yesterday because of the cold weather.