Jim Carson

Last year, we subscribed to market baskets through Pike Place CSA. Because there's no convenient pick-up option in the 'burbs east of Seattle, we found another CSA, run by Full Circle Farm.

During the summer months, the market basket concept is great because it offers excellent, quality produce grown locally, and in many cases, organically. Full Circle has an option for substitution of items, great when you still have a chunk of last week's colossal head of lettuce to use up, but want to double-up on chigga beets.

Another benefit of the market basket is encouraging us to vary our menu around what's in season. For example, this week we had beets, potatoes, and lemons. Here are some recipes using these.

The first recipe is for baby beets with the greens, and is adapted from Laurel's Kitchen. The greens are quite tasty. As is typical with beets, everything that touches them turns red. Just be wary.

Baby beets -- www.jimcarson.com
8 - 12 baby beets, with the greens
2 T olive oil
1/2 t dill
1/2 t tarragon
Juice from a lemon
1/2 t minced garlic
water as necessary

1. Wash the beets and the greens. Cut the little root at the bottom of the beet. Pull off any greens that are really beaten up.
2. Heat the oil, spices, onion, lemon juice in a heavy pan with a lid. Add the beets and the greens. Cover.
3. Steam over medium heat until the beets are tender, about 20-25 minutes. Check the pot every 5 minutes and add a little water as necessary.

Note: if you're using bigger beets, you'll want to cut them into smaller, uniform chunks.

This is a simple potato salad. I added a little more sugar to take out some of the "bite" from the dijon mustard. (I'm not a mustard fanatic.) The fresh potatoes work really well.

Potato salad -- www.jimcarson.com
6 - 8 red potatoes, skins on
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
1/4 C mayonnaise
1/4 C dijon mustard
1 t garlic, minced
2 T sugar
3 green onions, chopped thinly
3 stalks celery, chopped

1. Wash the potatoes and boil them in water for about 15 minutes, or until they're softened. You want them cooked enough to eat, but not too squishy. Cool them.
2. In a bowl, whisk the vinegar, mayo, mustard, garlic and sugar. Stir in the celery and onions.
3. Chop the potatoes into uniform wedges. Or cubes if you wish. For the small red potatoes, I just cut them in eighths.
4. Stir the potatoes into the dressing mixture

This final recipe is for lemonade, because I've seen too many people break out the frozen concentrated tubule from the grocery store. The kids really enjoy helping out with this, meaning you can probably cut back on the sugar a bit if you'd like.

There's a lot of mashing going on here because you want to release the oils in the skin. You'll leave everything in while serving, but if you want to keep this overnight, remove the fruit as the skins will make it turn a little off.

I've included a lime version for variety. I suppose you could also do this with oranges or grapefruit, too.

Lime/Lemonade -- www.jimcarson.com
2 lemons or 2 limes or 1 lemon and 1 lime
1 C sugar
2 quarts water

1. Slice the lemon(s)/lime(s) thinly, ideally 1/8" or less.
2. Mash them in the bottom of a 2 quart pitcher.
3. Add the sugar, and mash for a couple more minutes. Let sit for about 5 minutes, then mash another minute.
4. Add water, stir, and enjoy

Optionally, add two black cherry berry tea bags.