June 3, 2009 – This week’s featured fruits and vegetables are snow or snap peas, strawberries, Spring onions, collards or kale, salad mix, maybe some mushrooms, most likely some rhubarb (but not such a huge bunch of it this time) and herbs.

Recipes: Stir-Fries and Scallions and Collards, Oh My

For me, this week’s box ingredients lend themselves easily to tasty salad or stir fry combinations. For salads, try Snow Pea, Scallion, and Radish Salad, especially if there are leftover radishes from previous weeks. For sautees or stirfries, try Sauteed Snap Peas with Scallions and Radishes, Stir Fried Snow Peas and Mushrooms, or Stir Fried Snow Peas with Celery and Scallions.

For some creative main dish ideas, I like Creamed Scallions on Pasta as an idea for scallions. Chicken with Creamy Mushrooms and Snap Peas also looked good. And if there’s still mint hanging around, try Grilled Beef Kebobs with Scallions, Cilantro, and Mint.

There were some great ideas for collards in the comments of last week’s posting. I also like the look of this recipe for Zimbabwe Greens, which I’m sure could be done either with kale or collard greens.

Food For Thought: A Thoughtful Beef With Beef

If you think you might be ready to switch to grass-fed beef, then by all means read Michael Pollan’s 2002 New York Times Magazine article “Power Steer.”

If you’re not sure you’re ready to switch, but you want a thoughtful and informative description of one steer’s journey through today’s beef industry – and what that might mean to you, in terms of your body, or your environment – then read the article anyway. Just be advised that you may not be able to forget it. I couldn’t.

Pollan does not demonize cattle ranchers; instead he makes them very human, and offers insights into the economic realities inside of which they live. At the same time, Pollan does not gloss over some of the less savory practices of the large agribusinesses that produce most of our beef.

Pollan’s article took several days to slowly settle in with me. At the end of that time, I noticed I was very glad that there was lots of grass-fed beef available for purchase in our area. At the Kensington Farmer’s Market (open 8-noon Saturdays year-round), Clan Stewart Farm sells excellent beef, lamb, and pork that contain no hormones or antibiotics. For more local resources, type your zip code into Local Harvest’s beef search engine to find more sources in your area.