Green is the color of the week!  Wednesday, April 17th box will contain the following:

• Granny Smith apples
• kiwi
• limes
• strawberries
• English peas
• asparagus
• local baby collards
• celery
• green onions
• sweet potatoes

English peas and asparagus are both new offerings from the distributor and I'm excited to try them out.  Please send me any recipes that you'd like to see listed with this week's box order!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter.  We really enjoyed playing outside it the warm weather and I even managed to get a little sunburn.  Bug was on the hunt for eggs, but mostly just hung around getting loved on by the grandparents.

This is the first co-op box post!  Yay!  The vision of this blog was to provide an outlet for all of my interests and a central location for recipes, box ideas, and all things local and organic.  I'm only a few posts in, but I'm truly enjoying a little "me time" each morning creating posts and drinking coffee and I hope that some of my co-op members and friends might enjoy reading them.

The box availability for this week was really good!  We're coming into the season where the local farms are bursting with goodies and our boxes grow with the better availability, even with the rising gas prices.  The following will be in each $35 box for this week:

• black plums (I really am beyond excited about these!)
• hydro bibb lettuce from Athens, GA
• carrots
• cabbage
• valencia oranges
• mini roma tomatoes on the vine
• red potatoes
• pink lady apples
• red onions
• basil
• rosemary

Eventually, I hope to get organized enough to share our weekly menu plans, co-op member recipes (please send them to me!), and produce storage tips.  Please give me some feedback and let me know what you'd like to see here.  See y'all Wednesday!

Regrowing Green Onions

Occasionally, I order green onions for the co-op boxes to give people a break from the large white, yellow, and purple onions that can take over your pantry if you aren't into tons of onions like we are at my house.  Green onions get used up quickly at my house, because we like to use them in salads, as garnish, and in several recipes so I was thrilled when I saw an article (which I can no longer find because I didn't Pin it!) about regrowing them on Pinterest. 

The onions pictured above were obviously past their prime, so I thought that they'd be a good place to start.  I clipped off the floppy ends with my kitchen scissors and removed the tag and rubber bands.  I placed the onions in a mason jar with about an inch of water and waited.  And waited, and waited, and waited.  The only maintenance required was an occasional changing of the water.  About two weeks later, voila!  I had a fresh bunch of green onions, pictured below.  I hate that I didn't learn this years ago!  It's so nice to always have fresh green onions in my kitchen (and its free after the initial purchase)!  I'm not sure how many times these will regrow, but I will update this post when I have officially used them up.

Grits & Why YOU Should Try Them (again)

How could anyone not LOVE grits?  One taste of restaurant grits and you've got your answer.  They often resemble plastic curd.  I am a huge fan of grits and I enjoy them in several different recipes, but if you've only had them cooked "according to package directions", made from "quick grits", or in a Waffle House and you hate them, we need to talk.  Let me give you a southern lady's introduction to grits.  I promise that you'll love them.

Grits in the raw are simply ground corn.  Like most foods, they are best enjoyed in their purest, freshest state with a little butter.  Some friends, Tim & Alice Mills who live just outside of Athens, Georgia provide the local foodie community with their pure, organic Red Mule Grits.  Their grits are ground from dried corn by their mule, Luke who grazes in a pasture just outside their back door.  These grits are yellow (like the corn) unlike what you might find in a breakfast restaurant or in the grocery store.  If you're interested, here is an article from a local newspaper about the Red Mule Grits. 

So we're starting with REAL GRITS!  Ground corn.  Not anything labeled grits in the grocery store or a restaurant.  If you are shopping at your local farmers' market or specialty grocer, look for "stone ground grits" or "pure corn grits" or even "yellow grits".  The ingredient list should be pretty simple:  corn.  

Next, I'll share the two ways that I enjoy grits most:  

1- The basic breakfast cheese grits.  I boil the grits in low sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth, then add seasoning salt, any sort of cheese (my favorite is pepper jack), a dash of milk (or if you're really living on the edge - heavy cream) and a little butter.  Serve HOT.  Grits do not reheat well. 

2- Nassau Grits.  This recipe was given to my mother by a dear family friend, Harold Byrd, who lived in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. He was so kind to our family and we've spent several wonderful family vacations relaxing, scalloping, fishing, and enjoying Aunt Ebby's Ice Cream at his home!  A few years ago, "Pop" went on to be with the Lord, but this recipe can transport me back to his kitchen in an instant.  This is truly a taste bud explosion.  Grits are bland no more! His recipe, which I entered in the "Taste of Monroe" several years ago, won!  I served Nassau grits, asiago cheese flatbread, caprese salad cups, and ginger and molasses cookies to a few hundred people and was in competition with some of the area caterers and restaurants.  These grits were the big hit.

Pop's Nassau Grits
Ingredients:
-1/2 pound bacon
-1 cup chopped onion
-1/2 cup chopped green or red bell peppers
-1 jalapeño
-2 cloves garlic
-2 cups peeled & diced tomatoes
-1 cup Red Mule Grits
-3 cups water
-salt & pepper to taste

1-Fry the bacon and reserve 1 tbsp of the grease. Set bacon aside.
2-Saute peppers, onions, and garlic in tge bacon grease. Add the tomatoes. Simmer until mixture is thick.
3-Cook grits as package directs.
4-Add vegetable mixture to the grits. Add salt & pepper to taste. Top with bacon crumbles & serve hot!

So if you have a grits prejudice, please PLEASE give these a try.  I  guarantee you'll have a whole new opinion of this southern staple.   If you were already a grits lover, please share your recipes with me!

 
 My mom, myself, and my cousin who worked so hard at the Taste event!  This was a few years ago and we got rained on for hours, so excuse the hair!

Sharing the *Organic* Beauty Link Party

Beauty Files Link Party @ JustLove.lyThings!

Even those of us who are always wilting in the kitchen need to keep our hair healthy!  I'll be the first to admit that most days my hair ends up pulled back into a pony tail, but I feel better about life when I head out of the house and my hair looks nice.  My absolute favorite hair products right now are Thrix Organic Moisturizing Shampoo & Thrix Organic Color Care Conditioner.  They're sulfate, paraben, and cruelty free and the products are environmentally safe.  I love the subtle fragrance and how silky my color damaged hair feels after I condition.  As an even bigger bonus, Thrix products are made nearby in Gray, GA and I can purchase them at my local downtown Monroe, Georgia salon, Van Gar.

Since I'm newer to blogging, I'm certainly a link party newbie.  Let's hope I got this right...

Easter Brunch Radishes

I thought that I would post (re-post) my rare radish recipe.  Enjoy this spring veggie in a new way.

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches of radishes
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 8 ounce package of cream cheese
• rosemary to taste
• sage to taste

1. Cream all ingredients together in the food processor.
2. Slice radishes as shown in picture and fill with cream cheese mixture.

Organic Produce Co-Op Boxes

This blog is in the works! It exists in order to support a small organic produce co-op and it's members in eating a greater variety of fresh organic produce and to share other green and frugal lifestyle tips. If you have any questions about this blog or the co-op, please contact Donna at donnalpeters@gmail.com.

The former blog, built to support Honey General Store and it's produce box program can still be accessed at www.kitchencowgirl.blogspot.com , but I can no longer post to that site since I lost the login information. I hope that everyone enjoys this one as much as the old one!