Join our CSA: Be Your Own Iron Chef

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Some of the most popular cooking shows are competitions where chefs (famous or otherwise) are pitted against each other to create new dishes, often with a required main ingredient (or a few of them!).

Perhaps the most famous of this cooking show genre is the long-running Iron Chef show that started in Japan and ran for more than 300 episodes from 1993 to 1999, with special episodes through 2002. Then, Iron Chef America aired on Food Network in the United States for 13 seasons. Chefs across the world competed against each other to create delicious and beautiful food for the judges to see who would win the honor and title of Iron Chef. Other shows that make chefs compete against each other with required ingredients include Chopped, The Great British Baking Show, Top Chef, and more.

Joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is a bit like being your own Iron Chef…

It’s a different way to procure food. Unlike a trip to the grocery store, you don’t get to choose what you get every week from your CSA membership. Your weekly produce bag contains what’s ripe and ready the day before you pick it up.

In our Grace Brothers CSA, farmers pick the produce on Thursday, our driver picks it up Friday morning, and we distribute the food at our four different pick-up locations on Friday afternoon. It doesn’t get any fresher than that!

But, you might end up with something you’ve never eaten before, like ground cherries or patty pan squash. These unusual, special produce items aren’t always available at your local grocer, so it’s exciting to try something new.

There are other weeks where you’ll get normal veggies and fruits that you’re used to.

As an at-home Iron Chef, you’ll have to figure out how to prepare and eat this stuff you didn’t pick out, even if it is just regular old lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

So why not make it into an Iron Chef competition? Perhaps pit the kids against the adults to come up with the most interesting dishes to serve throughout the week. Whose dish is the prettiest? Which one tasted the best? What will the winner get?

And… “Who will reign supreme?”