In This Week's CSA Share:

• Lacinato Kale
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Head Lettuce
• Walla Walla Sweet Onions
• Strawberries
• Zucchini
• Green Beans
• The First Tomato 

On Rotation:

• Broccoli
• Dill
• Cilantro
• Eggplant

I hope the past ten weeks of being a CSA member has gotten you in shape to eat your veggies, cuz it's a haul this week! You might call it an "Olympic" share, and maybe for some of you a true test of your ability to put down the produce. We're headed into that time of year when there is just so much good stuff to eat, it can be hard to keep the CSA share from getting out of control (especially when your farmers themselves eat inordinate quantities of vegetables and might possibly have a totally skewed sense of "normal"). This is the moment to eclipse all that "daily recommended servings" stuff from our somewhat outdated food pyramid and put veggies at the bottom. Make them your foundation and you should have no trouble getting through a peak season Valley Flora tote in a week (and you'll probably notice that powering your body with lots of plants feels pretty dang good). From what I hear, the strawberries rarely make it home from the pickup site, especially if you have kids in tow, and the same goes for the carrots and cukes. If you're getting backed up on other items, here are a few tips that might have you wishing for more:

• You can disappear kale in a heartbeat, by way of your blender (smoothies!), your oven (kale chips!), your steamer basket, or your hot wok/frying pan. Lately we've been eating about two bunches of kale every night in the form of kale chips (instead of popcorn) while we catch up on the Olympic highlights from the day. You can use any variety of kale, including this week's Lacinato. 
• If you eat salad every day, that mondo head of lettuce won't seem like enough (confession, we eat at least one to two of those almost every night, which means my personal CSA share would need to contain about ten heads of lettuce to get our household through a week - maybe I should seek professional help?). Big lettuce leaves are also great for making lettuce wraps. Stuff them with the filling of your choice, meat or vegetarian.
• Walla Walla Sweet onions, when caramelized in a skillet or roasted on a sheet pan, cook down into a succulent little pile of candy that you can put on pasta, pizza, burrito bowls, anything. I challenge you to not stand there in the kitchen eating it by the spoonful. And then, voila! your onions have disappeared!
• Zucchini fritters or zucchini bread or zucchini parmesan are great ways to burn through your zukes.
• Broccoli is winding down until Fall, so this will be the last week or two we have it. Here's a smorgasbord of recipes that put it to good use.

I'm guessing that your one lovely debut tomato won't require any pointers, nor will the first taste of fresh green beans.

Go for the CSA gold this week. As that ubiquitous Olympic sponsor likes to say, Just Do It.