Have you been apple picking yet this year? If not, you should definitely go. NOW! The weekend is beautiful and there’s still plenty of apples if you head to the right spot. For me, apple picking is a fall necessity. Last year might have been the first year I can remember that I didn’t go apple picking. It’s a tradition that started with my family as a kid, continued with my high school friends and now I do with my husband every October.
It’s no secret that I’m a cookbook hoarder. Every time I try to “declutter” my collection I end up tossing  one or two books, only to replace them with another three or four. But it’s the cookbooks that stay in my collection, the ones with dog-tailed pages and olive oil spilled across the pages that hold a special place in my heart. After owning it for just a few weeks, The New Greenmarket Cookbook easily earned a treasured place. Written by Gabrielle Langholtz, the book features 100 recipes that celebrates each and every season.
It was a typical CSA pickup. I checked in. Grabbed my peaches, then started towards the veggies. I came across the usual leafy green suspects, turnips, lettuce and then stopped. I stared into the bin. A large, slightly misshaped purple thing stared back at me. Hello kohlrabi. Think broccoli stem, but more round and purple. It was seriously ugly with a few stems haphazardly extending from its base. Certainly new to me, but after being a CSA member for three years, not much phases me anymore. I picked it up, added it to my haul and headed home without the faintest idea of what to make.
September is an important month. The season’s bounty is in full bloom. Somehow those dreary months of winter when only cellared root vegetables and greens are available seem so distant. Heirloom tomatoes overflow from farm stands, pumpkins shine brightly in the sun, and apples arrive crisp and fresh off the trees. It’s like a rainbow, shades of every color draw you in, inviting you to indulge in far more produce than you could consume. September is aptly dubbed National Organic Harvest Month and also marks month-long NY Locavore Challenge, sponsored by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY).
It finally came! While every other blogger I know has been bragging over their CSA bounty for the past couple of weeks, I say silently lamenting my late start date. I’m hoping when I’m still collecting in November the joke will be on them, but somehow I’m not certain. I’m a bit of a CSA hopper. Or junkie. Whatever you want to call it. While I never jumped from relationship to relationship while dating, I find it difficult to commit to a single CSA. There are flaws I haven’t been able to overcome. The day of the week, the pickup time, the lack of communication, then there’s the produce itself. I’m a former member of the Yellow Hook and Tribeca CSAs and while there was nothing wrong with either of them, I never felt a connection. This year I swore would be my last year. If I couldn’t fall in love on the third try, I would need to face the fact that I was not CSA commitment material.
Brooklyn Locavore 