This week was chock full of fun! For those that have been asking about my DIY root cellar, I thought I’d start with that. Are you ready to experience my fancy schmancy root cellar? Here it is!!!
It’s a box, filled with dirt, and carrots. Yup, it’s rather anti-climactic, but it works amazingly well! Back in November, I picked up 25 pounds of carrots from Farmer Elizabeth at Fat Moon in Westford (she’s currently taking seed orders in case any home gardeners are interested). Elizabeth lined the box with a piece of paper, and my son Ben and I took turns layering the carrots and dirt (clean potting soil) until the box was full.
For the beginning of the season, the box lived on my cool 3 season porch. When things got too cold (freezing temps), I moved it into the tiny mudroom off of my garage just next to the house door. These carrots are still as fresh and crisp as the day I bought them. It’s like a time machine for your root veggies! Some day I’ll have a box with sand, but for today, the potting soil is just fine, too.
In my share box last week, I had a beet get away before I had a chance to roast it. It will live in the box until needed, along with my stash of carrots and any carrots or other root veggies that come in from Springdell.
So how about them mushrooms?!?!?! 
I decided to roast them up and try a simple Maple Shiitake Bacon.
I didn’t end up posting the recipe as I had a little interruption with the boys and let them sit in the off-but-warm stove for a little too long. I had planned to crumble them on a salad or something, but I unconsciously ate them all, in one sitting. Despite being a little on the burnt side, they remained irresistible.
I spent a little bit of time with a Sweet Potato Pie this past weekend. The entire thing went quickly.
My five year-old was crazy over this pie!
I whipped out the ole’ ice cream maker to do a coffee ice cream, which was fabulous using the coffee from the share box.
My grandmother loves coffee ice cream, she’s a connoisseur of sorts. It was so cool to see her devouring this ice cream and loving it more than her usual brands. We’ll be making this again for sure.
I housed the ice cream in a recycled raisin container. Looks just like an ice cream container!
I did manage to set aside the juice of 1 grapefruit to make a grapefruit curd.
The only way those grapefruit could possibly be better is to mix them with egg yolks and butter. Good stuff! I had even made an ice cream out of the grapefruit curd!
Carrots are always a tasty treat. Here I shredded them and mixed when with some of that Raspberry Vinaigrette from share box 7, sunflower seeds and raisins.
After that delicious pho in which some shiitakes were bathed in a hoisin/sesame combo, I decided to try the same sauce on my remaining bean sprouts. I was not disappointed.
This creamy sweet potato chowder is a favorite of mine. Hearty and delish.
Some of the candied citrus peels garnished this chocolate ricotta mousse, which I whipped up with some leftover ricotta from the lasagna.
Now to the beets! I didn’t really cook anything with them this week, all six were roasted and I slowly devoured them over the week. The first of my 2 sides was mixed with the grapefruit and drizzled with balsamic glaze. Simply yummy.
The second was mixed with a bit of sour cream. Also quite yummy.
This was one of my favorites from share box #8. We took the peels left from our roasted beets and soaked them in water. We brought the water outside in little spray bottles and enjoyed decorating the snow with a lovely pink color. Effective and environmentally friendly!
The rest of my veggie scraps were either set aside in the freezer for my next batch of veggie broth or composted. I don’t know about you, but with all this snow, I lost a clear path to my compost bin a few snowstorms ago. My current compost consists of a pile of bags mummified in different layers in the snow strata just outside my back door. I expect to find a big sloppy mess of compost bags waiting to be transported to the “real” compost bin come spring. Can’t wait!
What have you been up to with your Springdell bounty? Please feel free to share your ideas, we’d love to hear what’s cooking!