battle of the csa boxes, week 1

For many reasons (which I'll probably detail at some point in this series), we have decided to switch csa farms. After some deliberation and advice from friends, I decided to give two a try, and I've decided to invite you along for the ride (most CSA farms will allow you to sign up for a trial subscription to see if it is a good fit).

The two we decided to try are Inland Empire and JR Organics. I love that the JR Organics site has an RSS feed for its weekly box contents, but this week Inland Empire wins by default. I sent out the subscription forms and checks for both on Tuesday and only Inland Empire has contacted me so far; by Thursday I had an email telling me that my first pickup would be on Sunday. That's FAST!

This week's box contents are:
1 pint strawberries, not super tasy, but not bad either (maybe the first of the year?)
1 bunch of aquaponic basil, it's deep purple and beautiful, I haven't tried it yet but am intrigued
1 small head of red and green lettuce
1 bunch of arugula flowers
1 bunch baby beets and greens
1 bunch red dandelion greens
1 bunch spring onions
1 bunch green garlic (looks like spring onions)
1 small bag salad mix, not baby greens, and some of it was already looking yellow by the time I got it home
1 bunch baby carrots, very anemic looking and not very sweet
3 regular sized haas avocados and 2 tiny ones
1 small bag spinach, not too tender looking, I think I will put it in the food processor and hide it in pizza dough (I don't really like spinach)
3 navel oranges (gone already, they were delicious)
1 artichoke (what does one do with 1 artichoke?*)

All in all, a pretty good haul; I'm willing to overlook the not so wonderful bits for now. I don't like bitter stuff and Nina thinks carrots are from the devil so I am fermenting the carrots, arugula flowers, dandelion greens (reds?), and radishes. The avocados aren't ripe yet, but they look promising.

*Here's what you do: make waffles with chocolate sauce and strawberries for dessert, which will distract them from the fact that you're going all Greedy Smurf on them and are eating the one artichoke all by yourself.