Feeling zen in Week 10.(Jennifer Prediger) We're now ten weeks into a devoted takeout eater's dive into the realm of Community Supported Agriculture, chronicled here in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. This week's themes all start with "p:" pesto, pickles, and panzanella. My beloved CSA presented me with red and orange tomatoes, a slew of basil, summer squash, a cucumber, a purple pepper, scallions, carrots, plum and peaches! I now know the meaning of the phrase pay dirt. I also spy something green: basil. I have always wanted to be the kind of person who makes her own pesto. This week …

Week 9!Photo: Jennifer PredigerIt's Week Nine of a takeout eater's initiation into the delicious world of Community Supported Agriculture, which I’m keeping track of in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. This week's CSA box was filled with radicchio, beets, scallions, summer squash, cukes, cilantro, and a sweet pepper. I took it all on my first vacation trip out of the city this summer. Yes, I was that person on the train heading to Fire Island with a tote bag full of vegetables on her lap. This made me think of my great-grandmother riding the old trolley in D.C. with a bag …

The bounty of week 8. (Jennifer Prediger) It’s Week Eight of a takeout eater's journey into the realm of Community Supported Agriculture. I'm learning how to cook actual food and writing about it in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. Eight weeks down. Twenty-one more to go.  Last week, I asked for your ideas for how to share the kitchen with the ones you love. I tried to incorporate your suggestions when cooking this week’s CSA box, which was comprised of carrots, cucumber, currants, raspberries, Italian parsley, summer squash, and a dark and mysterious leafy green. Variations on the theme of "division …

Week 7 of my CSA adventures.Photo: Jennifer Prediger Welcome to Week Seven of a takeout eater's journey into the realm of Community Supported Agriculture, aka Veggie-Box Land. I'm learning what's local, how to cook it, and keeping track of it here in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. This week's farm-fresh vittles included a plethora of pretty plums, lettuce, spring onions, mint, raspberries, and a squash -- pale green and avocado-shaped -- that looked like it traveled from the future. Also note (at the bottom middle of the photo) a bitter, purplish-white lettuce that I thought was endive but now am not …

Did you know that most first aid creams contain methylparabens, a.k.a. known carcinogens? The same holds true for a lot of the seemingly innocuous personal care products you buy in your local drug store. Makes Rite Aid seem more like Frite Aid. Once you bring these products into your home, says The Story of Stuff author Annie Leonard, you turn your bathroom into "a minefield of toxics." Leonard details the dangers of these take home toxins in her latest Story of Stuff video. It's worth watching, and sending on to anyone you've ever cared about: "The FDA doesn't assess the …

This week’s bounty.(Jennifer Prediger photos) Welcome to week 6 of my adventures as a veggie box subscriber, which I'm chronicling in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. This week I had an epiphany about my Community Supported Agriculture membership. I think I may have found a way to slow down time with vegetables! The vegetables in this new CSA box time machine included onion, lettuce, summer savory herb, peas, Swiss chard, and raspberries and plums, too. Egg salad and kohl slaw deliciousnessNow how did these ingredients expand time itself? Time is a scarce commodity in New York. Somehow to me, it seems …

Raspberries, currants, snap peas, lettuce, mint, and fennel showed up this week.(Jennifer Prediger) It’s Week Five of CSA living, which I’m keeping a journal of here in this Urbivore’s Dilemma series. This week's CSA share gave me a taste of the plenitude of summer with raspberries, currants, snap peas, lettuce, mint, and fennel.  I had a rough experience last time, with watery mushrooms and slightly charred mustard greens. But this week things were exponentially improved. Thanks to you readers for recipe suggestions and encouraging me to keep moving forward with the joy of cooking. I even got a wonderful offer …

How hot is it? Hot enough to shave your cat?Photo: Jennifer PredigerWelcome to summer. We're having a heat wave here in the Northeast that's breaking records. Some sizzling places recorded temps of 103 degrees F yesterday! And more of the same is expected today. The Big Apple is broiling. Four of the five boroughs of New York City have reported power outages, including Brooklyn where I live. All those air conditioners are taxing the grid. So, I’m working at home without AC today to do my part to save electricity.  With my windows wide open and my ceiling and floor …

The bounty of week 4.(Jennifer Prediger photos) Welcome to week four of my CSA experience, which I'm chronicling here in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. This week's CSA bounty included Bibb lettuce, mustard greens, sorrel, raspberries, sugar snap peas, and lovely, blossoming yet spicy curly cress. Food like this is what makes switching from takeout to farm-fresh such a beautiful experience. Along with the pride that comes from cooking things you've never seen before, you feel healthier, happier, more connected to people and the land. It's almost like riding off into the sunset with CSA produce in hand. Except when it's …

This week's bounty(Jennifer Prediger photos)I made it to delicious Week 3 of my farm to table CSA experience, which I'm chronicling here in this Urbivore's Dilemma series. Last week was made so delightful by all of the terrific suggestions for what to expect and cook with my CSA's offerings from you, readers. Thank you for sharing your insights, ideas, beautiful pictures and video of what you get from your CSAs in different parts of the country. It makes me want to hop on my bike and ride across the nation to ‘live off the fat of the land'. Here in …