I failed to write about my last Tucson CSA pick up and better do it now because Friday I have my next CSA (community supported agriculture) pick up.

As in the previous weeks, my share included produce that I would never – never – never  buy myself.

There were two bunches of fresh beets. While I love beets, I have never personally messed with them.

I also picked up a white turban squash, small carton of green tomatoes that have since turned red, indigenous green onions, bag of roasted chiles, two Mexican gray squash, a ripe gorgeous melon of some kind, and mustard greens. There could’ve been more but I’m old and so is my memory. Oh, and of course my fresh goat cheese share.

I’m happy to report that I have eaten all the food and shared the mustard greens with my friend Ditte Lokon.

The white turban squash was beautiful. It looked more like a home accessory instead of edible. I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, pricked a bit, dribbled the center with blood orange olive oil, put some water in the dish, and microwaved each half for about 4 minutes. Simple and elegant and not as sweet as the butternut squash which I prepared the same way two weeks prior.

As for the mustard greens, I cleaned them well and chopped. I sauteed green onions, Mexican gray squash and the greens together along with garlic and poured the entire mixture into Trader Joe’s marina sauce and allowed to commingle flavors overnight. The next day I ate chunky tomato vegetable sauce with whole wheat pasta. Excellent!

But then there were the beets.

I scoured the web looking for roasted beet recipes and found this one. The comments after the recipe convinced me this was the recipe to use. I didn’t want to peel the beets.

The recipe was great but it said to roast at 350-degrees for 1 hr. 15 min. If I followed those directions, I would’ve burned the house down. I checked the beets after 45 minutes and they were fork tender. Much to my relief the beets didn’t need peeling.

Then I sauteed torn beet greens with olive oil, chopped yellow onion (from a previous CSA share), garlic, and some freshly grated ginger. What seemed like a mountain of food shrunk considerably. I poured red vinegar over the mix.

Then I took the whole thing over to BK’s house to eat as a part of dinner.

The beets would’ve been great in a salad with fresh spinach, goat cheese crumbles, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.

My roasting beet days have just begin. Now I want to find golden beets…