Compost Stew

Ok, first off, it's not really compost stew. That is what dear husband said it looks like, but truly it is a tasty hearty winter stew. (Yes, that large potato piece next to the spoon should have been cut better!)

I received my "family" CSA share last week from Localmotive through the Sustainable Farm Products campaign at Nelson Farms. In my bag I had parsnips, sun dried tomatoes, acorn squash, apples, a dozen eggs, a bag of salad greens, carrots, potatoes, rutabaga and beets. I was a bit unsure of what I'd do with some of the items since I'm not a big winter root vegetable person, but I decided I'd make an effort to make something good!

Well here's what I came up with. A stew named "Compost Stew" (since that's what our compost pile supposedly looks like). Sadly, or maybe not so sadly, I don't have an exact recipe. I actually just winged it. You can wing it too with what you have on hand.

Basically I made this up in a 6 qt. crockpot. I included 1 can of beef broth, 1 packet of beef bullion, 3-4 cans extra water, 1 lb package of stew meat from Rock Op Co-Op, an onion, a handful of seasonings (garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, pepper), and the goodies from the Localmotive share: acorn squash, potatoes, rutabaga, carrots and parsnips.

It was very yummy and showed me I could make a nice tasty meal utilizing almost all local ingredients. Not that I doubted the fact, I just wasn't quite sure how it'd go over in the middle of winter!

Enjoy!

**Oh! And with the sun dried tomatoes, I'm going to try to alter this focaccia recipe. Looking forward to sun dried tomato-garlic bread!