Ed and I have considered joining a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (more commonly referred to as a ‘CSA’) for years. This year we’ve been focused on trying to vary the types of vegetables in our meals so this summer seemed to be the right time to take the plunge. I’m happy to report that we are part way there.
We heard through mutual friends that Ranney Moran was starting a CSA and we knew this was a good sign. We originally met Ranney at the Chester County Food Bank where he founded and ran FRESHstart Kitchen, a successful workforce development program. We attended a few of the program graduations and were inspired by what he and his students were doing. Ranney decided to move to the outdoors and focus his culinary experience (he’s a graduate of The French Culinary Institute – now the Institute of Culinary Education – in New York City) on farming.
Ranney founded Bryn Clovis Farm CSA in Malvern, PA and set to work building hoop houses, cultivating the land and producing organically grown vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers for interested individuals and restaurant wholesale. Since this is his first planting season, instead of doing a formal CSA, he’s selling weekly produce boxes on a limited basis. This has been a great way to ease us into the CSA model so we’ll be ready for a full season next year. The produce is beautiful and it tastes even better. If you’re interested in purchasing a weekly box, you’ll need to sign up by Sunday at midnight for the following week. Pickups are at the farm – usually Mondays and Tuesdays.
This week’s bounty included sugar snap peas. Instead of simply steaming them, we sautéd them in olive oil and added lemon zest and thyme. Conveniently I have two types of thyme in my herb garden – one of them is lemon thyme which has a bit of white around the edges of the leaves. This added a bit more lemon flavor. The lemon and thyme brightened up the peas.
I look forward to sharing more recipes (and stories) with you made from the produce from Bryn Clovis Farm.
| Sugar Snap Peas with Lemon and Thyme | | Print |
- 1 pound sugar snap peas
- Zest from one lemon
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
- To prepare sugar snap peas for cooking, pull one tip off with your finger, remove the string from one side and pull the second tip off.
- Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- When oil is hot, add sugar snap peas and stir frequently for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle lemon zest and thyme over sugar snap peas and stir for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until sugar snap peas puff up and are crisp, yet tender.
- Season with fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Serve hot.
This sounds divine! Our house loves the sugar snap pea. Will have to try this recipe.
Spenser – Thank you! And perfect for you as is.