Skates, pink bicycles and lettuce

My first pick up day for my CSA and I am unreasonably excited.  Trolling the produce aisle in the grocery has become depressing - too many things I make too many times or things strange to me I don't know their names or how to prepare them.  My family is a little gun-shy when I try unfamiliar vegetables given the celeriac root sauce I made one late autumn.  It was vile but they lovingly choked it down anyway.  Now they wince when alien food shows up on the plate.  We have one family rule I have never wavered from - "You have to at least try it."  This applies to more than just dinnertime but it's the only time they cringe.  So I knew there would be no wincing for dinner last night as we would have farm fresh familiar produce dished up in some ingenious way filling our plates and bellies.  Boy was I wrong.  As I arrive at River Crest Farm on a spectacularly sunny Thursday, I spy an adorable pink retro bicycle with an oversize basket affixed to the front jauntily cradling a riotous bunch of fresh flowers - something straight out of a travel brochure for Martha's Vineyard.  "That must be Betsy's bike, my CSA buddy," I think to myself.   I open the creaky back door to the chilled wooden hut reserved especially for CSA members picking up their bounty.  Inside are a few shelves filled with small bunches of green things - but I'm not entirely sure what those green things are.  I make out some rosemary and lettuce- familiar garden fare.  Beside the giant, oversize scallions is what appears to be some curly green roping of some sort and beside that some fresh garlic bulbs.  Next are what appear to be radishes but these are pink and very long - not the cheerfully round and red variety I'm used to.  What do I do with this strange collection of horticulture?  I'm seeing a salad in my future but once again, not much else.  Maria tells me the green ropes are called skates - the long curly tops of the garlic root.  "Ah, I see, aaaaaannd what exactly do I do with them,"  I ask.  "Steam," she says.  "Just a little steam and some salt."  I'm guessing it's something everyone is going to have to eat even if only in self defense (bad breath).  Since I'm sharing my CSA with Betsy the garlic root has to be cut in half which makes for a very pungent ride home but inspires me to whip up a quick pesto with the garlic, radish greens and a little lemon - yum!  That's going straight on a pile of steaming pasta for dinner tonight - along with that fresh salad I'll be using everything else for save the rosemary - we'll use that for a loaf of fresh baked bread.  Great.  Now that tonight's dinner is taken care of and my next CSA pick up is next Thursday - what about the rest of the week?  Sigh - time for a run to Trader Joe's.  I always get good inspiration there.