6 Months of a Poultry Meat CSA Program

We decided to try something different this year and joined a poultry CSA. Unlike the vegetable CSA the meat box is only for pick up once a month. We decided to just try their poultry products this year. The farm is family owned and prides themselves on being the largest grower of pasture raised turkeys in Connecticut. Reading about their growing practices really made me want to support them! 

 We were not expecting them to be frozen solid when we picked them up though. But it has worked out great as far as keeping them fresh and making sure we will use every single item up. 

Each month I am sent a survey and I get to pick 1 item from each grouping in the questionnaire so I do have some say in what our boxes hold.

CSA Meat box #1 (June): a very large whole chicken, 3 packages of ground turkey, a turkey breast, 2 chicken thighs and one chicken breast. 

It all went right into the freezer but we used 2 of the ground turkey packages to make some homemade burger patties for dinner one night. 

 CSA Meat box #2 (July)-- Another whole chicken, 2 more packages ground turkey, a package of breakfast sausage mix (not actual links), turkey breast, and 2 single chicken breasts.  

We used the two chicken breasts (combined with the chicken breast from last month's box) to make some chicken fajitas for us all (that I forgot to photograph!).

I used another package of the ground turkey to make some Mediterranean turkey burgers for dinner one night. 

My husband smoked up both of the turkey breasts for a dinner one night and I made broccoli and roasted potato to go with it.  

We had lots of leftover smoked turkey breast and I made two pans of a turkey, broccoli, and rice casserole for dinner (plus one to freeze for later in the fall). 

We cooked up the whole chicken and I used the leftover meat to make chicken salad for sandwiches. 

CSA Meat box #3 (August)-- Another whole chicken, a turkey breast, some turkey sausages, some Mediterranean turkey burgers, some chicken thighs (2 packages), and two packages of ground turkey.

We had the burgers with some corn on the cob one night and then cooked up the link sausages with onions and peppers for some delicious sandwiches. We had never thought to make sausage, pepper, and onion subs before but they were a bit hit with the boys. 

I combined the chicken thighs with all the other packages of chicken thighs we had gotten so far this summer to make dinner one night. I just marinaded them in BBQ sauce and cooked them on the grill. We served salad and pasta salad with them.  

Another night I made a meat sauce using the ground turkey, some peppers and onions and a jar of sauce to serve over pasta.
 

We used another package of ground turkey to make stuffed peppers one night. 

We thawed out a whole turkey to bake up with some farm fresh veggies and potatoes for dinner. 

 CSA Meat Box #4 (September)-- 2 mini chickens, turkey breast, 3 packages of ground turkey, 2 chicken breasts, and a package of turkey tenderloin. 

 We cooked the 2 mini chickens for dinner one night and heated up some squash casserole I had in the freezer and some broccoli to go with them. 

Though I forgot to take an after photo

 I used one of the ground turkey packages to make apple bacon turkey burgers one night. 

 CSA Meat Box #5 (October)-- 1 really large whole chicken, 3 packages of ground turkey, turkey breast, chicken tenderloins, and a package of their own house made spinach feta turkey sausage. 

 I cooked up the turkey breast with herbs one night, used the sausage in a new pasta dish I made up, and used the chicken tenderloins for a stir-fry. 

 

We used a package of ground turkey to make a sweet chili/rice noodle dish another night. 

I cooked up another turkey breast another night in the crock pot and we used the package of chicken tenderloins to make a chicken and shrimp stir-fry another. 

We thawed out and cooked up a whole chicken to go with broccoli and butternut squash another night. 

  CSA Meat Box #6 (November)-- A whole chicken, 5 more packages of ground turkey, a package of seasoned turkey sausage meat, 2 turkey breasts... and a fresh turkey for thanksgiving. 

We obviously used our Thanksgiving turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner and we were able to make 2 leftover pies too. One to eat the next day and one to freeze for later. 

 We used the spicy sausage to make a pasta dish (with some veggies too).  

We made stuffed peppers with a package of ground turkey. And cooked up the whole chicken for dinner one night. 

 All it all it was a huge success and I still have lots of turkey and chicken in the freezer. We're debating about trying their full 12 month meat share this year since the 6 month poultry one was so fantastic. 

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