Fresh By Northwest is among several northwest blogs participating in the Oxbow Box Project, a lively food experiment hosted by Oxbow Farm. Each blog received an Oxbow CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box, and in return agreed to describe the offerings in the blogs, telling readers what was prepared with the produce, including some recipes.

Oxbow offers two CSA box sizes, a larger family size and a smaller 1-3 person size. The blogs received those.

I picked up my box last week that contained a large head of dark green broccoli, a bunch of large red beets with their greens in tact, a bunch of rainbow chard, a bag of green beans, 2 heads of summer garlic with telltale purple stripes, two large young red onions, a bunch of carrots and 4 small pear apples.

As I opened the box I was struck by just how naturally fresh everything looked: attached leaves and bits of dirt dust on the carrots and beets, young garlic and pear apples rolling around the bottom of the box, definitely “farmy.”

Organic carrots, chard and broccoli are readily available year-round in many northwest supermarkets. While Oxbow’s looked much fresher than those at my supermarket, most readers already know how to prepare them.

Fresh summer garlic is now gone from most farmers’ markets, so seeing two heads in the box seemed like a real score. I peeled off the skins then broke off and sliced the cloves, wrapped them snugly and put them in the freezer for use during the winter and spring.

Young or summer red onions, available for only a short time, are milder than the mature ones. Like shallots, they add a delicate flavor to simple sauces, blend easily with milder herbs and can be chopped raw in salads without causing acidic aftertaste and questionable breath.

String beans? Not a particular favorite of mine, but that telltale snap when I folded a few let me know they were perfectly fresh. A quick steaming, a little olive oil, a squirt or two of fresh lemon, a bit of salt and they were wonderful with grilled salmon. I couldn’t help but appreciate their freshness and the efforts that went into growing them.

Onto the beets…my Oxbow Box challenge. Their magnificent garnet red color and dramatic appearance in salads (as long as they haven’t bled all over the lettuce) are absolutely stunning, and I adore Beet Borscht, either steaming hot or chilled. But honestly, eating large beets once or twice a year has always been enough for me. I like baby beets but I think I might be swayed by their cute appearance and fewer bites.

Determined to do well by the work that goes into farming, I read 30 or so beet recipes on the Internet. Most go to a lot of trouble to disguise the beet’s natural flavor: “Roasted Beets and Yams with Caramelized Onion and Parmesan Cheese,” “Roasted Beet Salad with Honey Yogurt Dressing,” “Pickled Beets with Pearl Onions and Sweet Gherkins.” Instant flashback to childhood dinner table, glazed eyes staring at the “weird vegetable side dish” wondering what I had done to deserve having to eat that.

So I closed the computer and decided to explore the natural flavor of raw beets. I peeled one, cut a thin slice and took a bite. It tasted earthy and good, so I kept taking bites. After bite four “earthy” had morphed into “dirty.” Raw was a definite possibility, but it needed to be small bites.

How about including beets in this summer’s favorite condiment of shredded and briefly marinated raw carrots, radishes, scallions and fennel tossed with finely chopped cilantro, our regular condiment for grilled seafood, meat and poultry? Would the beet’s hint of earth and deep red color enhance it?

Using a mandolin style slicer*, I shaved a peeled raw beet into paper-thin slices and then stacked and cut them into thin shreds.

A quick vinaigrette made with fish sauce, unseasoned rice vinegar, sugar and Sambal Oeleck provided the marinade, and I poured it over the shredded beets. In fifteen minutes the slight earthy taste came through livened by the Sambal Oeleck.

Bingo! Why not add them to a Banh Mi?

From now on beautiful raw beets will be a regular inclusion in the vegetable condiment.

Hint: To avoid having the beets bleed into the other vegetables and create a “varying shades of hot pink” condiment, marinate the beets separately.

For the rest of the Oxbow beets I dug up a classic recipe for Carrot Pudding from Simple French Food, and adapted it to beets. It is wonderful with grilled pork chops, roasted pork leg or tenderloin or baked chicken.

* Longer, extra thin vegetable shreds are almost impossible to create without a special slicer. The traditional French mandoline, expensive, permanently razor sharp and difficult to use without some pretty serious bloodletting, was a standard slicing tool of professionals for years. Now safer, cheaper and easier to use mandoline style slicers are available almost everywhere that kitchen tools are sold. Twenty years ago after slicing a fingertip for the 5th time, I put away my French one and I bought one for $15.95 at Uwajimaya. It was plastic with 3 steel blades (not stainless), included an attachment that made carrot flowers and instructions in Japanese. Those pictures told me what I needed to do (I think). This summer I replaced it with an OXO Grips version on sale for about $75. The blades are stainless steel and easy to access, and the tool is easy to clean.

* Another useful and simple slicing tool is a hand-held truffle or chocolate shaver, also available on the Internet and in specialty kitchen stores.