Having a CSA share (and shopping at your friendly neighborhood farm stand) is a joy! But it can also be overwhelming. There are new foods you may never have seen and new varieties that taste different than the varieties you’re used to from the grocery store. Sometimes you’re overwhelmed by the amount of greens or an abundance of summer squash. And what the heck do you do with all that eggplant?!

To help you stay inspired through the whole season, we’ve compiled some of our favorite recipes below. And because we all hate to waste food, we’ve included some tips for making the most of your share.

Want to contribute your favorite recipe? We’d love to post it on the site.

Storing your produce

1. When you bring your food home, be sure to wash all of your greens and roots. While we work hard to provide fresh, clean food, we can’t account for every hand that reaches into our bins at pickup.

2. Some things do best on the counter, like potatoes, tomatoes, onions, shallots, and winter squash. Keep them in a cool, well-ventilated part of your kitchen or root cellar. When in doubt, think about how they’re kept in the grocery store—are they in a cold case or in the center of the produce section?

3. Other things should be stored in plastic bags in the crisper bin in your fridge, like greens, roots, eggplant, and summer squash. Just be sure to take the greens off of your root vegetables—you’ll want to wash and store them separately to maximize freshness. We bunch them with the greens left on because it’s easier and prettier, but both roots and leaves will dry out quickly and lose crispness if left together.

Hierarchy of freshness

1. Salad: The more tender the green, the quicker it’ll go bad in your fridge. The more dry you can get your lettuces, the longer they’ll last, too. Plan to have a nice salad on Wednesday nights after pickup and you’ll never waste your greens again! Bonus: dinner prep is a breeze when you’re having a dinner salad.

2. Hearty greens: Your collards, kale, beet greens, turnip greens, chard, and so on will last several days longer than your lettuces, but you’ll want to plan on eating them pretty soon, around the end of the week.

3. Fruits: Think tomatoes, peppers, summer squash—these tender fruits are susceptible to shriveling. Eat them over the weekend with your family and friends…if you can even wait that long.

4. Roots: Take the greens off of your root veggies when they come in and store them in a plastic bag or air-tight container in the back of the fridge. They’ll last for up to a week that way. If you wind up with two weeks of roots, just make a big batch of roasted roots! Pro tip: if your roots get rubbery, you can soak them in the fridge in cold water to crisp them back up.

5. Onions, potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash: These thick- or papery-skinned hearty veggies can survive on your counter for weeks or months. Use them up before they start to sprout or shrivel.