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I was reading the Boston Globe this a.m. and did a double-take while reading the food section. My CSA’s eggs were featured in a short piece about buying eggs at farmers markets.

Indeed, they are delicious eggs, and they come in all these wonderful pastel colors. And once you start cooking and baking with farm-fresh eggs, you can’t go back to Stop & Shop.

This week we got a lot of beets in our CSA share. Beets are one of those vegetables that stump me. I like them, don’t get me wrong … but the only way I like them is roasted. And there’s only so much roasted beetroot you can eat in one sitting. Sauteed beet greens, however, different story.

I decided to try a borscht this a.m. I figured it was a good way to use up half the beets in the share, and if there was too much borscht left over, I could just freeze it. My research shows that borscht is traditionally made with beef and/or beef broth. I wanted something lighter, more vegetal, so I went with a recipe I found in a cookbook on my shelf, 500 Treasured Country Recipes by Martha Storey. Storey Publishing does a lot of country-style cookbooks … yeah, love those books.

This recipe is called Bubba’s Borscht. Trim the beets so that 2 inches of stem remains, and scrub them well. Put into a soup pot with 3 cups water, 2 chopped onions, and 2 whole carrots (obviously scrubbed and peeled, although the recipe doesn’t tell you that). Bring to a boil, then turn down heat so veggies simmer for 20 minutes. I kept poking my head in there, turning the beets with a spoon so they’d cook evenly. After 20 minutes, take beets out and let cool until you can handle them and squeeze the skins off. Do this over a sink: if you’re not familiar with beet root, it can leave stains. Put peeled whole beets back into pot, and add 2 cups vegetable broth, a bay leaf, and 1 cup shredded cabbage. Cook for another 20 minutes. Puree everything in a blender. My puree ended up a bit lumpy, so I put it through a strainer to get the chunky bits out. Now chill the soup until it’s very cold.

Before serving season with salt and pepper. You’ll also want to add some fresh lemon juice. The recipe says 2 tablespoons, but I like to season by the bowlful.

At any rate, I had a bowl of this for my lunch. It wasn’t quite cooled off — it was the bit that wouldn’t fit into my chilling bowl — but it was delicious. Very light and subtle, just a whisper of earthiness so that I think if you hated beets, you could probably manage this soup, even enjoy it. The true test will be tomorrow, when I’ll be bringing this to a family reunion picnic at my parents’ house. My father loathes — even cringes — at the thought of beets, so I’ll be curious what he thinks. I’ll post a picture later as I don’t have any creme fraiche on hand (borscht is tradtionally served with sour cream, but I prefer creme fraiche).

Presenting (drum roll) chilled spinach soup!

Truth told, it was pretty mediocre. The only thing I liked about it was the color. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It was glowingly green, which I like in a soup. Anything that green has to be good for you, right? Needless to say, no one else around here would touch it.

So, the details. Slowly cooked one onion. Diced up a potato and cooked it in a quart of vegetable broth, well seasoned with salt and white pepper. Took it off the heat and threw in a pound or so of baby spinach. Whizzed the soup in a blender and put half of it through a chinois, the rest back in the pan. Chilled. Served with some lemon zest on the top.

It probably would have tasted much better with cream, butter and an egg yolk — but everything tastes better with cream, butter and egg yolks, right?