I'm not sure if I mentioned it here (I think I did?), but this year we joined a CSA. I have been thinking about doing one for years and this year it just all came together. With Grady starting solids, I wanted our food to be organic as often as possible. I also wanted his first tastes of fruits and vegetables to be the fresh, local, seasonal versions, rather than their watery supermarket counterparts. I could have accomplished this by going to the farmer's market each week (and we have about a zillion to choose from), but I wasn't really looking for another errand to add to my schedule and also? Baby Grady hates farmer's markets. It's true, though we're working on it.
So, when Blue House Farm started a CSA delivery program right to my office, I told Jasper I was signing us up. I really didn't get his opinion. I just told him I was really excited and that we were DOING IT. And he said alright.
We've been getting a box of produce every Thursday for about a month now, and I kept thinking I wanted to photograph our haul and tell you about it, but when I get home from work on Thursdays, that Baby Grady usually attacks me like the remora he is and I don't get a chance to take pictures before Jasper kindly stuffs it all in the fridge. And then I don't exactly drag it back out for a photo shoot. Obviously.
Somehow this week, I made it happen. What you see there in our batch of produce from the farm is rainbow chard, baby spinach, French breakfast radishes (radishes for breakfast? those crazy French!), cauliflower (one little head that we'll feed to Grady), strawberries, summer squash, mini purplette onions, romaine lettuce, and oregano. We still have kale left from last week too.
Thus far, my experience with the CSA is that I love it. I usually get some things I wouldn't buy -- I'm looking at you, fennel! -- but I have fun figuring out what to do with it all. I view it as a challenge to get through the whole box even with just our little family, and not to buy produce we are more familiar with as a crutch. This week should be easy. These are all things I often buy anyway, even if I buy slightly different varieties.
We'll probably have some of the spinach, a little purplette onion, and maybe a little summer squash on our pizza tonight. Ooh... maybe oregano? I had some of the radishes on my salad at lunch and I also finished off the fava beans, beets, and red lettuce from last week. By the way, how delicious are beets? Jasper hates them so I get them all and it's a good thing because I have trouble sharing when beets are involved.
Feel free to chime in with any of your favorite ways to use the treasures from our box this week.
I love fennel. Just slice it super thin and toss with lemon juice, olive oil and salt.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! We have never done a CSA, but we usually grow lots of that stuff in our garden. We didn't plant anything this year because of the move, but the strawberries and raspberries come back on their own. Oh, and some onions did, too. :P We baked B a squash from Mike's parents' garden for his first food! He dug it. :)
ReplyDeleteI have also been thinking about doing this for years. This year I was determined to grow my own, but realize that in my tiny yard and with my tiny skills, it so far amounts to about 2 squash, a handful of tomatoes, and 1 strawberry a week. ~Miki
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