CSA Week 9

We joined a CSA this year after hearing about it from friends. A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture, and the gist of it is that consumers pay a farmer at the beginning of the year and collect produce each week throughout the growing season. Each place organizes their CSA differently, but at Greensgrow, dairy, cheese, and meat are also included with each week's pick up. I don't know how we lived without it until now! Most produce at the grocery store is overpriced, flavorless, full of chemicals, and from Chile or somewhere really far away. I had grown to expect tomatoes and strawberries that were more white than red inside and I had never seen an onion with the stem still attached. The food we get from the CSA spoils faster since there are no chemicals, but it tastes AMAZING. Another delicious benefit of belonging to a CSA is the variety. I think of myself as a relatively adventurous eater, but when shopping for myself I never really thought to buy produce I wasn't familiar with. We have been (happily) forced to create meals out of beets and parsnips and more. This week's bounty included bok choy, corn, beets, cantaloupe, basil and sun dried tomato chicken sausage, garlic and chive cheese spread, 1 dozen eggs, and 5 "Greensgrow bucks", with which we purchased a pint of chocolate cherry goat milk gelato sweetened with agave syrup. Yum Yum.

I definitely recommend joining a CSA to everyone who can. If there is no CSA available to you, try to get your produce from a farmer's market. If that isn't available, try to at least buy products that are in season. That way it is slighly more likely that your food will be local and taste good! Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an incredible book that provides a lot of insight about the importance of local, sustainable agriculture. There is also a lot of information to be gained from their website.

Have a great day!