This is my first summer subscribing to a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture farm box. I’ve intended to do this for several years now. The main thing that held me back was wondering if just the two of us could eat all those vegetables. (We can!) This year I finally took the leap and signed up for the program.
A CSA program means that each week during the growing season you get a box of vegetables. Depending on the farm, there may be fruit and flowers included and some places even include eggs and cheese. My local farm focuses on vegetables with a smattering of fruit included (but those strawberries were heavenly!)
As a subscriber to the CSA program, it means that I am part of a group of customers that are funding the growing season for this specific farm. They can use ecological organic growing methods and know that they already have a customer base for their produce. It also decreases waste: we get whatever is fresh this week! By contributing to the funding for the growing season, my farm has more financial security and is able to focus on growing a quality product. I get to have local, organic food.
It has been a blast! I thought I was pretty experienced at cooking vegetables, but this has already expanded our horizons. I had never cooked cactus before. And I’d only used tomatillos in soup. The weekly boxes include a “menu” or list of what is included and ideas on how to prepare them. One menu suggested sautéing the tomatillos with onions and summer squash (this has become a new favorite of ours). There are frequently recipes – like for baked polenta made with bright red corn. Another new experience for me was to grate raw turnips into my salads. I liked it much better than I thought I might. Each week there seems to be at least one thing in the box that is either new to me or a new way to prepare it.
If this sounds like fun to you, try it! I use Tierra Farms out of Santa Rosa, California (707 837-8366). You can use the following link to find CSA programs close to you: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ .
Check out my website for more on food and nutrition, and to subscribe to my free monthly newsletter The Wellness News: www.healthyhabitscoach.com
Kathy Nichols 