Last week I happened to look at the notice board at the coffeeshop that is my pseudo-office and found a poster for Fifth Crow Farm's 2014 CSA. So I poked around their site and said YES PLEASE.
Obviously supporting local farms is great. The basic veg share fees work out to $25 per week, which is totally doable, especially for amazing farm-fresh produce. And our local pickup site is ridiculously near our house, which is super exciting and convenient (especially for people without cars).
This week we got our first box. Look at all the stuff! VEGETABLES FOR ALL.
Our basic veg share included:
- three heads of lettuce: red leaf, green leaf, and one that looks almost like a non-speckled Flashy Trout's Back, with bronzey scoop-shaped leaves
- a big bag of baby arugula
- three white turnips
- a bunch of radishes with greens
- nine baby artichokes
- a bunch of dill (MORE DILL!)
- three leeks
- and a jar of home-canned jam, unlabeled, but apparently strawberry-rhubarb.
OKAY.
We're getting a monthly honey share along with the standard veg. The honey comes from City Bees in SF. Hooray, local bees!
I'm not sure how we're going to use four different months' worth of honey, especially since our current pound of honey is only halfway out, but I imagine that we'll find a way. If nothing else, the oatmeal and tea are both going to get a lot more exciting around here. And maybe we'll even get some of the local allergy benefits. That would be great, considering that the only thing I've ever really been allergic to is California.
We were sufficiently excited by all the beautiful produce to make a big salad immediately. Red leaf lettuce, finely sliced radishes, and dill. We ate it before I had a chance to take a picture, but still. Hooray! Salad!
In conclusion, this was obviously a good decision. Also, HOORAY.
Have you ever used a CSA? How did it go? Did you have any issues getting through all your vegetables? I think that as long as we stay on top of things (and eat several big salads per week) everything will work out just fine.
7 comments:
I love CSA's! My family has bought one for the past two years, and we've loved every week. Salads never taste as good as they do when they're made with fresh produce! :)
Ooh, those are some handsome vegetables! I've flirted with the idea of joining a CSA for years and I'm finally ready to go for it. One problem: I'm moving in 2 months! I've been looking up CSAs to join in Portland next year and I think I found the one for me. Joining a CSA would shake up my weekly meal planning, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I feel confident enough in the kitchen at this point in my life to go out of my comfort zone. Hope I don't receive too much celery, though. :)
I have never gotten a CSA but always wanted to. I'm sure there's a wonderful assortment of stuff in California's !
I got a CSA all for myself one year and never really had trouble eating all the veggies. It was a ton of fun!
At least honey keeps well!
CSAs are the best--I miss the little half share I had in Atlanta. It kept me more creative than when I go to markets on my own.
I'm going to live vicariously through your CSAing. I always want to do it, but my meal planning sucks and we're way too busy most of the time to justify making the plunge on an abundance of produce all the time (aka, I'm just not ready to make it work). Those really are beautiful veggies. I love that you are back with an abundance of dill!
We subscribe to full belly farm. It's only $17 per week if you pay for 13 or so weeks at a time, and you can choose weekly or every 2weeks. No homemade jam though.
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