CSA Experiments

For the 2011 growing season, we decided to become CSA members.  For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm is one that sells weekly shares of its produce to local community members.  The consumer benefits by receiving weekly varied baskets of local, farm fresh fruits and vegetables, and the farmer can enjoy the increased financial security without worrying as much about profit loss from weather/environmental-related crop failures.  Each family in the CSA program agrees to pay the full growing season fee with the understanding that farming is unpredictable.  

Our particular CSA supplies assorted weekly offerings from May-Oct.  It's been quite an adventure trying to work my way through the basket each week!  The salad above is from the night after picking up our very first basket of veggies.  Lettuce and green onions from the CSA, strawberries that we had picked that morning...and pistachios from who knows where.  My posts have been pretty infrequent lately as I wade my way through piles of new recipes for strawberries, broccoli, polk greens, rhubarb, mustard greens and more!  My salad spinner has been working overtime washing, drying and crisping greens.  Do you know the last time I ate a radish before this week?  I don't remember either.      

My parents were here this week (thanks for the rhubarb and polk greens!), and I told my mom that I hate to admit it, but I simply don't have enough time to keep up with this blog.  If I just had an extra hour each night, I'd love to share pictues and stories about making strawberry jam, learning to make strawberry rhubarb cobbler with my mom, trying our first Indian mustard greens dish (again, thanks Mother!), enjoying Ina's roasted parmesan broccoli and more.  But, not only do I not have that extra hour, even if I did, I'd need to be using it to do about 10 others things too!  I'd love to still post great recipes when I happen upon them, but the weekly play-by-play and photos of all of the hits and misses will probably come to an end.  Sometimes I feel like I must be nuts when I'm scrambling to finish a healthy dinner...then make everyone wait at the table an extra five minutes while I take pictures!  

Ending on a fun note, I've been busy planting in our garden!  So far: Lots of zucchini plants, a few yellow squash, red, yellow and green bell peppers, jalepeno peppers, 6 different types of heirloom tomatoes, spaghetti squash, sugar pumpkins, green beans, green onions, a ton of basil, lot of other herbs -- and Audrey's sunflower :)  We'll see if I can outsmart the squirrels this year!