My friend, Marisa, introduced me to CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture). You can purchase a full share or a half share CSA through a local farm and pick up your share of produce every week for the agreed-upon season. I thought this was so awesome! After recently being disappointed by the produce available at chain supermarkets, I thought it was a great way to know exactly where your produce is coming from and support local farming at the same time.
We decided to purchase a half share of a CSA, which equaled about $18/week for the May-October growing season (she graciously prorated it for us since we didn’t move here until last week!). I calculated that I pay more than $18/week at the supermarket for produce, and after seeing how much we received this week I know that it’s a great deal.
I’ll try to go from left to right: carrots, a pint of blueberries, four beets, a pint of raspberries, an enormous amount of lettuce, a leafy green thing that I can’t identify (oops!), snap peas, and green beans.
Wow! I never purchase this large of a variety of produce each week because, quite honestly, we can’t afford to! I’m so excited that we did this.
Are you part of a CSA program? Have you enjoyed your experience?
Woot! I’m glad you signed up! We got a ton of strawberries and stir fry vegetables last week. Andy made a big stir fry for himself using about 1/3 – 1/2 of the veggies. He said we could probably make one more stir fry and a big salad. If we can make a couple of vegetarian meals a week plus a couple of salads, we’re definitely saving money! And I never would have thought to purchase some of these veggies. Like kohlrabi, pak choy, spring turnips, or garlic scapes. Mostly because the name sounds intimidating and I don’t know how to cook with them. But our weekly newsletter gives cooking tips, which is great!
That sounds delicious! That’s awesome that you get a weekly newsletter. I still have that unidentified leafy green thing sitting in my fridge because I don’t know what it is. It tastes kind of bitter, so I don’t know what to do with it!
Does your CSA have a website? Our CSA’s website lists the weekly veggies in case you lose your newsletter or something. Sometimes I’m still confused, so I ask someone’s mother. Mine, Andy’s, an old woman who’s probably a mother.
Oh good idea! I’ll have to check it out.
lol, “an old woman who’s probably a mother!”
AHA! It’s some type of endive!
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