(photo of my little bee....and one of the main reasons for my obsession with good food)
Fanatic.
Obsessed.
Enthusiatic.
Passionate.
I am sure that there are more, but these are a few words that describe my fervor for fresh, seasonal, local, organic produce. Going to a Farmer’s Market for me creates an adrenaline rush akin to a runner’s high or a shopaholic’s binge (which I can say emphatically because I have experienced all 3 feelings more often than I care to admit).
I was ecstatic when I first heard about CSAs - Community Supported Agriculture or basically buying a farm share at a local organic farm. With a CSA you pay a fee upfront for a year (or growing season) ‘s worth of produce. Then, once the farm is producing edible crops, there is a once a week delivery where you pick up a bin of fruits and veggies. It took a year or so to convince my husband, who, curiously, used to work on an organic farm, that we should join. But we’ve never regretted our decision to do so. Yes, sometimes it means that our fridge is literally packed with produce. And, yes, sometimes it means I was frantically searching the internet for recipes for such things as fennel or mizuna, as I had no a clue what to do with them! But, thankfully, that learning curve was relatively short as we realized what we could (and couldn’t) do with different varieties of produce. It forced us to try new things and encouraged us to have a more plant-based diet during the CSA season in order to best utilize the produce. Another bonus is that my kids LOVE just about anything that comes from “the box” and usually eat a carrot or basket of berries on the drive home from picking it up and then a handful of raw spinach or chunks of raw cauliflower and broccoli as soon as we get home.
In addition to our weekly CSA box (from May – November) I also LOVE Farmer’s Markets. Even when we are on vacation I seek them out! Where we live we are blessed with a year round Farmer’s Market as well as a Wednesday Market and a Saturday outdoor market (the later two are only operational Apr/May – Oct). I frequent all of them often! I also take advantage of U-picks during the summer and stock up on LOTS of berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc ) in the freezer. I just took up canning a few years ago and make copious amount of canned tomatoes, sauces, green beans, peaches, jams, applesauce, etc. This past year I forayed into the land of homemade canned ketchup and infused liqueurs as well. Fun stuff! Yes, it means a lot of time spent in the kitchen during the summer, but it is so rewarding to have a well stocked pantry and freezer all fall and winter!
Last year we lept into new terrain with local foods and, in addition to our CSA share, we also obtained a plot at a local community garden. For a small fee, we “rented” a plot of land and use of water at this garden and began to grow our own crops. I was determined to do it without use of pesticides or other non-organic additives to the soil, etc. Amazingly, almost everything we planted did stellar! We had a bounty of tomatoes, peas, zucchini, eggplants, peppers, etc. in our little plot. Some very questionable plants that my children insisted on getting past-season outside a pharmacy didn’t do well, but that wasn’t surprising. What was surprising (and probably shouldn’t have been ) was how much WORK it was to garden! My two small children were initially excited about the “project” and my then 6 year old made bar graphs to chart how many of each vegetable we harvested. However, their enthusiasm quickly waned and I had to resort to letting them sit in the air conditioned van next to the garden plot while I furiously worked in 90 degree weather to tend to the plot daily.
This year I got the crazy idea, and, ask my husband….my crazy (ie brilliant) ideas can rarely be stopped, to get TWO CSA shares instead of renewing our garden plot. Now, getting 2 shares from the same farm would clearly just be silly! I mean, if I have a hard time going through the allotment of potatoes from one week’s bin, how would I sanely be able to go through twice that amount?!? My brilliant solution….if I joined 2 different CSAs there would be a bit more variety. We’ve been members of our initial CSA for many years now and there is a consistency of what is in the bins and I have no doubts that we can go through that amount of produce (we have for years). The new CSA is going to be a bit more of a wild card….both in quantity and variety, but I figure that it will work in lieu of the garden plot (and perhaps a little less u-picking and farmer’s market shopping – although I can’t give up the market experience altogether!).
For some reason I don’t see it as that big of a deal to have 2 CSA shares (maybe after the first couple weeks I’ll repost and change my mind) but I am always met with a quizzical glance when I tell people that I signed up for 2 Farm Shares this year. Enough people seem curious and say “tell me how that goes” that I decided to start this blog, so I could just refer them here! And, I figure that it will be a motivator and measure of accountability for me in using all the produce that we bought and someone else toiled over to bring to our table.
The two biggest challenges that I anticipate are: (1) Lettuce and (2) Potatoes. Part of my issue with these two items is that they can’t be preserved. I am anticipating A LOT of freezing and small batch canning as I am determined nothing will go to waste. However, one can’t preserve lettuce in any fashion (and, gasp! I don’t like salads) and the year I tried freezing potatoes in different forms (mashed, shredded, chopped, etc.) I wasn’t pleased with the results when I cooked them later in the year. We used some of them, but, sadly, some ended up in the compost pile. I am hoping the compost pile won’t share in the wealth of either of our CSA shares this year!
I am not delusional, I know that we will be flooded in produce this summer, but I’m up for the challenge! My Zip-lock freezer bags, seal-a-meal and canning jars are ready! Bring it on!
(Oh, and when I get a chance I will post more on the two CSAs I chose and why as well as the local Farmer’ s Markets, etc. …..don’t worry….there’s more to come! And when the produce starts flooding in there will surely be lots of recipes and food ideas that I have to share as well – both on the immediate eating and preserving side of things!)
