The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Kick

So one of my latest "kicks" is joining a CSA farm. What is a CSA farm you ask? My short explanation: you buy shares into a farm, you get farm fresh food. But here's a better detailed explanation by Local Harvest: What is a CSA?.

We joined two CSA farms this past Spring. One for produce (Powissett Farm) and one for meat (Chestnut Farm). I signed us up because I liked the idea of knowing exactly where the food we eat comes from and also to expose our family to the expereince of where food comes from. The farms we joined use organic practices which is also important to me. And, supporting local farming and saving land and wildlife are also bonuses! Here are a couple of articles that go into a little more detail to the benefits of joining a CSA farm: Article One & Article Two.

We've discovered some really wonderful things about being part of a CSA aside from the aforementioned benefits. Here is a list of just some of the the rewards we've encountered (in no particular order):

• Additional vegetables to our diet - healthy!
• Re-trying vegetables we thought we'd never like (i.e. kale, eggplant, and beets - although Steven still refuses to eat the beets).
• Introduction to new vegetables we've never even heard of: spaceship squash, tatsoi, garlic scapes & kohlrabi (I'll blog about these in more detail later - all are fabulous).
• Harvesting veggies, which is educational and fun (SIDENOTE: our share of veggies is usually already harvested for us by the farm, but there is a small portion of that is "pick your own" - i.e. cherry tomatoes, tomatillos, strings beans, herbs, hot peppers, strawberries).
• Getting creative in the kitchen! I've discovered some really interesting and delicious recipes along this journey.

Our experience with being a part of CSAs has obviously been very much a positive experience. Not only has the food been so fresh and so delicious but it is healthy and organic, too. Of course, there have been some challenges along the way to becoming CSA eating folk. Keeping up with the amount of food and eating it before it goes bad are two things I've had to figure out. But I have found a good rythym and system that has helped us (will blog more about this later).

Another "surprise" has been dealing with the occasional "little friend" in our food (usually the corn). By "little friend" I mean worm or some other bug-like creature of the earth. I'll admit finding a worm in your food is weird and quite gross. I used to be all squirmy wormy (no pun intended) over stuff like this. But I have gotten over the squimishness of it and now just toss away the little friends and cut off the portion of the food that has been eaten. The farm manager explained that the reason we find little friends in the farm food is because there are no pesticides used....so it is inevitable that this happnes. Luckily, it is just an occasional nuisance.

I'm sure I will blog more about our CSA experience. For now, I'm good. Until next time...eat well and be well.