“You can pay the farmer now or the doctor later.”
This summer we’re participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for the first time. I’ve always been slightly intimidated by the CSA because I can’t bear to waste food and imagined that every week I’d be inundated with copious amounts of 1 vegetable. The solution: splitting a half share with a good friend. We paid $175 for 18 weeks of weekly produce from Fair Weather Acres in Rocky Hill, CT. So far, the CSA seems to be solving several problems in our busy lives
Eating Vegetables: An easy summary of my approach to nutrition is to eat as many vegetables at each meal as possible (more on that in an upcoming post). Because I’m easily susceptible to routine, this means that we often buy the same vegetables (kale, spinach, asparagus, zucchini and carrots) each week. The CSA provides us with ample amounts of a diverse array of farm fresh vegetables (and the occasional fruit) each week. We’re only in week 5 and we’ve already had kolrahbi, garlic scapes, swiss chard, bok choy, radishes, scallions, red leaf and bibb lettuce, broccoli, spinach, strawberries, squash, zucchini, red cabbage, tomatoes, and snow peas.
What to Make for Dinner? Like anyone who makes dinner several times per week, it’s often difficult for me to come up with new and easy recipes. Thanks to the varied produce, I’m prompted to try new recipes or at the minimum, sauté vegetables I don’t usually buy. Our CSA also publishes a weekly newsletter which itemizes the produces included in the week’s share and provides recipes.
Grocery Shopping: So far this summer, I’ve been able to buy our meat and hearty veggies (like carrots) in bulk so that weekly all I have to do is pick up the CSA and quickly stop at the grocery store for some fruits and lunch stuffs.
Connection: Each week, I pick up our share at the home of our friend which takes all the chore out of food acquisition.
