Upon declaring myself a "born-again foodie", I was asked to join the church of CSA by a friend, and am i glad i did it! So in keeping with the zeal of a convert I wanted to write about CSA so that folks who chance to (forced to) read my blog may also undergo their initiation rites!
So a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Google the term and you will find everything you wanted to know. In short, it is an easy way to buy and consume local, seasonal, fresh produce directly from the farmer. The farmer offers "shares" to the public in the form of a box of produce weekly and consumers purchase "shares" (subscriptions) to receive this box during the farming season.
I've been part of a local organic CSA farm for two quarters now, and so far the experience has been fabulous! (Disclaimer: I don't get all my produce from the CSA only. I do supplement it with produce from the farmers market - again local). Here are some reasons to consider joining one.
1) If you like surprise packages, you will love the CSA box! Every week it is a mystery box as you don't know what you are getting. So opening the box and saying "ta,da" is a weekly ritual at our home.
2)Say Bye Bye to Club cards (do remember you are paying a privacy tax, every time you use one of those)and post-it notes, shopping lists and long lines at checkout counters! And hey, since when did Supermarkets convince us, that we doing all the work (including checking out) epitomizes customer service!!!
3)If you didn't do well in Botany in high school, don't despair, this is the less-humiliating way to make up for it. Every week there is at least one item in the box which makes me look up wikipedia (Thank Heavens, my CSA posts the list of box contents every week on the web, so i at least know what to look up!)
4)Creative juices flow...they better... once you see 4 heads of lettuce in the box you need to innovate ...how does lettuce sambar and chutney sound? Let me tell you, it tastes better than it sounds! And who ever thought that chard and bread and garlic can make a fun snack!
5)How many times have you heard "all that glitters is not gold"? The CSA makes you realize that "all that shines (on a veggie) is just polish". You really want to eat that?
6)Your taste-buds will thank you (not to mention your kids!)! Until I joined the CSA, buying fruit from the super market was more or less a lottery for me! I have seen folks examining the cantaloupe from all sides, picking some, discarding the other and i've mimicked those actions without knowing what to look for! Now, I am saved from these pretensions. Sweet juicy fruits just appear in my box and I bite into those without thinking twice
7) Then there all the other reasons that do good to your self-esteem and get you an entry into the granola-eating green clique(except this is now morphing into a greens-eating green group) - local produce lowers carbon footprint, organic - good for you and the environment, fair trade with farmers, and the list goes on...
8)There is the tour of the farm, which we did for the first time this weekend. Wholesome family fun, getting to know our farmer, an insight into his work, family, the land and what it takes to grow our food .... it doesn't get better than that!
9) Makes you want to take up farming...nope that's a stretch... let's call it horticulture...throw seeds into a pot of soil, water it and watch it grow outside your kitchen window, and the sense of accomplishment when you reap your first "harvest"
10)I realized that my 4year old might turn into a "farmer groupie". She thinks she is a farmer because of point #9 and when she met our Farmer Joe seemed to believe they were two of a kind and wouldn't leave his side! But at this point I think we are equipped to handle a "farmer groupie", much more than a "Dora or ScoobyDoo groupie". At least my farmer doesn't sell accessories and other merchandise, just wholesome, fresh food!
That's a wrap!
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