CSA

We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) for the summer from Hermit Creek Farm.  We didn't know what to expect out of our garden for we knew we weren't going to give it the TLC that it needed.  The weeds were going to commandeer it, we probably weren't going to be watering it as often as we should, so we were going to put plants in the ground and hope for the best.  To supplement our vegetable supply (for we eat a lot of fresh veggies), we joined the CSA.  Every other Tuesday we go to the Black Cat Coffee Shop (or as Lilly calls it, Coffee Cat) and pick up our box of vegetables.

What's inside?

We've created one rule which is we have to try everything.  A nice feature that has shown up with our CSA membership is a subscription to a recipe service.  We've found some great recipes and had some great meals from this service and probably would not have been as successful with trying everything had we not had access to it.  A nice feature, outside of the recipes, is it also gives tips on storing the vegetables, both for the short and long term.  Of course, each week we still don't get to all the vegetables so we will also have some nice organic compost!

One of the nice features of the CSA vegetables we receive are they are incredibly clean, bug free, and they are all organic.  The bottom two photos are one week's worth of vegetables, which is a ton (speaking figuratively here)!  We also are getting exposed to vegetables we would never buy in the store, such as eggplant, kale, swiss chard, and beets.  Some we certainly liked more than others (we're not hug fans of eggplant, but we know we at least tolerate it now) but we've certainly expanded our food repertoire.

Here are some meals we've made:

A general salad

Minestrone soup - this one is a favorite

Swiss Chard Quiche

Stir Fry on a bed of Napa cabbage

We are so glad we joined the CSA and will probably join again next summer.  We'll skip out on their winter CSA as I am not a huge fan of squash and I foresee a lot of squash arriving in the winter (I am impressed they can even offer a winter CSA).  It was an experiment that went really well.  Now, to deal with the pounds of green beans both from the CSA and our own garden . . . .