From Our Farmer and CSA

[jwagnerdsm]

We just got our delivery from our subscription farm. Great week. Here's what was in our box:

"Roja Red" garlic

'Mars' Onions

Half-dozen ears of sweet corn

'Jade' Green Beans

Peppers (Banana Supreme, Jalapeno, Paprika Supreme, Labrador, Lipstick, and Pimento)

Athena Cantelope

Tomatoes (one dozen) including Amish Paste, Dona, Rutgers,Golden Boy, Burpee, Brandywine, Celebrity, Speckled Rome, Arkansas Traveler, Taxi, Garden Peach and Italian Gold

Autumn Bliss Raspberries (two pints)

Neon Eggplant

Okra

And, uh, Zuchinni. Lots of Zuchinni

What did you get in your CSA box?

By the way, we paid $375 for 26 weeks of deliveries, which include fresh cut flowers every other week. It's a great deal and it's fun to know where everything on our plate comes from. (We round out our kitchen needs by buying beef, pork and free-range chicken from local farmers, cheese from an organic dairy, grain from a organic farm, etc.) We can source about 97 percent of our food during any given week. And it all tastes soooo good.

Edited August 27, 2003 by jwagnerdsm (log)

[Suzanne F]

[very very jealous] Bet tonight's dinner is CORN [/vvj]

[jwagnerdsm]

Actually it's a pasta sauce with tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion and basil. Meatballs and italian sausage links have been simmering in the sauce all day. After years of trying to make a decent spaghetti sauce, I finally learned that the meaty goodness is what makes the difference.

[malcolmjolley]

I've only heard of CSA in the NYC area. Does it exist elsewhere? Is there an umbrella org that coordinates it? I'd like to see something like it in Toronto

[Toliver]

After years of trying to make a decent spaghetti sauce, I finally learned that the meaty goodness is what makes the difference.

Wow! That's a keen observation. I, too, have been making red sauce for years trying to find that certain "something". What I've come up with is good but I think you're absolutely right...it's the meat that will add that extra layer of flavor to make it "great". Thanks!

[jwagnerdsm]

CSAs actually began in Japan, spread to Europe and are now quite common in North America. The growing season is shorter in some parts of Canada, obviously. There are several CSAs in your province, but since I am unfamiliar with the geography, I am unsure which are close to Toronto. I'd be very surprised if some farmers don't serve the city. It's wonderful and, as I often say, the best part is that I know where all our food comes from. In this age of Mad Cow disease, etc., there's something kind of nice about knowing who grew your food. Here's a link to a site that can help you find a grower in your area. (Remember, the season is almost over so you'll have to wait until 2004. But do sign up now, or at least get on a waiting list, because spaces fill up very fast.) My website lists, week by week, all the things we've found in our box.

CSAs require a little more flexibility and work, but the trade off is that you know you are supporting a small grower AND you get the best tasting food available. A recent Iowa State University study showed that, for us, the average piece of produce has traveled about 1,700 miles before ending up in the vegetable section of the store. Those veggies are bred to ripen slowly. They aren't bred for taste. Also, you are more likely to get a taste of heirloom vegetables with a CSA. And most growers are organic.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[jwagnerdsm]

Toliver,

I just wrote a piece for my web site about the winner of the spaghetti sauce contest at our local italian fest. She braises short ribs in her pot and serves the meat (along with meatballs and sausage) on the side. I like the idea, although I haven't used ribs yet.

[Toliver]

I just wrote a piece for my web site about the winner of the spaghetti sauce contest at our local italian fest. She braises short ribs in her pot and serves the meat (along with meatballs and sausage) on the side. I like the idea, although I haven't used ribs yet.

Yes, I seem to recall seeing Lidia Bastianich on her PBS show do something similar. I was astounded by seeing three different kinds of meat in one dish. Having grown up on (a single) meat, potatoes, veggies and a salad, it was an amazing idea to wrap my brain around.

I am anxious to try it. Thanks again!

Edit: To bring the thread back on topic, we have a local organic farmer who offers monthly boxes of his local produce for a fee. Unfortunately, he doesn't deliver. You have to go out to the drop-off location to pick up your allotment. I haven't tried this service yet as I don't have a consistent enough schedule to be able to commit to such a pick-up.

Edited August 27, 2003 by Toliver (log)

[malcolmjolley]

CSAs actually began in Japan, spread to Europe and are now quite common in North America. The growing season is shorter in some parts of Canada, obviously. There are several CSAs in your province, but since I am unfamiliar with the geography, I am unsure which are close to Toronto. I'd be very surprised if some farmers don't serve the city. It's wonderful and, as I often say, the best part is that I know where all our food comes from. In this age of Mad Cow disease, etc., there's something kind of nice about knowing who grew your food. Here's a link to a site that can help you find a grower in your area. (Remember, the season is almost over so you'll have to wait until 2004. But do sign up now, or at least get on a waiting list, because spaces fill up very fast.) My website lists, week by week, all the things we've found in our box.

CSAs require a little more flexibility and work, but the trade off is that you know you are supporting a small grower AND you get the best tasting food available. A recent Iowa State University study showed that, for us, the average piece of produce has traveled about 1,700 miles before ending up in the vegetable section of the store. Those veggies are bred to ripen slowly. They aren't bred for taste. Also, you are more likely to get a taste of heirloom vegetables with a CSA. And most growers are organic.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cool! Thank you. I'll check it out and post back.

[tanabutler]

There are at least two other threads about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) including "Organic Produce Delivered" started by JFLinLA and Local Harvest (cool website) started by Jason Perlow. The latter contains two excellent links to two indispensable resources for CSAs:

LocalHarvest.org

CSACenter.org

Plug in zip codes and DING! Find a farm!

I am very jealous of people who belong to a CSA, but it's nothing I can do. I have a fairly big garden and can't use all of what I grow as it is. It's the things I can't grow that make me jealous. On the other hand, we're have a banner year for tomatoes.

I wish you would take a picture of your haul, jwagnerdsm. To complete my envy, of course.

[marie-louise]

Full Belly Farms dropped off:

a few pounds of heirloom tomatoes

4 cucumbers

2 heads garlic

5 gypsy peppers

4 ears corn (last week's in still in the fridge, too)

2 melons, a Honeyloupe and and an Ambrosia

2 globe eggplants

4 Asian pears

[Mr. Toast]

This week's share from our CSA in Woodinville, WA:

2 heads cabbage

2 heads lettuce

4 cucumbers

a few pounds of broad beans

6 yellow summer squash

There may have been more but that's all I can think of. Last week's share was much better: it included 7 ears of corn and two bags of cherry tomatoes. Mmm...

[marie-louise]

Mr. Toast, if you like lamb and are looking for a use for some of those broad beans, Marcella Hazen's Lamb Stew w/ Vinegar and Green Beans in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is a great recipe. Those thick beans-they call them Romano beans around here-work much better than regular-sized green beans, which can fall apart before the lamb is tender.

[ludja]

[bump]

Anyone willing to share? It would be fun to hear what people's CSA boxes are yielding in different parts of the U.S.

I was amazed after perusing the LocalHarvest link above to find out how many CSA farms are located all over the US.

Have some people started using this in the last year or so after hearing about it on egullet? How's it working out? Besides affecting how one plans menu's for the week, has it changed your cooking???

[little ms foodie]

Our box came yesterday. We had a head of leaf lettuce, 2 cucumbers, a bag of fava beans, 2 grapefruit, 4 bananas, 2 pears, 4 heads of garlic, a box of CA strawberries, carrots. I'm missing a few but I can't recall!

This has totally changed our eating and cooking. We have a great time incorporating the weeks produce and of course there is always something new.

[therese]

Thanks for bumping this topic, as it prompted me to search for local CSAs. Turns out that I've now got several great options here in Atlanta: a few are outside the immediate metro area but will bring in boxes to pick up at a market near my house, and one is actually part of a co-housing community that's also nearby. I gotta go check out my options.

[Chris Amirault]

Folks interested in CSAs would probably be compelled by the small farms thread!

[constanela]

Spring onions, green garlic, salad mix, spinach, strawberries (2 baskets, 2 different varieties), asparagus, rhubarb, and arugula. It's really light this time of year, but oh-so-tasty. Can't wait for summer though and the tomatoes, corn and melons, etc.....

[ludja]

Spring onions, green garlic, salad mix, spinach, strawberries (2 baskets, 2 different varieties), asparagus, rhubarb, and arugula.  It's really light this time of year, but oh-so-tasty.  Can't wait for summer though and the tomatoes, corn and melons, etc.....

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It sounds like a great variety of spring produce!

Do you mind mentioning the farm you use?

(I'm interested to see what's available where in the country and the info could also be useful to others in your area...)

Thanks, and welcome to egullet!

[ludja]

One of the coolest threads I read right after I joined egullet was this foodblog by jwagnerdsm. It chronicles a week in the year he and his family dedicated to eating local food in Iowa.

Check it out if you haven't read it yet! It's an inspiration.

This year, we are eating only food grown in Iowa. We started in April and will continue through the winter. Our food came from farmers markets, a CSA, and from a garden in our backyard. I would say that 90 to 95 percent of the food we eat is grown within 100 miles of our house. And I can pick up a can or a freezer bag of anything we have in storage and tell you something about the person who raised the food. We have a beverage exemption (my wife's only request when I came up with this idea) so that she could continue to have her coffee in the morning. I am a Diet Pepsi freak so I was happy to comply.

Edited April 29, 2005 by ludja (log)

[constanela]

I subscribe to Terra Firma Farm.

Here's the link to their website:

http://www.terrafirmafarm.com/

I was a member for 2 years around 1999-2000 and then recently rejoined. They have ruined me for supermarket vegetables (including chi-chi Whole Foods) for life! Produce is just not the same when it's been sitting around for a while. Although we didn't get any this week, the past few weeks have also included sugar snap peas......yum!

[Chris Amirault]

I subscribe to Terra Firma Farm. 

Here's the link to their website:

http://www.terrafirmafarm.com/

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What do you make when you get a couple of fresh bulldog steaks?

[kellycolorado]

I might be confusing some of last week's with this weeks since I have some carryover in the fridge but...

My CSA is Two Small Farms in the bay area and I got between last week and this week: amazing strawberries, spring garlic, radishes, oranges, kale, salad mix, baby turnips, cauliflower, cilantro, dill, and fava beans. And I get a flower subscription too.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

All this is making me miss California, so so much. I remember lining up at a local farm at 5:30 a.m. with about 100 other people, coffees in hand, waiting for the berries to come in from the field...

I just bought a share in a local farm, and won't get my first basket until June. Until then, it's a 15-mile drive to Whole Foods, and whatever herbs and lettuces I can grow on my deck. I'll check back here often for some vicarious CSA.

[chardgirl]

Today there is a front page article in USA TODAY about CSA farms. I know that some may not take this newspaper seriously (ok, I admit I often don't) but this is a good thing for CSA farms to get this kind of coverage.

CSA article in USA Today

Spring is still very much here, we're madly planting out the yummy summer crops!

in our CSA box in Central CA this week:

-Sorrel

-Arugula (Wed)

-Rapini (Thursday)

-Fava Beans

-Bacon Avocados

-Seascape Strawberries

-Red Leaf Lettuces

-Carrots

and lastly for any of you anywhere who have a CSA share, I have a recipe database that might be useful at times:

A-Z Vegetable Database especially made for seasonal eaters

Tell us where your CSA farm is if you reply to this thread about what's in YOUR box!

cg